Graham
I watched my son walking toward me across the vast hotel ballroom and smiled. There’d been a time a few years ago when I’d thought I would miss out on this and all other important moments in his life. I was so thankful that he and Mandy had come to me when their mom refused to accept that Mandy was gay. My ex had the nerve to ask Mandy if she’d been talking to me, insinuating that I’d converted her to the gay agenda. But thanks to Louise poisoning her against me, I hadn’t talked to Mandy in years at that point.
“Thank you for being here,” Carter said.
I pulled him into a hug. “I love you, Carter, and I would never—not even when you stopped speaking to me—turn down a chance to be at your wedding.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
When he pulled back, Carter wiped at his eyes and looked away for a moment, which was fine with me. I needed to compose myself too. This was going to be an emotional whirlwind of a day.
A few seconds later, Carter said, “Mom’s here. She’s with Jennifer and Ron, her favorite homophobic friends.”
Yep. I was definitely going to hit all the emotional highs and lows today. “Why are they here?”
Carter raised his brows, and I sighed because I knew, even though I hated that they got to share in this day. “They’ve known you since you were in preschool, and it wasn’t worth the argument?”
He nodded. “Listen, just… just don’t try to talk to them, okay?”
I tensed. Did he really think I would? “I’m not going to start trouble at your wedding. I don’t want any trouble with your mother. I never did.” I thought for a second about how that sounded. “I guess you think that’s bullshit.”
Carter shook his head. “You made mistakes, sure, but coming out to her was better than continuing to pretend. You were trying to correct a mistake.”
“A huge one, one I’m still really sorry for, with one—no, three—exceptions.”
Carter looked confused.
“You.”
“Oh.”
“And Mandy and Wren. I wouldn’t have the three of you if I’d been honest all along, not that I really knew I was gay when you were born. I was so deep in denial I wouldn’t have dared to admit it even to myself. I really thought… Well, that doesn’t matter. All that matters today is that I’m here to support you. This should be a perfect day for you, and the last thing I want is for the unresolved shit between your mom and me to mess that up.”
“It’s not. I mean, I know you’ll do everything you can to prevent that from happening.”
I didn’t want to say this, but I had to. “If it would be better for me to—”
“No. You already missed last night.” His mother had insisted on hosting the rehearsal dinner, and we’d decided it was best if I didn’t attend. “And… You missed so many other things. You will be here for this. It’s what I want. What Mom wants doesn’t matter, not today.”
“You’re right. I don’t want to miss anything else. I want to be here, supporting you.”
Carter nodded, but I could tell something was still bothering him.
“What’s wrong?”
He shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m just really nervous.”
“Felicity is an amazing woman.”
“I know she is, but I just can’t believe she actually wants to marry me.”
“I can.”
Carter scrunched up his nose. “Ugh. You’re my dad. Of course you can.”
Those words had tears pricking the backs of my eyes, because there’d been a time when I was sure Carter thought I didn’t care about him at all. And now he not only wanted me here, he trusted me to help him through his jitters.
“Felicity adores you. I can see that every time you’re together.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. I can give examples, if that would help.”
Carter shook his head. “I don’t think so. I… I think I’d rather talk about something else. Anything else. Just thinking about watching her walk down the aisle makes me feel like I’m going to pass out.”
I smiled at him and patted his arm. “You’re going to be fine. Why don’t you tell me again about the rest of the wedding party? I want to be sure I’ve got everyone’s names straight.”
“Okay. I can do that. Obviously, you know Mandy and Wren.”
I grinned. “Yeah, I do.” Mandy and I were now closer than we’d ever been. Wren had only been thirteen when I’d left, and we were still trying to figure each other out, but we were getting there.
“And you said you remember Hal.”
I nodded. He’d been one of Carter’s best friends in high school. He’d been at our house most weekends, but I hadn’t seen him in years.
“So then there’s Christy, Felicity’s roommate, and Hillary, one of her friends from college.”
“And… Avery, right?”
“Yes, Avery…” Carter blushed a bit. “Her Twink of Honor is what she calls him.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “He sounds very interesting.”
“Yeah, like I told you, he’s been her best friend since elementary school.”
“And he’s a makeup artist?”
“Right. He does hair too, but makeup is like his thing. He’s really talented.”
I was far more intrigued by Avery than I should be, considering he was my about-to-be daughter-in-law’s best friend.
“He’s also, um… a bit much. He wears makeup most of the time, and he considered wearing a bridesmaid dress. It took me a little while to get used to him, but we’re good friends now too.”
I wasn’t going to tell Carter that I’d hooked up with plenty of femmes, so I just said, “What does your mother say about him?”
Carter rolled his eyes. “Nothing good, but I’ve made it very clear that she’d best keep quiet about that today.”
I clenched my fists, anger burning through me. “If I even think she’s going to say anything, I’ll put a stop to it.”
“Okay, but—”
“Just trust me.”
I thought Carter was going to protest again, but instead he smiled. “Thanks. I better get back to the other guys now and finish getting ready.”
“You want me to come along?”
He frowned. “I think Mom’s coming by soon. She was bringing the boutonnières.”
I tried not to let my disappointment show. “Okay, well, go on then.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll have lunch tomorrow. You’ll be more relaxed to talk then anyway.”
“Right. Lunch. Okay. I’ll see you in a little while.”
He turned and scurried off. I knew I should be grateful that he and Felicity wanted to hang out with me on what really should be the first day of their honeymoon, but it didn’t stop me from being pissed as hell at my ex.
And I was going to have to circulate alone at the reception as I ran into people from my former life. Why hadn’t I brought a plus one? I’d considered it, but the problem was, I really only did hookups and many of those were with guys Carter’s age, so asking them to the wedding would be awkward at best. My best friend, Leo, would’ve come, and we did hook up occasionally, but I craved men who wanted to surrender, to let me be in charge, and Leo was even more dominant than I was. Oh well, maybe I’d go out after the reception. I sure as hell was going to need to release some tension after spending the evening avoiding my ex-wife and God only knew how many of my ex-friends.