“This isn’t Cambridge,” I murmured. “Really bad things could have happened to you both.”
“I know. I’ve…it’s just he’s never been mad at me.”
“This is all my fault. My father was right. I’d be better off dead.”
“No, you wouldn’t!” JR whirled on him. “And don’t you ever say such a stupid thing again! Wills is mad, but he loves me, and he’ll get over it.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t love me. He’s got no reason to, and now—”
“Come into the kitchen with me. The hot chocolate should be cool enough now that you won’t burn your mouths. And I’ll get dinner started. How do cheeseburgers sound?”
* * * *
The cooktop had a grill between the four burners, and I put four half-pound hamburger patties on it. “Do me a favor and keep an eye on these. I want to see how Wills is doing.”
“I know how to cook.” It was Pat who said that. “Just give me a spatula. And tell me where the cheese is.”
“It’s in the meat tray. JR, the hamburger buns are in the freezer. There’s a package of corn niblets in there also, and French fries. Oh, and don’t let Miss Su have any cheese. It upsets her tummy.”
* * * *
Wills’s smile was tired when he stepped out of the shower and saw me there with a warm towel in my hands. “I’m really sorry I lost my temper like that, babe.”
“It’s a relief to know you’re not perfect, that something can piss you off. Are you still mad at him?” I began drying him off.
“I was more terrified. Theo, you know better than anyone what can happen to two boys in a strange city.”
“Do you want me to tell them—” The last thing I wanted to talk about was what a stupid kid I’d been, how easy Franky had had it with me.
“No. I know you would, and I love you for it, but I’d never ask you to do something like that. Besides, we agreed it was our business alone. No one else needs to know how you survived for all those years.”
“I love you, Wills. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. You’d better get dressed, or they’ll think I’m having my wicked way with you.”
“You know I’m game.”
“I know. But this is hardly the time.” I gave him his boxers, and then his sweat pants. “You have too much on your mind. Now, finish getting dressed.”
* * * *
“Tell me why you decided you had to come to DC,” Wills asked Pat after we’d sat down to dinner.
“You live here.”
“Excuse me?”
“JR talks about you all the time, about how cool your life here is. I thought I could make a life here too.”
“Obviously you haven’t thought.” Wills frowned at him. “Patrick, I’m twenty-seven. I’ve got a college degree and a decent-paying job. DC is unbelievably expensive. How were you planning on supporting yourself?”
“Um…I thought maybe I could find a nice guy who’d—”
“Oh, Jesus! Julia Roberts should be shot for Pretty Woman!” I couldn’t believe how na? ve he was. “You know what you would have found, Patrick? A guy who would tell you he loved you and wanted to take care of you, but after a couple of months he’d start telling you money was really tight and he needed you to do this one little thing for him, and he’d never ask it of you again, and if you loved him you’d do it. But it’s not just the one time, it’s over and over and…” My breath hitched and caught in my throat.
“It’s okay, babe. It’s over.” Wills took my hand and held it.
JR had his head down, studying his cheeseburger. Pat, though…he stared at me, his expression horrified.
Oh, hell. Had I just outed myself to him?
He didn’t say anything, so I hoped maybe it was just my explosion that had startled him.
“Okay, what made you decide you had to leave home, Patrick?” Wills took the ketchup and squirted it over his fries.
We listened as Pat, aka Damien, revealed how he’d kept a journal, which his father had found and read. The old pervert enjoyed reading what Pat did with his numerous conquests, but when he discovered one of those conquests was a boy, and that boy had topped his son….
“Did this boy hurt you?”
“No. It was…it was awesome.” He stared at Wills, then flushed and turned his gaze to me. “Better than the girls. I…I had to talk him into it, though. He said I was a player and that he had no intention of being a notch on my bedpost. ”
“Who was it?” JR offered him the bowl of corn.
“I’m not going to out him.”
“Is he going to out you?”
“I don’t know. I never thought of that. I just knew I got hard every time I was near him. Whatever happens, it was worth it.” But then he deflated. “But I can’t go home again.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Wills growled.
“Wills. Pat can stay with us until he decides the best thing to do.”
“Are you out of your mind? He’s sixteen.”
“I was fifteen.”
“Shit.”