Chapter 101

“No, I can’t put you out like this.” Pat looked on the verge of tears again.

“Are you sure you can’t go home? That your father was absolutely serious? You see, my father did the same thing, but years later he told me he hadn’t meant it.”

“Oh, yeah, he meant it.” Pat’s words were as hopeless as his expression. Poor little boy. “You were never over when he went on one of his rants, JR, but he blames homosexuals for everything including the disaster that’s the Big Dig. Last year he blamed them for Chicago winning the Oscars over Gangs of New York. I…uh…I never told him about Wills. He’d have made me stop being your friend.”

“You’re strangling your cheeseburger, Wills,” I told him.

He put it down on his plate. “Suppose his father accuses us of corrupting his son? The last thing I want is to spend our honeymoon behind bars.”

“Don’t worry about it, Wills.” I gripped his hand. “I have a lawyer friend who can help us.”