She squeezed his hand, and he clutched tightly enough that Frazer’s fingers ached. And she let him. He cleared his throat. “I, uh… My uncle tracked me down.”

“Really?”

A small smile played at his lips. “Yeah. He, uh, got hold of my e-mail through my cousin’s friend.”

Frazer nudged his hand. “And?”

“We had lunch at the start of the week.”

“And?”

He was grinning now. “It was nice.”

Warmth spread in Frazer’s chest. “Jack, that’s great.”

“It’s okay.”

The look on his face betrayed that it was a lot more than okay. Maybe he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and that thought made Frazer ache for him. She waited for him to elaborate.

He took a deep breath. “He’s not talking to my parents since he heard they kicked me out. He wants to help me. He had a lot of questions about transitioning…but not like my parents. Genuine questions. He wanted to know. I told him about pronouns and my name, and he just said okay. He asked about Bug and what I was doing and said he’d help me out, whatever I was doing.”

“I’m so glad for you, Jack.”

“I thought my family had just forgotten me.” His voice croaked, and Frazer felt her heart clench.

“Obviously not.” Frazer considered her next question carefully before asking, “Were the two of you close?”

“Kind of. He got divorced years ago and has two kids.”

“You have cousins.” Frazer cocked her head. “That must be nice?”

Jack straightened up. “It was… It is. We were pretty close. I thought—I don’t know—that we wouldn’t be friends anymore.”

“Sounds like you will be. What does your uncle do?”

“He used to be a principal for a high school years ago. Then, one day, he quit, said he was sick of the system that did nothing to help kids. Now he works for a social media company.”

“It sounds like he could be understanding of what’s going on?”

Jack met her eyes. “I told him most of it all, and he just asked what help he could give me.”

If Frazer was into that kind of thing, she would kiss the man. “That’s great.”

“It is, isn’t it?” And Jack looked younger than normal in his obvious happiness. “He was really interested in your programme and said he’d like to talk to you about making contacts with high schools to find referrals.”

And the man got better and better. After the conversation wound down, Frazer did a simple exam of Jack’s stomach, noting that the baby was still in the correct position.

“It’ll be soon, Jack. You have a way to get to the hospital, still?”

He nodded. “It used to be an ambulance or Cora, but my uncle’s bought me a mobile and a SIM card. He wants me to call him.”