Page 16 of Like the Season
“This is really good. What’d you put in it?”
“I found some brown sugar in your cabinet, and added some seasonings.”
They sat at her small kitchen table to eat. She’d donned a Seahawks T-shirt and shorts, and had pulled her damp blonde hair back with a ponytail holder.
Exhaustion painted hollows under her eyes, and now without her makeup he could clearly see it even more than before.
“I brought a bunch of pictures with me. For us to go over. I’ll give you copies of the files. Caleb helped me scan them in.”
“Thanks. I guess we have a lot of catching up to do.”
He reached over and covered her hand with his. “I really want to. I know it doesn’t make up for the time we’ve lost together. I’m sorry.”
A sad smile creased her face. “You can stop apologizing…Dad. It’s not your fault.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “How long did it take you to work yourself up to saying that?”
A genuine laugh. “Alongtime. I couldn’t decide.”
“I’m fine with it. You call me what you want to call me. Whatever you’re comfortable with. I’m just happy to be here.”
By the time they went to bed, him stretched out on her less-than-comfortable pull-out sofa, it was after midnight local time and he felt exhausted. They’d gone through his family pictures, some of them, because that’s where she wanted to start. She wanted to hear about his childhood, his parents—even his time in Germany, brief though it was.
If it hadn’t been so late in Florida he would have texted Caleb, but he didn’t want to wake him up. All these feelings he wanted to share, the…melancholy joy of connecting with her.
A daughter.
His.
For the rest of the evening she’d stayed away from the subject of her pregnancy, and he hadn’t wanted to push her on it.
He wasn’t sure if she planned on keeping it or not, and he hadn’t felt he had the right to pry, either, much less offer his opinion on what to do.
I’m going to be a grandfather.
I hope.
Holy cow, talk about a massive shift in his life in a short amount of time. From melancholy single guy, to happily taken—to eager father and grandfather-to-be.
Despite his exhaustion he stared up at the ceiling. The couch was okay, he’d slept on worse. Totally worth it to be there with her, under the same roof.
What made tonight hard to stomach was not having Caleb’s comforting warmth and presence tightly snuggled against him.
* * * *
Caleb lay in bed and tried to sleep, failing miserably, his mind spinning, thoughts rattling around in his brain and refusing to allow him to drift off.
Not just because of the earlier calls from his parents.
It wasn’t the same without Boyd next to him. In some ways, the man was like a natural mental relaxant for Caleb. Boyd had no problems shutting Caleb’s brain down for him, forcing him to let go—or focus only where Boyd wanted his boy’s mind focused.
Including at night to go to sleep.
Finally, he pulled Boyd’s pillow over his face, closed his eyes, and fisted his cock. Slowly stroking, he replayed their very first night together, the night when he didn’t know it’d been Boyd, but the mystery Dom had rocked his worldhard.
Little had he known the man he’d already been in lust with—his fuckingboss—was the sexy-ass Dom who’d been the first to literally claim his ass. The man he’d hoped to actuallyforgetby having the weekend interlude at Kent’s.
The first man to break his heart, but also the man who, only days later, healed him, claimed him.
