The Telling Read Online Free PDF Page B

darkly
    handsome Texan.
    His mother had once told him that cravings were the body’s way of telling you that it wasn’t getting what it needed. Until now
    he’d only equated that with food, but he was beginning to see that craving also worked in other ways. He definitely craved something and, at the
    moment, the something sat next to him firmly gripping the steering wheel.
    But, damn it, he didn’t want to feel attraction for another man. Why couldn’t he change that part of himself, find a nice girl, get
    married, and have a bunch of kids like he grew up believing he should? It would be so much easier. Michael sighed. He could wish all he wanted to and it
    wouldn’t change a damned thing.
    Jay remained quiet during Michael’s reverie, except for a soft, Spanish melody. What were the words? The tune sounded sad.
    All too quickly the ride ended in front of the simply named,
The Book Store
, and they sat for a moment, neither saying anything. Once again Jay
    ended the awkward silence. “Wanna go out for pizza or something sometime?”
    Caught off guard at the abrupt invitation he was just working up the nerve to make himself, Michael began to sputter.
    Jay hung his head. “I wasn’t asking you for a date.”
    “Oh,” Michael replied.
Why am I disappointed?
    “Unless, of course, you want me to.” Jay gave him a wink. In a more serious tone he added, “Look, I understand if you
    don’t want to be seen with the Mexican queer. I know how folks are here.” He held up a hand to stop Michael denials.
    “It’s okay. I know what they say behind my back, how I’m an illegal alien come to steal their jobs even though my
    family’s been in this country longer than theirs.
    “I’m not ashamed of my heritage from either of my parents, but I’m just visiting here. I can’t wait to leave, to be
    totally honest. But you? You have to live here and face these ignorant, narrow-minded morons. You’ve got a lot to lose. Your reputation would
    suffer for associating with me.”
    Very true. But few people’s opinions actually mattered to Michael, as long as their bullshit didn’t spill over onto his family.
    “Look, dude, I don’t really give a rat’s ass what the people around here say about me except for Mom, Angie, and my
    grandparents.”
    Jay stiffened. “Yeah, well I’ve heard enough off old man Coffey down at the lumberyard not to want that inflicted on anyone
    else.”
    Jay wasn’t alone in suffering from the words of the bitter, spiteful Herman Coffey, who seemed to want everyone else to be as miserable as he
    was. But he’d brought his misery on himself. That asshole was the last man on earth that should be judging anybody.
    Though gossiping went against all he’d been taught by his compassionate mother, Michael placed a hand on Jay’s shoulder and donned his
    best evil grin. “About old man Coffey…” A faint hint of spicy-scented cologne teased his nose as he leaned in to share a
    prime bit of small town news. “He’s got three sons and only two of them with his wife.”
    Wide-eyed surprise replaced the pained expression one of the town’s most embarrassing citizens had caused. “Yeah, and it gets better.
    His third son is with his wife’s sister.” With a wry smile Michael added, “There’s no way he can deny it, either,
    ‘cause the boy looks just like him.”
    “You’re shitting me,” Jay exclaimed. “There’s actually more than one woman in this world who agreed to
    sleep with that horrible asshole?”
    Michael raised two fingers. “Scout’s honor. Seems the sister-in-law is spiteful, too. She named the kid Herman, Jr.”
    “Oh my God! No she didn’t!”
    “Yup, she sure did. So his wife left him and took the kids. Makes you wonder how he affords all that child support on what they pay him down at
    the lumberyard, don’t it?”
    He hadn’t been raised to gossip and knew it wasn’t right to do so; however, it also wasn’t right for folks to say things that
    they shouldn’t