Page 71 of The Prince and the Bodyguard
“It’s complicated, Mama,” I managed, the childhood endearment slipping out automatically in her embrace.
“Well, then, we’d better sit down and figure it out together.”
My father appeared from the living room, concern written across his weathered features as he took in my unexpected arrival and obvious distress. “Son? Everything alright?”
“Everything’s pretty much the opposite of alright.”
Twenty minutes later, we were seated around the familiar kitchen table with coffee and leftover pie, the domestic comfort of home making the day’s events feel even more surreal. My parents waited patiently while I tried to figure out how to begin, how to explain what had happened and everything that had led up to it.
There was only one place to start.
“I need to tell you both something. Something I should’ve told you a long time ago, but I was scared and I didn’t know how, and now everything’s gone to hell and I can’t keep pretending anymore.”
Mama reached across the table to cover my hand with hers. “Whatever it is, we love you. That doesn’t change.”
The simple certainty in her voice almost broke me completely. I looked at both of them—these people who’d raised me with love and faith and solid values, who’d supported every dream I’d ever had, who deserved honesty even if it cost me everything—and found the courage to speak the truth. “I’m in love. I’m in love with Eddie. With Prince Gregory. And I lost everything because of it.”
The silence that followed was complete and stretching, broken only by the familiar tick of the kitchen clock and the distant hum of the refrigerator. My mother’s hand tightened around mine, but my father went very still, his coffee cup halfway to his lips.
“In love,” Mama repeated, and I could see her processing not just the words but everything they implied.
“I’m… I’m bisexual. Always have been, but there never was a reason for me to tell you, to come out. I reckoned I’d find myself a good woman to settle down with and no one needed to know. Until Eddie.” Both remained silent, so I plodded on. “I know what it means for my career and probably my future, but I can’t lie about it anymore. I love him, and he loves me, and we were trying to find a way to make it work when everything fell apart.”
My father set down his coffee cup with deliberate precision and pushed back from the table. “I need some air,” he said quietly, not meeting my eyes as he headed for the back door.
The sound of the screen door closing behind him felt like a judgment, and I closed my eyes against the sting of tears I’d been holding back all day.
“Give him time,” my mother said softly. “This is a lot to process, and you know your father needs to work through things in his own way.”
“Mama, I know this isn’t what you wanted for me?—”
“What I want for you is to be happy and loved and true to yourself. If Eddie makes you happy, if he loves you the way you deserve to be loved, then that’s what matters.”
I stared at her, hardly daring to believe the acceptance I heard in her voice. “You mean that?”
“Basil James Puller,” she said with the kind of maternal authority that brooked no argument, “I have spent twenty-seven years watching you try to be everything to everyone else. Strong for your teammates, professional for your superiors, perfect for this family. If you’ve finally found someone who lets you be yourself, then I’m grateful to him, regardless of who he is or what complications come with loving him.”
The tears I’d been fighting all day finally won, and I put my head down on the familiar kitchen table and cried like I hadn’t since I was a child. My mother’s hand never left mine, her presence steady and comforting and unconditionally loving.
“You know I liked him,” she said when my tears had finally run dry. “He was so sweet.”
“He is, Mama. He has such a good heart.”
“He’d have to, to win yours.”
“I don’t know how to fight for this, Mama. I don’t even know where he is or what’s happening to him. They took me away, and I have no way to reach him.”
“You’ll figure it out, honey. If you two are meant to be together, you’ll find a way. The kind of love that’s worth giving up a title for isn’t that easily defeated now, is it?”
Through the kitchen window, I could see the light in my father’s workshop, which meant he was processing this news the way he processed most emotional upheavals—by working with his hands and thinking through the implications. It wasn’t rejection, exactly, but it wasn’t acceptance either.
“He’ll come around,” my mother said, following my gaze. “Your father loves you more than his own life, honey. Give him time to understand what this means.”
I nodded, hoping she was right. The day had cost me my career, my security clearance, and probably my future in law enforcement. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing my family’s acceptance too. “His hopes were pinned on me after Glenn…”
She was quiet for a long time, her hand still wrapped around mine. “We did you wrong there,” she finally said, her voice soft. “We should’ve never made you feel like you had to compensate for him no longer being with us. You’re your own man, Bash. You’re so much more than Glenn’s younger brother.”
I hadn’t realized how much I needed to hear those words until she spoke them. They wrapped around me like the hug she’d given me on the front porch. “I wanna make you both proud. I wanna make him proud.”
