Love And The Real Boy - Coming About, Book 2 Read Online Free

tears shining in his eyes. Pity radiated from him in waves, and it made Rich sick to his stomach. I don’t want this , he thought again.
    “Look, it was all a long time ago. I’ve worked really hard to put it behind me, so please don’t make me keep going.”
    Rory rubbed his shoulder, and Rich cursed himself for leaning into it, so much so that he flinched away moments later. Rory frowned but didn’t comment.
    “Of course. I’ll drop it…if I can ask one question first.”
    Rich tensed but nodded his consent. May as well get it over with .
    “Whatever happened to your brother? Surely you tried to find him…and I mean, how many John-Michael Langston’s could there be?”
    Rich held up a hand to stave off Rory’s excited babbling. He had to shut this down before it went any further, hurt any more. “First, Dalton.”
    “Huh?”
    “We grew up Ricky and John-Michael Dalton, sons of Bonnie. After J-M got adopted, I started using my mother’s maiden name, instead of her bastard, deadbeat of a sperm donor ex-husband’s.”
    “Ah. You wanted to distance yourself from that part of your life—the Ricky years.” It was a statement, not a question.
    Fuck, the boy was smarter than anyone gave him credit for; too smart for his own damn good—or Rich’s.
    “Yeah, I guess. To answer your question, no, I never looked for him. I don’t want to know what happened to him. I can’t know.” He gave Rory a warning look. “What I have in my head…this picture, this idea of him living a happy, suburban, Leave it to Beaver life somewhere…sometimes it was all that held me together. Sometimes it still is. If I found out that reality didn’t jibe with that mental picture…well, I just don’t know if I’d survive it."
    * * * *
    Rory never mentioned Rich’s past again. He did go back to the doctor and was diagnosed with celiac disease—an autoimmune disorder that manifested in the same way as a gluten allergy, but was far more serious.
    He was already well on the road to remission following the diet Rich had outlined for him. He’d taken to calling Rich his “guardian angel” more often, and he took Rich’s assholish ways in stride, probably because he knew the real reason behind them.
    Rich was coming to terms with the fact that he might really be in love with his straight roommate. He was dealing. He was actually working his way up to telling Rory what he’d never told another living soul who mattered—that he was gay—just on the ghost of a chance that there could be something between them. Life was short, right?
    The night Rich had planned to break the news was the first time Rory brought home Maia—his future wife.

PART II
    The Real Boy

Chapter Five
    The Union Marina was the last place Patrick O’Dowd wanted to be. He wanted to be working on the restoration of the USS Juneau like the rest of the brothers, but no, he was the middle son, and thus currently the lowest O’Dowd on the totem pole. The older boys had pulled rank and claimed they needed to stay closer to home, which was pure bollocks. The younger ones argued that they were broke and needed the extra money the Juneau job would bring in.
    Plus, Patrick was his mam’s baby—ridiculous at thirty-six—so when she asked him to do a favor for the son of her best friend from church, all she had to do was bat her big Kerry green eyes at him and he caved. Shannon O’Dowd had met fellow Irish Catholic goodwife Mira Donovan at Sunday mass when the O’Dowds had first moved to Seattle, and they became fast friends. Turned out Mira’s son had a friend who was caught at sea and wrecked his sailboat—a fifty-year-old ketch—and it needed restoring.
    That was how Patrick had come to be out at the marina, baking in the summer sun, on this fine Seattle morning. And he was bloody well not happy about it.
    He scratched his head and stared at the battered craft. There hadn’t appeared to be any major hull damage, but she had been towed to the marina and