Page 49 of Conquest

“Damn it,” Jesse breathed out. “I’ve been half up all day, now I could crack diamonds. Thanks.”

“You were more than half up in the ancient Egyptian section,” Evan whispered.

“I can’t believe you groped me in front of the mummies.”

“You did tell me you had fantasies about doing it anywhere, anytime, and I know those poor crusty guys haven’t seen anything that good in two thousand years.”

Jesse laughed and shoved him away. “You have the most twisted sense of humor! Now tell me anything that’s not related to music or sex.”

“You just killed eighty percent of my personality right there! You already know I like cars, and I’d say that’s a good ten percent. And I’m really serious about the dark chocolate thing. Good dark chocolate is really important to me, so I’d chock that up to another two.”

“Evan,” Jesse growled.

Evan burst out laughing. “You must be really serious! The only time you say my full name is when I’m working you really good and you’re screaming it out.”

Jesse’s efforts to maintain a serious countenance faded, and he chuckled.

“Alright,” Evan said, still laughing softly. “Something that’s not music or sex related. I’m going to have to go back pretty far to find anything that meets those requirements.” He took the frozen lemonade cup out of Jesse’s hand and ate a couple bites. He paused, thinking with the spoon in his mouth, then whipped it out. “I know. I was almost held back in the first grade because my teachers didn’t think I was ready to move on.”

“What?” Jesse said, shocked. “Why not?”

“I wasn’t a very good reader.”

“I can’t picture you struggling at school with how intelligent you are. Why weren’t you held back?”

“My dad threw a fit, so the school pushed me through. It was one of only two times that I ever saw him get really upset. My mom thought it might be good for me to be held back, but he stood up for me saying the teachers and the school were the problem, not me. The truth is, written words confused me because I was so used to reading music. While other kids were reading The Pokey Little Puppy, I was picking apart ‘Fur Elise.’”

Jesse stared at him. That certainly helped him to understand why Evan was such a loner. Even at so young an age, Evan’s talent isolated him from his peers. He caught what Evan had said about his father, and asked, “What was the other time your dad got upset?”

Evan looked out over the glassy waters of Chicago Harbor.

Jesse could see his eyes from the side of his sunglasses and could tell from their distant look that Evan was replaying the memory, probably deciding if he wanted to share it or not. He watched Evan’s gaze lower behind his sunglasses, the forlorn expression he’d seen before flickered across his face. He suddenly felt selfish for pushing him to talk and was about to tell him to forget it when Evan cleared his throat.

“It was the summer I was sixteen. The guy across the street from our townhouse was washing his new Harley in the street, and I was standing inside our house watching him. I was so focused on him, I didn’t notice that my dad had walked up behind me until he asked, ‘Did Anthony get a new bike?’ I freaked out. Here I was getting hard over the neighbor guy, and there’s my dad. I was so embarrassed that I just blurted out, ‘yeah,’ and took off upstairs to hide in my room.

“My dad came up, whipped open my bedroom door and yelled, ‘What just happened down there?’ I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Now I wasn’t just embarrassed to all hell, I was shocked that my dad was mad at me and I thought for sure he had figured it out, and I was right. He stormed across my room, took my face in both hands, put his face in mine, and said, ‘Don’t ever run and hide from me like that again.’ Then he wrapped his arms around me, and said, ‘Human feeling has complexities that can’t be understood. The only thing you can do is try to be true to what’s in your heart. Always do that and I’ll always be proud of you. And there’s nothing you could ever do to make me not love you.’”

Evan finished the memory and stared down at the steps. He hadn’t talked about his father to anyone since he had died, and never shared what happened between them that day. Loss started to tighten his chest, then stopped as Jesse’s hand fell on his. Jesse slid across the step until they were sitting so close their legs, the sides of their hips, their arms and shoulders touched.

“He sounds really cool,” Jesse said, his voice soft with compassion.

“Yeah. He was from England, and he had some pretty good success singing in operas over there until he moved here.”

“What was his name?”

“Ethan.”

“Your middle name.”

Evan smiled at him. “You remembered. I’m impressed Jesse Michael.”

Jesse laughed. “Don’t call me that. I’ll feel like I’m in trouble.”

Evan rocked affectionately against him. “So what about you? I bet the worst grade you ever got was an A minus.”

“As if I’d get a lowly A minus. Haven’t you figured out that I’m a genius yet?”

“I know two places you’re a genius. One’s behind a mic. Can you guess where the other is?”