Chapter 56
“My goodness, how they’ve grown,” Jane Hughes said as she entered the shed.
“Yes, they’re almost big enough to go home. I’ve been working with Addy on house training, and she’s doing pretty well. We started them on puppy kibble and they’re doing well with that, too,” Ward’s mother said as she, too, came into the cob shed.
As the other adults talked and the boys played with the puppies, Ward backed off from the group. Ward suspected Tyler wasn’t going to come out at all. Was it actually so hard for him to face Ward that he would make excuses not to be with Ward even in this setting?
Just then, Joe and Ward’s father came into the shed, having finished the milking.
Greetings were exchanged, and once again questions about Tyler’s absence were asked.
Ward tried to focus on the boys as they played with the puppies.
“How are you feeling, Joe?” Mrs. Hughes asked.
“Fine. Why?” Joe responded.
“Tyler said you’d been taken ill last Wednesday.”
Joe shrugged. “No, I’m fine. I wasn’t sick.”
“Oh, I must have been misinformed,” she said, looking in Ward’s direction.
“We should let the boys play with the puppies for a while. We’ll go in and get dinner ready,” Ward’s mother announced.
Everyone except Ward and the boys went into the house. Ward realized Mrs. Hughes well might be thinking he was the one that had made up the story about Joe’s sudden illness to avoid coming to dinner. One way or another this had to be resolved. They couldn’t go on playing this game. It could only result in hurting more people than just Tyler and him
* * * *
It was late. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes and the boys had gone home. The Cartwrights were all in bed—all except Ward. He’d tried to sleep. He couldn’t. He tossed and turned. His mind kept going back to dinner that night. It had gone well, except for the eight hundred pound gorilla sitting in the chair that was meant for Tyler. It was probably his imagination, but he felt everyone, with the possible exception of the boys, was keenly aware that Tyler wasn’t among them. No one, except Ward, knew why he wasn’t there, and none, he thought, were brave enough to ask.
It was over—his wild dream that he could come home and Tyler would have changed enough since high school that their love affair could come to a happy ending. Ward just had to accept it. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that if he saw Tyler every day. Something had to change.
Ward quietly got out of bed and made his way down the stairs. He went into the room used as the family’s home office. He turned on a light, switched on the desktop computer, and waited for it to boot.
He googled the name of the site he was looking for, and when it came up he clicked on it. He stared sadly at the form displayed before him. Across the top it read: REQUEST FOR REENLISTMENT OR EXTENSION IN THE REGULAR ARMY.
“What the fuck is this?”
A voice behind him made Ward jump.
“Jesus!” Ward exclaimed, turning to see his brother standing behind him. “You scared the shit outta me!”
“So, you planning on running out on him again?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t try to pass it off as if you just decided you might like to reenlist and go off to another hellhole cuz you missed it. You’re trying to get out of town because it’s getting too close to working out between the two of you and you’re scared.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ward retorted, not believing what he was hearing.
“I ain’t as dumb as I look. I figured out you and Tyler are in love. You’d have to be blind and deaf to miss it. The way you two look at each other, the way you talk to each other.”
Ward was totally shocked. “You know, and you’re okay with it?”
“What’s not to be okay with? My brother’s a fairy—so what? Joe raised his hands over his head and tiptoed around in a circle like a ballerina.
Ward just stared at his brother, then smiled sheepishly and smacked him on the shoulder.
“Oh, how butch,” Joe said in a falsetto voice.
Ward smacked him again.
“So what’s going on? What’s with the reenlistment form?”
Ward told Joe the whole story. He’d hidden it for so long, it felt strange to be talking openly to his brother about his feelings for Tyler. However, it also felt good to be honest about how he felt about the man he had loved since high school.