Nobody's Son (22 page)

Shaun wasn’t all that reassured. White man with gun gets jumped and disarmed by a black man? Especially in the rural South? No matter what the truth of the story, that was a tailor-made setup for making headline news.

“Seriously, I know the sheriff up there.” Jimmy squeezed his arm again. “This was just some newbie deputy with his head full of the first real excitement he’s seen. It’ll be fine.”

Shaun tried not to worry. He could feel sleep tugging him down again anyway. Jimmy rubbed his arm. “You just rest. We’ll take care of things.”

Shaun forced his eyelids up. “Gran! Did someone call…?”

“Got her number right here, honey. Was just waiting until you woke up and we were pretty sure you were out of the woods.”

“Tell her call Darnell.” He was slurring the words a little. “He’ll drive her.”

That was the last thing he remembered for a while.

“…BE HERE
in about half an hour.”

“Have you met this Darnell? Shaun’s never mentioned him to me.”

“No, but he’s told me about him. Kind of like a stepdad to him. Dated his mom before….”

Shaun had worked out the voices as Con and Jimmy by then, though he couldn’t quite rouse himself enough to talk.

“His mom I knew about.” Jimmy let out a soft sigh. “Lots for a kid to go through. And then this asshole of a father shows up out of nowhere?”

“
Maybe
his father,” Con corrected. “He said so, and either he believes it or he was just that desperate for something. But there’s no proof. I don’t know if Shaun wants to get a test, or—”

“No.” Shaun pushed the word out through his tight throat, though he still couldn’t convince his eyes to open. “No test.”

“Hey there.” That was Con, his voice suddenly much closer. A hand touched his fingers where they lay against the blanket. “How’re you feeling?”

“Groggy,” Shaun mumbled. “Fuzzy.”

Con stroked his fingers. “Not hurting?”

Shaun finally got his eyelids to move. The first thing he saw was Con’s face.

“Achy,” he murmured. “Not bad.”

Con smiled, but Shaun could see the tension around his eyes.

“Y’okay?”

Con must speak fluent morphine, because he just nodded. “I’m fine,” he assured Shaun. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

Shaun tried to lift his hand, but Con held his fingers fast. He tried to lift the other and let out a yelp.

“Stop tryin’ to move parts you shouldn’t be movin’, kid.” Jimmy leaned over Shaun, his face blurry around the edges from the effects of the pain and the drugs. “Just lie there and recover, okay? The faster you’re back in the office, the less worker’s comp has to pay out.”

Shaun managed a small laugh as the sharp ache in his shoulder faded. “They cover psychos shootin’ up the place? Guess they think of everything.”

His brain didn’t seem to want to hold on to a thought, the painkillers pulling him under a wave of sleepiness. He slurred out something he hoped sounded like “I need to sleep now” and let the tide take him.

THE NEXT
time he woke, his mind felt clear, the pain distant. He opened his eyes to a dim room, the only sounds the low beeping of a monitor.

Then someone knocked on the door, and Shaun realized what woke him.

He cleared his throat. “Come in,” he rasped.
Damn, I need some water.

The door eased open, and Jimmy’s face appeared around the edge. “I brought you some company,” he said, and he pushed the door open to let in Shaun’s gran.

She bustled over to the side of the bed. “I swear, I can’t let you out of my sight for a minute,” she fussed. Shaun bit back a grin. “Livin’ where we do, and you get yourself shot out in the middle of slap-out nowhere? And on your birthday too? Lord have mercy.”

She rolled her eyes, but her movements were gentle as she slid her fingers under his. From the corner of his eye, Shaun saw Jimmy wiggle his fingers and leave, easing the door shut behind him.

“Hey, Grangigi,” Shaun murmured. “I’m okay. Just sore.”

“Well, I can see that.” She huffed out a breath and shook her head. “Everybody keeps acting like I’m gonna start wailing or somethin’. That Darnell wouldn’t even let me drive myself out here. Like I ain’t been drivin’ these roads since before that boy was born.”

Shaun rolled his bottom lip between his teeth to hold back his laugh.
Here she goes again.

He coughed, hoping she’d take the hint, and she did, reaching for the pitcher of water on the rolling table next to the bed. “Lord, and they don’t even have you a glass of water. I swear, hospitals don’t got a clue how to handle people. They just cut into you and stick needles into you and….”

She shook her head and turned back holding a cup with a bendy straw sticking out of it. “Here you go, baby,” she crooned, moving the straw into place so Shaun could lift his head to get a few sips.

Throat soothed, Shaun rested back against the pillows. “Thanks, Gran.” He glanced toward the door. “Where’d Darnell go?”

“He’s parking the car. Dropped me at the door so I didn’t have to walk. Sure you don’t want more?”

She held up the cup, but when Shaun shook his head, she set it back down on the table and then lowered herself into the chair next to it. “Lord,” she said again. She leaned down to grab the pocketbook she’d set on the floor and pulled it into her lap, extracting a flat paper fan imprinted with an image of the Lord’s Supper and probably, though Shaun couldn’t read the text, the name and address of her church.

“I can
not
believe this heat,” she sighed out as she started waving the fan toward her face. The movement of the air set the tiny tendrils of hair around her face into motion. “It is
never
this hot this late into September.”

Shaun could certainly remember some seriously hot birthday parties, but he just made a low sound of agreement. “I can’t believe you lived half your life with no air-conditioning.”

Gran made a grumbling sound. “Not until we bought the house, and even that didn’t work right.” She fanned faster. “Wasn’t until your grandpop got that last promotion when we could get it fixed up right.”

Shaun didn’t remember any of that. That “last promotion” came shortly before he was born. He
did
remember his mama talking about how the air got fixed while she was suffering through the summer before he was born. “Like sticking my head in the freezer,” she’d said when she described the moment when the first truly cool blasts of air came out of the vents.

A knock at the door drew Shaun’s attention a second before Con stuck his head in. His face split into a grin when he saw Shaun but then faltered when he saw his gran.

“I can come back,” he started, but Shaun shook his head and gestured with his unencumbered hand.

“No, come in and meet my grandmother.” Con came in, and Shaun turned to Gran. “Gran, this is Con Brooks. Con, this is my grandmother, Sherry Rogers. Con’s been installing new computer networks and security stuff at work. He put in the panic button I hit that got the cops out there so fast.”

At that, Sherry Rogers pushed out of her seat and reached for Con with both hands. “I need to give you a hug,” she said as she did just that. “Thank you for saving my baby.”

“He did more than that,” Shaun went on. “He got the gun away from Erwin and then stayed with me until the ambulance got there.”

Sherry pulled back to look up at Con. “Honey, I don’t think a hug’s gonna do it. I need to cook you dinner. Maybe a
lot
of dinners.”

“Gran.” Shaun held out his hand toward Con, who gave him a hard look, but then when Shaun raised his eyebrows, Con reached out to wrap his fingers around Shaun’s. Shaun turned to look his grandmother in the eye.

“Con’s more than a coworker,” he said. “He’s also my… my boyfriend.”

He winced inwardly at the small stutter, but he held firm, both to Con’s hand and to his gran’s gaze.

She met his look steadily, surprise but no anger or fear in her expression. “Baby doll,” she said after a long pause. “I don’t care one bit that it’s a man you’re seeing.” She turned her gaze onto Con. “As long as the man treats you like you should be treated.”

All the tension drained out Shaun’s body. “You really…. You don’t mind?”

“Mind?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Shaun Gerald Rogers, I lost my daughter to something I couldn’t control. I’m not about to lose my only grandchild to something I can.” Despite the staunchness of her words, Shaun could see the sheen in her eyes. “All I want is for you to have a long, happy life, baby. And if this is what makes you happy”—she looked at Con, and then back to Shaun—“well, then that’s all right with me.”

Tears had welled up in Shaun’s eyes by then, but he couldn’t move his left hand to wipe them away, and he wasn’t willing to let go of Con with his right.
Let them fall
, he thought as he smiled up at his gran.
There are more important things than my pillow getting a little damp.

“Ma’am.” Con nodded at Gran, though his stance showed Shaun his discomfort. “I care deeply about your grandson. I can’t promise anything about what might happen with us. I don’t think any of us can. But I can promise that I won’t hurt him. Not deliberately.” He squeezed Shaun’s fingers. “He’s very important to me, and I intend to do my best to make sure he’s happy.”

Shaun bit his lip as the tears fell. He knew the drugs were probably making him weepy as much as Con’s words, but he didn’t care. He held on to Con’s hand as Con held out his free hand to his gran, who scoffed and pulled him into another hug.

“Baby, as far as I’m concerned, you’re family now,” she told him. “And family gets hugs, not handshakes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Con agreed as he returned the hug with his free arm.

Gran pulled away and turned toward Shaun. “Now,” she said. “All we need is for you to get better, and we can get back to some kind of normal life.”

Shaun laughed and tugged at Con’s hand until he sat on the edge of the bed next to him. “I think maybe it’ll be a new normal, Gran,” he pointed out. “But that sounds just fine to me.”

“OW!”

“Sorry,” Con said for what had to be the tenth time since they’d left the hospital. It wasn’t his fault, and they both knew it, but every move Shaun made jostled his shoulder enough to send jolts of pain down his arm and back. At least the car ride had been smooth. It was getting in and out of the car, and any attempt Shaun made to shift his body, in pretty much any way at all, that hurt like hell.

They’d finally made it back to Shaun’s house, though, and Con had helped him out of the car and up to the front door. All was fine until, out of habit, Shaun reached toward his pocket for his keys, only to remember too late that his keys were in his backpack, which Con carried for him, and that he needed to
not. Move. His. Shoulder.

Con jangled the keys, but before he could reach to unlock the door, it opened, and Shaun’s gran pushed the screen door open.

“You come right inside and sit down, baby.” Shaun had never known how she could mix softness and steel into her voice like that, but he knew when to follow her orders.

Shaun stepped into the entryway, Con close behind, and walked gingerly toward the sofa. The strap of the sling holding his left arm to his chest bit into the right side of his neck as he moved, a pain he almost relished, because at least for that moment something other than his injured shoulder hurt.

“Here, I’ll help you.”

Shaun bit back his instinct, which was to lash out at Con for his offer. The first drug they’d given him in the hospital after the post-op morphine had been Vicodin, which had quickly turned him into a rage monster. They’d switched to something different, though, and he’d been mostly fine since then—still in pain sometimes and still occasionally annoyed but no longer actively assholeish.

Con helped Shaun lower himself onto the sofa and get his arm propped so it wouldn’t pull or twist. His gran stood nearby, rubbing her hands together worriedly, so as soon as the pain from moving ebbed enough that he could, Shaun gave her the best smile he could manage.

“I’m okay, Gran,” he said. “Just sore. They said I’ll be fine in a few weeks.”

“I know, baby.” As soon as Con stepped to the side, she moved in, bending down to kiss Shaun’s forehead. “I just hate seeing you hurtin’ like this. I hope that…
man
stays in jail for a long, long time.” And wouldn’t Shaun have loved to know what words his gran had considered and abandoned before she settled on “man.”

“He will.” Con had moved to the far end of the sofa, but he waited for Gran to sit in her own chair, just to the right of Shaun’s perch, before he sat down as well. “I was telling Shaun on the ride in that they charged him with aggravated assault. He’ll probably make bail, but Jimmy filed the papers for a restraining order, so if he comes anywhere near Shaun, he’ll be in big trouble.”

Shaun could almost see the warmth Gran radiated toward Con. “What about you, honey? I know they were treatin’ you bad. And after you saved my grandbaby’s life.”

Con smiled. “It’s fine. Once they went over the scene and got Shaun’s statement, they told me I’m in the clear. I just need to sign an affidavit about what happened, and if there’s a trial, they’ll probably want us to testify.”

“
If
there’s a trial?” The frown was back on Gran’s face. “Don’t tell me that—” Her mouth worked for a moment. “Don’t tell me he thinks he’s gettin’ away with what he did.”

“You know how things can go, Gran,” Shaun put in. “You heard Mama talk about it enough. But I think Con just means he might get a plea deal.” He almost shrugged but restrained himself at the last second. “Guess it depends on his lawyer.”

Gran huffed and shook her head, settling further into her chair, and Shaun had to smile. Looking back, he couldn’t imagine how he could’ve thought she wouldn’t have accepted his being gay. She’d always protected her family fiercely, and nothing Shaun could conceive of doing would ever change that.

Certainly not falling in love.