Her optimism evaporated. “Oh.” Her phone chimed, and she grabbed it. “Crap. I’m late to work. I’ll see you around?”
“Count on it.”
She couldn’t fight her smile as she headed toward her car. It was nice to have a conversation with someone who didn’t treat her like a child. Or try to shelter her. Or tell her she was going to hell for anything but chaste thoughts. On top of that, he made her think she might be able to fix whatever was holding her back in auditions. Next step was getting the details out of him.
*
Andrew settled into the office that would be his temporary business-home until Christmas, but his mind wasn’t on work. Susan fascinated him. She was a unique combination of innocent, bold, and curious. He meant what he told Mercy, though; he wasn’t in the market to teach someone how to be wicked. As long as he kept that in mind, he’d be fine when Susan was around. She was another girl, nothing more.
His cell phone rang, jarring him back to the present. When he saw Kandace’s name on the caller ID, he answered without hesitation. “Hey, sis.”
“Is now a good time?”
“Sure. Everything okay?” His relationship with his sister was complicated when it came to her son, Lucas. Kandace was ten years older than Andrew. When he was eighteen, he decided backpacking around the world was the best way to experience life. It was how he met Mercy.
He was in South America when he found out he had a son. His high school girlfriend dropped the boy on Kandace’s porch only sticking around long enough to sign the adoption papers. Kandace took custody of Lucas months before she could track Andrew down to tell him. Andrew and Kandace agreed she was a more stable force for the baby, and he sent support home, while she raised Lucas as her own.
Andrew hated that he couldn’t be more a part of Lucas’s life, but over the last year, as he spent more time here for business, his regret that his role was relegated to uncle grew.
“Fine. Good. Everything’s great. I’m sorry for standing you up on Saturday.” An underlying current of stress ran through Kandace’s voice.
When Andrew had asked for a bit of her time while he was in town, she’d hesitated, which she’d never done before, and that put him on edge. “You know I love the small talk, but I’m gonna cut you off. What happened?” he said.
“Lucas’s gay.”
Andrew shrugged, though no one was there to see him. “All right. Do you want me to give him the talk? Is ten too young for that? Are they ever too young?”
“Could you take things seriously for two minutes?”
Her irritation caught him off guard. “I’m being serious. It’s not a big deal.”
“You’re not giving him the talk. And it is a big deal.”
“So give him a big hug, tell him you love him regardless, and point him toward the internet. Or let me take him for the day. Sit down with him. Explain the birds and the bees and who his real father is.” He hadn’t meant to slip that in until he had a chance to build up to it, but he was glad it was out there.
“Stop.” Her word cut over the line. “He didn’t come out to me. Perhaps it’s not that binary. I don’t know. The problem is bigger than that. One of the sisters at school caught him kissing a male classmate.”
And rapped him on the knuckles with a ruler? Andrew swallowed the question but didn’t miss how she ignored his statement about telling Lucas the truth. “And?”
“And she and the school are recommending conversion therapy.”
“What?” He wasn’t letting a holier-than-thou zealot in a penguin suit brainwash his kid into believing being attracted to anything besides the opposite sex was evil. “There’s a reason states are making that illegal. There’s no fucking way, in this world or the next—”
“And Lucas wants to do it.”
A chill raced through Andrew, and he shuddered involuntarily. “No. Why? This is why you shouldn’t have sent him to Catholic school.” It was also another reason Andrew wanted to bring the boy back into his life. The private schools were good for Lucas’s education, but he needed a different influence, to offset the indoctrination.
Andrew was tempted to step in and just tell Lucas the truth. Take him away from this. But Kandace held a pretty big anvil over Andrew’s head—as Lucas’s legal guardian, she had the power to take him out of Andrew’s life completely. He didn’t think she’d actually do something that severe, but this was a topic he wasn’t willing to call bluff on.
“You wanted him to have the best education in the state,” she said.
Like Andrew needed the reminder. “I know.”
“And the only reason I’m telling you what’s going on is because you sign the checks to the school.” Her tone grew cold.
“Why does he want to do this?”
“He says they’re right. He thinks evil things about other boys, and he hates himself for it.”