Real World, page 21
“That’s right. You be the best you can be.”
“Daddy, did I forget my shoes?” Kenzie asked for the third time.
“No, baby girl. You put them in your dance bag, remember?” Could a six-year-old have Alzheimer’s?
“I want to practice tonight,” she told him.
“Okay, after supper. Dan-Dan and I have something to tell all y’all.”
Maddie glanced at him sideways. “Is it good?”
“I think so, yes.” He offered her a grin, and her eyes went wide.
She kept her thoughts to herself, though, because Emma was chattering about math and pizza toppings, and Kenzie was bellowing her dance music like a moose in heat.
Caleb was… holy shit. “Boy, don’t you jump off that fence!”
“I Superman!”
“You’re a pain in my butt. Come here.” He plucked Caleb off the top of the fence and tucked him under one arm.
“Daddy! I want to fly!”
“That’s what you have a trampoline for.”
“I’ll jump with you, Caleb!” Kenzie said, and he shook his head.
“Not right now. It’s fixin’ to rain, and we need to clean off the table. Dan-Dan’s bringing home Sonic.”
“Corny dogs!” Caleb screamed.
“Hey!” Weldon knew his voice cracked like a whip, but he needed everyone to breathe. “Calm down, please. I like corny dogs too.”
He sure hoped Jakob remembered to tell Dan to grab corny dogs for the little ones and a chicken sandwich for Maddie the no-longer-a-vegetarian, thank God.
If he didn’t have his hands full, he would text.
Nah, Jakob would have his back, and Dan would call if he had issues.
He got Maddie on her English homework, Emma on her reading, and let Caleb and Kenzie help him clear the table.
Jakob came in maybe half an hour later, guitar case in one hand, Pepper’s harness handle in the other. “Hey, y’all, can someone help Dan bring in the food? I didn’t have a hand.”
“I got it, guys. Everybody to the table.” Weldon wanted his second of privacy, his kiss hello.
The kids scrambled in his wake, and Weldon headed outside to grab Dan before he was too laden with bags.
“Hey, honey. How goes it?” He jumped off the porch and headed toward Dan’s truck that was parked by the Suburban.
“Good.” Dan’s grin stretched ear to ear. “I was hoping you would come out to help.”
“I figured you could use it, and I could use this.” He walked right up and kissed Dan square on the mouth.
“Mmm.” Dan kissed him right back, holding on, the contact white-hot.
“Welcome home, honey.” The words were muffled in their kiss.
“Thank you.” Dan licked his lower lip. “I like the sound of that.”
“Yeah, me too. I’ll make sure and say it a lot.”
“Yum. I got all the food. Chicken for Maddie, right?”
“Yes, sir.” Thank God. “Corny dogs?”
“They were two for one tonight.” Dan winked. “I know Caleb’s favorites.”
“Caleb is your boy, for sure.”
“I’ll even share one of the extra ones with him instead of devouring it whole.” Dan looked like a monkey, his grin wide as his face.
“Oh, now that’s love. Do you need help with the drinks?”
“Please. I got a couple of small cherry limeades, and Jakob wheedled a shake out of me. He swears he ate his veg and ranch dip at lunch.”
“He lies.” Weldon knew Jakob gave the lion’s share of his lunch to that little Jennifer girl. His boy was a soft touch, and Jennifer didn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. “Still, he probably deserves it, one way or t’other.”
“Right,” Dan said, a warm chuckle telling him Dan knew the sad tale. “I also got onion rings to go with the tots.”
“Oh, I know a certain nine-year-old that will bounce. She got more badges. She’s over the moon.” They headed in, wandering up the stairs, easy as you please.
“Did she? She was worried about the math one.”
Weldon loved that Dan listened to his girls. All of them. In fact, the man made a point of spending half an hour each day letting Emma and Kenzie ramble at him solo.
“She did. Did y’all get the house in the dry?”
“We did. I turn that one back over to Cain in the morning and work on Blake’s place tomorrow. I have to run down to San Marcos in the morning, but the toll road won’t take too long.” Dan was putting some miles on his truck.
“Yeah? You want some company?” He was in a little bit of a lull until someone made a decision.
“You know it.” Dan grinned sideways at him, and it was almost enough to make him want to skip supper. Except they had kids to talk to.
Besides, the sort of celebrating they had to do took more than ten minutes in the bathroom.
They laid out food, and the locusts descended, the kids telling Dan all about their day. Jakob ate, but his focus was on his phone, that earphone in and connected.
Sometimes Weldon felt like they lived in a science fiction novel, but he hated to take one of the normal parts of teenaged life from his son.
Dan poked Jakob in the ribs once supper was over. “Can you give us a minute, kiddo?”
“Uh… okay?” He pulled his earphone out. “What’s up?”
“Yeah, spill. Seriously, Daddy, what’s going on?” Maddie stared at him, eyes bright with curiosity.
“Well, we want to pass it by you first,” Weldon said, “but we think Dan ought to move in with us here full-time.”
Maddie looked at Jakob and held out her hand. “You owe me five bucks.”
Jakob grimaced. “I’ll give it to you tomorrow. I’m out of cash.”
Caleb tilted his head. “Dan-Dan is staying?”
“Yes. Is that cool for you, baby boy?”
“Uh-huh. He’s my good friend.”
“What do you think, Kenzie?”
“I like Dan-Dan. If you want him to stay, it’s good, Daddy. He makes pancakes, and he knows how to play Chutes and Ladders.”
Ah, the important things.
Emma simply stared at Dan, vibrating a little in her seat. That was… unusual.
“Em?”
“So you’ll be ours? For like real?”
Dan stilled for a moment, then nodded, expression serious. “I would.”
Emma launched herself into Dan’s arms, sobbing and holding on tight, and Weldon just stared. Okay. That was weird.
Dan patted her back. “Is that good?” Dan asked her, and Emma nodded hard.
“Good deal. Maddie? Jakob?”
“I like that Daddy’s happy. You do that, huh?” His girl looked worried.
“He does, yeah?”
Jakob’s answer was to shrug. “Whatever. He’s here all the time, so it’s cool.”
Dan bit back a grin, winking at Weldon. “Ah. Teenagers.”
“Yep. They’re deep, dammit. Deep.”
Jakob snorted. “Yeah, yeah. I like the idea of another income.”
“Jakob!” Maddie poked her brother. “Shut up.”
“What? It’s true. Dad’s always going on about the expense of teenagers.”
Weldon glared for a second, but only for a second, because he could see the evil lurking around his eldest’s mouth. “Well, I reckoned Dan could put you to work painting walls, kiddo.”
“Oh, God. Now I need to run. Where’s Pepper?”
“Peeing in the backyard,” Emma said.
“I could always make you measure windows, Jakob.” Dan could do dry with the best of them.
“Uh-huh. Is family time over now? I’ve got biology homework.”
“Hey, thank Dan for supper.” Weldon might let some shit slide, but outright rudeness? No.
“I did in the truck, Dad. Honest. Thanks again, though, and for the ride home.”
“No problem, kiddo. Thanks for the company,” Dan said easily.
“Yeah. I’ll be in my room.”
Caleb was carefully smashing the excess cornbread from his dog onto the wrapper, Maddie was feeding the dogs the lion’s share of her sandwich, and Kenzie was frowning at him.
“What, baby girl?”
“I’m still hungry, Daddy.”
“You want part of my corndog?” Dan asked. “I got an extra.”
“Uh-huh. Please. My belly is growling.”
“Oh no.” Weldon plonked some more tots on her plate too.
“Uh-huh. I think I might have a dinosaur in there.”
“Rawr.” Dan broke off half the corndog after pulling out the stick. He was getting good at deconstructing food.
She nodded and took the half with a serious face. “It’s a thing. Dinosaur belly.”
It was a thing.
Good Lord and butter.
Dan peered at her tummy. “T. rex?”
She pulled down the neck of her leotard. “See?”
“Wow. That’s impressive.” Dan’s eyebrows gyrated.
“Pull your clothes back on. You’ll ruin the neckline.” Maddie rolled her eyes. “Can I be excused?”
“I suppose so. Your homework done?”
“Yeah. There’s not much today.”
“Okay, but for the record, I wish you would eat more,” Weldon said.
“I know.” She shrugged and headed off to her room.
Dan shook his head. “I wish I could tell you I know more about girls’ eating habits. I have a lot of cousins, but that was something that never came up.”
“Mel assures me it’s normal.” Still, he hated that she worried so.
“Yeah.” Dan grinned at Kenzie, who was devouring tots. “Dino tummy is better.”
“Grr, rawr.”
They all laughed hysterically at that, and Weldon figured the talk had gone as well as he could hope. Way better than he’d half feared.
His kids were pretty easygoing, he guessed. They trusted him. Wanted him happy. That was humbling.
Weldon grinned at Dan, who was listening to Emma tell him all about everything. Humbling and so good.
“Come on, Caleb. Bath time. Kenzie, you get your hour of TV now.”
“Okay, Daddy.” Kenzie took her trash to the can, then washed up. Emma had disappeared by the time Weldon pried Caleb out of his seat.
“Come on, kiddo. Move it or lose it.”
“I want to watch TV.”
“You get to watch at your granny’s all the time. It’s Kenzie’s turn.”
Caleb sighed dramatically, something Weldon thought he’d learned from Jakob, then reached for Dan, arms open wide. “Bath, Dan-Dan.”
Dan hooted and grabbed Caleb. “I assume my honeymoon stage will end sometime, but we might as well enjoy it.”
“I told you, four is easier. We’re good for a few years now.”
“I like it.” Dan zoomed Caleb gently, having learned that serious zooms directly after food resulted in massive barfs.
Weldon had tried so hard not to laugh.
The key word in that sentence was tried, of course.
“I see the evil in your eyes, babe.” Dan gave him a stern look.
“No. No, I’m pure as the driven snow, honey. You have my word.”
“That would be downright boring.”
“Dan-Dan!”
“Right. Bath. I’ll see you in a few, Mr. Weldon.”
“You know it.” Weldon winked before getting Kenzie settled with her show and helping Emma with the homework she suddenly remembered.
It was silly, but the fact that he didn’t have to ask whether Dan was sleeping over tonight? It felt good. Damn good. The heat in his lower belly wasn’t gonna go away on its own either.
Good thing he didn’t have any more work to do. Not any of the hard work, at any rate.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
FOR NOT having hardly any stuff, Dan felt like he had filled up the little nooks and crannies in Weldon’s house.
Seriously.
A big part of it was Jakob—there were so many rules about where things went, especially in the kitchen, and all the kids had grown up with them. Dan felt as if he had a steep learning curve, and, damn, Dan had a lot of books.
Weldon shifted coloring books down and started packing up dog-eared novels into boxes. “Is two shelves enough?”
“I feel weird making you pack some up. Two is fine.” His footlocker had fit great in a closet off the mudroom.
“I’ve read all these a hundred times. They’ll fit under the bed.”
“Thanks, babe.” He kissed Weldon’s shoulder.
“You’re welcome, honey.”
“Oh, God. Seriously? Do you two have to be gross?” Jakob squeezed past them, Pepper panting and wagging.
“Totally. It’s a requirement.” Weldon tousled Jakob’s hair, and Jakob growled a little.
“Jesus, Dad. Just don’t, okay?”
“Touchy kid.”
Dan thought so too. Jakob had been like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs lately. He had to wonder if it was him, but Weldon insisted that everyone just needed to figure shit out.
Hopefully Jakob figured it out before his daddy hit him with a hammer.
“Sorry,” Jakob murmured. “Can someone drive me to the library soon?”
“If you give me half an hour, I’ll run you down when I drop your sister off at her Girl Scouts thing.”
“Thanks, Dad. You rock.”
Dan bumped shoulders with Weldon, nudging him. “You are a good dad, you know?”
“I try. Honest to God.”
“It’s got to be a tough gig. I worry every day I’m screwing up, and I haven’t been here long at all.”
“I guess our parents managed okay, and they couldn’t look shit up on their phones.”
“True.” His folks were amazing. He adored them and their weirdness, from llamas to picketing the Capitol Building for mental health reform to the way they learned to cook Ethiopian food.
“Did you know Ethiopian food is mostly eaten with bread?” Dan asked.
“I did not. No. Really? Have you eaten a lot of it?”
“My folks took classes.” Dan loved a few of the dishes. “We should go to Taste of Ethiopia on date night.”
“Okay. Sure. I can do that.”
He loved that—how Weldon was surprised and willing in the same thought. How there was this experience and innocence.
Dan reached down and stroked one finger down Weldon’s spine, watching the goose bumps pop up on the exposed skin of Weldon’s arms. He grinned. Yeah, he would never tire of that.
He had about ten thousand questions that he wasn’t sure he’d ever ask. Had Weldon been so responsive to his wife? Had he wanted her like he wanted Dan? Why him? Why had Weldon looked at him and not at the waitress at the bar that night?
One thing he did know was that Weldon’s responses were true and honest, so he felt unfair asking any of that shit.
“You okay, honey? You want me to clear off one more down? Sticky fingers might be able to reach.”
“None of my stuff is valuable, babe.” That sounded awful. “I mean, none of it is precious enough I can’t fix or replace it.”
“Still.” Weldon chuckled and hefted the box of paperbacks. “I want you to be settled.”
“Me too.” He really liked the sight of his clothes hanging next to Weldon’s. “I’ve never done this, you know? I’ll need you to smack me if I get it wrong.”
“That’s fair.” Weldon shot him a look over one shoulder. “What do I get when I fuck up?”
“Uh—” Dan’s cheeks heated. “I do bite.”
“Promise?”
Oh, he was going to pinch Weldon’s butt. In fact, he suited actions to words, reaching over to give Weldon a little sting.
It gave him a rush, how Weldon hurried and blushed and gave him a needy little look.
“Later, babe.” They’d found a refuge in the bedroom late at night. Okay, so they were both getting less sleep these days by about an hour, but it was worth it.
In fact, he hadn’t minded that one night he’d lost two and a half….
“You have that look,” Weldon murmured. “It’s tough to wait.”
“It is, but it’ll be worth it.” He’d learned about that too. About how Weldon burned for him all day, then exploded in need.
Weldon chuckled, the sound low and intimate. “Yes.”
Weldon put the box under the bed, tight little ass up in the air.
No. Dan flexed his fingers, but he didn’t reach. Self-control. He had it.
He did.
He cupped Weldon’s balls from the back, rolling lightly. Dan would swear they moved on their own. Really.
“Honey, you’re evil.” That didn’t sound like a complaint.
“I can’t seem to help myself with you.” Dan hummed when Weldon spread a little for him. “I thought I’d try grilled chicken tonight, if I’m allowed to grill.”
“Sounds magical. You need to check the propane tank.”
“I can totally do that. Where do we go to get propane?”
“Down to the Wag-a-Bag. I can stop on the way.”
“Thanks, babe. Anything I need to do while you’re playing chauffeur?” Dan was eager to help, to pull his weight like he had in the military.
“Make sure Maddie eats something? Anything?”
“I’m on it.” Dan saluted. He also made a mental note to call his cousin, Abbey, who was not only of the female persuasion, she had a degree in psychology.
“Thanks. It’s probably nothing, you know? But I worry.”
“Totally. She needs to be healthy, not skinny.”
“Yeah, especially with all the sports. Softball, volleyball, gymnastics—damn.”
“Mmm. Good tactic.” Dan nodded, thinking how many calories he’d consumed during basic. Hell, he’d come out of training twenty pounds lighter than he’d gone into it, and he’d eaten everything put in front of him.
“Anything you can do, honey.”
He nodded, one arm wrapping around Weldon’s body as they headed back to the front room. Emma had dragged in a backpack and was stuffing it full of Little Debbie cakes and juice boxes.
“Hey.” Weldon took half the cakes out and grabbed a bag of veggies and a pack of tuna and crackers out of the fridge. “Better.”
“But Daddy!”
“No buts, baby girl.”
