Page 125 of First Shift

“Addison’s sister,” my mom, grandma, and I replied in unison as my mom slid her feet into her clogs.

“Oh my god.” Cally snorted.

“Their brother is Patterson” I informed him.

“Their mother … certainly loves a theme,” my mom said diplomatically.

“That’s putting it kindly,” Grandma murmured.

Their mom was … a lot. It was no wonder her kids had grown into menaces.

“That doesn’t prove anything though,” I pointed out before the discussion could veer into the many ways the Connelly family routinely wreaked havoc on the community. “Pauly drives people home all the time.”

Grandma’s eyes gleamed. “True,” she said. “But do all those other people get out of his car pulling their tiny little skirts back down over their tiny little bums?” She let loose a raspy little cackle.

Cally spun to face me, his hand coming to rest on my thigh. “This is way better than those reality shows of yours.”

“The ones you claim to hate.” I smirked.

“I do hate them,” he said, twisting back around to face my grandma.

“Okay, I’m off,” my mom said, grabbing her keys out of the bowl on the table in the foyer and looping the scarf I’d bought her a couple of Christmases ago around her neck. “You boys be good tonight.”

“We will, Mom,” I said at the same time Cally intoned, “Yes, ma’am.”

Once the door had clicked shut behind me, my grandma cleared her throat and said, “So, boys. I think you probably have some news to share?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Her eyes darted between Cally and me, and she smiled the biggest smile I’d seen from her in years. Then her gaze dropped to where Cally’s hand was still resting on my thigh, though now his thumb was brushing back and forth along the inside of my leg, just above my knee.

“Um … uh … ” Cally stammered, tugging his hand back, his expression stricken. “I’m so sorry,” he mouthed silently.

“Don’t be,” I whispered as I scooted closer, taking hold of the hand he’d yanked off my leg. “I want her to know.”

And that was how I came out to my grandma.

THIRTY-ONE

MIKEY

“So that was interesting.” Cally dodged a patch of slush in the road, meeting back up with me on the other side. He brushed the outer edge of my pinky with his, and I looped our icy fingers together.

“She didn’t seem shocked,” I said, craning my head to the right to indicate we should head that way.

“She did not.” He uncurled his finger from mine to cup his hand in front of his mouth and blow hot air into them.

“I wonder …” A memory I wouldn’t have thought twice about otherwise rose to the surface. “There was this one night my aunt and her partner were over for dinner,” I began, recalling the night in question rather vividly despite years between then and now. “Everyone was making this huge fucking deal about Haley’s new girlfriend. I don’t know if I was just being a jealous little shit or what, but at one point I said, ‘I could be into guys, you know.’ My grandma’s head swung my way, her expression kind of … smug, I guess. Kind of like it was tonight when she knew about Pauly and Maddie. Do you think she knew about me, even back then?”

Cally took several seconds to answer. “I don’t see how she could have,” he said, blowing out a breath that fogged the air in front of him. “You only ever dated girls. Until me, you only fucked girls.”

I snorted at his overly blunt description of my dating life up until now.

“True, but we never talked about any of that stuff. I could have been dicking down tons of guys for all they knew.”

He fell quiet again for a few long beats. “But you weren’t,” he eventually pointed out. “And you told me you’d never wanted to before me.”

“That wasn’t a lie,” I rushed to assure him. “I mean, yes. I could look at an objectively good-looking guy and think, ‘he’s hot.’ I do have eyeballs, Cal. But until you, I was never weird about it.”