Mine - HelenKay Dimon Page 0,69
trying not to take sides. And how ironic was that.
“Yeah, the point is our safe house location was compromised.” The comment sufficed to give Brandon the flavor. Gabe decided he didn’t need to know everything.
Brandon smiled. “She really is a client?”
Leave it to him to focus on the important part of what he’d learned today. “Yes.”
“But you’re sleeping with her.”
Gabe tried to be open with his kid about sex. He was desperate for Brandon not to make the same mistakes he did and grow up too early. Still, even Gabe squirmed when the talk of his personal sex life hit the table. Happily, it didn’t happen all that often. “Yes, and before you say it, I know that’s not normal for me.”
“Right.” Brandon hummed. “You like her.”
Talk about drilling down to the heart of the issue. “When do you go back to school?”
“She’s pretty.”
“Yeah, I know.” He did have eyes and had a very hard time keeping them off her.
“Like whoa and damn pretty.”
The kid had good taste. “I get it, Brandon.”
“She watches you. You watch her.”
“You make us sound weird.” But Gabe liked the idea of the attraction running both ways.
At first he figured he was convenient for her. She needed to gain control and burn off some energy. He was right there when no one else was and happy to volunteer. But somewhere along the line whatever arced between them morphed into something else. He could feel her watch him when they were back in the cabin. He planned to make it clear she could watch, touch, do anything she wanted, as soon as Brandon went back to the dorm.
Maybe that way he could keep whatever sparked between them on a sex-only level. He’d been trying since day one, before he ever touched her to get there and failed. He’d known back then that a certain energy hummed between them. He didn’t want it to mean anything, yet here she was. Sitting in his house. Meeting his kid. Knowing about his past and about things no one else knew.
She had his trust. He had no idea when or how it happened but it all felt pretty committed to him. He hoped to figure out why as the days went on.
“Grown-ups are weird. All old and boring.” Brandon tapped the toes of his sneakers together in a clapping sound.
“Happy we settled that.”
“I’m just saying that if you brought her here she means something to you. She’s not just some woman.” Brandon stopped staring at the black screen of the turned-off television and looked at Gabe. “Right?”
Gabe refused to answer that one because the potential answer was starting to scare the shit out of him. “That psychology class is paying off.”
“And if she means something, that’s okay with me. It’s great, actually.” The kid’s devilish smile came back. “Good to see you getting a little action.”
“Honestly, Brandon.” Gabe rubbed a hand in Brandon’s hair and ignored the slick of gel that now stuck to his fingers. At least he’d moved on from the rancid-smelling aftershave or whatever it was that had followed him senior year in a tiny cloud.
Brandon stood up. “I’ll let you go find her.”
“Where is she?”
“Last I saw she was wandering in the backyard, sticking close to the house like I assume you trained her to do.”
“You just know everything today.” But Gabe appreciated the information. It would cut down on his hunting for her.
Brandon spun around and his sneakers squeaked against the hardwood floor. “One more thing.”
Gabe braced for whatever came next. With Brandon, the leaps of logic and conversation topics could be big. “Yeah?”
“Uncle Rick keeps texting.”
Gabe felt everything inside him fall. Just crash inward until he consisted of a hollowed-out pile of nothing. “Okay.”
“He says he wants to come to Charlottesville and take me to dinner.” Brandon put his hands up before he even finished the sentence. “I know you guys are still fighting and thought maybe you wouldn’t want me to.”
Gabe wanted to shout no, but he choked the words back. This should be about what Brandon needed. “Do you want to see him?”
“I do miss him. You and Uncle Andy suck at fishing.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Gabe wondered for about the thousandth time in his life how he got so lucky with this kid. Everything should have gone wrong. They were set up to fail. Now they just had to survive Rick’s admission.
“Then we’ll make it happen.” It hurt to say the words, but Gabe spit them out.
“Thanks, Dad.” Brandon slipped the