Page 17 of Menace
“Sunday.” I nod as I hop out of the Jeep.
Ever the gentleman, Mason walks me to the door, making sure I’m safe before he turns, going back to his Jeep, and takes off for home. As I watch his taillights in the darkness of the night, I can’t help but put my fingers up to my lips, feeling where his were such a short time ago. Tonight, I might go to bed frustrated, but I’ll go to bed with a huge smile on my face.
Menace
“Made you coffee,” Caleb mumbles as I stumble into the kitchen the next morning, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
“Thanks.” I shuffle over to the coffee pot, thankful he had the forethought to go ahead and get me a cup out. “Shit this is gonna be a long day.” I yawn loudly.
“Shouldn’t have gone out on a work night.” The sing-song voice of my teenager is enough to piss me off this morning. Honestly, he’s not wrong. “Did you have a good time with Ms. Holland last night?”
Immediately I’m taken back to us making out in her driveway, where I almost forgot about us being in public and broke a couple laws myself. Never in my life have I been one of those men who thought about saying fuck it to being in public. I’ve always been the type of guy who kept most of my affection behind closed doors. The only person who I’ve even been comfortable hugging in public is my son, but Karina, she’s challenging everything I thought I knew about myself. Even this early in the relationship. I would have given a lot just to pull her out of my Jeep, lie down on the ground, and let her ride me to the best orgasm of our lives. But that wasn’t the way it had worked out, and I’ll never be the type of person to put her in a potentially embarrassing or damaging situation.
“It was good.” I swallow down a drink of the blessedly hot coffee.
Caleb squints at me as he takes a drink of his own. “Dude, it was so much better than good, I can tell by looking at you.”
“I’m your dad, not your dude.” I attempt to put some authority in my voice.
“Fair enough.” He purses his lips. “But I’m also an adult, so don’t pretend like I’m a little kid.”
He’s got me there; I’ve always treated him like an equal. Now that I have a woman I’m interested in, I shouldn’t just turn it off and pretend as if he doesn’t understand. “Karina…” I let my voice trail off, because I’m not sure how to describe her, not sure I want to let my son in on the thoughts and feelings I have for her “She makes me feel like I haven’t felt before.”
“You’re hot for her,” he supplies, a smile teasing his lips.
Fuck it. “I’m insanely hot for her.” I groan as I run my hand along my neck, my voice gruffer than it should be while talking to my son, but our situation is what it is.
“Is that a bad thing?”
I think about it for a second, trying to allow myself to come to grips with what I’ve revealed to him. “It’s not, but given the jobs we have, neither one of us need to do anything that could hurt our standing in the community.”
“And you almost did that last night?”
Jesus why is he so smart? “I have no comment.”
He laughs, a full-out, belly rolling laugh. “I’m glad, Dad. I’m glad she does that to you.”
“Why?” I rub my eyes again, trying to figure out if I’m in some sort of alternate universe.
His cheeks pink as he has a seat at the breakfast bar. “As I’ve gotten older…” he trails off, face red. “I wondered how in the fuck you lived like a monk for so long. Especially this past year.”
I think I get the gist of what he’s telling me. My face is just as red, but I answer him honestly, because we’ve always been honest. “I’m not a teenager with teenage hormones rolling through my body, Caleb. Sometimes, it’s lonely. Other times, like when I have a lot on my mind, I don’t think about it.”
“But you do think about Ms. Holland?”
We’re quiet for a few minutes, until I sigh heavily. “Yeah, I do think about Ms. Holland.”
And with that admission, I realize quickly I’m in a place I’ve never been before.
“Relax, Dad, you’ve waited for this your whole life.”
I laugh, finding it amusing that my teenage son is the one talking me down, but truth be told he’s probably smarter than most men my age. Walking over to him, I reach down, ruffling his hair. At least I’m still taller than he is. “Caleb, get to work.”
He grins as he sets his coffee down on the counter.
“Dad, text her and tell her you like her.”
I shake my head as he runs out the door to his truck. Little do I tell him I think Karina and I have moved past the I like you stage. What I’d rather tell her is that I don’t want to go to bed at night lonely anymore. But it’s too early for those words, and I have no desire to scare her away.