Chapter 19
ARAVIND
“Can you go find Oliver for me?”
It had been three days since everyone had invaded our quiet space, and after long talks between Oliver and his parents, and after they agreed to take him home, he was ready to go. Only Thierry and Anne were on their way, and Oliver was nowhere to be found.
The stress was giving Tiago a difficult sight day, and I wasn’t about to make things harder on him. I took him by the chin and kissed him softly.
“I think I know where he is. Give me ten minutes.”
Tiago closed his eyes and knocked his forehead against mine. “Thank you.”
Every word from his lips felt like a tender caress.
Well, unless we were behind a locked door while the aunties were at the market.
Then they were something else entirely. But while we hadn’t defined anything between us, and while I hadn’t told Tiago that the feeling in my chest was definitely deeper than “I like you,” at least I could be honest.
At least now he knew that I wanted this to be a lot more.
Pulling away, I hurried out the back door and past Ankita and Soma, who were floating in the pool.
Manisha, who had been over almost all waking hours, was on her way to the ferry to pick up her husband and son, and later this evening, Ferris and Quinn would be flying into the little private airfield.
My dad was also finally able to make plans to come down, so it wouldn’t be long before we were a massive group.
And what little privacy Tiago and I had managed to scrape together would be long gone.
As my feet hit the beach sand, my gaze trailed across the stretch of cove to a house I knew was empty.
It was very tiny. I’d looked it up online, and it had one bedroom, a den, a bathroom with a shower stall, and a kitchen that desperately needed upgrading.
It was also three times the cost of what it should be for that size.
But I had money.
Tiago had money.
And we had a desperate need of being able to touch each other without me stuffing his mouth with panties or shoving his face in the pillows. I wanted to edge him, to get him desperate and begging, to rail his ass so hard we both saw god.
And I couldn’t do that here.
I shoved that thought away as I saw a familiar figure sitting near a collection of rocks right where the cove started to curve.
It felt like miles, but it was less than a five-minute stroll, which was probably why Oliver liked it so much.
Every time he’d disappear, I’d see him out here sitting on one of the boulders, feet dangling near the water.
He noticed me right away and stiffened, but he didn’t get up from his little spot he’d formed in the sand.
“They’re here, right?” he said as soon as I was in earshot.
I said nothing, dropping beside him. He didn’t look anything like Tiago, but then again, Tiago looked nothing like his family. He must have taken on most of his genetics from his bio-dad. But the look on Oliver’s face was familiar.
That pain had been in my own once as an angry, confused teenager. And sometimes Tiago had that look after hanging up with his brother.
“They’re on their way,” I said as I settled my toes into the sand.
Oliver flung something into the water. A broken seashell. He had a pile of them beside his leg. “What if I change my mind?”
“You can do that.”
He snapped his gaze to me. “Really? You’d still marry my uncle if he had some annoying kid hanging around all the time?”
I burst into laughter. “Ollie, your uncle and I aren’t engaged, for one.”
“Yeah, but it’s obvious you two are going to be together forever.”
My chest warmed, and I swallowed against an odd lump in the back of my throat. “Well, that’s a future Aravind and Tiago situation. For now, no. Having you around is not going to affect how much time I want to spend with your uncle. But your parents do want you to come home.”
He dug his fingers into the sand. “Yeah. I know.”
“Did either of them say anything?” I pressed.
He let out a puff of air and rolled his head back, staring up at the sky. “My mom and I had a talk last night. She said that if my dad talks to me at all the way everyone talked to Uncle Tiago, she’ll divorce him.”
“That’s a good thing, right? She’s protecting you.”
He glanced over at me. “I don’t want them to get divorced. I don’t want to be responsible for tearing their marriage apart because my genetics suck.”
My heart ached for him, and I leaned closer. “First of all, if they get divorced, it’s because your dad is an ableist asshole who can’t change for the one person he’s meant to love unconditionally. And that will be his fault, not yours. Second, your genetics are complicated, but—”
“Please don’t feed me some inspo-porn bullshit about how it takes strength to be disabled or blah blah blah.”
Ouch. But I supposed that was fair. I wasn’t disabled, so how the fuck should I know.
“Living takes strength, okay?” Sitting forward, I drew a few looping circles in the sand.
“There were a few times I thought maybe everyone would be better off if I, ah—if I wasn’t here.
My dad was always disappointed in me, and my mom very clearly loved me, but I think she also wanted an uncomplicated child.
And I just wanted to dress up and kiss boys and not be constantly told I should be ashamed of it. ”
Oliver let out a puff of air. “One of my best friends is, you know…?”
I smiled at him. “Queer as fuck?”
He snorted. “I guess. I’m pan, I think, but I’ve only ever dated girls. I kissed two boys, and it felt really good. Just like kissing girls. But I know it’s not the same.”
“No one’s journey is the same. Don’t get caught up in comparing yourself to your friends or your uncle, or anyone. It’s lonely, realizing the path you walk is yours alone. But if you look past the road you’re on, you’ll see all these people walking alongside you.”
“That’s kind of pretty.”
“It’s an old Hindu proverb,” I said, deadpan.
He blinked. “Really?”
I burst into a laugh. “No, honey. I’m talking out of my ass right now. I just wanted to make you smile.”
He huffed at the ground, but his lips had turned up into something like a grin. “Did your parents stay married? Even though you were…complicated?”
My eyes got a little warm. “They did. My mom died a while back, but I like to think she’d be happy with the person I am now.”
“Would she have liked Uncle Tiago?”
Oh, good. The warmth in my eyes was starting to turn wet. Fuck, I was going to cry in front of this kid. I swallowed heavily. “I like to think so, yeah. My aunties are kind of my litmus test, and since they love him, I know she would have too.”
Oliver fell back against his elbows and stretched his feet out toward the sea. “Could I come visit? When you and Uncle Tiago get a place together?”
I loved how boldly he assumed that Tiago and I were inevitable. I wanted to bottle up that confidence and keep it because the thought of all this ending was still terrifying to me. “Absolutely. There’s a ton of fun stuff to do in Boston, and—”
“I think I’d like Uncle Tiago to teach me how to skate.”
My eyes went wide. “You are Canadian! You can’t skate?”
“I can. But I mean…I mean skate blind. I’ve never been a huge fan of hockey, but I feel like maybe if I can do that, I can do other things too.”
“I know your uncle can be a stoic, unreadable man some days, but he will love that. Truly. And I think he’d love skating with you, even if you and he didn’t share your eye thing.”
Oliver frowned. “Why?”
I didn’t know how to explain the way Tiago felt—the need he had to be accepted by these terrible people. Though I didn’t think Oliver would have been terrible, even if he hadn’t gotten his diagnosis.
But this wasn’t my place to explain that.
“You should ask him one day,” I said. Pushing to my feet, I brushed the sand off, then offered Oliver a hand up. “Your parents are probably here by now.”
He grunted as he reached down to grab his phone and a couple of shells that he slipped into his pocket. When we started talking, he nudged me with his elbow.
“Did you think it was weird when you first saw Uncle Tiago walking with his white cane?”
Oh boy. I was not about to explain what an epic shithead I was to this kid’s now favorite uncle.
“I think it took me a minute to get used to being surrounded by a bunch of blind guys, but I barely remember what that was like anymore. Just because people might do things differently doesn’t mean they’re not like everyone else. ”
“Yeah,” Oliver breathed out. We walked in silence for a while, but just before we reached the deck, he touched my shoulder. “Um. Thank you.”
We climbed up the last bit of hill, and on the other side of the pool, I could see his parents waiting. They both looked concerned and nervous, and Thierry seemed seconds away from jumping out of his own skin.
“You’re going to be okay,” I reminded Oliver when he froze. “And never, ever forget that if things get bad, you have a place to go.”
Oliver nodded, then suddenly yanked me into a hug. I squeezed back and let him hold on for as long as he needed. I didn’t care that his parents were watching. I didn’t care that they were the ones expecting that reception from him.
He pulled back and passed a hand down his face. “See you soon.”
“I hope so,” I called after him.
His mom’s gaze met mine across the pool, and though I might have imagined it, I was pretty sure her lips formed the word ‘Thanks.’
“Can I show you something?”
Tiago was on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table. It was a rare moment that we were alone. Ankita and Soma had gone to the aquarium, and Manisha and her husband and son were getting the house ready for Ferris and Quinn, which meant we had a precious few moments alone together.
Tiago opened his arms, and I slid into them, curling my body against his. “What’s up?”
Pulling out my phone, I opened up the tab with the rental and held it out for him. “This.”
Tiago’s brow furrowed, and then he swallowed. “I, ah…I can’t see that right now. What is it?”