Only after did he start to talk again. “I just like that you’re able to lose it a little bit with me. That you don’t feel like you need to do that Mr. Sunshine thing all the time.”

Mr. Sunshine?

He leaned in and kissed me again. “It’s just nice to see that you can be real with me. I want to reciprocate, babe.”

Babe?

I was literally stunned into silence, but apparently the new Patrice was chatty. “I want to make this work, and to do that I need to let go a bit, be a little sunnier, so you can feel free...not to be. Balance.”

I pursed my lips and could almost see my eyebrows with how much I’d furrowed them. “So you like that I threw a fit?”

He actually cackled at my bafflement. “I like that we can be ourselves with each other. I like being with you in the car right now, and not freezing my ass off while I try to ride a gigantic horse that could crush me. I like you, Easton.”

My heart was beating that way it had started doing whenever Patrice was around. “I like you too.”

He nodded and then thrust his chin out in the direction of the steering wheel. “Let’s go back to your place. Maybe we can put the rest of this afternoon to good use.”

I pulled out of the stable and onto the road back to Ithaca, thinking about what had just happened. My romantic afternoon had been an utter fail and somehow things between Patrice and me felt more solid now than they ever had. Before I knew it, I was talking about something I hadn’t said to anyone else before.

“Brad outed me to my dad.”

I briefly glanced at Patrice’s face, which had lost all semblance of relaxation. “He did what?” he asked, his voice barely contained fury.

“It was a long time ago, we were still in high school. I actually went to the public high school, because they had better AP classes. Brad did too. He was a year behind me. Anyway, junior year, I wasn’t out, but I’d been seeing this senior.”

“Okay.” That was the only thing that Patrice could manage to say.

I cleared my throat and thought of Justin. “His mom was a professor too, but his dad was a local artist, they didn’t run with my and Brad’s parents’ circle. He was out to his family, and they were so great. I loved going to his house.” I sighed thinking how weird it was to be in a house where the adults actually seemed to get along.

“Anyway, Brad was obsessed with Justin, and did everything he could to get his attention. When he realized we were dating, he made it his mission to fuck with me.”

“What did he do?” Patrice’s voice was heavy with dread.