Home Again, page 2
“He’s a famous writer. One day when you get older, we can get some of his books for you.”
“When Aunt Sarah brings my books, will you still read to me?”
David nodded. “Of course. But since you’re already reading at second grade level, I think I’ll have you read to me too, from time to time.”
David knew from the court-mandated counseling he and Jason underwent that establishing and maintaining rituals for Quinn was helpful in his adjustment to the new norm. He went on. “But you know I donated a lot of your old books. Aunt Sarah only has a few. We can buy new ones here. There’s a Barnes and Noble not far from here.”
“I want to get new books.”
“Okay, we’ll get you new books. We can also check out the local library. The one downtown is a pretty big library, and they have lots of kids’ activities.”
“And I want more Star Wars comics.”
“Sure,” David answered.
“So, this Green guy, does he write like Daddy?”
“Daddy wrote screen plays, for the movies, but he mostly directs and produces now.”
“Daddy had someone over, and they said they were working on some writing.”
“Oh?” David asked. David took out the sunblock from the bag.
“Rash guard on or off for the pool?”
“Off.” Quinn raised his arms and David helped Quinn remove his Star Wars T-shirt. He fished the rash guard out of the bag. “You sure you don’t want to wear this?”
“No. I don’t see other kids wearing them.”
David surveyed the pool and agreed with Quinn. “Okay, but I am going to put a very thick coat of sunblock. And we’re going to re-apply every thirty minutes.”
Quinn nodded. “He told me not to say anything.”
“Who told you not to say anything?” David furrowed his brow.
“Daddy. I saw him kissing the guy. I think you were at yoga or something or running an errand with Nonni.” Quinn’s face scrunched and then he looked away from David.
David knew that look. “Quinn, it’s okay. Don’t cry.”
“Is this why we’re not in the same city as Daddy anymore? Because of his secret?”
David’s heart panged. “Come here.” He brought Quinn closer and hugged him. “Your daddy loves you. I love you. There are lots of reasons for Daddy and me not to be together. Because we don’t live together, this is not your fault. Okay?”
“But Daddy made me swear to promise not to tell you. He said you would be hurt. He said they were practicing kissing for a movie they were doing.”
“That doesn’t matter now. Your daddy and I agreed that I wanted to move back home to where I grew up. And Daddy’s very busy with work so he agreed that it was okay for you to come with me to Florida. You’re okay with that?”
Quinn wiped the small tears he had. Ever since they separated, David was hypervigilant in monitoring Quinn’s moods. Quinn seemed to sulk and withdraw more. He worried that Quinn was picking up on David’s moods, when David got depressed over his problems with Jason.
“Uh huh. As long as I get to see Daddy too. He told me he would introduce me to all the Star Wars actors one day. So, Daddy will come to Florida?”
David nodded. Jason did have connections with different studios, but never in their eight plus years together had Jason worked with anyone at Lucasfilm. But if there was anyone who could make connections, his ex was one of them.
“You’re not mad at me?” Quinn asked.
“No.”
“So, when is Daddy coming to visit?”
“I don’t know. I can call him. I told him he can visit you at any time, and we agreed you would go to California before school started to spend a week with him.”
“He never wants to do anything but work.” Quinn wiped a corner of his lip where David had put too much sunblock on and put some excess on his nose.
“You get to spend some time with your cousins, Billy and Bobby, if Daddy is too busy.”
“Can I stay with them instead of Daddy when I go back?”
“I don’t know. I made a promise to your daddy that you would have a week with him. If you want me to call Auntie Evie and see if you can stay a couple of nights with the twins, plus your week with Daddy, we can make it longer for you in LA.”
“I miss Nonni. Can I visit her too?”
“I miss Nonni as well. But she wanted to retire. You know Nonni helped raise some many kids and take care of them before you came along. But she hasn’t forgotten you and you can visit her anytime.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” David put more sunblock on Quinn’s outstretched hands, then Quinn started spreading the lotion on his forehead, and nose, while David worked on Quinn’s back and legs. “Put on more on your front,” David ordered.
Quinn stood, mesmerized by the kids who played in the pool.
Back home in Los Feliz, before they moved to an apartment during Jason and David’s separation, they had their own pool, a pool company that took care of everything, a cook, and Nonni, who was part nanny and part housekeeper, and David’s right hand from the moment Jason and David brought Quinn home. The Malibu home had great ocean views and sunsets. The Palm Springs house had the biggest pool, but Quinn was too scared to swim in it because there were no shallow ends.
“Can I go in the water now?”
“Yes, just go in the shallow side, not the deep side. The lifeguards and I will be watching you.”
“Okay,” Quinn smiled, then ran to the edge of the pool. When he got close to the end, the lifeguards yelled at him for running. Quinn stopped and scrunched his face again. His son didn’t like it when people yelled at him.
David shook his head and gestured for him to get in the pool. His son nodded, did a thumbs-up sign, and then waded in. Slowly.
He watched Quinn timidly go deeper and deeper into the shallow end until the water was chest high. Even though Quinn knew how to swim, he hated getting his hair wet with chlorine water, or getting water in his ears, so David knew Quinn wouldn’t venture farther out.
Satisfied that everything was okay, David took off his own shirt, stretched his legs, and started applying sunblock too. He wondered if Quinn would enjoy coming to this pool like he did when growing up.
The only bad memory of this place he had happened right before his high school graduation.
His first kiss with a girl was at this pool. He was Quinn’s age when that happened. This pool was where Sarah in eighth grade told David she was gay, where they swore to be best friends forever, and where they would come during the summer from ninth grade until their summer before senior year to check out the guys for him, and the girls for her.
And after a special end of year party for the high school seniors, this was the last place he had spoken to Kaden.
He thought about Kaden and wondered what he would look like now, fifteen years later.
David smiled at Quinn who was talking to other kids in the pool. He had been worried about Quinn not making friends, and not liking it here.
Quinn loved going to the beach. He loved Dana Point, and the weirdness of Venice. They were surrounded by beaches here in Florida, and the beaches weren’t as cold as the Pacific Ocean.
Quinn laughed as splashed water on the other kids, who were splashing water on him as they were playing with hula hoops surrounded by inflatable crocodiles.
Maybe Quinn will like it here after all.
Chapter 3
Kaden changed his shirt. Again. He sighed and threw the third shirt on the bed. Once he had found out that David Peterson was moving back to Orlando and was living in the same neighborhood that they lived in as kids, he obsessed about running into him. When Sarah texted him and told him she would be at David’s house later and would text him if it was okay to stop by, he’d been nervous all day.
The last time he spoke to David was right before graduation, and he’d been a dick to David. David hadn’t deserved that.
Thinking about David now depressed him. Maybe David’s father was right, in keeping them apart.
He sighed, decided on a shirt, then sat in the living room, and turned on the TV. He flipped through the channels and couldn’t make up his mind. He continued this way to channel surf and finally wound up watching baseball.
David and baseball, Kaden and football.
Life was so simple back then. He should’ve never let David out of his life. He hoped Sarah was right and David could forgive him.
He stared out the window for a moment. David’s old house, now repainted and remodeled was a short walk from Kaden’s house. When he hired Sarah as his real estate agent, he hadn’t expected to be this close to old memories.
The brick-lined streets of this part of town were very familiar to him. David and Kaden had ridden their bikes together ever since they started high school together.
How many hours did they spend playing Nintendo, biking to the Winn-Dixie on Colonial for ice cream?
How many hours had Kaden spent watching David play baseball for summer leagues, then at home games? He couldn’t count.
He was pretty sure David couldn’t count how many times he sat on the bleachers as Kaden played football.
So many fucking good memories. Even the old live oak tree across the street from David’s home stood unchanged from fifteen years ago. A silent witness to days gone by.
Kaden’s palms became sweaty.
Maybe this was a mistake buying a house so close to David. Sarah had told him David was finalizing a divorce a few months back, and he was planning to move in. That information forced Kaden to decide if he wanted to live in a remodeled home in Lake Eola Heights or here.
Back then, it was a no brainer.
Live closer to David.
Now, his stomach knotted.
He wondered what meeting David would be like after all these years. Sarah had said he’d changed. More serious.
Sarah had mentioned that David’s OCD had transferred from baseball to decorating and remodeling Jason and David’s homes in California. But raising his son, Quinn, occupied most of his time.
At the closing a few months back, Sarah showed Kaden a close-up picture of both David and Quinn. Quinn was a cute kid, just like his father.
He almost had asked Sarah to text a picture of them to him, but decided that it would’ve been kind of weird. Still, Sarah hadn’t minded sharing details of David’s divorce saga with him during their talks about the different homes and prices in the area when Kaden was checking out houses with her.
Kaden thought she shared the ups and downs of David’s life to make him feel better about his own divorce with Emily. Now he wondered if she was playing matchmaker.
He closed his eyes for a moment and pictured the time they sat in David’s bedroom when David was playing Super Mario. Their knees touching so close together. David had his shirt off. Kaden remembered how innocent and beautiful David was, so determined to win.
David hated losing. How incredibly fucking sexy David was that night playing Super Mario.
That was the beginning for Kaden.
It stirred feelings in a seventeen-year old Kaden that he never had for someone else. For years he had easily pushed away his attraction for other guys as weird hormones. But for David, he couldn’t push his feelings away easily. His intense emotions about David kept building to a point where he had to do something about it.
He had fretted back then that David wouldn’t have the same thoughts or feelings, but he was wrong.
Kaden remembered their first kiss the summer before senior year as if it was yesterday.
When Kaden made the first move, on the Fourth of July, and David kissed him back with those soft lips, it was like a whole new world had opened up.
Kissing led to more exploration. And David never held back once that wall fell down between them. It was so intoxicating being with him, so much so that when they were apart, he felt like he was drifting in circles. His body had ached to be in David’s arms when they weren’t together.
The goddamn pretending in high school that they were just buddies senior year in front of their friends was often too much. Only Sarah knew their secret.
Kaden wished now he had the guts to be open and honest.
The hiding, the fear, their worries about their parents finding out. The intensity of emotion he had about David in high school was outweighed by his fear of dread of being found out.
Of being called a fag.
And when David wanted to be more open about it and talk about changing the plans their parents had envisioned for them, well, that had freaked him out.
Kaden turned the TV off and sighed. He put his head between his hands and closed his eyes.
God, how he wished he could go back in time and change things. Act differently that last night they saw each other. Take back the words he had said.
He hoped that fifteen years wasn’t too late.
* * * *
David opened the last box as Sarah and Quinn sat in the newly delivered leather sofa and watched a movie on Quinn’s iPad. He checked the air conditioning unit one more time. It didn’t seem to blow a lot of cold air. They were a few days away from heading into the Memorial Day Weekend, and it seemed that Florida was more humid than he remembered.
“Does it feel like we are getting cold air?”
“I had them check the air conditioning unit before you guys flew in.” Sarah glanced up from the couch to talk to David. “They said everything checked out. Actually, now that I think about it, it was like a day before you got here that the A/C guys were here.
“Papa, when are we getting Wi-Fi? I want to watch a Disney Junior show, and my Star Wars cartoons.”
“They’ll be here to install cable and Wi-Fi in two days.”
“Should I order pizza or Chinese?” Sarah asked.
“I’m still full of Beefy King,” David said. David closed the box containing Quinn’s Star Wars toys. Five of the seven boxes he shipped to Sarah were Quinn’s stuff. The other two contained David’s baseball memorabilia, and a photo album his parents kept of his baseball playing days from high school and on.
David hoped the movers would arrive on time as promised because they only had a limited amount of clothes.
“Oh, come on, the owners of the old restaurant we loved in ViMi have a new place now, and it’s so good. You can have leftovers from whatever we don’t eat! What about you, Quinn, are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
“He’s always hungry. He’ll eat a little but ask me to finish the rest. This is why I have a middle-aged spread.”
Sarah laughed. “You’re not middle-aged, and you don’t have a gut.”
David pinched his soft love handles. “Remind me to have your eyes checked. I really need to go back to yoga.”
“No, yoga! No!” Quinn shouted.
Sarah glanced back at David who stood near the kitchen. He shook his head and signaled to Sarah to drop it. Sarah shrugged.
“Daddy had a friend over when Papa went to yoga.”
David’s face flushed from embarrassment. He hadn’t expected Quinn, who’d been reluctant to tell David that he caught Jason kissing another man, to suddenly turn in to someone who wanted to tell everything. Even if that someone was Sarah.
“Oh,” Sarah said. “You could go with Papa and me to yoga.”
“But if Papa goes to yoga, then Daddy will have a new friend visit.”
David didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this. His son equated Jason’s cheating with his other father going to yoga.
David moved into the living room and sat next to Quinn.
Sarah stood up. “I’m going to order some Chinese food. I’ll be right back.”
“Quinn, son,” David paused. “Your father…your daddy and I will never be getting back together. You remember we talked about this at the pool, right? We cannot live together anymore. I hope one day you will understand. But it is something your daddy has agreed to, I agreed to, and hopefully you will one day be okay with it.”
Quinn straightened himself on the couch, then threw the iPad in his hand on the seat cushion next to him. Without saying anything, Quinn got up and ran upstairs.
Sarah ended her phone call. “What happened?”
“I think he’s upset. I thought he was okay yesterday when we were at the pool.”
The doorbell rang, and David stood up to answer the door. “Wow, that was quick for Chinese. Did you order it before you got here or something?” When David opened the door, Kaden stood behind the screen door, holding a basket of edible fruit, some dipped in chocolate, sealed in cellophane.
Kaden appeared the same as he did in high school except his blond hair was a little darker, and his muscular chest stood out more. He had a hint of laugh lines around the eyes but he looked like he was still working at the mall, modeling for Abercrombie and Fitch.
David stood, almost shell-shocked. A flood of emotions overwhelmed David. He hadn’t expected Kaden to be at his doorstep. He was briefly happy to see Kaden but then a little anger pushed up from his gut, and he didn’t know why. The intensity surprised David. He didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth to say something, but words escaped him.
“Hey,” Kaden said, breaking the awkward moment.
“Hey, yourself,” David said, his voice now low and monotone. He didn’t mean to sound cold.
Kaden glanced down for a second then raised his eyes to meet David’s. “Sarah said you just moved in. I moved back about a month ago.”
“Hi, Kaden!” Sarah had moved in so close she practically was shouting in David’s ear.
“I brought you a welcome gift.”
“Thanks,” David said matter-of-factly as he opened the screen door and accepted the arrangement. He debated a millisecond on what to do. “I’m sorry, Kaden, this is a really bad time. My kid, my son, is not happy about being here and I have to check up on him.”
Before Kaden responded, David handed Kaden’s gift to Sarah, and retreated into the house leaving Sarah behind with Kaden who stood on the porch, open-mouthed.
* * * *
Kaden stood, speechless at David’s response. Sarah closed the wooden door behind her but held the screen door open.
“I thought you said it was okay to come over?” His face had reddened, and his neck heated.
“When Aunt Sarah brings my books, will you still read to me?”
David nodded. “Of course. But since you’re already reading at second grade level, I think I’ll have you read to me too, from time to time.”
David knew from the court-mandated counseling he and Jason underwent that establishing and maintaining rituals for Quinn was helpful in his adjustment to the new norm. He went on. “But you know I donated a lot of your old books. Aunt Sarah only has a few. We can buy new ones here. There’s a Barnes and Noble not far from here.”
“I want to get new books.”
“Okay, we’ll get you new books. We can also check out the local library. The one downtown is a pretty big library, and they have lots of kids’ activities.”
“And I want more Star Wars comics.”
“Sure,” David answered.
“So, this Green guy, does he write like Daddy?”
“Daddy wrote screen plays, for the movies, but he mostly directs and produces now.”
“Daddy had someone over, and they said they were working on some writing.”
“Oh?” David asked. David took out the sunblock from the bag.
“Rash guard on or off for the pool?”
“Off.” Quinn raised his arms and David helped Quinn remove his Star Wars T-shirt. He fished the rash guard out of the bag. “You sure you don’t want to wear this?”
“No. I don’t see other kids wearing them.”
David surveyed the pool and agreed with Quinn. “Okay, but I am going to put a very thick coat of sunblock. And we’re going to re-apply every thirty minutes.”
Quinn nodded. “He told me not to say anything.”
“Who told you not to say anything?” David furrowed his brow.
“Daddy. I saw him kissing the guy. I think you were at yoga or something or running an errand with Nonni.” Quinn’s face scrunched and then he looked away from David.
David knew that look. “Quinn, it’s okay. Don’t cry.”
“Is this why we’re not in the same city as Daddy anymore? Because of his secret?”
David’s heart panged. “Come here.” He brought Quinn closer and hugged him. “Your daddy loves you. I love you. There are lots of reasons for Daddy and me not to be together. Because we don’t live together, this is not your fault. Okay?”
“But Daddy made me swear to promise not to tell you. He said you would be hurt. He said they were practicing kissing for a movie they were doing.”
“That doesn’t matter now. Your daddy and I agreed that I wanted to move back home to where I grew up. And Daddy’s very busy with work so he agreed that it was okay for you to come with me to Florida. You’re okay with that?”
Quinn wiped the small tears he had. Ever since they separated, David was hypervigilant in monitoring Quinn’s moods. Quinn seemed to sulk and withdraw more. He worried that Quinn was picking up on David’s moods, when David got depressed over his problems with Jason.
“Uh huh. As long as I get to see Daddy too. He told me he would introduce me to all the Star Wars actors one day. So, Daddy will come to Florida?”
David nodded. Jason did have connections with different studios, but never in their eight plus years together had Jason worked with anyone at Lucasfilm. But if there was anyone who could make connections, his ex was one of them.
“You’re not mad at me?” Quinn asked.
“No.”
“So, when is Daddy coming to visit?”
“I don’t know. I can call him. I told him he can visit you at any time, and we agreed you would go to California before school started to spend a week with him.”
“He never wants to do anything but work.” Quinn wiped a corner of his lip where David had put too much sunblock on and put some excess on his nose.
“You get to spend some time with your cousins, Billy and Bobby, if Daddy is too busy.”
“Can I stay with them instead of Daddy when I go back?”
“I don’t know. I made a promise to your daddy that you would have a week with him. If you want me to call Auntie Evie and see if you can stay a couple of nights with the twins, plus your week with Daddy, we can make it longer for you in LA.”
“I miss Nonni. Can I visit her too?”
“I miss Nonni as well. But she wanted to retire. You know Nonni helped raise some many kids and take care of them before you came along. But she hasn’t forgotten you and you can visit her anytime.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” David put more sunblock on Quinn’s outstretched hands, then Quinn started spreading the lotion on his forehead, and nose, while David worked on Quinn’s back and legs. “Put on more on your front,” David ordered.
Quinn stood, mesmerized by the kids who played in the pool.
Back home in Los Feliz, before they moved to an apartment during Jason and David’s separation, they had their own pool, a pool company that took care of everything, a cook, and Nonni, who was part nanny and part housekeeper, and David’s right hand from the moment Jason and David brought Quinn home. The Malibu home had great ocean views and sunsets. The Palm Springs house had the biggest pool, but Quinn was too scared to swim in it because there were no shallow ends.
“Can I go in the water now?”
“Yes, just go in the shallow side, not the deep side. The lifeguards and I will be watching you.”
“Okay,” Quinn smiled, then ran to the edge of the pool. When he got close to the end, the lifeguards yelled at him for running. Quinn stopped and scrunched his face again. His son didn’t like it when people yelled at him.
David shook his head and gestured for him to get in the pool. His son nodded, did a thumbs-up sign, and then waded in. Slowly.
He watched Quinn timidly go deeper and deeper into the shallow end until the water was chest high. Even though Quinn knew how to swim, he hated getting his hair wet with chlorine water, or getting water in his ears, so David knew Quinn wouldn’t venture farther out.
Satisfied that everything was okay, David took off his own shirt, stretched his legs, and started applying sunblock too. He wondered if Quinn would enjoy coming to this pool like he did when growing up.
The only bad memory of this place he had happened right before his high school graduation.
His first kiss with a girl was at this pool. He was Quinn’s age when that happened. This pool was where Sarah in eighth grade told David she was gay, where they swore to be best friends forever, and where they would come during the summer from ninth grade until their summer before senior year to check out the guys for him, and the girls for her.
And after a special end of year party for the high school seniors, this was the last place he had spoken to Kaden.
He thought about Kaden and wondered what he would look like now, fifteen years later.
David smiled at Quinn who was talking to other kids in the pool. He had been worried about Quinn not making friends, and not liking it here.
Quinn loved going to the beach. He loved Dana Point, and the weirdness of Venice. They were surrounded by beaches here in Florida, and the beaches weren’t as cold as the Pacific Ocean.
Quinn laughed as splashed water on the other kids, who were splashing water on him as they were playing with hula hoops surrounded by inflatable crocodiles.
Maybe Quinn will like it here after all.
Chapter 3
Kaden changed his shirt. Again. He sighed and threw the third shirt on the bed. Once he had found out that David Peterson was moving back to Orlando and was living in the same neighborhood that they lived in as kids, he obsessed about running into him. When Sarah texted him and told him she would be at David’s house later and would text him if it was okay to stop by, he’d been nervous all day.
The last time he spoke to David was right before graduation, and he’d been a dick to David. David hadn’t deserved that.
Thinking about David now depressed him. Maybe David’s father was right, in keeping them apart.
He sighed, decided on a shirt, then sat in the living room, and turned on the TV. He flipped through the channels and couldn’t make up his mind. He continued this way to channel surf and finally wound up watching baseball.
David and baseball, Kaden and football.
Life was so simple back then. He should’ve never let David out of his life. He hoped Sarah was right and David could forgive him.
He stared out the window for a moment. David’s old house, now repainted and remodeled was a short walk from Kaden’s house. When he hired Sarah as his real estate agent, he hadn’t expected to be this close to old memories.
The brick-lined streets of this part of town were very familiar to him. David and Kaden had ridden their bikes together ever since they started high school together.
How many hours did they spend playing Nintendo, biking to the Winn-Dixie on Colonial for ice cream?
How many hours had Kaden spent watching David play baseball for summer leagues, then at home games? He couldn’t count.
He was pretty sure David couldn’t count how many times he sat on the bleachers as Kaden played football.
So many fucking good memories. Even the old live oak tree across the street from David’s home stood unchanged from fifteen years ago. A silent witness to days gone by.
Kaden’s palms became sweaty.
Maybe this was a mistake buying a house so close to David. Sarah had told him David was finalizing a divorce a few months back, and he was planning to move in. That information forced Kaden to decide if he wanted to live in a remodeled home in Lake Eola Heights or here.
Back then, it was a no brainer.
Live closer to David.
Now, his stomach knotted.
He wondered what meeting David would be like after all these years. Sarah had said he’d changed. More serious.
Sarah had mentioned that David’s OCD had transferred from baseball to decorating and remodeling Jason and David’s homes in California. But raising his son, Quinn, occupied most of his time.
At the closing a few months back, Sarah showed Kaden a close-up picture of both David and Quinn. Quinn was a cute kid, just like his father.
He almost had asked Sarah to text a picture of them to him, but decided that it would’ve been kind of weird. Still, Sarah hadn’t minded sharing details of David’s divorce saga with him during their talks about the different homes and prices in the area when Kaden was checking out houses with her.
Kaden thought she shared the ups and downs of David’s life to make him feel better about his own divorce with Emily. Now he wondered if she was playing matchmaker.
He closed his eyes for a moment and pictured the time they sat in David’s bedroom when David was playing Super Mario. Their knees touching so close together. David had his shirt off. Kaden remembered how innocent and beautiful David was, so determined to win.
David hated losing. How incredibly fucking sexy David was that night playing Super Mario.
That was the beginning for Kaden.
It stirred feelings in a seventeen-year old Kaden that he never had for someone else. For years he had easily pushed away his attraction for other guys as weird hormones. But for David, he couldn’t push his feelings away easily. His intense emotions about David kept building to a point where he had to do something about it.
He had fretted back then that David wouldn’t have the same thoughts or feelings, but he was wrong.
Kaden remembered their first kiss the summer before senior year as if it was yesterday.
When Kaden made the first move, on the Fourth of July, and David kissed him back with those soft lips, it was like a whole new world had opened up.
Kissing led to more exploration. And David never held back once that wall fell down between them. It was so intoxicating being with him, so much so that when they were apart, he felt like he was drifting in circles. His body had ached to be in David’s arms when they weren’t together.
The goddamn pretending in high school that they were just buddies senior year in front of their friends was often too much. Only Sarah knew their secret.
Kaden wished now he had the guts to be open and honest.
The hiding, the fear, their worries about their parents finding out. The intensity of emotion he had about David in high school was outweighed by his fear of dread of being found out.
Of being called a fag.
And when David wanted to be more open about it and talk about changing the plans their parents had envisioned for them, well, that had freaked him out.
Kaden turned the TV off and sighed. He put his head between his hands and closed his eyes.
God, how he wished he could go back in time and change things. Act differently that last night they saw each other. Take back the words he had said.
He hoped that fifteen years wasn’t too late.
* * * *
David opened the last box as Sarah and Quinn sat in the newly delivered leather sofa and watched a movie on Quinn’s iPad. He checked the air conditioning unit one more time. It didn’t seem to blow a lot of cold air. They were a few days away from heading into the Memorial Day Weekend, and it seemed that Florida was more humid than he remembered.
“Does it feel like we are getting cold air?”
“I had them check the air conditioning unit before you guys flew in.” Sarah glanced up from the couch to talk to David. “They said everything checked out. Actually, now that I think about it, it was like a day before you got here that the A/C guys were here.
“Papa, when are we getting Wi-Fi? I want to watch a Disney Junior show, and my Star Wars cartoons.”
“They’ll be here to install cable and Wi-Fi in two days.”
“Should I order pizza or Chinese?” Sarah asked.
“I’m still full of Beefy King,” David said. David closed the box containing Quinn’s Star Wars toys. Five of the seven boxes he shipped to Sarah were Quinn’s stuff. The other two contained David’s baseball memorabilia, and a photo album his parents kept of his baseball playing days from high school and on.
David hoped the movers would arrive on time as promised because they only had a limited amount of clothes.
“Oh, come on, the owners of the old restaurant we loved in ViMi have a new place now, and it’s so good. You can have leftovers from whatever we don’t eat! What about you, Quinn, are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
“He’s always hungry. He’ll eat a little but ask me to finish the rest. This is why I have a middle-aged spread.”
Sarah laughed. “You’re not middle-aged, and you don’t have a gut.”
David pinched his soft love handles. “Remind me to have your eyes checked. I really need to go back to yoga.”
“No, yoga! No!” Quinn shouted.
Sarah glanced back at David who stood near the kitchen. He shook his head and signaled to Sarah to drop it. Sarah shrugged.
“Daddy had a friend over when Papa went to yoga.”
David’s face flushed from embarrassment. He hadn’t expected Quinn, who’d been reluctant to tell David that he caught Jason kissing another man, to suddenly turn in to someone who wanted to tell everything. Even if that someone was Sarah.
“Oh,” Sarah said. “You could go with Papa and me to yoga.”
“But if Papa goes to yoga, then Daddy will have a new friend visit.”
David didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this. His son equated Jason’s cheating with his other father going to yoga.
David moved into the living room and sat next to Quinn.
Sarah stood up. “I’m going to order some Chinese food. I’ll be right back.”
“Quinn, son,” David paused. “Your father…your daddy and I will never be getting back together. You remember we talked about this at the pool, right? We cannot live together anymore. I hope one day you will understand. But it is something your daddy has agreed to, I agreed to, and hopefully you will one day be okay with it.”
Quinn straightened himself on the couch, then threw the iPad in his hand on the seat cushion next to him. Without saying anything, Quinn got up and ran upstairs.
Sarah ended her phone call. “What happened?”
“I think he’s upset. I thought he was okay yesterday when we were at the pool.”
The doorbell rang, and David stood up to answer the door. “Wow, that was quick for Chinese. Did you order it before you got here or something?” When David opened the door, Kaden stood behind the screen door, holding a basket of edible fruit, some dipped in chocolate, sealed in cellophane.
Kaden appeared the same as he did in high school except his blond hair was a little darker, and his muscular chest stood out more. He had a hint of laugh lines around the eyes but he looked like he was still working at the mall, modeling for Abercrombie and Fitch.
David stood, almost shell-shocked. A flood of emotions overwhelmed David. He hadn’t expected Kaden to be at his doorstep. He was briefly happy to see Kaden but then a little anger pushed up from his gut, and he didn’t know why. The intensity surprised David. He didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth to say something, but words escaped him.
“Hey,” Kaden said, breaking the awkward moment.
“Hey, yourself,” David said, his voice now low and monotone. He didn’t mean to sound cold.
Kaden glanced down for a second then raised his eyes to meet David’s. “Sarah said you just moved in. I moved back about a month ago.”
“Hi, Kaden!” Sarah had moved in so close she practically was shouting in David’s ear.
“I brought you a welcome gift.”
“Thanks,” David said matter-of-factly as he opened the screen door and accepted the arrangement. He debated a millisecond on what to do. “I’m sorry, Kaden, this is a really bad time. My kid, my son, is not happy about being here and I have to check up on him.”
Before Kaden responded, David handed Kaden’s gift to Sarah, and retreated into the house leaving Sarah behind with Kaden who stood on the porch, open-mouthed.
* * * *
Kaden stood, speechless at David’s response. Sarah closed the wooden door behind her but held the screen door open.
“I thought you said it was okay to come over?” His face had reddened, and his neck heated.
