I pursed my lips together and kept on trying to think about it. “But one’s not a step?”
He nodded.
“Okay.” This was none of my business. I knew it. I didn’t need to ask for clarification. But I wanted to. “And you’re his uncle on his… mom’s side?” I asked Johnny.
“Yes.”
Had they been… in a polyamorous relationship? An open relationship? So they didn’t know who the birth father was? Johnny had been fine with his best friend being with his sister?
“Billy’s our other best friend,” Rhodes spoke up from the kitchen. “We’ve all known each other since we were kids.”
Both of his friends had been with his sister? That made no sense. I glanced at Am and Johnny, but neither one of them had an expression that gave me any clues about how this worked out. “So… you were all… together?”
Amos choked, and Johnny busted a gut, but it was Rhodes again who spoke up. “Neither one of you is helping. Billy and Sofie, Am’s mom, wanted to have kids, but Billy had… trauma—”
“He couldn’t have kids,” Am finally supplied. “So he asked Dad. Rhodes. Dad Rhodes. Instead of them using a donor.”
Things finally started clicking.
“Dad Rhodes said yeah, but he wanted to be a dad too and didn’t want to just… donate. Everybody said okay. Now I’m here. Make sense?” Am asked casually.
I nodded. I hadn’t seen that coming.
And suddenly, my little heart swelled. Rhodes’s best friend and his wife wanted to have a child but couldn’t, and he’d agreed, but insisted on being a part of the baby’s life. He’d wanted to be a dad too. Did he think he’d never have kids on his own? With someone else?
It was… it was beautiful.
And my period must have been really close because my eyes filled up with tears and I said, “That’s one of the nicest things I’ve ever heard.”
Two horrified faces looked at me, but it was Rhodes who spoke up sounding the same way. “Are you crying again?”
How could he tell? “Maybe.” I sniffled and turned my attention to Amos who looked like he wasn’t sure whether to comfort me or move away. “That’s the kind of love you have to write about.”
That got him to give me the same skeptical face he’d given me when I’d initially brought up him writing a song about his mom. “You don’t think it’s weird?”
“Are you kidding me? No. What could be weird about it? You had two dads who wanted you but couldn’t have you. You have three people who love you to death, not including your uncle and who knows who else. The rest of us are missing out.”
“Dad’s last girlfriend thought it was weird.”
His last girlfriend? So he did date. I kept my face even.
But it was Rhodes who grumbled, “Am, give me a break. That was ten years ago. I didn’t know how religious she was, how she didn’t even believe in divorce.” I heard the sound of dishes moving around. “I broke up with her right after that. I said I was sorry.”
Amos rolled his eyes. “It was eight years ago. And she was annoying too.”
I pinched my lips together, sucking this interaction and information up.
“You haven’t met any other women I’ve seen since, Am.”
“Yeah, because Mom says you need to dye your hair to get a girlfriend, and you won’t.”
“You’re talking a whole lot of shit considering you might turn out like me and start finding some grays when you’re in your twenties, man,” Rhodes responded, sounding pretty incredulous.
Amos snorted.
And before I could tell myself not to butt in, I did. “I don’t know about that, Am. I like all the silver in your dad’s hair. It’s really nice.” Which I did. Even though I shouldn’t have said it, so I backtracked to cover my steps by throwing out. “And I don’t know about anybody else, but I think it’s beautiful what your parents did. There’s nothing ugly about selflessness and love.”
He took my bait even though he still didn’t believe me. “Where’s your dad?” the teenager suddenly asked, trying to change the subject, I guess. “You never talk about him.”
He got me. “I see him every few years. We talk every few months. He lives in Puerto Rico. He and my mom weren’t together for long, and he wasn’t ready to settle down when they had me. They barely knew each other actually. He loves me, I think, but not like your dads love you.”