Page 18 of Covington Acres

Vince

“Hey, Aunt Marin,how are you?” Vince asked when his aunt answered the phone. She was a good woman—both she and his uncle George were good people. But they weren’t close in the traditional sense. Not in the way Colby’s family was, but he didn’t figure most people were like the Covingtons. Vince had never met any family like them.

“Not too bad. How is life in South Carolina?”

“North,” he reminded her. He didn’t take offense that she didn’t remember which Carolina he’d moved to. She’d sent him a Christmas card, so she knew. She must have just forgotten.

“Shoot. I’m sorry. I know that. I’m not sure where my brain is.”

“It’s fine, Auntie. Things are going well. Colby and I are going to start trying to brew beer.” He wasn’t sure how that would go, but he was excited to give it a go. He was always up for doing new things, and even more so when he was doing them with Colby. Vince wanted his friend to find whatever it was he was looking for. Their conversation from the other night still broke his heart. He hated knowing that Colby had all that going on beneath the surface—that he doubted himself, didn’t feel like he knew himself, and maybe felt a little trapped.

“Are you sure this Colby you’re living with and constantly talking about isn’t a boyfriend?” she asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Vince chuckled, thinking about their jokes about being husbands. “Nah, just a friend.” He paced around his bedroom.

“Well, it sounds like he’s a better man than that ex of yours. I might not have ever met him, but I don’t like him. He didn’t treat you the way you deserve.”

Vince sat on the edge of his bed. No, Gregory hadn’t treated him the way he deserved. “Can I really blame him when I went back a second time?”

“Don’t you talk like that, Vincent O’Brien. You have a big heart. You got it from your daddy. Don’t ever fault yourself for that.”

He did get it from his dad. A pang hit his chest, and he rubbed it with his hand, as if the ache would go away. It wasn’t constant, but even after nearly thirty years, he still missed his parents, so fucking much. He had so many memories of hanging out with his dad, learning to braid hair from his mama. While he wore it short now, she used to put it in cornrows for him when he was a kid. They’d laughed and loved, and an asshole on the freeway had taken them from him. Vince would feel their loss forever. “I miss them,” he admitted.

“I know you do. I hate that you lost them. I feel guilty that George and I weren’t more like them.”

“You were great. You loved me and raised me.”

“We were mediocre, but thank you for the kind words. You deserved people who were better with kids. We lacked in that department. My big brother was better at being who people needed, at wanting to give that to them. Again, that’s something you get from him.”

Vince soaked in her words. He loved hearing that he was like his dad.

“He loved your mama so much. Started dating her at sixteen and told me he was going to marry her. Not many sixteen-year-old boys are thinking that way, but he was. He always wanted to be a family man.”

Vince couldn’t help wondering if his parents would be disappointed he wasn’t. They wouldn’t have cared that he was gay. He knew that in his heart, and his auntie had said the same thing, but would they be disappointed that he didn’t marry? Didn’t settle down and have or want kids? That was something Colby’s parents didn’t understand about him, and for the first time, Vince wondered if his own would have been the same.

He didn’t have the balls to ask his aunt that—didn’t want the answer.

“How’s work going?” he asked, changing the subject. They only spoke for a few more minutes before getting off the phone.

Vince wasn’t working at the farm today. It was a Saturday, and while Holden typically made sure to take weekends off to be with his family, he was putting in a ramp for an older woman who would be coming home from physical therapy on Monday. She was new to a wheelchair, and Holden was helping make her home more accessible for her and asked Vince if he wanted to pitch in.

Colby would be at the farm and Roe at the store. Monroe Covington ran Covington Supply Co, a one-stop shop for everything someone might need on a farm, or hell, any kind of outside projects, animal feed and stuff like that.

Vince finished getting ready and headed out to the house to meet Holden. When he arrived, he saw that Sean was there with him. It wasn’t unusual for him to help Holden. Sean was good with his hands and liked to either work with his uncle or at Covington Acres, but usually where Sean was, Wyatt was, and so far, he had yet to see the other kid.

“What’s up, guys?” Vince asked as he approached the two. Holden already had stacks of wood out and his saw, along with other equipment. “Where’s your twin?” he teased Sean, who rolled his eyes.

“With Bianca.”

Holden gave Vince a look. Oh. He got it. Now that Wyatt had a girlfriend, he was spending more time with her. That was a tricky time—when suddenly your friend had done something you haven’t. And Wyatt likely wanted to be with Bianca all the time. If Vince had had a boyfriend at sixteen, that’s how he would have felt. It was exciting to date when everything was so new.

Holden ruffled Sean’s hair. “The novelty of having a girlfriend will wear off soon.”

“I don’t care if he has a girlfriend. I just don’t see why he wants to hang out with her or talk to herall the time. We had a sleepover, and all they did was text. If I had a girlfriend, I wouldn’t be that obsessed with her.”

“I’ll remind you of that when you have one,” Holden told him. “But we’re glad you’re hanging with us today.”

“Lay it on thick, why don’t you,” Sean teased his uncle.