He hugged his mother in the front seat of her car, and then gave her a peck on the cheek. “Let me know when you guys leave for LA, if I’m not gone by then.”
Chapter 5
GERUD WAITED NERVOUSLY for his mother to return to the big house. He made himself a drink and sat at the dinette table in the kitchen, overlooking the backyard and pool. The view of his mother’s gardens and the turquoise water normally had a calming effect on him, even as the alcohol dripped into his bloodstream. But this evening he was furious and wanted answers.
He heard her car pull up into the garage and remained seated as she walked through the kitchen door.
“Hope I didn’t scare you,” he said, sullenly. He noticed his words were already beginning to slur. He hadn’t eaten any lunch before the reading so he was getting hammered on just one stiff drink.
“I saw your car outside, Gerud. I’m glad you’re here.”
He doubted that and felt he was on uncharted ground. It was like a giant earthquake had shaken his world, put back the pieces, but nothing was familiar or recognizable. He crossed his arms over his chest.
“So, what was all this, Mom? What did I ever do to earn Dad’s wrath?”
“Oh sweetheart, I’m so__” She hovered closer to him and he put his arm up.
“Don’t touch me. I don’t need any mothering, if that’s what it can be called.”
Adele tossed her purse and keys on the kitchen countertop and went in search of a drink for herself. When she returned, she pulled up a chair opposite Gerud and stared across the table at him.
“I need answers. What the hell happened? What does it mean, ‘for reasons only your mother knows?’ What did I do to piss him off so much?”
“It’s not anything you did, Gerud.”
“Well, there’s something you’re not telling me, and I want answers and I want them right now!”
Gerud watched as his mother jumped in her chair, blinking her red eyes.
“He was under a lot of stress. He wasn’t thinking right, Gerud.”
He tried to remember what had gotten his father so off kilter, but finally gave up. “So, how come I was cut out of the will? I worked with and for the man for what the last six, seven years? And he treats me like this?”
His mother downed the rest of her drink quickly and then rubbed her right temple. “I have some news you might not like to hear, son.”
“Oh boy, more good news. I can hardly wait! Might as well get it all over with in one day. Please.” He held his palm out to her, asking her to proceed.
“Burt Green was not your father. Your father is Rob Peterson, and we’re going to go visit with him as soon as you’re able.”
“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me.”
“No, I’m not. I should have told you—”
“Damn straight. So is that what sent him to the hospital, then? You guys have a fight and you screamed at him and told him he wasn’t my father? Or, did he know all along?”
His mother hung her head sheepishly to the left, and then closed her eyes as the tears started streaming down her face. With great effort at composure, she spoke softly in almost a whisper, “No. Bob Fellows told him just before—that afternoon he had the heart attack. I never got a chance to speak to him about it or anything else.”
Gerud could see she’d been wounded. He also couldn’t understand why she’d withhold that information from him. “So, out with it. Give me all the sorted details.” When she continued to stare at her fingers on the tabletop, it irritated him. “Damn it, Mom. I deserve to know everything!”
He knew she was ashamed because she wouldn’t look at him in the eyes. He began to manufacture a host of other things that could be so, things that could be even worse, wondering if he had been conceived as the product of a rape, or some other horrible event.
“Mom! I fuckin’ went out on a date with my fuckin’ sister. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? Can you even imagine—”?
“Stop it, Gerud. She’s not your sister. She’s not even related to you. She’s not related to me either, so quit being so melodramatic.”
He did the math and agreed. It had been what he was thinking all the way over here, the one thing that bothered him more than anything else and the reason he needed to dose himself on the Scotch. But, if Burt wasn’t his father, then Belinda wasn’t his real sister either.
Thank God for small favors.
“Your father lives in LA. He came to the funeral to pay his respects. I didn’t see him, or I would have introduced you.”
“And I’d have punched him in the nose, too.”
“Which is why Bob Fellows discretely preoccupied us both until the gentleman left. Jake met him.”
“Of course, Golden Boy met him. I suppose Jake knows all about this too.”
“Yes, he does.”
“Okay, that’s all I can handle today.” Gerud got up and put his glass in the kitchen sink. “Jake has a dad, the dad I thought was my dad. But Jake got to meet my dad. But me? No, I was sheltered from all this. But Jake is the one who can do no wrong. The pure son. Not the son from an illicit affair. That’s what it was, right, Mom? An affair? A fling?”
“Just stop it right now, Gerud. You’re being a child. Sit down and I’ll tell you the whole story.”
The fury and pain pulsed in his veins so fast he thought he was going to burst. “You can skip it. I don’t need to hear it.” He turned to go, passing the dinette table on his way to the front door, when his mother shouted out to him.
“He’s dying, Gerud. Your father is dying.”
“Oh I see. So, the man I thought was my father, whom I buried last week, and grieved over, turns out not to be my father after all. A man whom I don’t know, and who is actually my real father, is now getting ready to check out. So, I’m Oh for two.”
“Stop being so selfish. He wants to meet you. And it was never his idea that you not know him as your father. It was my decision. So you can heap all that blame on me.”
She was shaking, barely able to stand. In that moment, he saw her pain and the distress all this had caused her, and he felt sorry for her. He couldn’t bring himself to give her a hug, but he could return to the table.
He sat back down in his chair and folded his hands together. “I’m ready to listen.”
She sat as well, grabbing a napkin from the holder and dabbing her eyes again and then blew her nose. She reached for, and was given Gerud’s drink. She took a sip and then sighed.
“Okay. Rob Peterson was a man I worked with at the office. Your dad was off most of the summer on a safari with some friends from the club. They also went golfing in Scotland. I was left with running the whole business that summer, as well as taking care of Jake. I was busy, and I guess that kept me from thinking too much about what your dad—what Burt was doing. Rob was a good friend, and, well, we got very close.”
It wasn’t the story he was expecting.
“Believe it or not, Gerud, I was happy. That was probably the best summer of my life. And then Burt came home, and everything went back to the way it was before, except I was pregnant. I didn’t have many choices back then. Of course, I couldn’t even conceive not raising you, so I never told Burt he wasn’t the father. Rob had to move away, which was only reasonable. It was hard having him here with me being pregnant. Burt seemed to be more settled, and I just thought everything would turn out. I made a mistake, Gerud.”
“And so now he wants to meet me.”
“Yes. He’s a very decent man. He never imposed anything on you or me. He let me control all that.”
“So do I have other brothers and sisters?”
“I really don’t know. I never talked to him after a few months of him moving away. He knew your name and your birthdate. That’s all he knows.”
GERUD DECIDED TO stay overnight in the house with his mother. They watched the late news together, drinking tea after she made them a light supper. She’d called his father, who was unable to come to the phone, b
ut she arranged with an attendant to have she and Gerud meet with him tomorrow.
They retired after giving each other a hug.
“No more secrets, please, Mom, okay?”
“No more secrets, son.”
Chapter 6
GINGER NOTICED A text from Jake’s mother and carried the phone into him. He was in the hot tub with their two girls.
“Your mom’s going to Los Angeles today with Gerud. You know about this?”
“Uh huh. Part of what we discussed last night. She’s taking him to introduce him to his father. His biological father.”
“That older man you were speaking with at the funeral?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Jennifer poured a plastic cup of water over Jake’s head.
“Whoa! Okay, Missey, you’re gonna get it!” Jake yelled.
Both girls screamed. Jennie was the first one to slip her leg over the hot tub lip and had slithered over the edge and was already running away. Jake had Jasmine by the ankle, pretending to eat her from her ankle to her knee as she screamed and churned from side to side like a fish in the warn water.
“Daddy! It’s not fair. It was Jennie who poured the water, not me,” Jasmine objected.
“But you gave her the idea. I know you did,” Jake said in his mock troll-like voice. “Now you will pay the price for your crime!”
Ginger turned and went back inside, understanding it would be impossible discussing anything with Jake while he was playing with the girls. She jumped into the shower and soon had company.
“Hold it right there, sweetheart,” Jake whispered in her ear. His large hands covered hers, pressed against the tile walls of the enclosure. “With an ass like that, honey, you’re downright dangerous.”
She giggled.
“Hold it. Did I say you could move?”
She sighed as his hands smoothed over the curve of her right butt cheek. His fingers drifted to the crack between them as he tickled her there.
“I say spread ’em. And make it quick. I got urgent business to attend to.” His mock growl and whisper sent her nerve endings on high alert. Showers were unpredictable things with Jake. He was so inventive and experimental when it came to gels, scents and warm water.
He pressed his chest against her back, smashing her breasts into the cool tile. “I said spread ’em, sister, and I mean what I say.”
She widened her stance, angling her tailbone back towards Jake’s groin. His fingers separated her ass, and one of his forefingers made its way into her sex, just ahead of his cock. He continued to knead her butt cheeks, separating them so he could fill her channel. Bending his knees beneath hers, his powerful thighs lifted her onto him, his rod demanding deep feedings that made her shudder. Jake urgently slipped a hand to the front and he rolled her bud between his first two fingers and his thumb.
“That little confounded thing is all swollen, honey. Feel that?”
“Yes,” she sighed, thoroughly consumed in his manipulations.
“Am I deep enough honey?”
“Yes—no. Deeper please.”
He thrust upward his thighs slapping against the backs of hers. “Like this?”
“Yes. But harder.”
“Oh man. You’re a demanding little thing aren’t you?”
“I want all of you, Jake.”
“You liked to be fucked this way, honey?”
“I could stay here all night long.”
That seemed to send a signal to Jake, his reaction was swift, grunting to press and hold her over his thigh. She felt the delicious pulsing of his release. She could barely breathe he was pressing her so hard into the wall, still with his knees bent, thrusting upward and holding her steady against him with his palm on her lower belly. She covered his hand with her own, smoothing up and down his fingers and arm as he worked to complete his job.
At last he slowed, giving her a satisfying groan, removing himself, and spanking her on one side. “To be continued. Next time, I’m gonna make sure you come first.”
“Thank you, Jake.”
He abruptly turned her around, took her wet face in his massive paws and kissed her deep. He ended the kiss with little nibbles at the sides of her lips. “I like it that you never say no.”
“Why would I ever do that? It’s the best thing in the world, Jake. I need it.”
“Yes you do, and so do I.”
Her fingers traced the lines of his face and over his mouth. The wonder of this man’s love for her was totally inspiring. “I think I’m addicted to you.”
The bathroom door burst open and Jasmine and Jennie jumped up and down. “Mommie and Daddy are naked!” Jennie giggled, pointing to the lower parts of their anatomy.
Jake once again whispered in her ear. “I could do with some duct tape right about now.”
JAKE GOT A call to do some PT with a ten mile run with several of the other guys. They were to have an early briefing on the new mission. Ginger took the girls to the grocery store, and then stopped off at the library for a children’s reading by an author she knew. She was hoping Jake didn’t return home too late. They’d not gotten very caught up on their sleep the last few nights.
Luci Begay, the Dine wife of one of the WWII Codetalker grandsons, Danny, walked in with Griffin and their adopted Iraqi boy, Ali, who was now nearly six years old. She noted Luci grabbed the red slingshot from the boy’s back pocket, something he kept with him night and day. That slingshot had actually saved his life in Iraq, when Danny had made it for him from pieces they salvaged from the soccer stadium Ali and his father were hiding in. The Navajo SEAL showed Ali how to use it, and while they’d been waiting for extraction, practiced hours at a time hitting objects with different sized pebbles and pieces of concrete. Ali now could actually hunt birds with lethal accuracy. Several car windows were suspected of being Ali’s targets.
GRIFFIN WAS A chubby, rolly poly child, but Ali was getting tall and stayed skinny. His favorite target with the slingshot was Griffin, who had an assortment of bruises on his forehead to testify to that fact.
Luci waved with the red device and came over, sitting next to Ginger.
“Let’s hope my boys don’t terrorize your girls.”
Ginger watched as Ali insisted on sitting between the sisters and Griffin sat down in Jasmine’s lap. The children had spent so much time together, it was only natural they be physically connected, touching constantly. They were one huge family, and Ginger was grateful her kids had this.
“Ali looks like he’s on good behavior today, Luci.”
“He’s a challenge. Got him registered for every sport I can find this summer. I have to keep this kid moving or he’ll erupt on the playground. He’s absolutely not afraid to tackle anyone, even the fifth graders in the school. He wants to play Rugby with the older boys, and Danny put his foot down on that idea.”
“Wise, of course.”
“Like he’s got a spirit inside him. He even thinks he can fly.”
“Seriously? You mean he dreamt it?”
Luci shook her head. “I don’t know where he got the idea, but he swears he flew home one day. We couldn’t talk him down off that. One of these days he’s gonna get his butt kicked and perhaps he’ll learn his lesson,” said Luci.
Ginger squinted. “Really? You honestly think that will happen?”
“Probably not.” The two SEAL ladies laughed. “So I hear you and Jake are back together now. That’s wonderful, Ginger. I love Jake.”
“So far, so good. You know his father just passed away last week. The family is in a bit of turmoil now. Jake’s the executor of his dad’s estate. This deployment is coming at the wrong time.”
“Oh, that’s right. I hear it will be short. But we never know, do we?”
“Nope.”
The two women agreed to get together during the Team deployment. They also agreed to set up a playdate for an upcoming birthday party.
“You hear from any of Ali’s relatives?” Ginger asked.
“Not
a word. Danny thinks they’re all dead. He’d be difficult to convince to let Ali go off with anyone from his family. Danny really loves him, and so do I and Griffin.”
AS THEY EXITED the library, Ali was transfixed by a gathering of several men on the corner, all of them wearing white robes. He dove into Luci’s bag and grabbed his slingshot, holding it ready as they approached the little group. Ali dipped to pick up a couple of stones on the sidewalk.
Ginger noted these robed boys looked to be young, possibly early high school in age. She avoided eye contact with them, but Ali stared them down, completely unafraid. The boys took turns checking him out and their discussion halted as soon as they got within earshot.
“You know those boys, Ali?”
“They were from my auntie’s village, I think. They’ve grown up, though so I’m not sure.”
He was an avid scholar and his English was nearly perfect.
“Luci, you’ve done wonders with him. I can remember he couldn’t even speak a word two years ago. Now you couldn’t tell he wasn’t a native speaker.”
“He has to learn to mix in. I don’t want him not understanding the reality of how many Americans see his culture and language. I do it for his own protection.”
“You’re doing a fantastic job.”
“He’s the brightest child I’ve ever taught. He doesn’t sit still much, but luckily he learns quickly, so he doesn’t have to sit long.”
Ginger made a note to tell Jake about the robed boys, who looked like religious students of some kind. She hoped that Luci and Danny were able to hold on to this little Iraqi boy and not be forced to return him to relatives who might call some day. But that was US policy. She wondered if Danny wouldn’t take his family underground if it ever came to that. Ali was one of them now. Nothing was ever going to break that bind.
Chapter 7
“LISTEN UP,” KYLE announced to the men at the Team 3 building. Jake sat between Alex and Calvin “Coop” Cooper. The whole squad for this mission was only going to be twenty men, and Kyle had told them they were each hand-selected.
Band of Bachelors: Jake2: Book 4 (SEAL Brotherhood) Page 4