The Pride Trilogy: Kyle Callahan 1-3 by Mark McNease Page A

was an imposing figure even without the ego. He stood six-three and carried himself like a man ten years younger than his sixty-two years. He wore his thinning hair a natural gray and swept back, no doubt the better to expose his face. Danny suspected contacts, since he had never seen Hern with glasses and knew that weakening vision was simply a part of aging. Today Hern was wearing cream cotton pants and a light blue jacket over pink shirt, something that looked more appropriate to spring than fall, but it wouldn’t surprise Danny for Linus to expect the seasons to adjust to him and not the other way around. The young man gliding close to him was almost an afterthought, but a handsome one. Tanned in October, in tight sky-blue jeans and a Pride Lodge sweatshirt Linus had no doubt bought for him. The party moved en mass to a table well away from them, much to Danny’s relief. He knew he would have to encounter Hern face to face at some point this weekend, but the later in their stay the better.
    The twins, Austin and Dallas, had changed into their waiter clothes and were working the quickly-filling room.
    Diane Haley and her beautiful partner took a seat by the window, Diane waving slightly at Kyle. The male couple they’d seen checking in were missing, and there was one woman who had come in and taken a seat by herself. Kyle remembered seeing her pull up in the parking lot last night as he and Danny walked down to the cabin. Something about her struck him: she seemed to be intensely observing everyone and when she saw him looking at her, she looked back, staring until he blushed and looked away.
    “We haven’t seen you here before,” Danny said, continuing the lunch conversation as their food arrived. “Is this your first time?”
    “It is indeed,” said Eileen. “I knew Dylan back in high school. We were both in the closet, but we knew, ya know? We ended up coming out to each other but no one else, not until our senior year. He took the plunge first, God love him. This was in Philly, he’s from there, in case you didn’t know.”
    “I didn’t,” said Kyle. “I knew he and Sid lived in Long Branch, New Jersey, and they’ve been together for ten years. They had a big anniversary party last spring. But other than that, no.”
    “Did pretty damn well for himself,” offered Maggie, looking around the room to indicate she meant the Lodge itself.
    “I’d say he married well,” Eileen said. “Or luckily. Anyway, we lost track for, what, thirty years? And then, Facebook! Just a couple months ago I got a friend request.”
    “They’re not your friends, most of them,” said Maggie with slight but noticeable resentment.
    “Says the woman who tweets to four hundred followers, perhaps a dozen of whom she actually knows.”
    “It’s a completely different social media.”
    “Maggie dropped off Facebook,” Eileen explained. “A falling out with someone, so she declared it a diabolical corporate plot to get as much information about us as possible and she deleted her account.”
    “Which is never really deleted,” said Maggie. “Nothing’s ever truly deleted. It’s all data mining.”
    Eileen rolled her eyes and continued. “Dylan and I have been in touch since then, sometime in the summer. He told me about Pride Lodge, I looked it up and it seemed like a great place to visit.”
    “And he gets to live here,” Maggie said. Then, to Eileen, “You’re welcome to buy me a resort.”
    “I’ll be happy to, as soon as the rich aunt I don’t have dies and leaves me a couple million dollars.”
    “Is that what happened?” Danny asked. “Dylan inherited from an aunt?”
    “On, no,” Eileen said. “Not Dylan. Sid. Bought the place for cash, Dylan said. And just in time! Who knows what a developer would do with this land.”
    Elzbetta appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “Finished with these?” she said, as she took their empty plates without waiting for an answer.
    “I’m still working on mine,”