The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,128

back again. “Look, I know this isn’t your style. I appreciate the thought.”

“It’s happening whether you like it or not.”

“I’m going to like it. I think. But it’s slightly terrifying because your eyes are now closed and you look like you’re in physical pain.”

With a final lurch, Tean reached him, his arms wrapping around Jem. He was what he always was: a wiry bundle of heat and muscle, wild hair pushed back, the smell of the steppes, sagebrush and pine. He was crying, and Jem laughed quietly as he smoothed down Tean’s hair and returned the hug. Then the laugh ended, and Jem had to blink hard to clear his eyes. He let his chin rest against Tean’s shoulder. He thought, again, of how rarely anyone had ever touched him like this.

“You smell like a car tire,” Tean whispered.

Jem laughed again, wiped his eyes, and said, “I get that a lot.”

Then, over Tean’s shoulder, he saw Dionica, her little face screwed up in horror. “Mom,” she screeched, her voice pitched to a level that normally only dogs could hear. “They’re kissing!” Then she turned and ran.

Clomping footsteps made their way through the house. Tean tried to twist free of the hug, but he only got halfway, and he had to settle for standing with Jem’s arm across his shoulders. Jem watched the panic build in Tean’s face; when the footsteps were almost to them, Jem whispered, “All khaki.”

Tean’s face went blank. He glanced down and said, “Dang it. How?”

“What the fuck do you two think you’re doing?” Tinajas demanded as she came into the living room.

Trying to weasel out from under Jem’s arm again, Tean said, “We weren’t kissing.”

“There are children in this house. Do you realize that? Children. They shouldn’t have to watch you make bad choice after bad choice. For some reason, they like you.”

“Because I’m adorable,” Jem said.

“We were not kissing,” Tean said more loudly.

“They like you because they’re already smarter than you and they feel sorry for you,” Tinajas said. “And they definitely don’t need to get a front-row seat to this toxic relationship. Tony and I are already doing just fucking fine on that end, thanks very much.”

“I just want to point out,” Tean said, “that you called me. And, more importantly, no kissing of any kind—”

“Those kids are lucky to have a cool uncle like me,” Jem said. “Tean was just telling me how I’ve been this amazing influence, and I’ve helped him find joy in life and live outside the tiny margins he let himself exist in.”

“No, I said I bought a disposable cell phone—”

“That’s what you want to teach my children?” Tinajas said. “To use burner phones like your drug-dealer boyfriend who has to come pick your ass up from my couch? That’s the life lesson you want to impart to my children?”

“Not boyfriend,” Tean said. “Or a drug dealer, although really that’s not the part I’m worried—”

“I already told you he’s not my boyfriend—” Jem said.

“Then why are you kissing him?”

“—he’s my best friend.”

“Again, not kissing,” Tean said. “And really more of an ordinary, normal, regular friend. Like the kind you know at work, and you can have those short, meaningless conversations. And then forty years later he dies of a heart attack and you find out he had a second family in Canada.”

Tinajas stared at him. Then, turning to Jem, she said, “What the fuck is this?”

“I have no idea,” Jem said. “Isn’t he fantastic?”

34

As usual, Jem couldn’t get out of Tinajas’s house without a sandwich. She made them tuna salad, but with something smoky and spicy in the fish, and she served it on the bread she usually used for tortas. She made mac and cheese, the good kind, for the kids, and Jem bartered half his potato chips with Guillo for some of the mac.

At Tean’s insistence, they left Jem’s bike at Tinajas’s house and drove south.

“Where are we going?”

“Joy’s dad’s place.”

“Want to fill me in on that?”

So Tean did. And as Tean talked, Jem felt himself trying to pay attention, thinking about Hannah and Joy, the secrets kept, all the ways people tried to protect each other and only made things worse. He thought about himself, of course, and how some part of his brain had gotten locked in overdrive when it came to watching out for Tean. And he thought about Hannah and Caleb. He thought about Tean’s brother-in-law, the douche who had followed them, determined to make sure his kids were safe from the fags.