Lace by Jaime Samms

Author:Jaime Samms [Samms, Jaime]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

There was nowhere else for Caleb to go but back to his uncle’s house. Running through the conversation they’d had in his head, he knew he’d outed all his secrets to Uncle Jason. Rather than the bus, he opted to walk. It was a last-ditch attempt to prolong the time before that moment when he found his belongings once again piled on the front lawn and himself homeless. Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe he wasn’t. He hadn’t seen his father’s reaction to his admission of being gay coming, either. He’d never imagined he would lose his mother one month and his home the next just because he’d dared to open his mouth and be honest about who he was. Just because he’d wanted the one person he’d thought he had left in the world to really know him.

Well, he wasn’t getting his hopes up this time. He couldn’t.

Surprise jangled through him, then, when instead of all his worldly possessions spread across the yard, he found Uncle Jase just exiting the house, phone to his ear, truck keys in hand.

“Well, if you do hear from him, Dwayne, please tell him to call me. I’m worried si— Never mind. He’s home.” Jason nodded. “I will. And thanks.”

“You were talking to Dwayne Sayer? Eric’s Dwayne?” Caleb stared at his uncle. “Why?”

“Because that’s the bar you usually go to.” Uncle Jase pocketed his keys and phone and fixed Caleb with a stern glare. “So?”

Caleb shrugged, wrapped both arms around himself and dug his teeth into his bottom lip. “So what? Not like he was going to take me back with open arms, right?”

“What did he tell you?”

“Nothing,” Caleb said, voice barely above a whisper. “He couldn’t get away from me fast enough. Couldn’t even fucking look me in the eye. All I am to him is proof his wife didn’t love him. I mean…they didn’t even love each other. She fucked everything in sight. Why?”

Why didn’t the man he’d always thought of as his father seem to give two shakes about him? But he couldn’t quite ask the question aloud.

“Caleb…” Uncle Jase’s arm, warm and strong, folded over his shoulders and pulled him close. “I have no idea. I wish I did. For what it’s worth, my brother had no use for me, either, or for my wish to coach, to teach kids. I should have gone into law or some other expensive and elite profession. Should have followed the family path. I refused, and they dropped me like a hot potato. I vowed I was never going to have a thing to do with any of them.” He squeezed Caleb’s shoulders as they wandered towards the front door. “Then along came that music teacher of yours, and I couldn’t very well say no when he told me you had nowhere else to go, could I?”

“Do you wish you had? Wish you could now?” Caleb stopped on the porch to their home, his feet glued to the cement, his gaze glued to the bright red paint of the door and the cheerful brass knocker.

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