Dad looked at me over the top of his newspaper and
frowned, “It would be my advice to let sleeping dogs lie – and to find yourself
a new boyfriend if that’s what you want.”
I sighed, “I don’t want a new boyfriend, Dad – I
was perfectly happy with the one I had.”
He put his paper down and leaning on his elbows he
laced his fingers together and looked at me sternly, “He was more or less your
step-brother, Dakota.” He said.
I shook my head, “You know as well as I do that if
we don’t live together it doesn’t actually count – and his mother was only your
girlfriend – not your wife.”
He nodded, “Yeah, I know – that was a cheap shot –
I’m sorry.”
I sat down opposite him and looked at him, “What’s
going to happen to him?” I asked, “What’s Georgina got planned?”
He sighed, “He’s been sent off to Southborne
Boarding College to complete the year – and then she’s planning on him going to
some fancy university in Chicago – she’s moving to the US with her job. I’m
sorry, Dakota but you probably won’t see him again.”
My heart dropped in my chest. He was going to America? Oh. My. God… My hands started
to shake and I was struggling to keep it all together but I wasn’t going to let
Dad see how much his words had affected me. He and Georgina clearly didn’t have
any idea what we meant to each other and I guess that was only to be expected
since we’d kept our relationship a secret from them – it was time to come
clean…
“Dad – we’ve been boyfriends since Georgina first
came to stay with us – this isn’t some silly crush you know – it’s been going
on for a while…”
Dad sighed. “There’s nothing I can do about it,
son.” He said sadly, “She’s hell bent on making him straight.”
I threw my hands up in the air with frustration, “You
can’t make someone straight any more
than you can make someone gay –
doesn’t she understand anything?”
Dad seemed to wilt under my gaze. He shook his
head, “It would appear not,” he said, rubbing his eyes – something he always
did when he was getting stressed. “I’m really sorry Dakota – truly I am – but
she just wouldn’t listen to reason.”
I looked at him in surprise. Had he tried
reasoning with her then? “What do you mean?” I asked.
He took a deep breath and looked up at me, “I
tried to explain things to her – she was absolutely horrified and she totally
blamed you for ‘turning’ her son – there was nothing I could do to make her see
sense – believe me – you don’t need a mother-in-law like that.”
Maybe not – but I did need a boyfriend like Gabe… no, not like Gabe – I just needed Gabe…
And it was ridiculous of her to be so against us
being together – Gabe made me happy and I made him happy – how could she be
against that?
Well, I guess she could try to keep us apart – but
surely we were a little more resourceful than that… what about Facebook? What
about Twitter? What about texting or calling? I grant you his mother had
probably taken his phone off him – but there was nothing to stop him getting
another one – or borrowing one and calling me… was there? “But this is all so
unfair.” I whined. To hell with being all grown-up about it – I was still only
seventeen for another couple of weeks and I was heartbroken…
Dakota... Equal Measures...
#happyheatherafters #boynextdoorseries
Available for pre-ordering now from Amazon; iBooks; B&N; Kobo; Smashwords and other retailers. Release Date 31st May 2016
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