Ripples & Waves by L. A. Witt

Author:L. A. Witt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-64230-043-7
Publisher: GallagherWitt

Chapter Eleven

Colin

As I made my coffee and got ready to go to work, I glanced out at the dock because hope sprang eternal. There was no shell. There hadn’t been one when I’d come home yesterday, either, and none when I’d looked out one last time before bed.

It had been four days since I’d seen Lir, and I didn’t care how pathetic I was for admitting it—I missed him. I was also worried this meant he wasn’t coming back. He’d mentioned a few times that if his people found out where he was going, they might not let him leave. Was that what had happened? Was he stuck down there? Or was he—

The door opened, and I jumped out of my skin.

“Colin?” Mom called out. “Are you home?”

I rolled my eyes. Was knocking really too much to ask? “I am, but I’m naked with another guy.”

Her high heels clomped angrily down the hall, and she appeared in the kitchen, arms folded across her chest and a sour look on her face. “That isn’t funny.”

I shrugged indifferently and sipped my coffee. I’d felt guilty for a long time about being snide with my mom, but with her boundary issues and the way she acted about me being gay, and just everything, I’d stopped feeling bad about it.

“So.” She faced me. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Oh, this sounded like fun.

“Yeah?” I put my coffee cup down. “What’s up?”

“Well, I heard through the grapevine that your employers made a stink about Wes Martin.” She glared at me. “Saying he and his friends aren’t welcome at that lobster restaurant, and it sounds like that has something to do with you.”

I suppressed a shudder. “Yeah. It does.”

Mom pressed her lips together. “Do you know what that does to your family’s image? People think we’re throwing our name around and having people banned from public—”

“Mom.” It was a struggle and a half not to blow up at her. “Joan and Haley have every right to ban people from their lobster pound, especially people who are openly homophobic. You know, since they’re gay too?” She squirmed a little, because of course she did. “For God’s sake, the guys they banned tried to kill me.”

Her features hardened. Tightening her arms across her chest, she watched me expectantly, as if this was my cue to explain how someone trying to murder me was grounds for banning them from the place where I worked.

I didn’t take the bait. Instead, I held my breath and watched her, waiting for her to put the pieces together herself. I tried not to cling to the hope that she’d finally understand why I needed my parents’ support. There were enough homophobes out there—dangerous ones—and I needed to know my family had my back.

They tried to kill me, Mom. Do you get it now?

After a long, uncomfortable moment, she dropped her hands to her sides and huffed impatiently. “I don’t know what you want me to say. Things like this—This is exactly why your father and I wanted you to be discreet.

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