The quartet, Kerry and Jena in the lead, walked down the hallway to a room at the far end. A moment after Kerry knocked, his mother opened the door. She stepped aside to let them in and immediately embraced Corey.
His father appeared seconds later, giving Corey a quick hug before acknowledging Scott’s presence, saying, “I’m Tom Byrne, and you are?”
Corey replied before Scott could. “Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet Scott Reed, my”—he glanced at Scott momentarily, getting a quick hug in return—“my boyfriend.”
Linda looked up at her husband and smiled before turning her attention back to Corey—and Scott. “It’s about time.”
“What?” Corey asked in disbelief.
“Corey, sweetie, we figured out quite a while ago you were gay. All it took was watching you with the girls you went to high school with. You were friends, but that was it. You never seemed the least bit interested in dating any of them until—” She smiled. “—you figured out you’d better at least pretend, to keep anyone from knowing. I’ll admit, at first it was a shock. We debated what we should do about it, then realized there wasn’t anything we could do. So we kept quiet, waiting for you to tell us.”
Corey gulped. “I was so sure….”
“That we’d disown you or something?” Tom asked, shaking his head. “You’re our son, and a good person. The fact that you prefer men over women is just a small part of what you are. At least as far as we’re concerned.” Tom turned to Kerry, grinning a bit. “Can I presume this came as no surprise to you?”
“It did until he told me about the murder. Then I figured it out, but hey, at least he made a good choice when it came to Scott. You don’t know it, but he’s the one who dealt with Corey’s stalker.”
“In that case,” Linda said, “you’re doubly welcome here, Scott.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Byrne.”
“You will call me Linda, or else,” she replied with mock severity.
He smiled, giving a small bow. “Yes… Linda.”
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, we’d better get down to the restaurant. I’m sure Phil and Cathy are wondering what’s taking us so long,” Tom said.
That's exactly what happened with our daughter.
ReplyDeleteAnd she found out she was worrying for nothing? That's great.
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