When they reached the corner, Evan said, “Let’s go to that little coffee place near the house.” He was talking about the townhouse where Jeffery and Kenny lived, not his own apartment in Alphabet City downtown. “We’ll talk and then I’ll walk you home and get a cab.”
“Why don’t I get a few things and go back downtown with you tonight?” Kenny said. “I’m thinking of moving in with you anyway. I might as well start moving my things now.”
When Evan heard this, he stopped breathing for a moment. He turned, with his palm to his throat, and said, “What on Earth are you talking about?” Kenny had a habit of springing things on him this way without warning.
Kenny smiled and said, “I’ve already talked to Dad about it and he’s okay with it. I want to move in with you full time.”
At first, Evan didn’t know how to react. He couldn’t reject his son, yet he didn’t want him living with him full time because he wasn’t sure he was strong enough yet to deal with a teenager. “We have to talk about this more. And my apartment is so far from your school.”
“Dad said he’d have a car there to pick me up and bring me home every day,” Kenny said. “We both think it’s a good idea.”
“I saw your dad this afternoon,” Evan said. “He didn’t mention any of this to me.” Wasn’t this just like Jeffery? He did things like this all the time. He would plan and calculate, setting Evan up without letting Evan know anything until the final moment. Evan also had a feeling he knew their motivation. They both thought he was too unstable to live alone and they wanted Kenny there at all times to keep an eye on him so he wouldn’t wind up drinking again. This point he knew he couldn’t argue. The only way to prove to everyone that he could remain sober forever was to show them, not to tell them. And he had a lot of showing to do.
“Dad wanted me to bring it up first,” Kenny said.
They crossed the street and Evan said, “I’m sure he did. That’s how your dad operates.”
“Don’t get mad at Dad,” Kenny said. “It really was my idea. At first, he wasn’t even sure about it. I kept bugging him.”
“I just wish he’d said something to me this afternoon when I talked to him,” Evan said. For the first time since he’d left Havilland, he felt like having a drink. An ice-cold glass of vodka would have hit the spot.
“You could just come back home and have your own room,” Kenny said.
Jeffery and Evan had explained their complicated situation to Kenny as honestly as they could without going into any of the sexual details he did not need to know. “I’m not ready to do that,” Evan said. “You know your dad and I love each other. But we can’t live together right now, and I’m not sure we ever will.”
They talked more about this in detail over coffee and Evan still wasn’t convinced he was strong enough emotionally to deal with a teenager full time. He knew Jeffery couldn’t be depended on for anything but the next business deal he was working on. It wasn’t that Jeffery was totally absent. Neither Kenny nor Evan had to worry about money. But Jeffery couldn’t be depended on to deal with the ordinary mundane issues of everyday life that required more attention sometimes than a major crisis.
What made Evan’s chest cave in was when Kenny said, “I’m going away to school next year and I want to spend as much time with you as I can. Dad’s never home. You know how it is. He’s always working or traveling. I spend most of the time with Ellie.”
Ellie was their live-in housekeeper at the townhouse, a short, stout proper British nanny who baked kidney pie and brewed loose tea with a contraption that looked like it came out of one of Evan’s historical novels. Evan had hired her when they’d first adopted Kenny and she’d been there ever since. Evan knew Kenny had a point. With Ellie around all the time Jeffery never had to worry about being home for Kenny, not that Jeffery ever actually worried about anything.
“And that werewolf is really creeping me out,” Kenny said.
Evan covered his mouth and smiled. He even had Kenny calling Jeffery’s assistant the werewolf now. “What does your father’s assistant have to do with any of this?” Evan asked. He was still smiling, but he didn’t want to refer to Jeffery’s assistant in front of Kenny as the werewolf.
“He’s always around, ready to please Dad,” Kenny said. “I think he’s trying to get into Dad’s pants. If you ask me…”
“Kenny,” Evan said. “I don’t want to hear that kind of talk. You know your father never mixes business and pleasure.” This was true about Jeffery. He would screw any man on the planet, but he always kept his business relationships uncomplicated.
Kenny rolled his eyes. “Look, I’m not a kid anymore. I know how things are. I know Dad’s not a saint and that’s one of the reasons you aren’t living at home anymore. But seriously, the werewolf is like totally creeped out.”
Evan had to fight to hide his smile this time. He thought the werewolf was, as Kenny had stated, totally creeped out, too. But he didn’t want to say this in front of Kenny. “What happens between your dad and me is something personal that’s just between us and you don’t need to worry about it. We both love you, and we’re both there for you, and that’s all you have to worry about.” One thing he and Jeffery had agreed upon was never to talk down about each other in front of Kenny.
“Well, I know that,” Kenny said. He rolled his eyes again. “I’m not mad at either one of you, and I’m not like those kids who resent their parents getting divorced.”
“We’re not divorced,” Evan said. He might have reacted too soon. He tended to be sensitive about this because he was still so much in love with his husband.
Kenny stopped walking and pulled Evan over to bench in one of those small parks that were cropping up all over Manhattan thanks to some group that wanted to make the city more appealing. When they were both seated, Kenny reached for Evan’s hands, held them, and said, “I just want to spend some time with you right now. Why does it have to be more complicated than that? I’m not mad at Dad. I’m not all screwed up or anything like a lot of the kids I know who come from broken homes.”
Evan shrugged. “You’re not from a broken home. Your father and I love each other more now than we did the day we met. I’ve told you the story of how we met and fell in love a million times. It happened when we least expected it.”