The Single Dad and his Soul Mate

by Rebecca James

  “Come on. Have a seat between my legs. I’ll hold onto you.”

  After a moment, he took my hand tightly in his and carefully stepped between my legs.

  “Ready?” I asked when he’d sat down.

  Cooper shook his head vigorously, grasping my thighs on each side of him.

  “Okay, no hurry,” I said. “We can sit here a minute and enjoy the view.” I pointed to a hawk sitting high up in a tree. “I’ll bet Mr. Hawk wishes he could slide,” I said.

  Coop followed the direction of my finger.

  “Why can’t he?”

  I thought about it. Why the hell couldn’t a hawk slide if he wanted to?

  “Because…uh, because he doesn’t have an ass?”

  Cooper started to giggle. “That’s a bad word, Ma-Mad—”

  “Matteo.”

  “Mad-deo.”

  I smiled at his difficulty with my name. “Sorry. Butt? Bottom? Is that better?”

  Cooper couldn’t stop laughing, his little body shaking against me. It was contagious.

  “If he doesn’t got a bottom, how can he poop?” Cooper asked through his giggles.

  Uh oh. Flynn probably wouldn’t appreciate I’d started the potty talk.

  “Think we’re ready to slide now? This is gonna be fun.”

  Cooper sobered. “Okay.”

  “All right, then. Don’t worry, I won’t let go of you no matter what. It’ll be almost like flying.” I got a whiff of baby shampoo as I wrapped my arms around him.

  “Like Mr. Hawk,” Cooper said seriously.

  “Right. Just like Mr. Hawk. Okay, on three. One…two…three!” I gave a push, and we went sailing down, with me mostly on my back and Cooper pressed to my belly. I let out a giant whoop and by the time we reached the ground, Cooper was giggling again.

  “I think I threw out my back,” I told Flynn as Cooper scrambled off me.

  “Let’s do it again!” Cooper said, dancing around where I lay on the slide.

  “I see the little friend you made over in the sandbox.” Flynn pointed. “Why don’t you play with her a while?”

  Cooper started to take off, then paused and bent over me, smacking a wet kiss on my cheek.

  “Thanks, Mad.” He ran toward the sandbox.

  “That made it worth it,” I said to Flynn as a big kid yelled down from the top of the slide for me to get out of the way.

  “Did you really hurt your back?” Flynn asked, lending me a hand up.

  “Nah,” I winced as I stood. “Just haven’t done anything like that in a while.”

  “I should hope not,” Flynn said. We sat down on a bench and watched Cooper play with the little girl.

  “You’re good with him,” Flynn said.

  “You sound surprised.”

  “No, I’m not really. I guess I’ve just never seen you around kids.”

  “I like them. They’re…untainted.”

  Flynn nodded. “I wish I could keep him that way.”

  When Cooper came to us crying because someone had taken the bucket he’d been using, Flynn said to me, “I think he’s had enough. He got up early and didn’t nap long today.”

  Cooper cried harder. “I don’t want to go home.”

  Right then, seeing that little lip sticking out, I wanted to give him anything he wanted. I didn’t know how Flynn resisted.

  “Come on,” Flynn said to Cooper, holding out his hand for the little boy to take. “You’re dirty and hungry.”

  I’d already talked to Flynn about going out to dinner, so I added, “After you clean up, we’re going to a fun restaurant.”

  Cooper perked up. “Can I have chicken flingers?”

  I chuckled. Flingers? I looked to Flynn.

  “Yes,” he said, nodding seriously. “They’re good dipped in sauce.”

  The three of us began walking.

  “You walked here?” I asked Flynn.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve got the club’s car. It’s parked over there.” I pointed to the SUV, and we headed that way.

  At Flynn’s apartment, he gave Cooper a bath while I looked around. Wrapped up as I’d been in Flynn on my first visit, I hadn’t noticed too much about the place. A stack of CDs sat on the shelf by the stereo, Adele poking out from under Jeff Buckley. I picked up a framed picture of Flynn holding a baby dressed in a Cookie Monster outfit. Something slid down from between the photo and the backing, and I froze when I saw it. A picture of me and Flynn.

  I remembered that day. We’d just started dating and were at the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. We’d asked someone to take our picture and had leaned in for the shot, smiles huge. We looked so damned young. It felt like I had a million miles on me since then. I’d been so goddamn wrapped up in Flynn. The Matteo back then couldn’t have guessed how it all would end. Probably would’ve argued with anyone who’d told him he’d throw it all away.

  I slid the picture back where it had been and was setting the frame on the shelf just as a stark-naked Cooper came running through the living room, giggling as Flynn chased him. I scooped up the little boy, and Flynn tossed me the towel to wrap him in.

  “Bring the little scamp in here,” Flynn said, walking down the hall to the room across from his bedroom. The walls were painted a light tan, and a stuffed lion, elephant, and monkey sat on the toy chest. Two posters of motorcycles hung over the bed.

  “Wow, those are cool,” I said before tossing Coop onto the mattress, where he bounced, giggling.

  “I want a motorcycle when I grow up,” he said as Flynn began to dry him with the towel.

  “Good choice.”

  From the look on Flynn’s face, I wasn’t sure he agreed with me, but he didn’t say anything.

  When Flynn got Cooper dressed in clean clothes, we headed for the restaurant, about a fifteen-minute drive that turned into more like thirty with the traffic. Cooper fell asleep in the back seat.

  “Let’s give him a few minutes,” Flynn said when we pulled into a parking space. “The nap will do him good.”

  We sat and watched the sunset, or what we could see of it around the buildings, leaves from the maples planted along the parking lot blowing across the windshield on the cool breeze.

  “How’s your grandmother?” Flynn asked.

  “The same as ever. She has her quilting and her friends. And church.”

  He nodded, staring outside, looking like he wanted to say something but was refraining. I wanted to say something too, but what? There was nothing to say.

  Rustling in the backseat alerted us that someone was awake.

  “Are we there?” Cooper asked groggily.

  “Sure are,” I said, as Flynn got out of the car and opened the back door. We’d had to transfer Coop’s car seat to the SUV. It looked so odd there. I wondered how long it would be until the guys started having little ones with strollers and car seats to haul around.

  “What are you thinking?” Flynn asked as we walked toward the front of the restaurant.

  “How much things change,” I said.

  “I thought you said nothing had changed.”

  I glanced at him. “For me, no. But all around me, everything’s changing.”

  His tawny eyes pinned me. “How do you feel about that?”

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly.

  I’d chosen a family restaurant. The hostess seated us quickly, and we ordered. I was both impressed and annoyed at how quickly our order came. I wanted the evening to last.

  I wrinkled my nose as I watched Cooper dip his “flingers” in “sauce,” which was ketchup.

  “I know,” Flynn said. “I’ve tried to get him to use honey mustard or just mustard, but he likes the ketchup.

  “I like what I like,” Coop said, grinning, ketchup all over his lips. “And I like sauce.”

  “He got that from his Aunt Glo.”

  “One of your friends who was babysitting the other night?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Gloria and her wife, Jessica. They’re in
real estate. They helped me find a space for my shop when I moved here.”

  “I got lots of toys in my room there,” Cooper said.

  Flynn was still eating his chef salad when I finished my burger, so I entertained Cooper with my cell phone. It was dark out when we left, and I took back streets to Flynn’s so we could see the Halloween decorations.

  “Look!” Coop pointed out some lit jack-o’-lanterns on a stoop.

  “Cool,” I said.

  “I’m gonna be Spider-Man for Halloween, Mad.”

  “That’s sounds great, buddy. I love Spider-Man.”

  “I wanted to be Ricky, but we couldn’t find a costume.”

  I looked at Flynn. “Ricky?”

  “He’s a character from Coop’s favorite show, Ricky Zoom.”

  “He’s red,” Coop said from the backseat.

  When we got to Flynn’s, Coop was rubbing his eyes and Flynn took him straight to bed. I was surprised at how quickly the kid fell asleep, particularly with the little nap he’d had before dinner.

  “Want a drink?” Flynn asked, holding up a bottle of wine.

  “Sure.”

  We sat down with our glasses after Flynn put on some music. I watched him untie his boots and slip them off and did the same with mine.

  “Those are nice,” Flynn said, indicating my Harley-Davidson Hagerman’s.

  “Thanks.” I stretched out my legs and wiggled my toes in my socks.

  Flynn turned and put his feet in my lap, leaning against the thick sofa pillow. I pulled off his socks and rubbed his feet with one hand.

  “Mm, that feels good.”

  I ran my hand up his jeans-clad leg until I found his cock and stroked it with my thumb. Flynn lifted his hips and bit his bottom lip.

  “Fuck, you’re sexy,” I said.

  “Coop’s a heavy sleeper.” He regarded me from under long lashes. “And once he goes to bed, he doesn’t get up until morning.”

  “Knew I liked the kid,” I said, putting down my glass and moving to lie over him. We kissed, tongues dragging against one another while we pushed our groins together. I broke the kiss and went for his neck. “Can’t get enough of you.”

  Flynn got his hands beneath my shirt and fingered my nipples, making me groan.

  “Wanna suck you,” I said, rising up to unzip his jeans. When I got him in my mouth, he moaned. I lifted off him with a slurp. “You sure about the kid? I don’t want to be the reason he has to go into therapy when he’s older.”

  “Since he started sleeping through the night when he was three months old, I’ve never known him to wake before morning. Not even when I had people over, and we were making a lot of noise.”

  “People, huh?”

  Flynn shoved my face back to his dick, and I took him in again, sucking while rubbing his nuts with my hand. He grabbed my hair and fucked my face, and our eyes met and clung. I watched his orgasm wash over him and almost came in my damn pants.

  “Your turn,” he said when he’d recovered, and I didn’t argue. I was hurting, I was so hard. Heavy-lidded, I watched him get onto the floor and crawl between my legs. His dick was half-hard, poking out of his jeans.

  Flynn unzipped my jeans and my cock sprung free, leaking and needy. I moaned deep in my throat when he licked from the base to the tip and back again before taking me down his throat. I let out a strangled cry at the tightness and heat around the head as he swallowed.

  “Hell, yeah,” I said, pushing the hair back from his eyes. “Suck that dick.”

  Flynn’s eyes flared, and he went down on me for several minutes more before pulling off, a trickle of saliva dripping from his reddened lips. I watched him shimmy out of his jeans and then spit on two fingers before shoving them into his ass.

  “Christ,” I muttered, mesmerized.

  After a minute of working his hole, he spit on my cock and then climbed onto my lap, bringing the head to his opening.

  “I don’t remember you being this into pain,” I said as he slowly lowered himself onto me with a groan.

  “Just—just wanna feel you,” he said on a sigh, bottoming out. “Couldn’t wait.”

  I grabbed him by the neck and kissed him hard.

  “I don’t wanna hurt you,” I said and, after maneuvering my jeans and underwear off with some difficulty, stood with Flynn still in my arms and pinioned on my dick. Somehow, I managed to get us to the bedroom and onto the bed. We lay there a moment, just enjoying the connection, before I gently began to thrust.

  “I think we need some lube,” I said into our kisses.

  He nodded, and, regretfully, I slipped out of him to retrieve the bottle from the bedside drawer.

  He smiled at me sexily as I flicked open the lid. “Hurry up.”

  “So bossy.” I slicked myself and shoved a lubed finger inside him, eliciting a dirty moan as I rubbed his prostate. Then I removed my finger and shoved in my hard cock.

  “Matteo—God. Yes!”

  I fucked Flynn hard and fast, the lube making all the difference. God bless the person who invented lube, I thought, closing my eyes as Flynn met me thrust for thrust. I was quickly nearing the edge and tried to hold off. Flynn shuddered beneath me then came with a shout. In a thrall of lust, I bit and sucked all over his neck and chest as the pleasure intensified and rolled through me in wave after wave of climax.

  “Wow,” I said after things had calmed down and we lay entwined in bed in the quiet apartment.

  “Yeah. Just…wow,” Flynn agreed sleepily.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Flynn

  I was sore. Good thing Matteo had insisted on the lube because, as it was, two days later, I still felt the pounding he’d given me.

  I shouldn’t be surprised at how good we still were together. The years apart had only made us hotter for each other. We’d picked up right where we’d left off. Having dispensed with any awkwardness long ago, we were free to re-explore each other’s bodies while learning new likes and dislikes. I felt like some kind of sex god when he looked at me, and Matteo definitely was a sex god, with that gorgeous face and hard, defined, tattooed body.

  The afternoon before, Matteo had stopped by the shop and taken Cooper outside to look at his motorcycle before the three of us walked down to Mike’s Deli for lunch. Coop had told everyone he’d seen since then that “Mad has a Fat Boy.”

  I shifted on the wooden chair in Liam Hasting’s living room, which was packed with dads and their kids. Coop was having the time of his life building a tower of blocks with Liam’s son, Chad, who was almost six. The two boys had become fast friends the moment we’d walked in the door.

  Liam was doing his best to include me, and I certainly felt more at home than I had at the library group, but everyone seemed to already be acquainted with one another, and I’d never been adept at making conversation with strangers.

  “So you said you live in the city?” Liam asked me.

  I nodded.

  “Enjoy it?”

  “For the most part. We live in East Side in an apartment over my shop. There’s traffic and noise, but we walk as much as we can. I hope to buy a house before Coop starts school.”

  “What kind of shop do you have?”

  I told him about Flynn’s Stones, and it soon became clear Liam knew nothing about crystals, although he listened politely to everything I said. A loan officer, he probably had one of those analytical minds that was about as far from new age interests as a footballer was from the finer details of opera. But then again, that was stereotyping, so what did I know? A blond guy with huge, muscled arms brought over a chair and sat down on it backwards. Offering me his hand, he introduced himself as Greg Hawkins.

  “I own the gym in town,” he told me. “You look like you work out.”

  I chuckled. “Thanks. Coming from a gym owner, that’s a real compliment. I lift weights and do cardio a few times a week.” I told them about the gym I belonged to and its daycare, and Greg said he’d opened up child care in his facility as well.

&
nbsp; “More and more people are requiring it,” he said. “I was surprised how many guys did. That’s how this group started. Liam was working out one day after work, and we got to talking.”

  “Which kid’s yours?” I asked.

  Greg jerked his chin toward a couple of toddlers smacking their hands on the counters of the hard plastic toy kitchen. God, what did those things look like in a landfill, I wondered?

  “That’s Gracie in the pink overalls.”

  “She’s adorable.”

  Greg smiled proudly. “Thank you. My wife and I divorced recently and I have her every other week. It’s been a learning experience.”

  I smiled. “I’ll bet. I adopted Cooper on my own. No partner.”

  “Wow,” Liam said, leaning forward, elbows on knees. “That was brave.”

  I shrugged. “You can’t wait forever for Mr. Right to come along.” Or to come out, as it were.

  “Are you seeing anyone?” Greg asked.

  How to answer that? “Sort of,” I said.

  Liam raised a brow in question.

  “I’ve kind of hooked up with an ex. It can’t go anywhere, but we’re together at the moment.” Thinking about it hurt, but I had no delusions that anything was going to happen with Matteo. I shouldn’t have started up with him again, but I’d been as helpless to stop myself as I was to stop the moon from rising at night.

  “Another brave move,” Liam said, just as Greg murmured, “Sounds messy.”

  “Then again,” Greg continued, “connecting with people who know you well is a hell of a lot easier than finding someone new.” He sighed. “The dating scene definitely sucks.”

  We all agreed on that.

  Food was laid out on the dining room table, each of us having brought something. I’d made a layered taco dish that, judging from the small amount left, had turned out to be a hit. Several of the dads had asked me for the recipe. I excused myself and went to refill my plate, trying once again on the way to get Coop to come and eat something. But my son was having too much fun to stop for food, so I decided I’d ask Liam for a to-go bag so Coop could eat in the car on the way home. I knew he’d be out like a light before we could get home and I could feed him.