Free Divisions (Dev and Lee) by Kyell Gold Page B

weasels, all of us. It’s fine.”
    He grins. “Doesn’t stop the occasional asshole from commenting on it. Or the hotel chains from charging us for it. Speaking of…want to come visit me in the hotel room?”
    Across the room, his father joins my father and Auntie Za. From their gestures, I’d bet they’re talking football. The two tigers dwarf Lee’s father, but he doesn’t seem uncomfortable. “What about your father?”
    “He’s a heavy sleeper, it’ll be fine.” A pair of sparkling blue fox eyes meets mine. “Kidding. I mostly meant just to sit and chat with me and him. Though I bet I could get him to go down to the bar for fifteen minutes.”
    “Mm-hmm.” I curl my own tail against his. “And what could we do that he wouldn’t smell when he got back?”
    He licks his lips. “I’m sure we can think of something.”
    “You realize that in a few days, we’ll be living together and we’ll see each other all the time?”
    “Doesn’t mean I don’t miss you now.”
    I exhale. “I miss you too. And tomorrow afternoon, I have to go back to football.”
    Mom comes out with another tray of small cookies. “You’re welcome to stay longer if you like, Lee. After Devlin leaves.”
    “I thought I’d go with him to the airport. May I?” Lee reaches for one of the cookies, a small pile of coconut in a sugary glaze. They smell heavenly.
    “Of course.” She lifts the tray toward him. “So Devlin tells us you’ll be moving in with him. I think that’s lovely.”
    “I’m hoping to keep his apartment a little cleaner.” Lee winks at me, chewing on the cookie. “This is really good, by the way.”
    Mom beams. “Thank you. Are you going to look for work in Chevali, or…?”
    “I’ve got a couple interviews lined up, but nothing’s really going to happen until after the season.”
    “I’m glad to hear you have options.” Mom’s eyes linger on him. I get the feeling that in this room of all our tall relatives, she likes having Lee to look down at. “Have you met everyone?”
    “I don’t know. Have I?” He turns blue eyes up to me.
    There are a couple more distant cousins we haven’t talked to, but I don’t know them all that well anyway. “Kate and Peter,” I say.
    “Oh, you should go say hi!” Mom scans the room for them.
    “We will, in a minute. We were just talking about my trip tomorrow and where Lee’s staying tonight.”
    A cloud flickers across her expression. Lee sees it too. “Father got us a room a little ways down route 94,” he says. “We’re staying there and we thought we’d come back in the morning, if that’s still okay.”
    “Oh, of course.” Mom brightens, the weight of talking to us about what we are allowed to do under her roof lifted from her future.
    Having set Mom’s mind at ease, we walk around avoiding troublesome conversations as best we can and nibbling on cookies. I sneak into the kitchen to get Lee a piece of Mom’s pumpkin pie, and then he takes it to his dad, so I have to get him another one.
    While he’s eating it, Mom takes me into the kitchen to get my “help with something.” Once we’re in there, though, she just glances past me to the living room and says, “Where’s Lee’s mother?”
    “Oh,” I say. “I think his father left her recently.”
    Mom puts a paw to her muzzle. “Oh, no.”
    “They’ve been having trouble. Lee won’t tell me what’s wrong, but it’s not that hard to figure out.”
    “What kind of trouble?”
    “His mother joined some kind of anti-gay religious group.”
    Mom stares at me. “His own
mother
?” She looks across the room; Lee’s father is tucking into pumpkin pie and Lee’s coming back.
    “I met her once. She just seemed super-nervous.”
    I’m not sure she’s even heard me. Her eyes are still on Lee. “I’ll get him another slice.”
    “Dad doing okay?” I ask Lee when he reaches me, and he nods, just as Mom comes back out of the kitchen with a paper plate sagging in the middle from