“You look confused.”
“I kind of am. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“Be visible and let her know that you aren’t going away, even if she acts out. That’s just a cry for attention.”
“No way.” He had cursed her out in her car none the less, no way would something that simple work.
Heck, she probably would ignore a billboard, she was so angry with him.
“Yeah. Even your mom has been known to act out from time to time. Keeps me on my toes trying to keep up with her.” His father chuckled.
“I’ll bet.” He knew his mother was a pint sized handful, capable of foiling men twice her size if need be.
His dad coughed and rubbed his hand over his thigh, a blatant tell heralding impending mischief. That could only mean one thing. His father had a scheme up his sleeve. “As I recall, her son, Mark?”
“Yeah, what about him?”
“He mentioned a lacrosse game this Friday at his school. Might be worth taking a look at. Seemed like he was inviting you to come on down. Leastways, that’s how I’d take it.”
They both looked back at the TV and not another word was said between them until his mother returned an hour later with bags upon bags that she only had to crook a finger for his dad to lug inside without complaint.
He didn’t do anything for a few days, hoping he wouldn’t have to be the one to break down, but after seeing her several times weekly? It was odd to look at his phone and realize she wasn’t going to be the one to extend the olive branch.
Masculine pride sucked sometimes.
That Friday, he showed up at St. Andrews and took an upfront bench in the field seating on the home side. He’d brought his parents, as they loved to watch their own machinations unfold.
He didn’t see Sidonie until the game started and the handful of people in the stands sat down. Then he noticed her just a row away on the other end of the bench.
Den had no plans on speaking to her. More than likely, she would have a thing or two to say and he could preserve a smidgeon of pride.
The ball went into play and he watched Mark catch it and lob it down field. The players took off and his mom, bless her heart, went crazy.
“Go Mark!” His mom even shook a sign that had the boy’s name on it. The sign did double duty and had “Go Katie” on the back side.
Sidonie looked over and when she did he waved with his good arm and shook a pompom.
She narrowed her eyes and went back to watching the game. But he knew that she stole glances in his direction whenever she could.
He knew because his eyes never left her.
It became a cat a mouse game. She would look over in covert ways, but he caught her most of the time. There was the one time she sneezed and he barely realized that she watched him as she wiped at her nose with a napkin.
He cheered based on cues from his parents, who enjoyed the game based on the hollering that came from their direction. He’d hold up the pompom and drop it again, but that was the extent of his cheering skills.
At the thought of cheering, he remembered how Sidonie cheered him on that first night and the lesson that ensued. He looked away then and allowed the game to distract him enough for his erection to subside. When he looked back, she was gone, her seat empty as if she had never been there to begin with.
When the game was halfway in, he stood up and stretched his back, but stopped looking for Sidonie. Once she was ready to rail at him, she could find him. No need to help her with that.
He went to the bathroom and arrived back at his seat just before the game resumed. Den took his seat next to his mother and grabbed the funky pompom she’d given him before the game started.
“Why are you here?” He heard from behind him, and the tone was filled with a heavy dose of irritation.
“Same reason as you are I would suspect.”
“I’m here to watch my son play. And you?”
“I’m here to watch my friend play, especially when I promised him that I would come.”
“When did you talk to Mark about the game?”
“Remember the picnic at the beach? You were right there.”
“I don’t recall that.” She hissed.
“Well, you have this tendency to get lost in thought sometimes. Maybe that’s why.”
“I would have heard him invite you.”
Yeah, right. The woman was too intelligent to stay in the same realm as mere humans. That’s why sex with her was so amazing. It was the one time he was guaranteed to have the entirety of her attention on him. “Well, you didn’t, no skin off my nose. Good game, right?”
Sidonie hissed, “You are about to work my last nerve.”
That would be interesting. Den found he didn’t know the measure of a person until they were angry. “Better find some for rent then, ’cause you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Booyah.
He had a little jolt of self-satisfaction after watching her sputter and eventually stop making the attempt to speak altogether. Instead, she turned her head back to the game.
She was still seated on the empty row behind his, but he closed the gap when he stood up and over the seat so they could sit side by side.
Sidonie tried to stand, but he clapped a hand onto her knee. She collapsed back to the seat as if he stolen her bones and shivered.
“Cold?” he asked, but he knew she was far from being cold as it was a perfectly warm seventy degrees outside.
“No.” She turned her head, but didn’t touch his hand.
He grinned. Bingo. “So when are you going to cease fire and talk to me?”
“We. Are. Talking.” The words were spat out one at a time as if each had cost her money and a lot of it at that.
“Uh-huh.” He turned back to the game.
Yeah, she had it bad. Her frame had relaxed so much she almost rested against him. Rather than force the issue, he rubbed over the knee slowly in circles and watched the game. Sidonie leaned that last crucial inch for bodily contact and he rewarded her with swift caress up the inside of one thigh, until his fingertips toyed with the hem of her shorts.
He didn’t go any further, but he smoothed over skin at the rim of hem.
“Please stop.” She sighed.
“Why?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. Not here.”
“Of course not.” But he didn’t stop. The shorts only came to mid-thigh, and it wasn’t as if the touch was even R-rated, more like PG-13.
Sidonie jerked away from him and he followed her as she scooted across the bench a handful of feet at a time until she reached the end.
“Den. I’m begging you. Don’t. Not here.” She looked at him with limpid eyes that he wanted to fall into while he plunged into her.
“I won’t. Just stay.”
She nodded.
When the game was over, she disappeared and he let her.
That interlude was just something for them both to think about.
He needed that like he needed a hole in the head.
It didn’t take long before his game time appearances had become a habit. There were even nights Sidonie wasn’t there and he was. After her initial shock at him showing up at the lacrosse game, she didn’t bat an eyelash when he showed up for the track meet a few days later.
After that, they came to a silent agreement as if the sporting events were a neutral space where they could be together without delving too deep. She wouldn’t stop him from coming and he wouldn’t touch her sexually while they were there.
Although, she wouldn’t see him off of the field, so that was hard, pun intended. After three consecutive weeks, it had become a habit that apparently hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Hi!” A peppy woman jogged over to him during the track meet.
He’d looked away from the track since Mark wasn’t running at the moment. Mark ran the hurdles and relays normally, so he had grown used to a bit of lag time between when the boy was on the field and back off again wh
ile he waited for the next event. Katie’s schedule was a bit easier as she only ran one event, the relay, although she did both the one and three hundred meters, so she was usually over and done after a short ten minute gap between the two.
Who the hell is this? And what the hell did she want? “Hello.”
“I’m Sadie Dawson, PTA president.”
“Den McTavish.” They shook hands and she squatted next to him.
“I’ve noticed that you’ve been attending a lot of games lately. Since you seem to be interested, I thought I would see if we could get you to volunteer a bit.”
“I can’t promise much. I’m off duty right now due to a work injury.” He lifted the arm in its sling. “But when I start back to work, I would have a very odd schedule that won’t allow for much time here.”
“Oh, that’s okay. We’ll take whatever time you can spare. As a matter of fact, would you care to work with the concession stand on Friday night’s game?”
“Uh, sure.” He had been quickly roped into that, but he wouldn’t promise anything more.
“Excellent. Just dress casual and we’ll get you an apron when you get here.”
“Apron?” What the hell had this woman just roped him into?
“Yeah. Be here at 4:45. ’Kay!” She bounced off just as quickly as she showed up in the first place.
“She’s a tornado in a pint sized body, isn’t she?” Sidonie asked and he looked up.
“Yeah.”
“She got you to volunteer, huh?”
“Yep.”
Sidonie laughed. “Yeah, she got me, too. That’s why I wasn’t able to watch his first event. How did he do?”
“The 300 meter hurdles, he was on fire, beat the second place finisher by five seconds.”
“Wow. He’s been getting faster and faster this last bit.”
“Yeah, he beat his last time by three seconds.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“What’s next?”
“Uh, the 4 by 400 meter relay.”
“Gotcha. What leg?”
When he started watching the matches, Mark had originally been on the first leg as he was the second fastest, but apparently his new times were good enough to get him moved to the last one.
“Anchor.”
“He must be on fire to get moved up to the fourth leg.” Sidonie grinned and took a bite of her popcorn. She had missed the last match, but he was there for the both of them. He had even taken Mark and Katie for pizza when they showered and changed out.
Not to mention, he’d dropped them back off with her none the wiser. She just assumed the carpool still carried them that night, but he was the carpool.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” The anchor leg was usually given to the most experienced runner, or in this case the fastest to preserve leads or make up for any poor times in the prior legs.
They settled in together. He stole a handful of her over-buttered corn and ate it as the runners made way to the starting block.
“On your mark. Get set. Go!” Den watched as the runners sprinted forward.
The relay inched forward person by person handing off the batons.
Mark’s teammate tripped and hobbled it off to the third leg.
“Stick! Stick!” The second leg called to the third one as he limped into the passing zone, but the other boy was slow to take off.
But the slow start for the third teammate after the shoddy handoff left them a few yards behind the other team.
When Mark took a slow jogging start in the ten meter area designated for acceleration to meet the baton pass, Den shouted. “Come on Mark! You can do it!”
Mark stuck his hand behind him and waited for the call. “Stick!” Then the boy took off with long, ground eating strides that LEOs worldwide could appreciate.
His team was behind, but Den knew the boy had it in him. “You’ve got this!”
Den could see the moment Mark heard him. The boy pushed his skinny legs faster and yet faster still, until he passed the other team with only a couple of meters to spare.
Den jumped up and whistled. The other spectators gave him the evil eye but he dared for anyone of them to say shit.
That a boy!
Katie’s event was up next and she was on the relay but the hundred meter instead. She wasn’t as fast as her brother, but she had more endurance and was overall a great athlete, although Den didn’t think she would ever be pro material.
Mark, however, could likely get a nice scholarship for several sports and any college that got him would be luckier than hell.
She took off with the baton and Den yelled, “Go Katie!”
When she reached the pass off zone, she led with her extended hand and gave a textbook perfect pass. “Stick!” Her teammate took off like a rocket with the baton and Katie jogged to a stop.
She did well with her first leg run at just under ten seconds and Den whistled. “Awesome job, Katie!”
The girl looked up and waved as she waited for the runners to move past her area so she could exit the track.
“I did good.” Sidonie grinned and gave a self-satisfied sigh.
“Yes, you did.” Den smiled back and stole another handful of popcorn. “Can I take you and the kids to dinner tonight?” He’d asked her more than once, but she always claimed she was too busy.
But he’d ask her over and over until she finally caved in again.
She always had a hard time telling him no in bed. In fact, she had always bowed to his judgment when it came to all things sexual. But it seemed as if when they were out and about, she was the most head strong person he’d ever met.
And here, he had thought his mother was bad.
Sidonie was just as much a handful and didn’t even have his mother’s life experience yet.
He had his work cut out for him.
“Uh, we have plans already,” she mumbled as Katie jogged over.
“But Mom, we’re supposed to go to dinner with the team tonight.” Katie interjected.
“That’s what I was talking about.”
“Okay, then Mr. McTavish can come with us right? The other volunteers come sometimes.” Den hid a grin as Mark asked, but Den knew the question was a challenge. He remembered what it was like when he was starting to get hormonally too big for his britches. His father always shut him down though.
But in this case, Sidonie’s lack of a male in her life to rein in the young man helped his pursuit. Den kept his mouth shut and let her children win the battle for him.
“Of course. But he’ll have to follow us.” Sidonie caved and didn’t look the least bit happy about it.
“Why, Mom? We’re riding with the team anyway, might as well save gas.” Katie giggled.
“I’m fine with that,” Den replied.
The look she gave him could have slain him where he stood if expressions could be made tangible.
“I bet you are.” She turned her back and the kids raced off to their respective locker rooms.
He took his seat back on the bench and waited for the kids to come back out. She ignored him for the most part, or at least she pretended to, but he knew the truth. She was just as aware of him as he was of her.
Fifteen minutes later, the kids hooped and hollered on their way back out. Den looked up as Mark ran over and gave him a high five that stung his hand.
Katie came out a few moments later and she had no problem giving him a hug that he returned. Before he knew it, Mark caved and wrapped his arms around Den, too. He glanced up at Sidonie and she rolled her eyes, but he could feel her love, too.
“Mom?” Katie grinned.
“Fine.” Sidonie sighed, but she leaned into the group embrace and Den smiled. This was exactly what he wanted and didn’t even know it until now.
He just had to convince Sidonie that he was what she waited for, too. Somehow, he felt like she knew it, yet she was just too stubborn to admit that he would fit into their lives perfectly and complete their small family.
Den knew he had her children won over already with a few simple gestures that meant more to them than he had ever thought it would. All they wanted was a little time and attention.
And that was no hardship to give.
Chapter Nineteen:
Daddy Den
Sidonie waited on the bleachers for her children to come back before the team bus left for pizza and she wanted to hate Den. Each and every week, she saw him at match after match. Game after game and her knees still went weak at the sight of him.
Why did he have to be so beautiful? Damn him.
The hardest part was knowing that her twins thought the sun rose and set on him. Every night, they asked about him. Den-centric conversations dominated the dinner table, even when she tried to move to another topic, they found a way to swing it back to him.
Why did they like him so much?
She did the exact same thing he had, and the sun didn’t rise and set on her. For some reason, they really, really liked the man.
He was the same asshole he had been to begin with, only he knew to mind his manners around her offspring. No matter what he did, she wouldn’t forget the way that he had cursed her out that night. She couldn’t.
That fight changed the way she saw him.
She knew one thing, that she didn’t want her children to hear something like that and think it was normal. She wouldn’t give them that for a male influence to pattern their choices after. It wasn’t fair to them, or to herself.
She had lived too much of her life without that kind of drama to invite it into her life now.
Heck, she was about to be thirty-five years old, there was no need for her to live like that with a mentally abusive influence in her home life. Especially when she was doing just fine on her own.
That didn’t mean she didn’t miss him. Didn’t mean that she didn’t crave the feel of him, either.
God, she missed him in the worst way.
At night, when she climbed into her bed, all she could think about was the way he felt when they were together. The way he made her feel.
It was a form of torture, knowing she would go to her children’s games, the neutral zone the space offered and she would be right next to him. Close enough to feel his body heat. Close enough that her skin clamored for him.
Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 25
