Stage Two

by Ariel Tachna

  Thane’s expression grew even darker, but he nodded sharply before stalking back across the stage toward where Kit and Phillip were working. Blake would have to be satisfied with that. He certainly wouldn’t get any bigger concession out of Thane.

  He rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand and prayed for patience. It was going to be a long show.

  Chapter Seven

  BLAKE tugged off his dirty sweatshirt and replaced it with a sweater before leaving Henry Clay on Friday. If he was lucky, he’d make it to Enoteca before happy hour was over at six thirty, but that might be wishful thinking. Heidi would already be there holding a table, though, so he hurried out to the car as fast as he could, ignoring the bite of the February wind. If he’d had farther to go than his car, he’d have put on a coat, but he was sweaty from working, and the cold air felt good.

  He found a parking spot not too far from the restaurant and walked down the street as fast as he could, but even that wasn’t enough to keep him from shivering by the time he got inside. He glanced around until he found Heidi sitting in the back corner with Brent. Navashen, Brent’s boyfriend, was nowhere to be seen.

  “Is Nav on call?” Blake asked as he joined them.

  “No, but he’s got a sick baby, and you know how he is,” Brent said. “I’ll be lucky to see him before midnight. How are you?”

  “It’s been a week,” Blake said. “Tech crew started back up. I’ve got some new kids, most of them really hard workers, but I also got an overprotective guardian.”

  Heidi snickered, so Blake rolled his eyes at her. “Yes, that one.”

  “Which one?” Brent asked.

  “Thane Dalton. His nephews transferred to Henry Clay recently and have had a rough time settling in. We had a conference last week, and now this week he’s started showing up to help with tech crew.”

  “Thane Dalton like Dalton Construction?” Brent asked.

  “Yeah, do you know him?”

  Brent chuckled. “I’ve worked with him a few times with clients who want to buy houses he’s built or renovated. He’s a shrewd businessman. I’m having trouble seeing him as the parental type.”

  “That makes two of us,” Blake muttered.

  Brent’s phone buzzed, drawing his attention away. When he looked back up, he smiled and stood. “Nav is heading home, but it was a bad day. I’m going to meet him there. You are planning on coming to the St. Patrick’s Day party next month, right?”

  “It’ll depend on how things are going with the sets, but yes, I’m planning on it,” Blake said.

  “Me too,” Heidi replied.

  “Good. Bring a date if you want. All invitations are plus one.”

  Brent left before Blake could reply.

  “Go on,” Heidi said when they were alone. “Dish. I can practically see the steam blowing out of your ears.”

  “He’s a self-important, domineering pain in the ass,” Blake muttered. “He comes onto my stage in my school and tries to tell me I’m not doing it right. I’ve been building sets for twenty years. I think I know what I’m doing.”

  “I know you know what you’re doing. I worked with you for four years,” Heidi said. “What does he think you’re doing wrong?”

  “Everything. I don’t supervise well enough, I’m too hands-off, I make the kids do everything—you name it, he’s harped on it this week,” Blake replied.

  “You know none of that’s true, and none of it is new. You’ve heard it all before and had no problem brushing it off. Why is it different this time?”

  That brought Blake up short. Heidi was right. Why did he care what Thane thought?

  “Because he’s not just coming in, giving an opinion, and leaving. He’s hanging around to help, which is great for Kit and Phillip, but it’s not so great for me.”

  “I thought you said you were over your crush on him,” Heidi said.

  “I am. I have no interest in him beyond helping his nephews, but I can’t seem to string a full sentence together when he looks at me. It’s stupid. I outgrew this stage years ago.”

  “You did. I watched you. The question now is what are you going to do about it?”

  “I’m going to keep ignoring him,” Blake said. “I invited him—and I still think it will be good for Kit and Phillip to have him there—so I can’t make him leave. He can rant all he wants. I know what I’m doing. And in a few months this will be over, and I’ll never have to see him again because next year Kit and Phillip will be another principal’s responsibility. If nothing else, it answers that lingering question of what might have happened if he’d noticed me all those years ago. It’s bad enough now. Can you imagine if he’d actually paid any attention to fifteen-year-old me?”

  Heidi laughed. “I can imagine. He was nice to look at, but we knew even then that he wasn’t actually a nice guy. Alpha assholes make great romantic heroes. They don’t make great real-life boyfriends.”

  Thane was still nice to look at, but it would never go further than that. He might still feature in the occasional nighttime fantasy, as he had done off and on since Blake realized he was gay, but reality had shredded any lingering desire beyond that.

  “Exactly.”

  “LET’S call it a day,” Thane said, pulling off his hard hat and tucking his hammer in his tool belt. “It’s getting dark, and I’m tired.”

  “You’re tired?” Derek retorted. “You took two afternoons off this week.”

  “Off here. I worked there.”

  “Sure. Real work?”

  “Nothing that would meet code, but hauling lumber is work regardless of what you build with it when you’re done,” Thane said with a shrug.

  “True that. You want to get a beer?”

  “I really ought to go home and get dinner for Kit and Phillip,” Thane said.

  Derek snorted. “Order a pizza—make that two—and leave them money to cover it. I know you’re trying your damnedest to do right by them, but you’re going to burn yourself out in the process if you aren’t careful.”

  Derek’s concern warmed Thane, but he had to go home. “Why don’t you come too? I can order pizza. We can crack open a few beers. The boys will probably end up playing video games, and we can unwind.”

  “I’m not blowing you in the name of relaxation.”

  “I didn’t ask you to.” They’d done that once, in a haze of drunken euphoria. While they’d both settled on bi as a designation, they’d also agreed they were too much like brothers for that to ever be anything less than weird, but it didn’t stop Derek from needling him with it occasionally. Then again, Thane had been known to return the teasing in spades, so he couldn’t really complain.

  “As long as we’re clear.” Derek swung an arm around Thane’s shoulders. “And no anchovies on the pizza.”

  Thane had never done that, no matter how many times he threatened to. If he did, he’d have to eat them too.

  “WE’RE home, Uncle Thane.”

  “We’re in the kitchen,” Thane called back. Kit and Phillip traipsed into the room with huge grins on their faces. Kit had a smear of dirt across his cheek, and Phillip’s hair was full of sawdust. “You look like you worked hard today.”

  “Emma taught us how to use the table saw,” Kit said. “We got to cut the lauan for all the new flats.”

  “That explains the sawdust, although not how it got in Phillip’s hair,” Derek said.

  “Hello, Mr. Jackson,” Kit said.

  “You can call me Derek, kid. I’m not your teacher.”

  “How did the sawdust get in Phillip’s hair?” Thane asked. “I thought Mr. Barnes was supposed to be keeping an eye on you.”

  “We were messing around,” Kit said, shamefaced. “Mr. Barnes tore us a new one for playing in the shop, even if all the tools were off. I know you don’t like him, but he really does care about what we’re doing. He lets us make little mistakes because that’s how we learn, but not if they’re dangerous.”

  “Go get cleaned up. Pizza will be here soon.”
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  Kit and Phillip left as directed, Kit’s hunched shoulders making Thane feel like he’d just kicked a puppy.

  “What’s up with that?” Derek asked.

  “Barnes, the principal who’s in charge of their situation, is also the sponsor for the stage crew,” Thane explained. “He’s not a go-getter. The kids do all the work, and the older ones do most of the teaching, from what I’ve seen. Not exactly the way I do things.”

  “I’m aware,” Derek said with a wry smile. “I’ve pulled your ass off of sites at oh dark hundred hours when it was colder than a witch’s tit because you were determined to finish the job, even though you’d sent everyone else home.”

  “I won’t ask anyone to do something I’m not willing to do myself,” Thane said.

  “There’s a difference between working beside them and staying when you don’t have to.”

  “Maybe.” He pulled another beer out of the fridge and tossed it to Derek. “None of that makes me feel any better about Barnes.”

  “Kit said he stopped them from doing something dangerous, so he obviously has that much common sense. Why are you so bothered by this?”

  “He’s responsible for Kit and Phillip’s safety,” Thane said immediately,

  “Tell me another one.” Derek rolled his eyes. “Kit and Phillip aren’t stupid, and Lily wasn’t either, so I’m going to put my money on them not needing much supervision.”

  “You heard what Kit said about them roughhousing in the shop.”

  “Yes, and I also heard that Barnes stopped them, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about on that level.” Derek leveled a piercing stare at Thane, the kind that made him want to squirm, even if he’d never show it. Not like Derek couldn’t see right through him anyway. “Is he cute?”

  “What are you talking about?” Delaying never worked when Derek got the bit between his teeth, but Thane never stopped trying.

  “Barnes. Is he cute?”

  “I suppose, if you like the rumpled-polyester-suit type, which as you know is not my type,” Thane replied.

  “It’s not like he’d still be wearing the suit if you took him to bed.”

  Thane glared at Derek, who ignored him completely. He tried to push the thought out of his head, but now that Derek had said it, Thane couldn’t unhear it. Why did he hang out with Derek again?

  Before he could come up with a suitable (or not so suitable) reply, Phillip came back into the kitchen with his face freshly scrubbed and his hair still damp. “Kit will be down in a minute. Are you staying for dinner, Derek?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” Derek said. “I want to hear all about what you and Kit are doing at school.”

  There was a special place in hell with Derek’s name on it, and Thane was going to see him there sooner rather than later if he kept this up.

  Chapter Eight

  “HERE, Kit,” Thane said when Kit hit the nail and it bent sideways for the third time. He refused to let Derek’s teasing about spending Valentine’s Day with his nephews on set get to him. This was far more important than his nonexistent love life. “Do it this way.” He’d reached for the board Kit was holding, intending to show him the right way to sink a nail, when Kit threw the wood on the ground and stalked off. “Christopher John Parkins, get your ass back here right now!”

  Kit kept walking.

  Thane dropped his hammer and started after him.

  “Don’t,” Phillip said. “You’re too angry, and he’s just like you.”

  “Don’t what?” Thane demanded.

  “Don’t talk to him right now. Don’t try to explain or make it better or teach him anything or whatever you were trying to do. Just leave him alone.”

  “All I wanted to do was show him the right way to sink a nail.”

  “But that’s just it,” Phillip said. “He knows how to sink a nail. He doesn’t need you hovering over him, making him nervous. He needs you to let him do it, even if it takes ten nails before he gets one in straight. Even if he never gets one in straight. I bet half the flats on this set don’t have all the nails in straight. The point isn’t to have it perfect. The point is that we did it ourselves, mistakes and all.”

  “It’s inefficient.”

  “So what? Yeah, we’re on a timeline, but Mr. B. takes the fact that we’re students who don’t always know what we’re doing into account. We’re ahead of schedule, Kit’s bent nail and all.”

  “Are you saying I shouldn’t try to teach you how to do things as well as they can be done?”

  “Teach us things we don’t already know when we need help and then let us figure out the rest on our own. That’s what Mr. B. does.”

  Thane looked across the stage to where Barnes stood talking with Kit. The scowl on Kit’s face had cleared, and he was looking at Barnes with a mix of adulation and indulgence. Thane wasn’t sure what brought on which parts, but Barnes seemed to take it all in stride.

  “You really respect him.”

  Phillip shrugged. “He didn’t throw the book at us when he could have, and since we’ve started working on the sets, we haven’t had any more problems with the bullies. That’s probably coincidence or good luck, but it’s also the truth, so maybe his plan is working. Yeah, I like him. He’s funny and smart and sometimes he tells stories about some of the plays he’s worked on. And he always seems to know when we actually need help, and then he’s there. The rest of the time, he works next to us and hangs out with us without constantly telling us what to do. It feels like he’s glad I’m here. Me, not just some random kid.”

  “You and Kit aren’t random kids to me either,” Thane said. “You know that, right?”

  “Yeah, but you took us in because that’s what Mom wanted. Mr. B. doesn’t have any reason to like us, but he does anyway.”

  Thane grabbed Phillip’s shoulders and shook him lightly. “Look at me.” Phillip looked up hesitantly, but Thane caught his gaze and didn’t let him look away. “Yes, I took you in because you’re my nephews, and yes, I wish it hadn’t come to that because that would mean your mom was still alive and you were with her, but don’t ever think, not for a second, that I regret having you with me. You and Kit are mine now, and that’s as real as if you were my sons, not my nephews. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Phillip said in a strangled voice. Thane pulled Phillip into a tight hug.

  “Everything okay?”

  Barnes’s voice startled Phillip, and he pulled away, his cheeks pink. Thane glared at Barnes. “Everything’s fine. Phillip just needed a little reminder that he’s family.”

  “I’m sorry he needed the reminder—not surprised, really, but still sorry—but good for you for giving it to him. I work with a lot of troubled teens, and for many of them, that reminder, if it comes, comes too late.”

  A student called Barnes’s name, drawing him away. Thane watched him go in silence. He’d been so sure he knew exactly who Barnes was and what to expect from him, but something didn’t add up.

  BY the time Saturday night rolled around, Blake was ready for a break. They had the walls up on all the platforms for the street scene and the mission—far more progress than he’d expected to make in two weeks—and on Monday they’d start taping and painting so they could see what else needed to be done, but he hadn’t had a minute to himself since they started. He’d spent last weekend at the KASSP Winter Conference, and while it had been incredibly worthwhile, he hadn’t had a day off. He was more than ready.

  He wasn’t a regular at the Bar Complex, but he went every few months, when the need to let go of the respectable principal persona got too strong to ignore. He loved his job, and he’d never felt like he was making sacrifices because of it, but at the same time, he had an image to maintain when he was at school or anywhere he was likely to meet students, or even their parents. He’d accepted that when he accepted the job, but every once in a while, the other side of his personality needed time to play.

  He dug in his closet, behind the plain suits he wore to work every day
, for his clubbing clothes. The fact that he had to search all the way to the back of the closet was a silent reminder of how long it had been since he’d done this. All the more reason to do it right now.

  He ran his fingers appreciatively over the black leather of his clubbing pants. He could pair them with one of the loose silk shirts that would give his skin room to breathe, or he could pull on a too-tight T-shirt and show off a little. He might not have the body of the strippers who danced at the club on certain nights, but he was reasonably fit. Certainly fit enough to garner a bit of attention in the right attire. He pushed aside the thought of just whose attention he’d like to attract. Some things weren’t worth the time or effort, especially since he had no idea if Thane was gay. The outburst in the high school cafeteria all those years ago only proved he liked anal sex, not that he liked it with men.

  He grabbed the pants and backed out of the closet. He’d wear them with his favorite red T-shirt, the one that Heidi said turned his hair to copper and made his green eyes pop. (A little eyeliner would help that along too.) He’d go to the club and dance and remind himself that he was attractive and was single by choice, not by necessity.

  THANE showed his ID, paid the cover charge, and strode into the Bar Complex a little after eleven on Saturday night. He had almost changed his mind about going out, but he needed a break. He loved his nephews with all his heart, but he hadn’t had a minute to himself since they moved in with him. If he wasn’t at work, he was at home trying to help them get settled in, or he was at school trying to keep them out of trouble. He didn’t know how Lily had done it by herself all those years. Then again, maybe that’s why she never remarried. She couldn’t get away long enough to meet someone.

  He caught the attention of one of the waiters and ordered a shot of tequila. He’d switch to beer after that, but he wanted the burn of the liquor to remind him he was here and alive. He leaned on one of the highball tables while he waited for his drink and scanned the room for interesting prospects. He’d find a dance partner or two for a bit of bump and grind, and then he’d see how the evening went. It didn’t have to be more than that. There was something liberating about moving to the music that way even if it never went beyond dancing, although if his dance partner was interested in more….