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.“It was years ago now, but she would have loved this.”Probably why Mal was doing it.How seriously fucked up was that? “Hard not to,” he agreed anyway.“They do this every year?”“Open the grounds to the public? No, this is new.I thought Mal had finally lost his mind, but I have to admit that I’m impressed.”“Food’s good, at least,” Luke pointed out, and Woodcombe laughed.“Gabriela does know her way around a burger.”Thankfully Luke was saved from further stilted awkward conversation by the arrival of a knee-high blonde thing waving a cob of corn.“Daddy!”Woodcombe scooped the thing up and deftly avoided having his eye poked out with the corncob.“Hi, baby.” He set her on the bench beside him.“Is that lunch? Did you bring any for me?”“We didn’t forget you,” a voice from behind Luke assured Woodcombe, and Luke shuffled over a bit as the newcomer took the seat on the bench next to him and passed Woodcombe a plate of home-cut french fries and a Reuben.Luke wasn’t the slightest bit hungry, but he found his mouth watering anyway.Then the newcomer turned to Luke with a bleach-bright smile and offered his hand.“Hey, I’m David.”“Luke Scherer,” Luke said automatically.Movement drew his eyes to David’s other hand, and the ring flashing there caught his attention, his gaydar kicked on, and he had yet another holy-shit moment.“Mr.Woodcombe used to be my high school guidance counselor.”Mr.Woodcombe chuckled.“It’s Dennison now, but you can call me Mike.”Luke shrugged apologetically.Mr.Woodcombe.Never would’ve guessed.“Sorry.Old habits.”“Excuse me!” said the blonde thing.Mike rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, then winked at Luke.“Forgive our rudeness.And this is our daughter, the princess of the universe, commonly known as Margaret.”The Thing stuck out a corn-and-butter-smeared hand to shake, her face a mask of seriousness and leftovers.“Pleased to make your ’quaintance.”“The pleasure is all mine, Your Highness,” Luke replied automatically, amused.“Are you gay too?”A sharp intake of breath from across the table, and then Mike coughed into his hand, his eyes looking slightly watery.Luke sympathized.He was definitely glad he’d finished his burger.“Sorry, I think I just inhaled a french fry.Sweetheart, what did Daddy say about asking personal questions?”“Not to,” Margaret recited dutifully, frowning.“But Papa, you said it’s nothing to be ’shamed of.”Raising his eyebrows, Mike intoned, “Oh, Papa did, did he?”Luke started to wonder if it might not be for the best if he relocated posthaste.Maybe he could get the kid manning the sangria station to hook him up with a bottle to go.Mike shook his head, smiling reluctantly.“Well, Papa was right about that.”“But sweetheart, that doesn’t mean you can just come out and ask things like that.Sometimes people might get upset, even though they shouldn’t,” David put in with a sideways glance at Luke.Finally he decided to put them—and hopefully himself—out of their misery.“Forget it, it’s fine.No, Margaret, I’m not gay.I like boys and girls.”She brightened.“Do you want to be my boyfriend?”Help.Luke did not have experience with humans under the age of eighteen.“I think I might be too old for you.How about you call me in a couple years, okay?”“Will you be younger then?”Did Mike and David deal with this on a daily basis? They should both be sainted.“If I’m very lucky.”“Sweetheart, eat your corn before it gets cold, okay?” David said, finally taking pity on Luke.“Then we’ll see if we can’t join the three-legged race.But first you need to build up your strength!”Thankfully Margaret obliged without further comment, and a few minutes later, she and David made off for the glory of Fourth of July games.“Listen, I just wanted to apologize.”That threw Luke a little.“For what?”Mike shrugged.“For sending you here.I thought, you know, you and Mal had some stuff in common.You’d both lost people, you were alienated from your families.You were both alone.But you seemed to be dealing so much better than he was—I thought maybe it’d be good for him to make friends with you, and it gave you a chance to get out from under your dad’s thumb.Clearly my master plan didn’t work out so well for you.” Then he paused for a moment, looking lost in thought.“Seemed to work okay for Mal, though.”Luke couldn’t tell if Mike was admitting to playing matchmaker or if he really had just tried to kill two birds with one stone.Either way, one honest confession deserved another.“My leaving didn’t have anything to do with him.” Okay, that was sort of a lie.“Not really, anyway.”Mike waited.He and Julie must have taken the same classes or something.With a huff, Luke finally admitted, “Look, I can’t—it wouldn’t really be fair for me to tell anyone else before I tell Mal.Which I’ve been trying to do, but it’s kind of a long story.”But Mike waved off his excuse.“No, it’s okay, that’s….Like you said, old habits die hard.Sometimes it’s hard to remember not everyone’s a high school kid who should spill everything for his or her own safety and well-being.”“Wish I’d known you were gay in high school,” Luke lamented.“Although I probably would have asked you a lot of inappropriate questions.”“I had to make sure I wasn’t going to get fired if I came out at work.And I didn’t really have a good enough reason to risk it until David came along anyway.” Mike paused to polish off the last of his french fries.“As for the inappropriate questions, I got plenty of those before I was out.The volume has probably tripled since then.”“I can only imagine.”With a wry smile, Mike stood, taking his paper plate with him.“Anyway, I’d better go oversee this three-legged travesty or I’ll never hear the end of it.Good seeing you again, Luke.”AFTER THAT, Luke took a good look around and thought about going home again.Everywhere he looked there were couples, families, groups of teenagers eating cotton candy.Jo and the college kids bounced from table to event organizing things.Party of one was just it, apparently [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]