“That’s up to your mom and dad, sweetheart,” I said, looking at John and Beth. John just rolled his eyes and Beth looked at me with a new strangeness in her eyes I hadn’t noticed before.
“Is Jolie going to be there?” she asked.
I was taken aback by her question. “I… assume so?”
“Then that’s fine.”
“Wait.” I glanced down at my niece. “Liza, honey, why don’t you go upstairs and pack up your pajamas okay? Your mom or dad can drop you off at Tisha’s place before dinner.”
As soon as she wheeled back on out of the room, I shot a look at my sister-in-law. “What the hell are you implying?”
John held up a hand. “Wait just a second, Seth.”
“No. I won’t wait just a second, John. Are you saying that from now on if Jolie isn’t around, I’m not allowed to host my freaking niece and nephew for a spend the night? Please tell me that’s not what you’re saying here.”
Beth’s eyes flicked over to her husband’s, and I saw the answer clear as day. My stomach rolled with the implication. “What? Seriously? Like Jolie was the only thing keeping your kids safe in my house all these years?”
I could hear the panic in my own voice, but I couldn’t help it. This couldn’t be happening.
My brother clasped my forearm and squeezed to get my attention. “Seth, calm down. Beth just feels like maybe we should keep the overnights on nights when Tisha is at Jolie’s house. If the two of you aren’t going to be living together anymore, we’re concerned about what people are going to think. I mean, you have to admit a single uncle having little kids over for—”
I put my hands over my ears. “Don’t. Jesus, John. Please. Please stop and listen to yourself.” I could feel the anger rising up inside and part of me knew I needed to leave before it reached the surface. “I have been a parent to a little girl for nine years. Do you think I have once done anything inappropriate to that child?”
Just saying the words made me feel like I was going to vomit.
Beth looked at me with a strange kind of sympathy in her eyes. “No, of course not. We’re not saying that at all. We just think it’s in everyone’s best interests to keep your reputation intact, Seth. What would it look like if the Hobie sheriff was accused of hosting groups of young children overnight at his house?”
I looked at John, sure my eyes were pleading with him not to be the man he was showing himself to be. “I’m your brother.” I turned to Beth. “It would look like Sheriff Walker was allowing his little girl to have a freaking sleepover, Beth. That’s what it would look like!”
“Uncle Seth!” I turned to see Tisha’s bright face as she ran into the kitchen to fetch me. My nephew Hal hung back in the doorway, looking for all the world like he’d heard every word we’d said. “Come on! We don’t want to be late. Gulliver is waiting for us.”
“Be right there, Tishie-poo,” I stammered. Once she was gone and Hal seemed to have disappeared too, I turned back to John and Beth. “Just tell me one thing. Is this about the divorce or is this about me being gay?”
Beth looked away, but my brother wasn’t quite so chickenshit.
“We just think it would be better for everyone if the two of you stayed together. It’s worked for all these years. I don’t see why you can’t keep up appearances with Jolie and then go have your fun in secret down in Dallas every once in a while the way you probably did in Minnesota. Can’t you see what this bullshit is doing to Mom and Dad? You move back down to our tiny southern town and then throw divorce and gay into the mix? Jesus, Seth. Stop and think what you’re doing to the rest of us. To that little girl!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing out of my own brother’s mouth.
“From the day I left here until we moved back, I never once hooked up with someone outside of my marriage. I have slept with a sum total of one man. The same man I’m going to spend the rest of my goddamned life with. And if you think that makes me trash, or if you think I don’t deserve to share my life with someone I love the way you and Beth do, then fuck you, John.”
I turned to leave before doing something I’d regret. All I wanted to do was find Otto. I needed to get to Otto.
Jolie’s eyes widened when I jumped in the SUV and slammed the door. “Everyone buckled up?” I asked, trying to calm down for the sake of the kids.