When he finished, Evan applauded with the others and turned to the nice-looking young man sitting beside him. Evan was smiling so wide his face pinched. He said to the man, "That's my son. He wrote that on his own. Wasn't he wonderful?"
The handsome man with brown hair smiled and said, "I know. I'm his English teacher. He'd a good kid."
Evan felt his face grow warm. He'd thought this guy was one of the other parents, not the teacher. He looked to be around twenty-five years old.
The teacher reached out to shake Evan's hand and introduced himself. "Carson Savione," he said. Then he gave Evan the same seductive glance the kid in the hallway had just given him.
Evan ignored his look and he shook his hand. "I'm Evan Littlefield, Kenny's dad."
"I've heard a lot about you," Carson said. "You're the famous author in the family. I haven't read your work, but I'm planning to soon."
Evan stared down at his feet and shrugged. "Far from famous. I'm just a career writer trying to make a decent living doing what I love most. My son tends to exaggerate sometimes. It will help him with his fiction someday, I'm sure." Evan hated pretense of any kind. He wrote for a living; just like people clean teeth for a living or build houses for a living. He didn't think he did anything that special.
Carson stared into his eyes and said, "He left a few things out. He didn't tell me you were so young and attractive. I kind of pictured someone with less hair, a larger waist, and bushy eyebrows."
Evan was starting to wonder what was with the people at this school. First the kid in the hall, and now the teacher. So he smiled and said, "I wish my husband had been able to come tonight. I'm sorry he missed Kenny's reading." He figured if he mentioned Jeffery, the teacher would stop flirting.
But Carson tilted his head to the side and said, "I thought you and your husband were separated. That's what Kenny said."
Evan laughed this time. He tended to laugh whenever he felt uncomfortable. "We're not exactly separated. We just don't live together. You must have misunderstood Kenny. It's a little complicated. But we're still very married." He was not going into details with a total stranger, especially one so aggressive.
Then someone called the teacher's name and he turned to see who it was. Evan figured this was a good chance to escape. He turned fast and said, "It was nice meeting you. I'm going to wait for Kenny downstairs now."
By the time Carson turned around, Evan had reached the door. Carson waved and said, "It was nice meeting you. I hope I'll see you again."
Evan sent his son's English teacher a backward glance and smiled, and then he slipped out the door and practically ran back downstairs to wait for Kenny on the street.
When Kenny finally did step onto the sidewalk, Evan saw him from behind a huge potted shrub next to a fire hydrant. He'd been waiting in the background, trying to avoid contact with any of the other parents or students. He'd seen a few people he knew and he didn't feel like making small talk. He would have gone right back home but he knew that would have disappointed his son.
Kenny turned and caught a glimpse of him next to the shrub. He walked over and threw his arms around him. "I figured you'd be out here," he said. "I saw you in the back of the room talking to Mr. Savione."
It had only been a month since Evan had seen his son and he looked and felt as if he'd grown another inch. He stepped back and said, "You look like a man now. I can't believe you've grown up in such a short amount of time." He reminded Evan of a young version of Tom Cruise, with dark hair, a tight slim body, and a smile that seemed to stop traffic on the noisy Manhattan street. Only he was much taller. He was already close to six feet and still growing.
Kenny smiled at his dad and said, "You look great, too. You shouldn't be hiding behind a shrub."
"I feel like an old troll," Evan said. He hiked up his pants for the one hundredth time.
"I think Mr. Savione would disagree," Kenny said. "He came up to me and said he couldn't believe I had such a good-looking young father." Then Kenny made a face and pretended to gag.
"Mr. Savione seems like a nice man," Evan said. "He thinks you're a great student." He wasn't going to discuss the horny teacher with his son. "And I'm an old married man."
Kenny leaned forward and said, "I'll bet if you work it just right you could get me an A in this class. Savione was practically drooling over you."
He knew his son was teasing him now. Kenny had a sense of humor like Jeffery: he tended to go for the weaker spots and he knew Evan didn't like to discuss things like this with him. "Let's go get something to drink and talk for a while. I want to catch up. I've missed you."
When he mentioned getting a drink, Kenny's head jerked.
"I'm talking about coffee, not booze," Evan said. "Relax. I'm sober for good now. You have nothing to worry about." He figured he'd get this out of the way sooner rather than later.
As Kenny was about to turn, the same young man who had bumped into Evan earlier walked up to Kenny and said, "See you tomorrow, man." Then he smiled at Evan.
Kenny introduced them. "This is my buddy, Donald Fairweather. Don, this is my dad, Evan Littlefield."
Donald reached out to shake Evan's hand and said, "We've already met. I can't believe this guy is someone's dad." He tapped Evan on the arm and whistled.
Evan wanted to sink into the sidewalk and die of shame. But he smiled and shook the kid's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Donald. Now be a good boy and run along." He wanted to kick him in the balls, but that wouldn't have been smart either.
Donald turned to Kenny and said, "I do have to run, man. I'll see you tomorrow." Then he winked at Evan and ran across the street to meet up with a group of other young people who were climbing into a taxi.
When he was gone, Evan rolled his eyes and said, "There's nothing shy about him."
They both turned at the same time and started walking to the next block. "It's not his fault," Kenny said. "It's your fault."
Evan flung his son a horrified stare. "What are you talking about?" He didn't think he'd made any overt advances. He'd been working hard not to look him in the eye.
Kenny shrugged. "I've learned to live with it. You're just too good to be true. You do things to guys that make them wild. You had Mr. Savione and my best friend drooling over you. It's like you give off these invisible signals that guys can't resist. I don't get it. But I can't miss it."
This time Evan knew his son was joking around in a sarcastic way. He could tell by that fake lilt in his voice. Kenny knew Evan tended to be more conservative and talk like this freaked him out. Like most kids know their parents, he could zoom in on Evan's weakest points whenever the mood suited him.
So Evan patted Kenny on the back and said, "And if you keep it up, young man, I'm going to kick you in the ass." They'd been joking around this way since Kenny had been a child, which was one reason why they were more like friends than father and son. And Kenny was straight, which seemed to make all this malemale interaction even more entertaining to him. Kenny had told them early that he was attracted to women in an almost apologetic way-as if he'd disappointed his two gay fathers. Both Jeffery and Evan hugged him and told him he didn't have to apologize for anything and that he could be whoever he wanted to be, gay, straight, or bi-sexual for all they cared. They just wanted him to be happy. This was something else Evan never said aloud to anyone and he often felt guilty about it: he was glad his son wasn't gay because he'd have a much easier life all the way around.
When they reached the corner, Evan said, "Let's go to that little coffee place near the house." He was talking about the townhouse where Jeffery and Kenny lived, not his own apartment in Alphabet City downtown. "We'll talk and then I'll walk you home and get a cab."
"Why don't I get a few things and go back downtown with you tonight?" Kenny said. "I'm thinking of moving in with you anyway. I might as well start moving my things now."
When Evan heard this, he stopped breathing for a moment. He turned, with his palm to his throat, and said, "What on Earth are you talking about?" Kenny had a habit of springing things on him this way without warning.
Kenny smiled and said, "I've already talked to Dad about it and he's okay with it. I want to move in with you full time."
At first, Evan didn't know how to react. He couldn't reject his son, yet he didn't want him living with him full time because he wasn't sure he was strong enough yet to deal with a teenager. "We have to talk about this more. And my apartment is so far from your school."
"Dad said he'd have a car there to pick me up and bring me home every day," Kenny said. "We both think it's a good idea."
"I saw your dad this afternoon," Evan said. "He didn't mention any of this to me." Wasn't this just like Jeffery? He did things like this all the time. He would plan and calculate, setting Evan up without letting Evan know anything until the final moment. Evan also had a feeling he knew their motivation. They both thought he was too unstable to live alone and they wanted Kenny there at all times to keep an eye on him so he wouldn't wind up drinking again. This point he knew he couldn't argue. The only way to prove to everyone that he could remain sober forever was to show them, not to tell them. And he had a lot of showing to do.