“I figured they’d smoked some grass,” Nana agreed. “When Matty came to not only introduce a guy I’d never heard of before but also to tell me they were getting married, I figured they were stoned off their asses.”
“Language,” my father said with a frown.
“Were you?” Vince asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Mom said.
“That wasn’t until the honeymoon,” Dad said, eyebrows waggling.
“You brought this on yourself,” I muttered to Vince.
He ignored me. He seemed focused, solely focused, on the two of them with such intensity I didn’t think I wanted to know what was going on in his head. Though, from his expression, I had a pretty good idea. I didn’t know how I felt about that. “And you both knew?” he asked. “You just knew?”
They nodded. “It hasn’t always been easy,” Mom said. “But nothing worth having ever really is.”
And then Vince looked at me.
And, of course, I looked away.
WHEN someone says to you that they didn’t mean to eavesdrop, chances are they probably did.
That being said, I totally didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Seriously.
Vince was helping Mom in the kitchen while Dad and I sat with Nan in the backyard, shooting the shit. I protested initially, but Mom shooed us out of the kitchen, latching on to Vince and pulling him along with her. I looked to Dad for help, but he already had wrapped his arm around my neck and we trailed after Nana.
I tried not to think about what my mother was saying to Vince, but I feared the worst. That, any minute now, he’d come outside and tell me that it was so over, that my family was fucking nuts and he didn’t know what he saw in me in the first place, and actually, he hadn’t seen anything, he was actually just Freddy Prinze Junioring me.
I hate my imagination sometimes.
So, after ten minutes, I made the excuse I had to use the restroom. Both Nana and Dad rolled their eyes, but no one tried to stop me. I really did have to piss, but I figured I could also intervene in case Mom was going a little overboard.
But I shouldn’t have worried. When I entered the house, I heard them laughing and talking about nothing of consequence while they did the dishes and put the food away, and I didn’t want to disturb them if necessary, so I bypassed the kitchen and used the restroom at the other end of the house. It wasn’t until I came back that I stopped, only because my mother said my name.
“Paul doesn’t know, does he?” she asked him.
Ah hell.
“Know what?” He sounded confused.
“Who you are.”
There was silence then, and it lasted long enough to become uncomfortable. I was about to walk into the kitchen when Vince spoke. “I don’t know what you’re… shit. You recognized me?”
“Your name sounded familiar,” Mom said. “And you look like your dad. Larry met him once, a few years ago. When we met you yesterday, it wasn’t that hard to put it together.”
“Ah. No. Paul doesn’t know.”
“Okay.” After a moment: “I’m sorry about your mother.”
He sighed. “Yeah. Me too.”
“Is that why you moved back? So you could be near… when? You know what, forgive me for being so rude. It’s none of my business.”
“It’s okay. I just… it feels… weird… to talk about it.”
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t been good with my parents for a while.” He sounded angry, the first time I’d ever heard him like that. It tore at me, like little claws against my skin. “If you know who I am, then you know that my parents didn’t want anything to do with me back then. The election year is not the best time to come out when your father is a Republican running for office. Apparently it causes a disruption to the campaign.”