Page 80 of Healing the Twin

“Sure. Dinner’s in an hour,” Fir said.

With a last wave at me, both boys thundered up the stairs to their rooms.

“Was that all?” I asked Fir.

He shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah. I’m sure they’ll have more comments and questions later, but for now, that was it.”

How the hell had I been so nervous about that?

Fir had been right, though. During dinner—delicious chicken korma with rice and green beans—the boys had more questions.

“Does this mean you’ll be moving in?” Josiah asked with his mouth full.

“Can you please empty your mouth first before speaking?” Fir asked. “We’re not barbarians here.”

“Sorry, Dad,” Josiah mumbled and chewed furiously. “So, are you?”

“Down the line, but not right away,” Fir answered. “But he will be spending the night here regularly.”

“As long as you keep it down,” Gabe muttered. “‘Cause nobody needs to hear that.”

Fir groaned. “Thanks for that, buddy. Very classy.”

Josiah wasn’t done yet. He studied me. “So if things go well, you’ll become our stepdad.”

This time Fir let me answer. “Yes.”

“How do you feel about that? Did you want kids?”

I’d promised myself I’d be honest. Nothing good could come from lying. “I’m terrified, not gonna lie. I haven’t been around kids much, let alone teenagers, so it’s gonna be a steep learning curve. I hope you guys will be patient with me because I have no clue what I’m doing.”

“Neither does Dad.” Josiah shrugged. “He’s always saying he’s making it up as he goes along.”

Fir chuckled. “True. Parenting is one of those things where all the theory in the world can’t ever prepare you for reality. So yeah, I do fly by the seat of my pants, and it took me a while to get comfortable with that.”

“Did you know our other dad?” Gabe asked.

Yeah, I wanted to be honest, but they didn’t need to know all the details. “I did. We were friends.”

Gabe’s eyes lit up. “You were?”

I could give him and his brother this much. “I’m sure I have some pictures of him from back then, but I’ll have to dig for them. He was a great guy. Kind, funny. Very courageous.”

“Courageous?”

I looked at Fir. How much could I tell them?

“You know Grandpa and Grandma Thompson were very religious back when Daddy was a teenager, so it took a lot of courage for him to come out as gay. They were furious,” Fir said.

“I never understand why people have such an issue with people being gay or trans or whatever,” Josiah said with a sigh. “It doesn’t hurt them, so why do they care?”

“I have high hopes for your generation, buddy,” Fir said. “Maybe we’ll get to a point where it no longer matters, where no one has to come out.”

“We started a queer club in school,” Josiah said. “It’s for kids who are queer or who have queer family members, and allies are also welcome.”

“That’s wonderful. And how smart to make it that broad so no one has to out themselves or anyone else to join.”

“I love seeing we managed to reclaim the word queer,” Fir said. “It was used as a slur for so long, but it’s so perfect because it’s such an inclusive term. Using all the letters is a good alternative, but I’m always concerned about leaving people out. In that sense, queer is so much easier.”