by Pandora Pine
A LITTLE LESSON
By
Pandora Pine
A Little Lesson
Copyright © Pandora Pine 2017
All Rights Reserved
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.
First Digital Edition: March 2017
1
Bronson McKinnon was going to throw up. With his arms braced on the bathroom counter, he stared at his tired, green eyes in the mirror. He couldn’t believe today was the day. Where had the time gone?
“Daddy! We’re gonna be late!” a tiny voice yelled from the bathroom door.
Turning toward the sound, Bronson eyed his five year old son, Tucker. It seemed like just yesterday Bronson was cradling his tiny son in his arms and now Tucker was starting kindergarten. He felt his stomach rumble at the thought of how fast his little boy was growing up.
Tucker had dressed himself for his first day of school. The little boy was wearing a green “Rex Rules” t-shirt with a picture of a snarling T-Rex, that he all but slept in, and a pair of blue and brown checkered shorts.
It wasn’t the outfit Bronson would have chosen, but he was proud of the confidence his son had in himself and his fashion choices. “We’re not gonna be late, buddy.” Glancing at his watch he saw that they had to leave the house in half an hour. “Let’s go grab some breakfast, okay?”
“Fruit Loops?” Tucker asked hopefully, his toothy, million watt smile on full display.
“No way, little man. You know you get one bowl of sugary cereal a week and that’s on…?”
“Fruit Loop Friday.” Tucker sighed, hauling himself up into his seat at the breakfast table and sinking his chin into his hands.
Bronson couldn’t help but laugh at his son’s theatrics. It was hard enough getting the boy to eat well and Fruit Loop Friday had been his one concession. What he ate while he was with his mother was another story.
Shuddering, Bronson grabbed a box of Cheerios from the top of the refrigerator and poured each of them a bowl. Alicia McKinnon was the reason he was standing in the cramped kitchen of a shit two-bedroom apartment in downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts.
If Bronson were being honest with himself, he’d say he was responsible for this damn apartment with uneven floor boards and no on-street parking. He’d known he was gay since he was nine years old and saw Tom Brady play his first NFL game for the New England Patriots. With Tom’s glittering blue eyes and the way his ass looked in those tight uniform pants? Forget it. Bronson fell in love at first sight.
Too scared to come out to his friends and family, he’d hidden in the closet all through high school. In order to maintain his “straight” cover, he’d started dating Alicia Strauss. She was a nice Catholic girl who attended Immaculate Conception High School in their hometown. What better way to maintain his cover than with a girl whose religious morals would make her wait until she was properly married to have sex? He’d get to play straight for all the world to see, while playing the role of perfect gentleman who also wanted to wait until he was married to have sex. It was a win-win situation for him. Until it wasn’t.
Once he and Alicia graduated from high school, they’d gone their separate ways to college, but even then they weren’t that far apart. He’d gone to Simmons College to major in Library and Information Science in Boston, while Alicia had gone to Emerson to major in communications. She had aspirations to be the next Diane Sawyer and the pricey Boston school was the first stop in making that dream a reality. Stopping that dream in its tracks was a frat party thrown at Simmons during their sophomore year.
Bronson had really been feeling the heat over producing his often talked about, but never seen girlfriend. The guys in his frat kept referring to her as “Vera,” Norm Peterson’s never seen wife on the sitcom, Cheers. Knowing he had to produce Alicia or risk rumors being started about his sexuality, Bronson invited her to the party.
He’d been able to satisfy his frat brothers’ curiosity over his rumored fake girlfriend. Alicia had charmed them all with pictures of the two of them together, which Bronson always insisted they take, even if they were just having lunch at Chipotle. Maintaining his cover at all costs was his number one priority.
Inviting Alicia to the party had solved one dilemma but heated up another one. Over the last few months Alicia had been turning up the heat for the two of them to have sex. She’d been a Catholic girl in name only, knowing that graduating at the top of her class from the smaller Catholic school in Newburyport rather than the larger public high school in town, would give her a better chance of getting into Emerson and their vaunted communications program.
After a lot of begging and more cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon than he could count, Bronson had finally given in and had sex with Alicia. She’d screamed his name and writhed under him like she was really into it, but it had been the worst experience of his life. He’d had to fantasize that he was fucking Tom Brady just so that he could come and get the nightmare over with. Unfortunately for Bronson, that fateful night was just the start of his nightmare.
Once Alicia realized she’d gotten pregnant as a result of that fateful night, both sets of parents insisted they get married, which Bronson had dutifully done. Seven months later, tiny, screaming Tucker Brady McKinnon had been born.
The baby had been the light of Bronson’s life. He’d been more than happy to work nights and weekends at the Newburyport Public Library, restocking shelves and checking out books, to support their little family while he finished his junior and senior years at Simmons through their online program. Alicia, depressed and hating motherhood, dropped out of college, whining to anyone who would listen that she couldn’t be the next Diane Sawyer with a fucking baby on her hip.
“Daddy?” Tucker shouted.
Startled, Bronson spun around, knocking the Cheerios box onto the floor. “Yeah, buddy?”
Tucker pointed to the two dry bowls of Cheerios sitting on the kitchen counter. “Is your head in the clouds?”
“I was just thinking about the day you were born.” Quickly adding milk to the bowls, Bronson grabbed two spoons and brought their breakfast to the table.
“Was I cute?” Tucker asked around a mouthful of cereal and milk.
“Were you cute?” Bronson laughed. “You were the cutest baby at the hospital.” It was the truth. What wasn’t so cute was the way Alicia refused to hold her newborn son. Based on her reaction, Bronson should have taken the baby and filed for divorce then and there, but hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.
XX
Nash Spencer was standing in the center of his kindergarten classroom, twirling slowly around. To the right of the classroom door was the cloakroom where each of his eleven students had a cubby for hats, gloves and lunchboxes and a peg for their jackets. Each child’s name was stenciled on the cubby door.
Moving on from the cloakroom was a large rectangular bulletin board where he’d stapled a tall cardboard tree. Right now the branches were bare, but later in the week the class was going to make green construction paper handprints for leaves and once October hit, would add colorful handprints to go along with his lesson on the change of season.
The hallway door leading to the bathrooms was next to the bulletin board. On the other side of the doorway, running the length of the classroom were built in cabinets designed with the height of five year olds in mind. Inside the cabinets were toys and craft supplies. On top of the cabinets was Nash’s pride and joy, his reptile collection.
There were four small terra
riums, each housing a different lizard. Over the years he’d managed to collect a chameleon, bearded dragon, leopard gecko and a horned lizard. He loved keeping them in the classroom since kids with animal allergies would be able to hold the animals and participate in their care. Classroom pets were a good way to teach responsibility and allow Nash to indulge in his passion.
In the center of the classroom were twelve desks with small matching chairs. Over the summer, Nash had made nameplates for each of the children with a drawing of one of their favorite things. Today wouldn’t be his first time meeting his new students.
The Little Wonders Montessori School catered to students from Pre-Kindergarten through the third grade. Nash’s incoming class had all been students in last year’s Pre-K program. At the end of the school year last June, there had been a Step Up ceremony where the students were able to see their classroom for the next school year and meet their new teacher.
Nash had sat his new class around in a circle and asked each of them about their favorite hobby or superhero. One little boy, Tucker McKinnon, was a child after his own heart. His greatest love was dinosaurs, while Nash’s happened to be dragons. He’d drawn a happy T-Rex holding an apple in one of its tiny hands on Tucker’s nameplate.
Against the far wall in the classroom was his own desk and cubby for his personal items. Lastly was his favorite part of the room: the reading rug. The large, round rainbow braided rug had been a present from his parents when he’d signed the contract to become a kindergarten teacher at Little Wonders.
His parents’ easy acceptance of his sexuality never failed to bring a tear to his eyes. Over the years, he’d seen and heard stories from friends and neighbors whose coming out had been met with anger, disgust and pleas from family members to go to church to pray the gay away. No matter what, Nash knew his parents had his back.
The start of the new school year was just what the doctor had ordered for Nash after spending the summer dealing with a bad breakup. He’d been together with his ex, Dan, for the last three years and the relationship had nearly bankrupted him emotionally and financially.
Dan was smoking hot, with his dark hair and chiseled body, but his looks weren’t enough to make up for the fact that he was a lazy bum. In the three years they’d been together, Dan had been through about ten jobs and still spent most of those years unemployed. None of the jobs he’d found had been the right fit or he always ended up getting into some kind of altercation with another “queen,” as Dan put it, forcing the manager to let him go. Fire him, more like.
The final straw had been the five hundred dollar gym bill for the services of a personal trainer. Nash had a feeling that money paid for more than just work in the gym.
His salary as a teacher was barely enough to support him and the small two-bedroom house he’d bought the year before he and Dan got together. Thanks to Dan’s overspending, he’d had to supplement his income by helping to run Little Wonder’s summer program, which was glorified day care with educational games, arts and crafts projects and rowdy sing-alongs.
“Mr. Spencer!” a tiny voice yelled from the classroom door.
“Tucker, slow down!” a man’s voice called out from further away.
“Good morning, Tucker!” Nash smiled brightly at the little boy who was wearing a Tyrannosaurus Rex t-shirt. “Happy first day of school.”
“Tucker!” Bronson called out as he ran into the classroom.
“No running in school, Mr. McKinnon,” Nash greeted with a smile. He couldn’t help staring at the gorgeous man whose chest was heaving from sprinting down the hall after his speedy son. His blond hair was perfectly styled while his green eyes twinkled with what Nash thought was amusement.
“Sorry, Mr. Spencer. I won’t ever run in the halls again,” Bronson agreed breathlessly.
“That was a very nice apology, Daddy!” Tucker hugged his father’s leg and stared up at him with a look of adoration on his face.
Nash couldn’t help thinking that was a line his father used to praise him. “Mr. McKinnon, I don’t think we’ve met.” Nash held out his hand.
“No, we haven’t. My ex-wife was here on Step Up day and well…” Bronson trailed off, a slight blush bloomed over his face.
After spending five years teaching, Nash knew all about broken families and how that influenced which parent showed up at which events. He’d never understand why people couldn’t band together for the sake of their kids.
Seeming to recover from his embarrassment, Bronson took Nash’s outstretched hand.
A bolt of attraction stronger than he’d ever felt before zinged through his entire body. Nash had never been this drawn to another person in his entire life. It was too bad Bronson was straight. Not that it mattered anyway. After the way his relationship with Dan ended, Nash had sworn off men for the foreseeable future.
Bronson jerked at the contact between them and was quick to pull his hand away from Nash. He stared at his hand for a second before getting down on his haunches in front of Tucker. “You’re gonna have the best time ever today.”
“Yup!” Tucker crowed.
“Don’t forget Grams and Pop-Pop are gonna pick you up at 3:00pm when school ends and I’ll see you a little after 5:00pm when I get out of work.”
“You’re gonna have the bestest day ever too!” Tucker looked certain.
“I love you, buddy,” Bronson said with a slight hitch in his voice.
“Love you more, dinosaur!” Tucker giggled.
“No! I love you more, dinosaur!” Bronson returned, hugging his son and pressing a kiss to his head. “It was nice meeting you, Mr. Spencer.” He held up a hand to wave.
“You too, Mr. McKinnon.” Spencer returned his wave and tried to turn his mind away from the handsome single father who’d just rung his bell.
2
Hours later, Bronson could still feel the tingling ghost of Nash’s touch. Tucker’s teacher was the most handsome man he’d ever met in his life. With his brown hair and deep blue eyes, the man was an absolute ten. Not to mention that Nash spent his day finger-painting and singing songs with a bunch of five year olds.
Step Up day last June had been Alicia’s “day” with Tucker, so he hadn’t been able to attend the ceremony or meet Tucker’s new teacher. His mother, Peg, had snuck into the school and had snapped some pictures of Tucker in his graduation gown, one of Bronson’s old dress shirts, and his Styrofoam plate mortar board which had been an arts and crafts project.
What his mother didn’t do was take a picture of Tucker’s new teacher. He was certain that if she had, Bronson would have spent the entire summer crushing on Nash Spencer.
Technically, today hadn’t been his “day” to have Tucker either, but Alicia had started seeing some new guy and to be honest, could not care less about her son’s first day of kindergarten.
She’d dumped the little boy on Bronson’s doorstep on Friday night and headed off for a weekend of fun with her new flavor of the month. He’d been the bigger man and sent her a picture of Tucker dressed for school, with his new backpack. Nine hours later, she still hadn’t responded.
Alicia’s lack of motherly affection for their then two year old son was the final straw in their marriage. It was bad enough that he didn’t have romantic feelings for his wife, but Alicia not bothering to parent their child was something Bronson couldn’t live with. He’d filed for full custody, but Alicia, not wanting to pay Bronson child support, had sued for joint custody and had won.
It hadn’t been easy, but once the divorce from Alicia was final, Bronson had come out to his parents. Much to his surprise, both of them cried and told him they’d known he was gay all along. They were just waiting for him to accept who he was meant to be.
Over the last three years, Bronson had dated here and there and had hooked up a time or two. What he’d come to realize was that he wanted to find a man who would love Tucker like the boy was his own son and settle down. Maybe have a few more kids.
Bronson had always known he was
destined to become a librarian, what he hadn’t known was that being a father was what he’d been born to be. Tucker was his life. Nothing made him happier than spending time with his son, watching him grow and learn new things.
He’d spent the day at work being distracted by thoughts of Nash and those amazing blue eyes. He regretted jerking his hand away from Nash like touching the other man had burned his skin. Bronson had never been that powerfully attracted to another man in his life.
Getting out of his car at his parents’ house, Bronson sighed. It was neither here nor there. Nash was straight, no doubt about it.
“Daddy!” Tucker shouted from the living room when Bronson walked in through the back door.
“Hey! There’s my big boy!” Bronson bent down to scoop up his running son. “How was school?”
“It was the bestest time ever! Just like you said. Mr. Spencer loves lizards. Dinosaurs are lizards too! Did you know that, Daddy?” Not bothering to wait for an answer, Tucker powered on. “I got to hold Candy the Chameleon and her skin changed-ed colors and I got to feed the leopard gecko named Spot. Zoe and Ella were afraid to touch Spot, but I told them lizards are the coolest. Cooler than a puppy, right, Daddy?” Tucker flashed a bright smile.
Bronson burst out laughing. Tucker never lacked for enthusiasm when it came to dinosaurs and now it looked like he’d be adding lizards to the list of his son’s favorite things. He had a feeling a trip to the kids department of the Newburyport Public Library was in order. “It sounds like you had an awesome first day of school.”
Tucker nodded his head against Bronson’s neck, seeming to have lost a little bit of steam.
“He’s been like that all afternoon,” Peg McKinnon said from the living room door.
“Hi, Mom!” Bronson kissed her cheek. “Was he any trouble?”
“Heavens, no!” Peg rubbed a hand over her grandson’s back. “I just sat and listened to him tell me all about his day. It was ‘Mr. Spencer this and Mr. Spencer that,’ all afternoon.”