Page 6 of Soothe Me, Daddy
Henley
Henley wasn’t sure if he detected a teasing note in Isaac’s tone, but if there was, he ignored it because he didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot. When he’d been waiting for Isaac to show up, he’d been pacing the hallway by the front door for at least half an hour, trying to remind himself not to overshare—or rather over-talk—straight away.
That lasted all of around twenty minutes. It was Isaac’s fault, though. He’d asked the question. It would’ve been rude not to answer it.
“How long have you been doing this job?” Henley asked, crossing his right arm over his waist and leaning his left elbow on it as he fiddled with his earring while staring across at Isaac. He was a gorgeous specimen, and not just on the outside. Henley always believed that kindness bled through into how other people saw you regardless of your outer appearance. Ignoring his thoughts on Isaac, Henley studied him in a detached manner as he had done when he’d first seen him. Now, he was closer, though.
Isaac wore some extra weight around his waist, but his basic build was solid, so it wasn’t as easy to see. His face was lined in the right places, indicating he had plenty of laughter in his life, although some of those lines were harder to see as they blended in with his stubble, which was about the same length as his salt and pepper hair. Henley hadn’t thought Isaac was old enough to have grey hair, but maybe he was. It had him wondering how old he was.
“I’ve been doing this for fifteen years now. I came into the role straight away, without working in the customer service department first.”
“Wow. You must have started here straight after school. How did you know what you wanted to do at that age?” Henley rested part of his upper lip between his teeth as he fought back a smile. Isaac had given him the perfect opening to talk about ages.
Briefly glancing across the car to Henley, Isaac’s mouth curled up. “Thank you for the compliment, but I was twenty-nine when I started. I’m forty-four now.” He sniffed. “If you wanted to know my age, you could’ve asked.”
Henley snorted, covering his smile with his hand. “Sorry.”
“You don’t need to be sorry. You need to be upfront. If you want to know the answer to something, ask. It’s important to be open about things.”
Turning his gaze to the passing scenery, Henley thought about that. He wasn’t sure he could be honest about everything, especially his reasoning behind applying for the job, but he could be as open as possible about most other things.
“Did I lose you?”
Isaac’s voice washed over him, and he forced himself to concentrate. “No. I was thinking about what you said. You’re right.”
They were silent again for a moment, an unusual occurrence for Henley until Isaac broke it with a question of his own.
“Do you have any family?”
“How much time do you have?” Henley sniggered.
“Around two hours, give or take.”
“I wasn’t…” Henley paused when he noticed the smirk on Isaac’s face. “Funny.” He held his hand out in front of him, counting off his fingers. “I have four older sisters: Tracey, Ariel, Arianne and Rebecca. My dads chose a mixture of adoption and surrogacy to welcome us all into the family. Ariel and Arianne are twins born of a surrogate, and when they were four, Tracey was adopted into the family. She was eight at the time and had been bounced around the system for too long.” He didn’t know the whole story about Tracey’s life before she came to them, but he knew it wasn’t an easy one. “Rebecca came as a surprise into the family at age one. Dad and Pops hadn’t planned on adopting another child because their surrogate was already pregnant with me. But they told us they’d talked it over and decided that if they had managed with twins, they should be able to manage with a one-year-old and a newborn. And that was that.”
“A very eclectic family.”
“Definitely. We’re really close. Dad and Pops are getting on in years now, so Rebecca lives with them, helping them out and looking after them when they allow it. I try to help out when I can.”
“Sounds like you all do a lot for each other.”
“I certainly wouldn’t be like I am today if it wasn’t for them all, that’s for certain.”
“What do you mean?”
Henley grinned, twisting in his seat to face Isaac. “I had four sisters to show me how to dress, how to do makeup, how to wear jewellery, what colours go to together, how to do my hair. Everything. Can you imagine me as anything but what I am now?”
Isaac flicked his gaze over to Henley’s again for a brief second before returning to the road ahead. “I withhold judgement until I get to know you a bit better.”
Henley giggled. “Excuses, excuses.” He paused, regaining his breath. “Anyway, what about you?”
“What about me, what?”
“Say that twice as fast,” Henley murmured before answering Isaac’s question, “What about your family?”
Isaac cleared his throat. “I have two younger sisters and a younger brother and my mum and dad.”
Henley waited for more information, but Isaac remained silent. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
