by Chelle Bliss
Instead of walking up to the door, he stood outside, staring at Ret’s truck. Slowly, I opened the door and waved with the biggest smile on my face.
“Hey, baby. I’m so happy you’re back.”
He looked at me and then back to the truck and scratched his beard, silent.
Well, fuck. This isn’t going exactly as I’d planned.
“Who’s inside, Franny?” His eyebrow was cocked. That wasn’t a look that instilled a warm and fuzzy feeling in my already shaking body.
“Just a friend. Come on.” I waved him inside, holding the door open but not moving.
“You come here.” He pointed toward the ground, his eyes still going back and forth between the truck and me like a pinball in a machine.
“It’s too hot outside.” I was grasping at straws, and just like the man he was—seeing right through me—he knew the type of woman I was—a trick up every sleeve.
“Fran. Out here now,” he demanded and snapped his fingers.
Instead of running, I crossed my arms and glared at him. “I don’t know who you think you’re snapping those meat sticks at, buddy, but it sure as fuck isn’t me.”
“Fran,” he started to plead, but I kept talking.
“You don’t want to come in? Fine. I’ll meet you halfway, but you ever snap your fingers at me like I’m an animal again, and I’ll break them in your sleep.”
Ret laughed, and I turned to face him, giving him a sweet smile. “Just letting him know who’s boss.”
“Remind me never to cross you, Fran. You’d do mighty fine with a whip in your hands.”
I laughed nervously. “Thanks.”
“Fine, sweetheart. I’m coming up,” Bear said, finally coming to his senses.
I don’t know what came over me. Usually, I’m not quite so stern, but goddamn it, he was ruining my fabulous surprise.
“I’m coming down,” I told him, glancing back at Ret and holding up a finger. “Be right back.”
“I can go,” he offered.
“Sit your ass down,” I told him and closed the door behind me before marching my skinny-jean-covered ass down the stairway to Bear.
I huffed the entire walk down to him. My knees were still a little wobbly, but I was too pissed off to really pay much attention to them. “Why won’t you come in?” I asked, trying to use my sweetest voice.
“Oh, now you’re sweet. You’re talking about breaking my… What did you call them?” He tapped his chin and smiled. “Meat sticks. And now you’re acting like June Cleaver.”
“I have a surprise for you. An old friend stopped over. You’re going to want to see them.”
“Them?” he asked, his finger stopped on his lip.
“Him.” I smiled so big my cheeks hurt.
He sighed. “Fran, you’ve got to stop with the surprises. They aren’t my favorite thing in the world, but you insist on doing it.”
“This is your payback, but trust me, you’re going to like it.” I grabbed his hand and started yanking him toward the house.
He dug his heels into the cement, and his feet didn’t move—like there was glue on the bottom, holding him to the ground. “Who’s inside?”
Intertwining my fingers with his, I gave them a soft squeeze. “Promise you won’t be mad?”
“Fran.”
“Well.” I swallowed and took a deep breath. “Ret’s inside.”
“My son, Ret?”
“No, Bear.” I rolled my eyes. “Ret, the pool guy.”
His eyes widened, and his body rocked back. “My son is here?” He pointed toward the ground.
“No, in there.” I pitched my thumb over my back. “Waiting for you and watching your reaction very carefully.”
His eyes went to the window and back to mine. “He’s here.”
I nodded. “In there.”
“Shit,” he said, releasing my hand and running toward the door without any more nudging from me.
I turned around, but I didn’t move as he flung open the door and walked inside. Through the large bay window in the front of the house, I could see them both clear as day.
Bear stared at Ret for a moment, and Ret stood from the couch. A few words were muttered, and I wish I could’ve heard them. Bear stalked toward Ret and scooped him into his arms. At first, Ret didn’t return the gesture, but a few seconds later, he wrapped his arms around his father.
Tears began to well in my eyes, and I wanted to go inside and listen to the reunion, but instead, I just watched.
I had eavesdropped on his talk with Janice, but I knew this one would be different—more important and more personal.
Bear kept hold of Ret, pulling back every so often for a moment to look at his younger reflection before cocooning him in another hug.
Tears streamed down my face from the beauty of the moment. It was better than I imagined when I concocted my little plan.
My knees were shaking as I leaned against the truck, my nerves still frazzled from earlier. Shaking out my hands, I tried to calm myself, but I needed something more. Spotting the fake flowerpot where I stored an extra key and a pack of cigarettes, I glanced around the yard before making a beeline for my hiding spot.
My fingers shook as I opened the hidden compartment around the back and pulled out the pack and lighter. I could barely light the cigarette through my tears and shakes.
“Jesus,” I muttered with the filter in my mouth, struggling to steady my hand.
“Fran!”
Naturally, the moment I was going to give myself chemical solace, Bear walked outside to find me. That was exactly how shit had been going down. Tucking the pack, including my unlit cigarette, and lighter back inside, I took a few deep breaths and tried to calm myself before I started to walk toward him.
“Hey,” I said, peeking around the corner and catching a glimpse of him standing near the doorway.
As soon as he saw me, he jogged down to meet me. “Hey, sweetheart.” He brushed the tears from his cheeks. “I don’t even know what to say.”
Placing my hand on his chest, I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his lips. “Don’t say a thing.”
He wrapped his hands around my upper arms, gripping me tightly as he stared down at me. “I’m just so…so…”
“I know, Bear.” I smiled.
“Why didn’t you come inside?”
“I wanted to give you time alone.”
“He’s so much like me, Franny. It’s like looking in a mirror.” He looked like a little kid, so excited and full of wonder. “He’s me, but not. You know?”
“He’s very handsome.”
“Let’s go in, babe. I don’t want you to feel like an outsider. This is your house.”
I nodded, staying tucked under his arm as we walked toward the front door. “So you’re not mad at me?”
“Fran, I’m never mad at you. But you do pull some big shit.”
“That’s what makes me great.” I chuckled.
He kissed the top of my head. “It’s what makes you mine,” he said into my hair as we walked through the door.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bear
Part of me was still in shock. Even after spending two hours with Ret, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the reality that my boy was sitting right in front of me.
“I pulled up your rap sheet years ago.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Jesus,” I muttered. This wasn’t going to be good. The damn thing was as long as I was tall.
“Interesting life you’ve led.” He smiled.
“I’m clean and living on the straight and narrow. I have been for years, Ret.”
“You really went off the rails after Mom died.” He frowned, but he hid it quickly behind the glass of beer he’d been nursing for an hour.
“I did. I didn’t handle her death well. I wanted to die too. I was so angry about what happened that I did everything in my power to let the world know just how pissed I was.”
“Lucky for me, you didn’t get your wish. But base
d on what I read, you came pretty damn close.”
“She’d be so disappointed in me if she knew what happened, son.” I hung my head and rubbed my eyebrows. “She’d beat the hell out of me for acting like a fool.”
“What’s happened, happened, and we can’t change it. I’m not angry with you. I was hurt for a long time. I couldn’t understand how you could abandon Janice and me without a backward glance.”
Lifting my head, I choked back the tears that were threatening to come. “I did come back. I visited for the first three years. I’d come and hold you in my arms and tell you stories. I still remember the way you smelled and the sound of your voice when you cried. You were so damn little, and I was scared that I might break you.”
“I didn’t know that. No one ever told me you came.” His eyes darkened. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“I don’t know. My sisters can be bitches and probably thought it was best if you didn’t know.
“When you started to talk, Caroline asked me not to come back. She said that you would start to remember me, and if I wasn’t able to take you and Janice that I should keep my distance. I believed her and wasn’t in the right place to take you with me, so I did as she asked.”
“I wish you would’ve fought for us.”
“Ret, I couldn’t even fight for me,” I admitted. “I hope someday you’ll forgive me and let me make it up to you. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize nothing else matters except for family and friends. I surround myself with good people and lead my life like I should’ve. Like your mother would’ve wanted me to. She’d want us to have a relationship, and it’s the only thing in my life that I want right now. There’s nothing more important.”
“We’ll see, Dad. I have a lot to think about.” Ret smiled softly. “I have to head back soon.”
“Already?” I wasn’t ready to say good-bye. We’d spent enough time away from each other. Too long, and it was entirely my fault.
Ret rubbed his hands together as he leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Alese is waiting for me at the hotel.”
“Why didn’t you bring her?”
“I didn’t know what was going to happen, and I didn’t want to stress her.”
“I’m sorry.” The amount of guilt and shame I felt were almost overwhelming. No child should ever have to worry about their parent being an asshole, but I did that to my kid.
“Why don’t you get her and bring her to my place tonight? You two can spend some time with me.”
“I don’t know,” he said and peered around the room, looking for Fran, but she was in the kitchen washing the dishes. “We don’t lead a regular lifestyle.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I don’t know how to explain it to someone like you.” He sighed.
I placed my hand on my chest and laughed. “Someone like me? Ret, I’m not a normal person. Nothing really shocks me anymore.”
“She’s my submissive.” He stared me straight in the eyes and waited.
Maybe he thought I’d be shocked or horrified, but I wasn’t. “Janice told me. Is she your sub or slave?” I asked, trying to sound like I knew the lingo, and he gave me a confused look. “I’m not new.”
“She’s just my submissive, and we keep it only in the bedroom when we’re around other people.”
I laughed and shook my head. “One of the owners of my company does the same with his wife. I wish I could get Franny to be mine, but she’d just kick me in the balls and tell me to go fuck myself if I ever bossed her around.”
“Yeah,” he said, laughing with me. “She doesn’t seem like the lifestyle would work for her.”
“I heard you!” she yelled from the kitchen, and Ret and I laughed louder.
I sobered at the thought that it might be a while before I saw him again, and I had to do something to not keep that from happening. “Will you at least stick around for a few days? I’m not ready to let you go already.”
“I can stay for a bit. I’m in between jobs, so I don’t have anywhere to be.”
“Why don’t you find a job around here? You can be close to Janice, and we could get to know each other better.”
“Let’s see how the next few days go together before I start setting down roots here. I told myself I’d never move back to Florida when I left years ago.”
“Your aunts are here, I’m here, your sister’s here. What other reasons do you need? It’s time to come back home, son. It’s time for me to make up for all the time I’ve thrown away.”
“I’m not saying no, but I have to talk to Alese. She gets a say in where we live too. I’ll think about it.”
“I’ll give you all the time you need.”
He stood and rubbed his palms against his jeans. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”
“Meet me at my office, and we can talk some more. I’ll take you to lunch.”
“That would be great.”
I wanted him to see ALFA PI. He’d fit right in with those guys, and we could use a bounty hunter. He could use our resources, which were vast, and our manpower to track down his cases. I couldn’t think of anything more perfect. I’d have to talk with James and Thomas, but I couldn’t see them saying no. I’d just have to get him in the door to make shit happen.
Franny walked out from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Leaving so soon?”
He nodded and walked toward her. “I have to get back to my girl, but I’ll be around this week.”
She smiled and tossed the towel over her shoulder. “That makes me happy, Ret. Thanks for doing this,” she said, grabbing hold of his arms. “I hope it turned out as you’d hoped.”
“Better than, actually, Fran.” He leaned in and kissed her cheeks, whispering something in her ear.
She laughed softly, her eyes darting to mine for a moment. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“You will.” He hugged her properly as her hands roamed around his back. She was feeling him up, letting his muscles skate across her fingertips. I knew the moves; she did it to me often.
“Dad,” Ret said as he walked toward me, and it sounded like music to my ears. He stuck out his hand, but I didn’t want a handshake.
“Come here.” I pulled him into my arms for the tenth time since I’d laid eyes on him. “I’ll see you at the office tomorrow. Don’t leave without saying good-bye. You hear me?”
“I’ll be there. Don’t worry,” he said, gripping my bicep with his fully grown hands.
As I watched him walk out the front door, my heart ached. I longed for the years I’d lost. The days. The hours. The minutes. The seconds. There wasn’t a milestone in his life that I had been there for. I didn’t cheer him on as he took his first step, learned to ride a bike, or threw his first football.
I’d missed them all.
Everything.
I wasn’t willing to miss another moment either.
I had been selfish, and the ones who’d suffered were my kids. While I was out trying to chase down the grim reaper and drowning myself in booze and pussy, my kids grew up without me.
What kind of self-absorbed prick does that?
I did.
Jackie would’ve been so disappointed in me. I knew that. There wasn’t a morning I’d woken up over the last thirty years that I didn’t think that. But the guilt never drove me to seek them out and make shit right.
So much time had passed that I didn’t think there was a way to repair the damage I’d done. I didn’t even know how to make the first move. People knew me as a tough guy. The one who would kick anyone’s ass if they were acting like a fool or deserved a beatdown, but when it came to my kids…
I was the biggest pussy on earth.
It was time I paid my penance and made up for everything I’d missed. If I had my way, both kids would stay close, and I’d spend as much time as possible with them.
I wouldn’t be up in their shit like Franny is with Morgan, but I’d like to develop a relationship and get to know my future g
randchildren.
There was still time, and Fran made it possible.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Fran
“Hey, Ma.” Morgan stood outside my front door, but he hadn’t called before he’d showed up.
“Hey, baby. What’s up?” I asked with the door open only a little bit while Bear gathered up his clothes and ran down the hallway.
His eyebrows were drawn as he tried to peek inside. “You going to bed?”
“No, just relaxing.” I smiled and glanced behind me. “What’s up?”
He placed his hand against the door and gave it a little shove, but I had my foot against the back, stopping it from moving. “Can I come in?”
I looked over my shoulder, seeing Bear’s naked ass as he streaked out of the room. When the bedroom door finally closed, I said, “Sure.”
His eyes roamed around the room as he walked inside, taking in the pillows strewn all over the floor. “Bear here with you?”
“He’s in the bedroom,” I said, clearing my throat. “He wanted to wash up after being on the road.”
“Uh-huh,” he muttered as he kicked off his boots, placing them next to Bear’s boots. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You don’t care that he’s here…naked?” I smiled, waiting to see if he’d flinch, but he didn’t.
“Nah. We already had a talk. I’m cool with whatever makes you happy. When he stops making you happy, then we have a problem.”
“Want something to drink?” I asked as he followed me into the kitchen.
“I’m good, Ma. Come sit with me.” He pulled out the chair next to him and patted the seat. “We gotta talk.”
“Oh,” I said, my voice almost shrill. Pulling my robe tighter, I sat down and braced myself for whatever Morgan was about to tell me.
“We got the money back for the track.”
My hand flew to my mouth, and I gasped. “That’s great.”
His eyes drifted to the window, focusing on a spot in the distance. “We hit a few snags getting it, though. I wanted to tell you before you heard about it from someone else.”
