Page 48 of Controlled Burn

I glanced at Caleb sitting across the breakfast table from me. Caleb was busy all right, but not with the book sale.

“Sure, man, no problem. I’ll take care of him for you. Y’all have fun.”

“That’s the plan, my friend. See you on shift Monday morning.”

I hung up the phone and looked at Caleb.

“Baby boy.” I took a breath.

“You want to tell him, don’t you?”

“Well, that depends on what you want. What happened last night changed things for me, baby boy. I might have been pretending to be your Daddy, but if we continue this, it’ll be the real deal.”

“Is that what you want? To be my Daddy for real?”

“It is. It’s still early days, so I can’t say this will last forever, but I’d sure like to give it a shot and see where it goes.” He started to say something, but I held up my hand to stop him. “But you need to know, I’m not comfortable having a real relationship in secret. Been there, done that. Don’t ever plan to do it again. So if you say you want this, then that means we’d need to come clean with your father.”

He bit his lower lip, and I could see the wheels spinning.

“Robert’s my best friend, Rabbit. I can’t lie to him about this.”

“I know. It’s just… he knows you’re a Daddy, right?”

“Caleb, I promised you I wouldn’t tell him anything you didn’t want him to know, and I stand by that, but he’ll make assumptions because, yes, he does know about me and my preferences.”

He let out a sigh. “I’ve spent the last three years trying to get my dad to see me as a grown man, and now I’m supposed to undo that by telling him I’m a boy. And that I want his best friend to be my Daddy.”

“How our relationship works is no one’s business but ours, so you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t want to about our dynamics, and I won’t say a word about it, but he will need to know we’re seeing each other. But ultimately, it’s up to you.”

It killed me to think about walking away from what we could have, but in my heart, I knew the only way forward was to be honest. I could have told him about Jonathan and why I refused to be part of a secret relationship. How we’ll tell everyone when the time is right could turn into never telling anyone at all, but the last thing I wanted was to play on his emotions. He had to want this as much as I did, or it would never work.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “Okay, then I guess we tell him.”

“He was calling to say he was going out of town for a couple of days with his new lady friend. So how about if we plan on dinner with him on Tuesday? I’ll make lasagna. It’s his favorite.”

“Okay, Tuesday night then.”

“Great. Now, why don’t I take you over to your place so you can get dressed. Not that I don’t like seeing you in my shirt, because I do, and then we can go by the Farmers’ Market. We can even pick up some stuff for your meal prep for tomorrow while we’re there.”

Chapter 18

Caleb

The weekend with Keith had been amazing. We’d wandered around the Farmers’ Market and then spent the rest of Saturday binge-watching some show about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I’d stayed over on Saturday, and then we did all my lunch prep on Sunday. I’d never really enjoyed cooking, but Keith made it fun.

For two full days, we were lost in this little bubble where it was just the two of us. We didn’t have to worry about how anyone would react to our relationship, and no one had to risk their lives by running into a burning building. In other words, it was a total fantasy land filled with yummy food, great sex, and one really hot Daddy.

But eventually, the weekend was over, and I couldn’t hide from the real world anymore. Something that was made very clear to me when I got a text mid-morning.

Daddy: Talked to Robert. He has plans for tomorrow night, but we’re on for Wednesday night. I hate to ambush him, but I didn’t tell him you were coming because that would raise way too many questions.

Me: Yeah, that would make for an awkward shift.

Daddy: That it would. How is your day going?

Me: Good. Mrs. Rourke told me she keeps hearing people talk about this book called 5O Shades of Gray, and she’s so thrilled people are getting interested in painting again. So just another normal day at the library.

Daddy: That book’s been out for ages, so where did that come from?