“I did,” he said. “I almost forgot what a force of nature she can be.”
Finn laughed but his humor suddenly died down as his focus went to something behind Hunter. Hunter turned around and saw Clem Henry, the owner of the local hardware store, eyeing them as he swept the sidewalk in front of his shop. Even from a distance, Hunter could see the open disdain that was focused entirely on Finn. The man disappeared inside his store and when Hunter returned his attention to Finn, the young man tried to brush off what had happened.
“So I was talking to Callan and Rhys and we were wondering if you and Roman wanted to come to dinner on Sunday. Gray and Luke will be there. Jax and Dane, too. Your grandmother said she’d come if she hadn’t managed to find a date between now and then so I think it’s a pretty safe bet that she’ll be there too-”
Hunter reached down to grab Finn’s hand and began dragging him to the hardware store.
“What are you doing?” Finn asked.
“Something I should have done a long time ago,” Hunter responded. He shoved open the door to the surprisingly busy store and led Finn to the checkout counter which Clem Henry was busily cleaning off with some paper towels. He stilled when he saw them and his lips twisted into an ugly frown. The man had to be in his late sixties with thinning hair and a serious pouch going on. He was wearing a striped, short sleeve button up shirt along with a pair of brown slacks.
“Mr. Henry, do you remember me?”
The man nodded and said, “You’re the mayor’s boy.”
“Hunter.”
“Right.”
“And you know Finn?” Hunter asked.
A sharp nod.
“You don’t like him much, do you Mr. Henry?”
Mr. Henry didn’t respond so Hunter continued. “What don’t you like about him? The fact that he works just as hard, if not harder, than any of you?” Hunter asked as he glanced at the few people who’d stopped to listen in on their conversation. He recognized one of the men as one of his father’s poker buddies but he didn’t dwell on that fact.
“Or that he’d give the shirt off his back to help any one of you out if you needed it?” Hunter said. “In fact, didn’t he do just that when you had that fire in the back of your store a few years ago, Mr. Henry? Wasn’t Finn one of the few people who showed up to help you clean up the water damage?”
Mr. Henry’s eyes shifted to Finn and a glimmer of guilt appeared and Hunter knew that the man hadn’t remembered Finn from that time.
“I’m going to take a leap here and guess what bothers you about Finn is who he loves.”
“It ain’t natural,” Mr. Henry snorted.
“You like my dad, right? You respect him? Admire him?”
“Your dad’s a fine, upstanding citizen. God-fearing. Respectable.”
“So your definition of a good, God-fearing, respectable man is one who beats the shit out of his kid because he got a B on his homework instead of an A or because he didn’t make the Varsity football team on his first try or because he spilled cereal on the living room rug while he was watching his favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Tell me, Mr. Henry, is that natural?”
“Well, no…”
“Was it the natural thing for Finn’s dad to beat him unconscious because of a lie I told just so I wouldn’t have to admit to people like you that I couldn’t make my body react to girls the same way it did to boys?”
Hunter looked at the people milling around the counter. “Finn never assaulted me. I lied to protect a secret that I was too ashamed to admit because I didn’t want to lose the only people who were supposed to love me. That’s what’s unnatural, Mr. Henry,” Hunter said as he turned his focus back on the clerk. “That God-fearing, fine upstanding citizen that you admire and respect so much would rather his son be rotting in a grave somewhere as a straight man instead of living in this world as a gay one. There’s nothing more fucking unnatural than that.”
Hunter shook his head and finally said, “If you can’t accept who Finn and I are, then just leave us alone to love whomever we want.”
The store was so silent that Hunter could swear he heard crickets. Finn shot him an “I told you so” look and Hunter gave him a little nod. They both moved for the door when Mr. Henry called out, “Wait.” He leaned down to pull something from beneath his counter and Hunter actually wondered if the man was about to pull a gun on them or something. But to Hunter’s surprise, Mr. Henry pulled out what looked like a small picture, the kind that people used to carry around in wallets before everything went digital. It was wrinkled and bent like it had been handled countless times. Mr. Henry reached across the counter and handed Hunter the picture. He took it and then lowered it enough so Finn could see it too.