Page 190 of Over the Line

Chris laughed and I elbowed Garrett.

A moment later, Travis leaned out of the room. “You gentlemen ready?”

We all exchanged glances, nodded, and turned to Travis.

“Let’s do this,” I said.

“Fair warning,” Travis said to Garrett, “this will be broadcast live. Reporters will edit clips for their own stories and whatnot later, but there’s no going back and erasing anything.”

Garrett gulped and I thought he lost some color.

“You good with that?” I asked.

He seemed to think about it, but then he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Just, uh… thanks for the warning.”

With that, Travis took us into the room. Inside, there was a long table set up with three microphones. In front of that, a gaggle of reporters waited, cameras at the ready. I was pleased to see that Jack Arlen’s face was not among them.

They watched us file into the room and take our seats. I took the far end with Garrett between Chris and me.

“You sure about being front and center?” I murmured.

“I can’t decide between sitting next to you or Chris,” he whispered.

“Fair enough.” I touched his arm. “You ready for this?”

He made a face.

I chuckled. “Yeah. I can relate.” I looked past him. “Kanes, you ready for this?”

Chris nodded. “Let’s do it.”

I turned to Travis and gave him a nod, and he got the press conference rolling.

“This question is for Kanes,” one reporter said when called on. “We all saw the footage of you reacting to the discovery of your father dating Saints. Can you tell us what prompted that reaction and how you feel about the situation now?”

Chris’s face colored as he leaned closer to the microphone. “I was blindsided by it. That was why I was so upset. Once I calmed down and talked to”—he gestured at us—“I realized that was all it was—that I’d been blindsided. I was embarrassed and it all just—it felt disgusting, having my family’s personal business turned into gossip like that. Really, really public gossip.”

“So the issue was not with Saints and your father,” another said. “Just how you found out?”

Nodding, Chris said, “Exactly. It’s still weird, you know? People being interested in my personal life. And it just felt…” He glanced toward Travis and hesitated, but then said, “It felt intrusive. Humiliating.”

I was happy to see that several of the reporters seemed genuinely chagrined. Others… well, their profession did attract its share of vultures.

Another reporter was called on. “Saints and Mr. Kane,” she said, gesturing at Garrett to make sure we knew which Mr. Kane she meant. “How exactly was your relationship discovered, and why was it being kept such a secret?”

To my surprise, Garrett beat me to the punch. “It wasn’t meant to be a big secret. It was just a new relationship, and we wanted to figure it out ourselves before we brought anyone else in.” He swallowed, and he reached over and put a hand on Chris’s forearm. “In retrospect, there are people I should’ve told sooner than later. Chris—and the rest of my family—shouldn’t have had to find out that way.”

He and Chris exchanged looks, and Chris patted his dad’s hand.

Garrett cleared his throat. “It’s, um… It’s also not how I wanted a lot of people in my life to learn that I was bisexual. Some people knew”—he tipped his head toward Chris—“but others didn’t. It, um, made for a very uncomfortable conversation with my father.”

Surprise and discomfort rippled through the gathered reporters.

“You said Grandpa took it well, though, right?” Chris asked.

Garrett nodded, swallowing hard. “Yeah. And it was yet another lesson in realizing that when I keep things hidden, all it does is hurt the people I love and hurt me. I should’ve told him years ago. That… is kind of a pattern with me—not talking about things until they blow up in my face—and it’s something I plan to work on going forward. Being open about things before they get opened for us like they did this week.”

“How did it come out, though?” a reporter pressed. “The relationship between you and Saints?”