Page 41 of Roll With The Punches
Chapter Eleven
When Emma returned Sunday afternoon, Brandon immediately noticed she didn’t look happy the way an overnight with Grace usually left her.
He followed her to her bedroom, Stuart and Jeff on his heels. “What’s wrong?”
“I made the mistake of answering Mom’s phone call this morning.” She turned and plopped down on her bed. “I agreed to go to her place next weekend. Spend Friday night, maybe Saturday night.”
“You don’t look happy about that.”
“I’m not, but she sounded so sad on the phone, I couldn’t say no.” She stared at her hands, which lay in her lap. “I don’t think she deliberately guilt-tripped me, but that’s what it felt like.”
Before Jeff and Stuart could step away, Brandon reached for their hands, pulling their arms around him. He wanted them here, too. They were family.
Hisfamily.
He wanted them stepping into more of a dad role with Emma, and this was the perfect kind of situation to break them in with.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Do you want me to call her and talk to her?”
“No. It’ll only delay the inevitable.”
Brandon wasn’t going to interfere, except the next morning, while on his way to work, Tracey called him.
Sighing, he answered. “Yeah?”
“Hey. It’s me.”
He choked back the snark trying to break free. “Yeah?”
“Did Emma tell you I called her yesterday?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Is it okay if she visits?”
Brandon felt like slamming her, except Tracey’s voice bore no hint of irritation. He could have easily pointed out to her that the time to ask that question would have beenbeforeshe’d called Emma.
But he took the high road. “You are her mother. We didn’t have any scheduled plans, and she doesn’t have a swim meet Saturday. If I’d had a problem with it, I would have called you yesterday when she told me.”
He left out the fact that the overnight would give him, Stuart, and Jeff some nakey time at home.
“Okay. Thank you.” He hated that she sounded beaten down, but then he reminded himself she was totally the one at fault for her relationship status with Emma. “Can I ask a favor?”
This was pushing it, but again he forced himself to go high. “It depends. What did you need?”
“I really miss her. I want to spend time with her. Could you please nudge her to come this weekend if she talks about canceling?”
He wanted to laugh in her face and tell her she was on her own, except an image flashed to mind, of the night he’d sat her down, after several months of him gently backing off all their BDSM stuff and he’d pretty much stopped sleeping with her.
The night he’d confessed to her that he was gay and that they needed to talk about getting divorced.
The tears in her eyes that had spilled down her face as she’d tried to beg him to change his mind, pleading that she’d do anything to keep their marriage intact.
Begging him not to leave her.
Offering to do anything, including letting him go sleep with men, if he wanted to. If only he’d stay married to her.
When Brandon and Tracey had been together, they’d delved into the milder end of BDSM. She’d enjoyed him taking charge in bed and elsewhere to a certain extent, but for him, he’d realized it was the only way he could have sex with her. They really hadn’t done anything “kinky” beyond a blindfold and some light restraints during sex. Nothing formal, like he had with Jeff and Stuart. He had naturally fallen into the dominant role in their vanilla relationship, though, Tracey deferring to him most of the time without hesitation.
