27
SCARLETT
Oh Father
Two days later, Lennox Warner turned twenty-seven.
As a little girl, Scarlett used to get almost as excited about her brother’s birthday as her own. She would help her mother bake him a cake and wrap his presents. Then she’d make a big production of singing “Happy Birthday” to him while he groaned and pretended not to enjoy it. But everyone knew he did, and it became their special little tradition.
The morning of his birthday, Scarlett and her parents decided to surprise him at work with an Italian cream cake—his favorite.
When they arrived at the gym, the bubbly receptionist told them that Lennox was in his office. They made their way to the back, grinning from ear to ear.
The door to Lennox’s office was ajar.
Grinning harder, Scarlett pushed the door open and then froze in her tracks at the sight that greeted her.
Lennox and Cooper stood behind the desk kissing intensely, their palms caressing each other’s faces.
Scarlett heard a shocked gasp behind her and almost dropped the cake box.
“WHAT THE HELL?” her father thundered.
Lennox and Cooper sprang guiltily apart and whirled toward the door. A look of absolute horror came over Lennox’s face when he saw his family standing there.
Lavell advanced into the room, his features twisted with disbelief and fury. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?”
Sherise whimpered and clutched Scarlett’s free hand.
Cooper nervously smoothed his hair back. “Dr. Warner, I can exp—”
“Get out,” Lavell barked.
Cooper frowned. “Sir—”
“GET OUT!”
Cooper shot an apologetic glance at Lennox, whose horrified expression had turned to one of grim resignation.
“It’s okay,” he mumbled. “I’ll handle it.”
Cooper met Lavell’s murderous glare and gulped hard, then lowered his eyes and quietly left the room, closing the door behind him.
Lavell rounded furiously on Lennox, a thick vein throbbing on his temple. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Please keep your voice down,” Lennox said through clenched teeth. “This is my work—”
“You didn’t seem to give a damn about that a minute ago!”
Sherise placed a restraining hand on her husband’s chest. “Lavell—”
He swatted her hand away and took a menacing step toward the desk. “How long has this abomination been going on?”
Lennox folded his arms across his chest, a defensive posture. “I think you need to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I get some damn answers!” Lavell stopped in front of the desk, thrumming with anger and impatience. “Well? I’m waiting.”
The muscles in Lennox’s jaw tightened. “You’re not ready to hear anything I have to say.”
The vein on his father’s temple throbbed harder. Shaking his head at Lennox, he whispered in disgust, “I don’t even know who you are right now.”
“I’m your son,” Lennox snarled, his lips twisted bitterly. “The same son you came all the way down here to wish happy birthday. The same son I’ve always been.”
“Are you a faggot?” Lavell cruelly demanded. “Do you sleep with men?”
“Dad!” Scarlett angrily protested.
He held up a hand to silence her. “Stay out of this.” He glared threateningly at Lennox. “Answer my question, boy.”
Lennox’s nostrils flared and his eyes flashed with defiance. “Who I sleep with is none of your—”
Lavell slammed his fist down on the desk. “Answer me, goddammit!”
“YES!” Lennox roared in his face. “Yes, Dad, I have sex with men! I’m a faggot, a homo and every other hateful slur you wanna throw at me! Are you fucking satisfied?”
All the blood seemed to drain out of Lavell’s face. His mouth fell open and he staggered back a step. He looked dangerously close to having a stroke.
Concerned, Scarlett moved toward him. “Dad—”
His astonished gaze swung around to her. “Did you know?” His voice was nearly inaudible. “Did you know about this?”
Scarlett swallowed hard and looked at her brother. He shook his head once, silently warning her to protect herself from their father’s wrath.
She turned back to Lavell and defiantly lifted her chin. “Yes, Dad. I knew.”
A look of shocked betrayal swept across his face. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. He really looked like he might need a doctor.
Sherise took a worried step forward. “Lavell—”
He shoved past her, yanked the door open and stormed out of the room.
Sherise gave Lennox a tearful look, then turned and hurried after her enraged husband.
After they were gone, Scarlett stared regretfully at her brother. “I am so sorry, Lenny. I didn’t know—”
“How were you supposed to?” he said with bitter sarcasm. “It’s not like I warned you not to drop by unexpectedly because my boyfriend might be in here giving me a passionate birthday kiss.”
Scarlett slowly crossed the room and set the cake down on a corner of the desk.
Lennox gave the box a baleful glare. “You can take that with you.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“If Dad paid for it, I don’t want it.”
“He didn’t pay for it. I did.”
Lennox clenched his jaw. After another moment he sank heavily into his chair, put his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands.
Heart constricting with pity, Scarlett went around the desk to stand beside his chair.
He sat still for a long time, not saying a word.
She hesitantly touched his shoulder. When he didn’t flinch away from her, she gently began rubbing his back.
He scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands, impatiently scraping away tears. “This isn’t the way I wanted them to find out.”
“I know,” Scarlett murmured.
“Did you see the look on Dad’s face? I thought he was gonna have a fucking heart attack!”
Scarlett’s throat tightened painfully. “I’m sorry—”
“Stop saying that! It’s not your damn fault! If anything, you were right and I was wrong. I should have listened to you and just told them the truth.”
Scarlett shook her head. “I shouldn’t have acted like coming out to our parents would be simple for you. I knew it wouldn’t be, not by a long shot. But…”
“You didn’t expect such a shitshow,” Lennox grimly filled in the blanks.
She nodded tightly. She felt sick to her stomach.
Lennox blew out a heavy breath and pushed his dreadlocks off his face. “I wanted to come out on my own terms. Not like this, forced out of the fucking closet like some—” He broke off, his voice hitching with emotion.
Fighting back tears, Scarlett leaned down to kiss the top of his head. “I’m so sorry, Lennox. I truly am.”
He swiveled his chair around to stare down at the paperwork on his desk. The bleak despair on his face broke her heart.
“Lenny—”
“Thanks for stopping by, Scarlett, but I have work to do.”
She nodded, though stung by his dismissal. “Do you and Cooper have any special plans for your birthday?”
His jaw flexed. “We were gonna have some friends over—”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
“—but I’m not in the mood anymore.”
“Oh.” Scarlett swallowed. “If you wanna hang out—”
“I’ll let you know.”
“Okay.” She stuffed her hands into her coat pockets, walked slowly around the desk and started backing up toward the door. “Again…happy birthday.”
“Yeah,” Lennox said with a bitter snort. “Happy fucking birthday to me.”
Scarlett was furious with her father. So furious that her whole body was shaking as she drove home.
By the time she stormed through the front door, her fury had boiled over into a blinding rage. She stomped upstairs to her room, yanked her suitcase out of the closet and tossed it onto the bed. Then she opened her dresser drawers and began pulling out clothes and lingerie that she threw into the suitcase.
Her mother appeared quietly in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
“Packing,” Scarlett snapped without turning around.
“I can see that. Why?”
“I’m not staying here.”
“But this is your home.”
“Was my home,” Scarlett fumed. “Not anymore.”
Her mother walked over to the bed and sat down, watching her haphazard packing. “What time do you have to be at work?”
“Ten.”
“Where will you go after that?”
“I don’t know,” Scarlett muttered. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Will you stay with Nadia and Reid?” her mother pressed. “Didn’t she have to go to a conference this week? And aren’t Viggo and Reid at an away game?”
Scarlett didn’t answer.
“Please don’t leave, baby.”
“I have to,” Scarlett raged, cramming more clothes into the suitcase. “I can’t stay under the same roof as a homophobic monster.”
“Your father’s not a monster!”
“He called his own son a faggot! That makes him a monster in my book.”
“You have to understand,” her mother protested, wringing her hands. “It was a shock to him—”
“Don’t you dare make excuses for him,” Scarlett spat accusingly. “Lennox is your child, Ma! That hasn’t changed just because he’s gay!”
“I know,” her mom choked out, tears streaming down her face. “I just…I wasn’t prepared. He was kissing another man, Scarlett! A man!”
Scarlett narrowed her eyes. “Are you ashamed of him?”
“No! Of course not!”
“Then do something, Ma! Don’t let Dad get away with treating Lennox like he committed some unpardonable crime!”
“It’s not that simple!” her mom shrilly insisted.
“It really is, Ma. Either you love and accept your son unconditionally, or you don’t.”
Mother and daughter stared each other down.
“Unbelievable.” Fuming, Scarlett stalked to the bathroom to grab her toiletries.
“Scarlett, please wait—”
“I’m done talking, Ma.” She marched back over to the bed and dumped her toiletries into the suitcase, then zipped it closed and hoisted it off the mattress. “I’ll be back tomorrow for the rest of my things.”
Her mother followed her from the room. “Will you at least call to let me know where you’re staying?”
The plaintive note in her voice pierced through the haze of Scarlett’s anger. She turned around and walked back down the hallway to hug her mother and kiss her damp cheek.
Pulling away, she stared into her glistening dark eyes and whispered urgently, “Please do something, Ma. You’re the only one who can get through to Dad. Talk to him. Make him see reason before it’s too late.”
Her mother said nothing as more tears leaked from her eyes.
Swallowing a knot of helpless frustration, Scarlett turned away and wheeled her suitcase down the hall.
Her father was waiting at the bottom of the staircase. “Where do you think you’re going?”
She started down the stairs. “I think it’s best for me to move out.”
“You can’t be serious!” he blustered.
She took a deep breath as she reached the landing. “I know it must have been a huge shock to see Lennox and Cooper together like that,” she said, striving to be empathetic. “You’re his parents, and you probably feel hurt and betrayed that he kept such a big part of himself from you. But—”
“This doesn’t concern you,” her father brusquely cut her off. “Stay out of it.”
“How does this not concern me?” she challenged. “Lennox is my brother—”
“And he’s our son. So we’ll deal with his behavior the way we see fit!”
“His behavior?”
Her father gave her a stern look. “I’m not having this discussion with you, Scarlett. Now march yourself back up those stairs and put your things away.”
“No, Dad. I’m leaving.”
“And going where? You don’t have enough money to get your own place, and your brothers won’t appreciate having to take you in.” His eyes narrowed warningly. “You’d better not be thinking about shacking up with that boyfriend of yours.”
She ignored him. “I have to go to work. Excuse me.”
As she stalked past him, he grabbed her arm. She jerked out of his grasp and spun around to screech at him, “I’m not staying here with you! If you can’t accept Lennox for who he is, I don’t want you in my life!”
“Scarlett!” her mother cried in shock. “You don’t mean that!”
“Yes, I do!”
She watched her father’s face tighten into a stony mask. He glared at her a moment longer, then took a step back and coldly gestured toward the door with a sweep of his arm.
She slammed out of the house and stomped to her car in the driveway. After tossing her suitcase into the trunk, she marched around to the driver’s side and jumped behind the wheel. She fumbled to insert her key in the ignition, but her hand was shaking too badly. On the third try, struck by a fierce wave of emotion, she burst into tears.
She pounded her fist on the steering wheel, overwhelmed by pain and anger at what her father’s rejection was doing to Lennox and to their family.
When her mother came outside, she angrily swiped away her tears and jammed her key in the ignition. Without a backward glance, she roared out of the driveway and tore off down the street.
She ended up at Lennox’s downtown condo that evening.
After speaking to their mother, he’d called Scarlett to tell her she could crash at his place for however long she wanted. So that was where she headed after work.
Her brother opened the door, a small smile curving his lips. “You finally did it, huh? You finally ran away from home like you always threatened.”
She smiled crookedly. “Better late than never, right?”
“I guess.” He took her suitcase and stepped back. “Come in.”
She entered the warmly furnished condo, peeling off her black wool pea coat. “Thanks for letting me crash on your sofa.”
“You’re homeless because of me. It’s the least I can do. And you don’t have to sleep on the sofa. You can stay in the spare bedroom.”
“Isn’t that Cooper’s room?”
“No.” Lennox met her gaze. “Every time you came over, we told you the second bedroom was Cooper’s so you wouldn’t know we were sleeping together.”
So many lies and cover-ups. “I’m sorry, Lenny.”
He gave her a sad little smile. “Me, too.”
Willing back tears, she motioned vaguely toward her suitcase. “Your birthday gift’s inside there somewhere. Hope you like it.”
His expression softened. “I always do.”
Swallowing tightly, she turned away to hang her coat in the hall closet. “Where’s Cooper?”
“He went to pick up dinner. I just opened a nice bottle of red. Help yourself.”
As Lennox carried her suitcase down the hall, Scarlett headed into the kitchen.
It was small but immaculate, every surface gleaming. The appliances were stainless steel and the walls were made of exposed brick. A bottle of merlot breathed on the counter next to the refrigerator, and there were food magazines fanned out on the granite-topped center island. Bon Appétit. Food & Wine. Gourmet. Saveur.
Scarlett lifted an eyebrow at her brother as he entered the kitchen. “Since when did you become a foodie?”
“I haven’t. Those are Cooper’s.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.” She smiled.
“He was looking at recipes. Since we nixed the party, he wanted to make me a special birthday dinner. I don’t have much of an appetite, so I told him to save his energy and just get some takeout.” Lennox removed three oversized wineglasses from a cabinet. “Hope you’re okay with Greek.”
Scarlett thought of Myles and winced. “That’s fine. I’m not very hungry either.”
Lennox poured her some wine.
Accepting the glass, she took a grateful sip. It had been a long, emotional day. And this was only the beginning.
Lennox leaned back against the opposite counter, facing her as he folded his arms across his wide chest. “Ma says Dad holed up in his office all day and wouldn’t talk to her. I honestly don’t know what upset him more—finding out that I’m gay or having you move out.”
Scarlett shook her head, staring into her wineglass. “I couldn’t stay there, Lenny. Not after the horrible things he said to you.”
“I know. And I appreciate you having my back like that. It means everything to me.” He paused. “But you don’t have to sever your relationship with Dad on my behalf. You two have always been close, and I know you depend on him financially.”
“Not as much as you think.”
Lennox lifted a skeptical brow.
“It’s true. I don’t. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. As much as I love Dad, I don’t want him in my life if he can’t accept who you are.”
“He never will,” Lennox said sadly. “You know that, don’t you? He’s never going to accept having a gay son.”
Scarlett wished she could tell him he was wrong. But she knew better, and it broke her heart.
They heard the front door open and close. Then Cooper came walking into the kitchen with a large takeout bag. He was an attractive guy with thick brown hair, deep green eyes and an athletic physique.
“Hey, Scar,” he said warmly.
She smiled. “Hey, Coop.”
He set the takeout bag on the countertop and gave her a tight hug that she returned. Pulling back, he searched her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Not really,” she admitted. “You?”
“Not really.” His gaze went to Lennox. Seeing the deep pain in his eyes, he walked over and wrapped his arms around Lennox’s neck. They shared a long, soulful kiss and then leaned their foreheads against each other’s.
“We’re gonna get through this,” Cooper promised.
Lennox closed his eyes and nodded.
The tender intimacy of the moment had Scarlett blinking back tears. She’d cried so much today, it was a wonder she had any tears left.
As if remembering they had an audience, Lennox and Cooper pulled apart and looked at Scarlett. She cleared her throat, trying to dislodge the thick lump there.
Lennox moved up to the center island and poured himself a glass of wine.
“So, Scarlett, did Viggo tell you—” Cooper broke off as Lennox made a quick slashing motion across his throat. “Uh, never mind.”
“Tell me what?” Scarlett looked from her brother to Cooper. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Lennox and Cooper chorused.
She narrowed her eyes at them. “Y’all know I’m gonna find out, so you might as well just tell me.”
Lennox shook his head at Cooper. “You never could keep a secret.”
“Sorry,” Cooper said with a sheepish grin. “I forgot he didn’t want her to know yet.”
“Who didn’t want me to know what?” Scarlett said in exasperation.
Lennox looked at her. “Viggo and Reid invested in our gym.”
“Holy shit,” she exclaimed. “They did?”
“Yep.” It was good to see a genuine smile on Lennox’s face. “Not only did they invest in the gym, they gave us enough startup capital to break ground tomorrow if we wanted.”
Scarlett’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“Totally. And it wasn’t a handout or anything. They wanted to know all about our business plan, and they asked the types of questions you’d expect a smart investor to ask. It was awesome.”
A grateful warmth spread through Scarlett, tightening her throat. She was at a loss for words. “Why didn’t Viggo want me to know?”
Lennox smiled over the rim of his glass. “He didn’t want you to think he only gave us the money because he’s your boyfriend.”
“Oh, Viggo,” she whispered. His generosity—and Reid’s—melted her heart and turned her insides to goo.
“Better hold on to that one,” Cooper advised, his green eyes twinkling. “He’s the real deal.”
“I know.” Scarlett smiled softly. “He’s pretty incredible.”
“I’m definitely a fan. And not just because he gave us a shit ton of money. I’ve been a Rebels fan for years and they’re all amazing. But Viggo has always been my favorite player.”
Scarlett grinned. “That makes two of us.”
“It doesn’t hurt that he’s insanely hot. I mean, they all are. Like off-the-charts hot.” Cooper grinned. “Sorry, Lenny, but it’s true.”
Scarlett laughed. “Back off, dude. The Swede’s mine.”
Cooper’s grin widened. “Lennox says you’ve always had a thing for him. So I guess fairy tales really do come true.”
“I don’t know…” Scarlett’s gaze drifted to her brother. He had grown very quiet, staring down at the counter with a muscle throbbing in his cheek. “Lenny?”
He closed his eyes. Then suddenly he turned and hurled his glass across the room. Red wine splattered like blood against the brick wall, broken glass exploding all over.
He hunched over the counter, gripping the edge so tightly that his knuckles protruded.
Scarlett and Cooper just watched him, their hearts aching for him.
He grabbed the other glass, filled it and drank deeply, gulping mouthfuls as if he were trying to drown himself.
Seeing him like this was absolutely gut-wrenching. “Lenny—”
He slammed the empty glass down. “I just realized something.” His voice was raw with pain. So much pain. “You haven’t sung ‘Happy Birthday’ to me.”
Scarlett stared at him. “I didn’t think—”
“Please,” he croaked, staring back at her. “I just need to hear something good right now.”
She swallowed thickly. Voice hoarse with emotion, she began crooning softly, “Happy birthday to you…”
Lennox squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head.
Scarlett went around the center island and put her arms around him.
An anguished sob tore from his throat. And then he crumpled against her, dropping his head onto her shoulder. She held him tenderly, rubbing his back while he sobbed like his heart was breaking.
By the time she finished singing, she and Cooper were weeping as well.