“I’m not angry with you,” Drew said. “This isn’t about you.”
“But I don’t understand,” his mother said. She at least didn’t look angry.
“I know, Mom.” Drew rubbed a hand over his face.
Suddenly, Burke swung around, his blazing eyes locked on me. “How dare you?”
I pulled the hat off my head so I could meet his gaze head on.
“How dare you try and turn our son against us?”
Drew went rigid beside me, but I forced myself to remain calm. “I’m not turning Drew against you. Clearly, you don’t need help in that department.”
His mother gasped, and it made me feel contrite.
“Is this the kind of influence you’ve allowed into your life?” Burke raged at Drew, jabbing a finger toward me. “You move up to Maryland to be with your sister, and now you want to turn your back on your career, drive cars, and… and… sin with a man?”
Aaannd here we go.
“No one is forcing me. No one is trying to influence me, except you,” Drew replied, tired.
“We just want the best for you,” his mother said.
“Then let me live my life the way that makes me happy.”
“This can’t make you happy,” she replied.
“I forbid it!” Burke demanded.
“I’m a grown-ass man. You can’t forbid anything,” Drew snapped.
“Language.” His mother gasped.
I wanted to laugh. I couldn’t, though, because this was pretty much everything we’d been afraid of. They weren’t going to accept this relationship. Drew was going to suffer for it.
His father turned his glare back to me. I wanted to flinch because there it was. That look. The one someone gives a stranger. I was no longer the man they met several times in the past. I was the enemy. I was a bad influence, and I was trying to take their son.
“How do you live with yourself?” his dad implored. “Are you jealous of my son? Jealous his life was better than yours? Is this some sick game to you? Do you get joy out of ripping away another man’s life, driving a wedge between him and his family?”
“That’s enough.” Drew cut in and stood. Gone was the weariness and even the sadness. In its place, anger was taking over.
Drew was as tall as his father, so when he closed the distance between them, they were eye to eye. “Don’t talk to him like that. Not ever. This isn’t his fault. He didn’t make me turn gay and certainly didn’t rip away my life.”
I wasn’t sure what to do. It seemed I didn’t have a place to speak, like I needed to let Drew handle this his way. But honestly, Burke’s words stung. How could they not?
Hadn’t I worried for weeks and months about how my love might ruin Drew’s life?
“You weren’t like this until you moved up there.”
“Yes, Dad, I was.” Drew pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m the same person I’ve always been. It’s you who never wanted to see. I’ve spent my entire life trying to live up to your expectations, being the son you always wanted. But this is me. Who I’ve always been. You and Mom just never saw because I didn’t let you. I’ve never wanted to work in software. I hated college, and my day job makes me feel like I’m dying inside. I’ve always felt a little different. I’ve always felt like the son you wanted just wasn’t who I was. But I tried.” His shoulders sagged. “I tried so hard.”
“Andrew,” his mother said sadly and got up from the couch.
“When I went to see Ivy and walked into her house, it was the first time I felt like I truly belonged, like I didn’t have to be who someone else wanted me to be. It was so… It was a relief. So I stayed. And I know it looks like being there changed me, but it didn’t. It just made me more me.”
Burke turned away. I couldn’t tell if he was listening, and frankly, it made me want to deck him. I knew how hard it was to pour out a piece of your soul, to admit to being more or something different than people thought.
It was fucking excruciating. The least the man could do was look at his son while he spoke.
“Honey, we love you no matter what job you work in,” Adrienne said and hugged him. Drew returned the embrace, squeezing his mother tight, but over her shoulder, his eyes sought out mine.
He was breaking inside.
Drew stepped back from his mother and looked in her face. “Do you love me no matter who I love?”
Her breath caught. Mine did, too.
Her eyes filled with tears. “What you’re asking us, Andrew… it goes against the Bible.”
“Do you think God loves me less because I love another man?”
Did you hear that sound?
It was the sound of my heart cracking.
It was a sound I knew well because it was the same sound my ribs made the night I was attacked.
Adrienne’s tears trailed over her cheeks, and she reached for Drew’s hand. “How could anyone not love you?”
“It’s impossible,” I said.
Drew and his mother looked in my direction. I offered them a smile. His mother tentatively returned it.