Page 82 of Yard Sale

Oliver flung something into the water. A broken seashell. He had a pile of them beside his leg. “What if I change my mind?”

“You can do that.”

He snapped his gaze to me. “Really? You’d still marry my uncle if he had some annoying kid hanging around all the time?”

I burst into laughter. “Ollie, your uncle and I aren’t engaged, for one.”

“Yeah, but it’s obvious you two are going to be together forever.”

My chest warmed, and I swallowed against an odd lump in the back of my throat. “Well, that’s a future Aravind and Tiago situation. For now, no. Having you around is not going to affect how much time I want to spend with your uncle. But your parents do want you to come home.”

He dug his fingers into the sand. “Yeah. I know.”

“Did either of them say anything?” I pressed.

He let out a puff of air and rolled his head back, staring up at the sky. “My mom and I had a talk last night. She said that if my dad talks to me at all the way everyone talked to Uncle Tiago, she’ll divorce him.”

“That’s a good thing, right? She’s protecting you.”

He glanced over at me. “I don’t want them to get divorced. I don’t want to be responsible for tearing their marriage apart because my genetics suck.”

My heart ached for him, and I leaned closer. “First of all, if they get divorced, it’s because your dad is an ableist asshole who can’t change for the one person he’s meant to love unconditionally. And that will be his fault, not yours. Second, your genetics are complicated, but⁠—”

“Please don’t feed me some inspo-porn bullshit about how it takes strength to be disabled or blah blah blah.”

Ouch. But I supposed that was fair. I wasn’t disabled, so how the fuck should I know. “Living takes strength, okay?” Sitting forward, I drew a few looping circles in the sand. “There were a few times I thought maybe everyone would be better off if I, ah—if I wasn’t here. My dad was always disappointed in me, and my mom very clearly loved me, but I think she also wanted an uncomplicated child. And I just wanted to dress up and kiss boys and not be constantly told I should be ashamed of it.”

Oliver let out a puff of air. “One of my best friends is, you know…?”

I smiled at him. “Queer as fuck?”

He snorted. “I guess. I’m pan, I think, but I’ve only ever dated girls. I kissed two boys, and it felt really good. Just like kissing girls. But I know it’s not the same.”

“No one’s journey is the same. Don’t get caught up in comparing yourself to your friends or your uncle, or anyone. It’s lonely, realizing the path you walk is yours alone. But if you look past the road you’re on, you’ll see all these people walking alongside you.”

“That’s kind of pretty.”

“It’s an old Hindu proverb,” I said, deadpan.

He blinked. “Really?”

I burst into a laugh. “No, honey. I’m talking out of my ass right now. I just wanted to make you smile.”

He huffed at the ground, but his lips had turned up into something like a grin. “Did your parents stay married? Even though you were…complicated?”

My eyes got a little warm. “They did. My mom died a while back, but I like to think she’d be happy with the person I am now.”

“Would she have liked Uncle Tiago?”

Oh, good. The warmth in my eyes was starting to turn wet. Fuck, I was going to cry in front of this kid. I swallowed heavily. “I like to think so, yeah. My aunties are kind of my litmus test, and since they love him, I know she would have too.”

Oliver fell back against his elbows and stretched his feet out toward the sea. “Could I come visit? When you and Uncle Tiago get a place together?”

I loved how boldly he assumed that Tiago and I were inevitable. I wanted to bottle up that confidence and keep it because the thought of all this ending was still terrifying to me. “Absolutely. There’s a ton of fun stuff to do in Boston, and⁠—”

“I think I’d like Uncle Tiago to teach me how to skate.”

My eyes went wide. “You are Canadian! You can’t skate?”