The Hidden Life by Erin Noelle Page A

to give us — another shot, I promise this time, I’ll come through in the clutch.”
    His corny pun on the nickname he’d carried around since college was what did me in… not that I ever had any intention on not forgiving him. But that, that right there, was why I loved him. Because no matter how many game-winning touchdown passes he threw, or how many magazine covers he graced, or how much money he made, when it all came down to it, he was still my Colin. The guy who stole my heart in a tree house all those summers ago. The guy who I loved enough to live a hidden life for. The guy who was my one and only true love.
    “Deal,” I smirked, “but tonight, you’re playing receiver.”

 
    “never
    ever
    go by the
    book
    they will want
    you to,
    but you
    mustn’t.
    if the lust
    is too strong,
    tear one page
    from a hundred books
    and make your
    own way.
    there is no formula
    for life,
    no equation
    on how to be a
    human being.
     
    find your freedom,
    and breathe there.
    drink there.
    love there.”
    -Christopher Poindexter
     
    Eighteen months later
    Colin
     
    “ DID YOU KNOW that 94% of giraffe sexual encounters are between two males?” Monroe asked as she sidled up next to me near the giraffe exhibit at the zoo, wearing a long, white sundress that made her look like an angel.
    Laughing heartily, I twisted to meet her emerald green gaze, still overwhelmed with how beautiful she looked as a bride. Much more so than the day she married me. “Is that so, Miss National Geographic?”
    “It was on Animal Planet, Mr. Smarty Pants,” she smirked up at me, her heart-shaped face glowing from the festivities, “and I’m a Mrs. now, in case you already forgot.”
    I smiled and glanced over my shoulder at where Oliver, her husband as of about thirty minutes prior, stood chatting with Seth and several other wedding guests near the shared kangaroo and emu habitat, still in somewhat disbelief that she’d actually tied the knot in the Franklin Park Zoo.
    “Excuse me, Mrs . Animal Planet,” I corrected, as I returned my attention to her, the corners of my mouth twitching with amusement. “And thank you for the random fact that I can use at my next Christians for Gay Rights rally. Surely, God must approve if he made most of the giraffes gay, right?”
    “Surely,” she smarted, bumping her elbow against mine. “Just don’t bring up their four-foot penises, because it might make them all feel inadequate. I mean, even Oliver, who’s hung like a horse, got penis-envy when he heard about that.”
    Covering my ears when she mentioned his package, I shook my head back and forth and crinkled my nose up. “No, no, no,” I sang out. “I love you to death, but there’s got to be a law that prohibits discussing the size of your new husband’s penis with your ex-husband. Even if our relationship wasn’t sexual, we just can’t.”
    “A law, huh?” She rolled her eyes and chuckled then leaned in and wrapped her thin arms around my waist. “Speaking of new spouses, do you and Seth have plans for your first anniversary?”
    Her mention of my husband of ten months triggered my focus to drop to the platinum band that encircled the ring finger of my left hand, and instinctively, a bright, proud smile spread across my face. Shortly after my coming-out press conference, Seth and I announced our relationship to the world, and although both of our parents took it well, it was safe to say his sister had not.
    Adding fuel to the already raging fire of crazy inside her, Effie completely went off the deep end and had destroyed the Mending Hearts youth home, causing enough property damage to be booked with and found guilty of a Class D Criminal Mischief felony, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
    Thankfully, other than the usual senseless, uneducated name-calling we received on social media, Effie’s ordeal had been the worst backlash we’d had to deal with once all of the hysteria settled down. Leading the Patriots to a