Page 29 of Soothed By Daddy
He was the ex.
“Oh, okay, but I’m not sure why you’re here.”
The confusion in George’s voice was clear, and maybe some lingering hurt too, given how they’d broken up. I wanted to take the stuff from George’s arms, tell his ex to get the fuckout, and then take George inside. It might have been a little presumptuous for a friend.
“Could we talk inside? I prefer to not have an audience,” he said with fake charm.
How the hell did George ever date this guy? He was oily and not even that cute. He’d obviously never gone to leg day, and his forearms were like twigs. Was this George’s type? If that were true, he and I needed to have a serious discussion about raising standards.
“I guess. Yeah, come on in. We can talk inside.” George shot me a confused look.
I stepped closer so Chris would not overhear me. “You gonna be okay with him?”
“I’ll be fine.”
George dropped his hand to my forearm and rubbed it reassuringly. My eyes fell to where he touched me. I felt tingles on my skin. I didn’t like the idea of the jackass being with George in his house, but I also knew it was none of my damn business. And that was my fault because I insisted on only friendship. George looked searchingly at my face. I tried to keep the concern out of it, but I’m pretty sure I failed badly.
He gave a sharp nod before turning back to Chris. “On second thought, there’s a little coffee shop on the next block over. Why don’t we go talk down there?”
Chris shot me a dirty look, but I smiled more smugly than I felt at him.
They started back down the walkway before George stopped, turned, and said to me, “Is it okay if we push back our plans this afternoon?”
We’d originally decided to work on the bathroom together once I had the shelves ready.
“Yeah, of course, no worries. I’ll see you later.”
George turned back around and kept walking down the sidewalk. Now it was Chris’s turn to shoot me a smug smile over the top of his head.Fucker.
I watched them walk down the sidewalk toward the café that George had mentioned. Once they were out of earshot, I fished my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through my contacts. “Hey, Tye, is that offer to go fishing still open?”
“You should have seen this guy. He came into the yard like he owned the place. If he and George were still dating, fine, but he should have some respect for other people’s property. He looked like a criminal—the white-collar kind—and they aren’t prosecuted nearly often enough. I bet he cheats on his taxes. We already know he cheats on his boyfriends.”
Tye didn’t know George, so maybe it didn’t matter much to him, but I needed to get it off my chest before I exploded. My gut was in absolute knots every time I imagined sweet George dating him again. Chris hadn’t been a good Daddy, and my Georgie deserved better.
He wasn’tmyanything, but that didn’t change my feelings.
“Are you gonna tell me the real reason you’re here?” Tye asked.
I kept my eyes on the water a beat longer than necessary. “Fishing,” I said, even though we both knew I was lying through my teeth.
“I know I’m not the smartest guy, but I know you need some kind of pole to go fishing,” Tye retorted.
I glanced down at my hands, and he wasn’t wrong, but I was still surprised to see them empty. It wasn’t enough to motivate me to pick up the pole though. I didn’t want to break Tye’s stuff, and the likelihood of snapping it was high.
“George is out with his ex.”
“You don’t say,” Tye gasped in mock surprise. “Oh, wait, I did know that because you’ve done nothing but bitch about it since you showed up. Have you guys always been open, or is this something new?”
I appreciated the lack of judgment in Tye’s voice when he asked his question, but what the fuck?
“Open? What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Has your relationship always been open, or is that new?”
“Relationship?”
“Is there an echo? Stop repeating everything. Yes, your relationship. With George. Has it always been open? It’s not that hard of a question.”
