Chapter 25
WOLFE
I came awake slowly, feeling the low throb in my ankle first. Memories of falling, of being cold and wet and alone, quickly followed.
When I reached back a hand and found Trace’s warm, solid body next to me, I let out a breath. Then I lay there and let my brain spin out in a million directions.
Trace. What would happen when we returned to our regular lives?
My job. What even was my regular life anymore? Did I want to keep working for the foundation? No. I knew at least that much now.
My parents. How the fuck would they react to the news that Trace and I were… well, we were something? Could I see myself sitting them down and calmly explaining that I was Fletcher Coe? No.
It had been two months of living in this van, and I felt like I was no closer to having answers for my life than the day I’d left Legacy.
But I did have a solution for the Jake situation.
As I came more awake, remnants of my dream faded. I’d been on the deck of my grandparents’ house in Legacy, laughing and drinking with my cousins. Gabe had been holding a Nintendo Switch in his hands and explaining how you could hypothetically use one to infiltrate the Indian Parliament.
I wasn’t sure what any of it meant, but I knew my brain had dreamed of Gabe for a reason.
As far as the world knew, my cousin was a game designer. A coding geek. But it was a poorly kept secret in the family that he could also hack into whatever the fuck he wanted and get away with nefarious acts.
I’d never asked him to do such a thing for me, and the guilt from it cratered in my stomach, but I knew he would have no issues whatsoever.
I scrambled for my phone, turned the backlight down as far as I could, and texted him with my idea. Except I realized I didn’t want to put the word “hack” on the record.
I need you to um… shit. Like, investigate someone?
I sent that part while trying to figure out how to tell him what I needed. He surprised me by answering right away.
Gabe
Sure thing. Who?
why are you awake rn?
Gabe
Stayed up gaming. Don’t judge.
I think a guy named Jake Mason has some photos of my journal that I need him not to have.
Gabe
Got it.
Could be on his sister Shay’s phone.
Gabe
Consider it handled.
I stared at the text chain and started typing another response.
You’ll let me know when—
Before I could send it, another one flashed up.
Gabe
Done. Anything else?
What? Done? Like… Done?
Gabe
Like all copies have been located and destroyed.
That… wasn’t possible.
I glanced over at Trace to make sure he was deep asleep and then hobbled out of the van to call Gabe, grateful the rain had stopped and the sun was barely beginning to light the sky.
“Hey, stranger,” he said, his slight Southern accent warm and familiar. “Am I gonna see you at Aunt Tilly’s bachelor party?”
“Oh fuck, I hope not,” I said without thinking. “What the hell is that?”
His easy chuckle made its way down the line.
“She and the ladies are throwing a big matchmaking party for all of us. And by all of us, I mean you, too. Don’t think you can get out of it.
Big gala-type dinner in San Fran in a few weeks.
Her goal is to marry all of us off. I’m making Hunter come to it as my date to throw her off the scent. ”
I raised an eyebrow, though he couldn’t see me. I had met Gabe’s friend Hunter on several occasions over the years and had watched him flirt with more than one beautiful woman. “I thought Hunter was straight?”
“Straight-shmate. I mean, hypothetically, anyone could have a sexual awakening at any moment, right? So it’s entirely possible that my best friend could conveniently have one just in time to keep Tilly from setting me up with her cardiologist again.
Or her ophthalmologist. Or podiatrist. Or whatever the hell other poor gay man she’s managed to snare in her web. ”
I shook my head to force myself to focus. “The pictures. The journal pages.”
The teasing tone disappeared from Gabe’s voice. “Yeah. They were on Jake’s phone, not Shay’s. And you owe me for having to look at a thousand pictures of teenage girls making a duck face in various selfies.”
“Gabe.”
“What’s going on out there, Wolfe?”
“Listen. Whatever you saw in those photos—”
“I didn’t look.”
It would be impossible not to see at least some of it, if only to make sure he’d found what I needed him to find. “Okay, but—”
“Wolfe. I’m incredibly good at keeping secrets.”
“What if Jake sent copies to another location? Or uploaded them to a drive? Or has a backup in the cloud?”
“I’m running all of that down, I promise. He’s not sophisticated enough to get this shit past me, but it would help if I knew how long he’d had access to the journal. Could there be another set of pictures from a different day?”
I explained the journal had gone missing three days ago, so it couldn’t have been before then. He assured me he would be able to take care of it.
“You have no idea how much I appreciate this,” I told him.
“I can imagine. But Wolfe…” He paused to take a breath, and I could tell he knew way more than he was letting on.
“Yeah?” I said, bracing myself for a lecture or warning.
“You can let people see you, you know. The real you. And if people don’t like it, they can just walk on by.”
“I know that—”
“Do you?” he challenged. “You care so much about others, babe. You spend your days making people feel safe and happy and understood. Your family. The folks you help at the foundation. The millions of people who hear your songs and know they’re not alone—”
So he did know I was Fletcher Coe. Of course he did. He probably had for longer than I even realized.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Not a damn thing. I love your big heart, Wolfe. But…” Gabe hesitated. “When you focus on other people as much as you do, it’s easy to forget this is your life. And you deserve to feel safe, and happy, and understood too.”
I swallowed hard. “I do feel that way.” But honesty compelled me to add, “Sometimes.”
Mostly when I was with Trace. He saw me, better than anyone ever had. And I never doubted that he liked what he saw. But even with him—
“Hard to be understood when you haven’t been fully honest about who you are or who you love,” Gabe said, like he could read my mind.
I closed my eyes and sucked in a shuddering breath. “Yeah.”
“So maybe… do something about that?” he teased gently.
I wanted to argue that it wasn’t that simple.
But it was. It just wasn’t easy.
I’d spent two months on the road trying to figure out what I wanted from life, but I already had everything I wanted. An amazing family. An epic career. A man I loved, who’d shown he’d climb any mountain to find me and stand beside me come what may.
The only thing holding me back from living that life was my own fucking fear.
Fear of disappointing someone. Fear of rejection. Fear that I wasn’t enough.
Those fears were very real. And conquering them wouldn’t be remotely easy.
But I wouldn’t be doing it alone.
And the alternative—a life where I kept locking bigger and bigger pieces of myself away—that was so much harder.
Gabe paused as if making sure I was listening. “Not every song is for every listener. But when a listener finds just the right song for them… it’s like fucking magic.”
I wanted to roll my eyes. To groan at the after-school special of it all. But I was too busy silently blubbering to say a word.
“Okay,” he said after a beat. “Anyway, I’ll run this down for you. And if you decide that our Jacob Mason needs a little petty cyber revenge on top of it, you know who to call.”
I laughed through my tears. “Appreciate it.”
“Am I going to see you at the music festival in Legacy? We’re flying out in the morning. I know your dad doesn’t play till day after tomorrow, but it opens tomorrow night.”
I paused, taking a minute to process his words. “Wait, it’s already the Spring Sling?”
How had I lost track of time? It seemed like years had passed since I’d first gone to Legacy and Majestic to arrange for the festival sponsorship and ended up kissing Trace in his cabin.
He laughed. “Some of us have been counting down, man. Zee Barlo’s playing, and he’s hot as fuck. Should be a huge crowd, I think.”
“Yeah, that’s—” I stopped dead as the wildest idea occurred to me. “Gabe. You’re a genius.”
“I am? I mean, pfft. Of course I am. Been telling people that for years. Maybe you could drop it in the group chat—”
“I’ll do you one better,” I promised. “I’ll buy you a drink this weekend at Timber and announce it to the bar.”
His grin came through the line in his familiar voice. “Yeah? Excellent. See you there. Love you, cousin.”
And then he was gone. I gathered myself together and shot him a final text.
Love you, too. Thank you always.
He sent back a heart, and I closed my eyes to have a little moment of genuine gratitude for the big, loving family I’d been born into. They were seriously better than anything.
And they would be even better when I was no longer keeping a giant secret from them.
When I was brave enough to claim the life I wanted and strong enough to hold it.
I shot off another few texts—Sunny was going to get whiplash from all my conflicting instructions, but I figured she’d be okay with it. Then I climbed back into the van, packed a bag as silently as I could, and wrote a note for Trace.
Before I left, I pressed a soft kiss to Trace’s forehead and murmured my love into his skin, feeling a kind of peace I hadn’t felt in… god, ever.
Then I snuck out of the van once again, and I made my way home.
To Legacy.