Passion: A Single Dad Small Town Romance

by Bella Winters

  I couldn’t remember the last time I had been to The Red Roof for a comfortable dinner with friends. The most recent memory of the place was when Garth had brought me here for a quick dinner and a quite memorable fuck out back.

  “So, what’s good here?” Alex asked, opening the menu.

  “Everything,” Samuel replied quickly. “I’d stay clear of the chicken, though. You’ll probably end up ordering seconds.”

  I smiled at that, and turned my attention to Kelly who had abandoned her menu and was watching the other guests. “Not hungry?” I asked.

  Kelly jumped a little and looked at me. “It’s just, this place seems a lot like something out of a bad Rom-Com.”

  “Kelly, eyes on the menu,” Alex said.

  “Seriously,” she said. “Look at everyone around us. I mean, they’re practically making out in public. It’s gross.”

  I laughed. “It’s one of the few romantic places in Kent, so you’re going to have a lot of dates here.”

  Kelly looked at me for a beat before she shrugged and turned her attention back to the crowd. “There’s really not a lot to do in Kent, is there?”

  “You’ll be surprised how much fun you can have outside the big city,” Alex said.

  “Sure, dad, if you say so,” Kelly replied. “And what’s up with that guy? He’s staring at us as if he knows us.”

  I turned my attention to where she was looking, and felt my heart jump into my throat. Sitting a few tables away, hidden by a table of six, was Garth. I had missed him coming in, and the tables between us would have kept him out of sight if Kelly hadn’t pointed him out to us. Garth was smiling at me, winked, and stood up slowly. I didn’t recognize the people he was with, but one of the women looked like she had just stepped out of a ‘Whores R’ Us’ catalog.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Alex turn just as Garth weaved through the tables towards us. “Is that Liston?” he asked.

  Samuel just grunted, and I could see the look of utter disgust on the elder Logan’s face.

  “If it isn’t Alex Logan!” Garth greeted, arms wide and voice as loud as ever. I cringed as people turned towards us. It was just like Garth to make a scene. “Heath told me you were back!”

  He didn’t wait for Alex to stand up and clapped him on the back, quickly putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling at him like they were old friends. I saw Alex eye Garth’s hand, then shoot him a smile that bordered on discomfort.

  “It’s nice to see you, Garth,” Alex said, slowly pulling away from Garth’s hold.

  Garth leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. “Hi, babe. I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”

  Marking his fucking territory. Next thing you know he’d probably piss on my leg.

  I saw Alex eye us before quickly looking away just as Garth turned to him again. “I was just asking Sam about you,” he said. “Told me you moved out of the old house.”

  “Yeah, we did,” Garth nodded. “Got us a nice little place on the outskirts, really sweet deal. You should pass by sometime, let me give you a tour. Maybe I could even convince you to sell that crap hole you’re living in and move into something fancier.”

  I could see Samuel’s face go red and daggers shoot from his eyes. It never ceased to surprise me how much Garth can piss someone off with an off-hand remark like that.

  “I’d like a tour,” Alex said. “But to be honest, I’m an old-fashioned kinda guy.”

  “So, are you back for good, or just visiting?”

  “Visiting,” Alex said.

  “You’re still in Miami, right?” Garth asked, returning his hand on Alex’s shoulder, something I’ve seen him do all the time. It was Garth’s way of showing the person in front of him that he had the upper hand, and from the looks of it, Alex knew that, too. And was not liking it.

  “That’s right,” Alex said, his smile faltering for only a moment.

  “Homicide, was it?”

  “DEA.”

  Garth’s smile faded a bit. “Yeah, that’s it. The D-E-A. Keeping the streets of Miami free of drugs.”

  “Something like that,” Alex said, forcing a tight smile.

  There were few times when I had seen Garth interact with others. Most of the time when we were together, we were either arguing or fucking, and in both cases, alone. It was rare that I actually got to witness his dealings with other people, and there was a good reason for that. When it came to social skills, pretentious was an understatement in regard to Garth Liston, and he had a way of getting under your skin, which pissed off most people he dealt with.

  And in the case of Alex Logan, I could see he wasn’t fairing any better.

  I was impressed by Alex’s control, although there were enough signs to show that he was as comfortable with this back and forth as I was watching it. His jaw was clenched, his smile just a little too wide, and his eyes betrayed him completely. Garth would definitely pick up on that, no doubt about it, but if he did, he wasn’t showing it. Right now, he was marking his territory, letting Alex know who the bigger fish in this pond was, and he was doing it with the grace of a Neanderthal.

  What the hell do you see in him?

  I asked myself that question all the time. I would have loved to write it off as just a sexual attraction, but a part of me knew that the bad boy ensemble was something I was pretty much drawn to like a moth to the flame. The only question was, how long would I be able to put up with Garth’s shit before it became too much.

  “Hey, while you’re here, why don’t you talk to your old man about selling that piece of land he’s been holding on to?” Garth asked, leaning in as if he and Alex were old friends.

  “Why don’t you ask me yourself?” Samuel said.

  Garth smiled at him and raised both hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I’m just the middle man here. Gotta do the job, you know. Don’t shoot the messenger and all that.”

  “I got a double-barrel that would love to do just that,” Samuel replied.

  Garth’s eyes darkened, although the smile never left his face. I knew that look, although I’d never actually been on the receiving end of it. Luckily. Garth wasn’t used to be told that he couldn’t have something; it was as if you had insulted him just by saying no. Samuel didn’t seem to care, though, and stared right back at Garth, resolute.

  “Your old man’s stubborn,” Garth said through clenched teeth.

  “You can’t really blame him,” Alex replied. “He’s really hung up on that bit of land. I suggest you tell your friend, whoever he is, that he should stop trying and maybe look for something else.”

  Garth’s gaze shifted to Alex, and for a second there, the look they shared made chills run up and down my back. I shifted in my seat, adjusting myself for no other reason other than to avoid the awkwardness, and briefly met Kelly’s eye. She smiled at me and winked, as if she knew how I felt and was trying to console me. Don’t worry, my dad’s got this, her eyes seemed to tell me, and I smiled weakly back.

  “You know, they’re offering quite a lot of money for it,” Garth said. “More than it’s worth. Enough to put your daughter through college and then some.” Garth reached for Alex’s shoulder, but this time Alex quickly brushed the hand away. “I think you should talk with your old man. It’s not fair for you, Alex. He’s not going to be around forever, and chances like these only come once.”

  “You know, I think we’ll be okay,” Alex said. “Besides, Kelly’s looking forward to student loans, aren’t you sweetheart?”

  “The backbone of the American economy,” Kelly replied lazily. I smiled. The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.

  Garth looked at Kelly, a look that gave me chills, and smiled. “Smart girl.” He turned back to Alex and smiled even more. “I heard your wife passed. Sorry I missed the funeral, man.”

  I winced. That was a low blow.

  Alex, though, seemed unfazed. “That’s okay,” he said. “We hardly noticed you weren’t there.”

  Garth’s smile dropped. I quickl
y turned away, hoping he didn’t see the smile I had failed to control, and adjusted myself in my seat again.

  “I’ll be seeing you around, Alex,” Garth said, the leaned in and kissed my neck. “And I’ll see you tonight.”

  With that he gave us all a wide smile and walked back to his table.

  “Your boyfriend’s weird,” Kelly said as her father sat back down.

  “Kelly, I said be nice,” Alex chastised.

  “Well, he is!”

  “That’s okay,” I cut in before Alex could reprimand her for telling the truth. “He’s not really my boyfriend, anyway. It’s an on and off kind of thing.”

  “Hopefully more off than on.”

  I smiled at Kelly. I really like this girl.

  “I hate to put my nose into other people’s business,” Samuel said, “but I have to agree with my granddaughter. That boy’s nothing but bad news.”

  “He’s not always like that,” I tried to defend, but didn’t feel like I had my heart in it.

  “He looks like he has a stick up his ass,” Kelly said, and I laughed at both the comment and the way Alex’s eyes widened.

  “Language, Kelly, seriously,” Alex said.

  “He’s got more than that up there,” Samuel said.

  “Maybe there’s still space for your double barrel?” Kelly asked her grandfather.

  I couldn’t hold my laughter back anymore and almost fell off my seat, grabbing the table and tipping my glass over in the process. If I only liked Kelly before, I was in love with her now. The girl had a wit about her I wished I could match, and it was even more impressive at her age.

  “How about we all try and give Jenni a break here,” Alex said, stifling his own laughter. “Maybe not comment on her personal life?”

  “Believe me,” I replied, tears stinging my eyes as I choked on my merriment. “At this point, I really don’t care what they say.”

  “I’m glad to see you’re amused,” Alex replied, letting himself go and laughing along with the rest of us.

  Kelly leaned over, grabbed my hand with both of hers and shook it dramatically. “You’re better than this,” she gasped. “So much better. You deserve to be happy. Get out while you still can!”

  “Alright, Emma Stone, that’s enough,” Alex said, pulling her back. “Choose what you want to eat.”

  I wiped the tears from my eyes and picked up my own menu, but my eyes never left the three people sitting at the table with me. For the first time in a very long time, I actually felt happy. At ease. Like I belonged, although I was technically still a stranger to both Alex and Kelly. Nevertheless, I felt welcomed, and they had drawn me in as if I were part of their family. It felt nice, different than what I was used to, and it wasn’t hard to sit back and relax.

  From across the restaurant, Garth was watching us, and for some strange reason I didn’t seem to care. I’d deal with him later. Right now, I just wanted to enjoy my meal and the company I was in.

  Chapter 9: Alex

  We drove Jenni home right after dinner, although a part of me wanted to humor my father’s suggestion that we get a few drinks. If I had been a little more comfortable with leaving Kelly home alone, I might just have done it, too. But after the little run-in with Garth at the restaurant, and the fact that Heath was making daily visits to the house, the notion of Kelly in the house by herself made me incredibly uneasy.

  Jenni’s apartment complex was closer to the college dorms than I thought, this part of Kent new to me after my prolonged absence. Whatever development had begun around town, there was no regard to architectural charm, which made me think that it was only a matter of time before my hometown became another heartless bundle of concrete eyesores.

  “I had fun,” Jenni said as I walked her to the double glass door and waited for her to fish her keys out. “Thank you so much for dinner.”

  “Don’t mention it,” I replied, catching the greens of her eyes and feeling like I could lose myself in them if I wasn’t more careful. “And sorry about what Kelly said. She can get a little out of hand sometimes.”

  “It’s okay,” Jenni said. “What she said wasn’t too far off from the truth anyway, and besides, she’s an absolute sweetheart.”

  “If you say so,” I chuckled. “She seems to have warmed up to you, too.” I looked over my shoulder to where Kelly sat on the open window watching us carefully and smiling. “She rarely does that with new faces.”

  “Then I’ll consider myself lucky,” Jenni smiled.

  If you don’t stop smiling, I’ll have to kiss you.

  I quickly pushed that thought to the back of my mind. What the fuck, Alex?

  “We’ll see you around,” I said instead as she unlocked the door and pushed her way in.

  “Sam’s always having breakfast at the diner,” she replied. “You guys should join him. Our eggs are to die for.”

  I chuckled, knowing well that Kelly would probably be pulling me out of bed tomorrow just for that. I wondered what excuse my daughter would make up so she wouldn’t look too desperate.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “You do that,” Jenni smiled. “And thank Sam for me. He didn’t have to pick up the check.”

  “He’s old school,” I said. “He’d never let a lady pay for her own meal, not while he had a penny in his pocket.”

  “Thank him for me anyway,” she said and waved as the doors closed behind her.

  I waited until she was out of sight, watching her skip up the stairs before turning back to the truck. My mind was racing, doing summersaults in my head, and I looked back at the glass doors as if expecting her to come back down. I shook my head angrily, forcing myself to keep moving, trying to understand what hell had gotten into me.

  Smitten, Mr. DEA?

  It wasn’t Janice’s voice this time, but my father’s, and when I looked up I could see him smiling at me from behind the wheel, like he knew some secret I didn’t.

  Or do you?

  Or did I, indeed. Dinner really had been fun, and I hadn’t felt that relaxed around someone in a long time. She was funny, handled herself well, and knew exactly what to say to win you over. My father was already infatuated by her, something he had no shamed in admitting when he called her ‘the daughter he never had’. And she was definitely on Kelly’s favorites list. So, was it really all that surprising that I would be attracted to her, too?

  Too many walls, buddy. Gotta knock a few down.

  True, but it had taken years to build those, and tearing them down felt like throwing away a lifetime’s effort. Besides, it wasn’t like she was available, even if her current paramour was an ass that needed to be brought down from his ivory tower. For the life of me, I could not tell what the fuck she saw in Garth Liston, but to each his own. It was not my place to voice an opinion on that, and I was not in the habit of meddling in other people’s business.

  But, I did have to agree with my father. Garth felt like bad news, and it didn’t need the instincts of a DEA agent to figure that much out.

  We drove home in silence, Samuel with a wide smile on his face, Kelly in the backseat and lost in her phone once again. I didn’t want to bring up dinner with either of them, and talking about what had happened with Garth seemed like a conversation for another time. Besides, I had a feeling the discussion might bring out the worst in both me and my father, and I didn’t want Kelly in the middle of it.

  When we got home, my father disappeared into his room with a cheery good night, and I made sure Kelly settled in for the night. Unlike her father, she had changed the sheets on the bed and had already turned the room into her own. Got that from her mother, I thought to myself, a little impressed.

  “So, when are you going to ask her out?” Kelly asked me as she jumped into bed and pulled the covers up to her waist, telephone in hand.

  I snatched the phone away and put on the night stand, a ritual we went through every night. I had read something about terrible sleeping habits if you’re on your phone before going t
o bed.

  “Ask who out?”

  “You know who,” Kelly squinted at me.

  “For starters, let’s agree that there are certain rules to this sort of thing,” I said. “Like, not asking someone out who is already dating?”

  “Oh, come on, she hates that guy,” Kelly protested.

  “You don’t know that,” I said, “and it’s none of our business.”

  “I’m just saying.”

  “Loud and clear, thank you Sherlock.” She reached for her phone and I pushed it away. “Second of all, I have no place for another woman in my life. You take up most of that anyway.”

  “Wow, using your daughter as an excuse,” Kelly nodded. “Do they teach you that in the DEA?”

  “No, they taught me how to find someone’s weakness and use it against them,” I replied. “For example, one more snarky comment from you, and your phone is mine.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “Get used to it,” I said. “Now get some sleep.”

  Kelly rolled over with a huff. I smiled and switched off the light.

  “She likes you, you know?” Kelly mumbled.

  “Phone privileges, chipmunk.”

  I closed the door to the sound of one of her usual, pre-teen groans and made my way downstairs. The lights were out on the ground floor, and I could hear the distant snores of my father behind his closed door. The man still sounds like a steam mower, I thought, remembering how his snoring had always kept me up as a kid.

  I closed my bedroom door, thankful that Samuel was sleeping downstairs, and gazed at the bed, pondering whether or not I had the energy to actually change the sheets. I was exhausted, and ever since we had gotten back home, my leg had started acting up again.

  Just get it over with.

  I sighed, pulled the dusty sheets off the bed and rummaged through the closet for fresh ones. Within twenty minutes I was undressed and lying in bed, the window above the desk open to let in the night’s breeze. It felt good not having to turn on an air conditioner, and I closed my eyes, replaying the events of the day in my head until I fell asleep.