by Peter Styles
“I have a meeting with the other teachers right now, but I can give you a note to come back here at the end of the day. Will that work?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah. That’s okay.”
I handed her the note and watched her leave, my mind already turning over possibilities about what she wanted to talk about. Had her confrontation with Kirk in the cafeteria been more than it seemed?
Worrying about what might be up left me distracted through our team meeting. I covered well, but was relieved when we managed to wrap things up fairly quickly. This early in the year, team meetings consisted of a lot of housekeeping items about forms that needed to be distributed to students or turned back into the office.
Once I was back in my classroom, I tidied the room and tried to get some grading out of the way, but it was hard to concentrate. My concerns as a teacher were nearly impossible to separate from my more personal involvement with Wyatt and Tempy, even if she was unaware of it.
Ten minutes before the dismissal bell, Tempy stuck her head in the doorway. “Can I come in now?”
My heart beat with relief. I had feared she might not show after all. Right on the heels of that came worry. Was this something serious? “Of course. Come on over and have a seat.”
She dropped her backpack next to my desk and took the chair I had nearby for one-on-one conferences with students when I needed them. She flicked her hair behind her ears, her gaze shifting a little nervously over the surface of my desk.
“Has something happened?”
She shook her head. “I just have a question.”
I relaxed. “Okay. What is it?”
She bit her lip a little awkwardly. “I…did you and my dad…did you have an affair? Kirk said my dad cheated on my mom with you. Did you?”
Oh, wow. So not what I was expecting.
I cleared my throat. “No, Tempy. God... no. Your dad never cheated on your mom.” I wasn’t sure if…or what…else I should tell her. “You know, you should really be asking your dad these questions, but sweetie… I can tell you that your dad loved your mom so, so much. They had planned and looked forward to having you. When your mom passed, your dad was heartbroken like no one has been before. He was so lost and broken that… well, he felt like he would never be happy again. And that maybe he didn’t deserve to be happy without your mom there.”
Tempy’s gray gaze was moist. I could see how hard it had been for her to screw up the courage to talk to me. The fact that she’d actually returned to do it let me know just how important it was for her to find out what had happened.
I touched her hand. “But the good thing was that he had you, Tempy. And even when you were just a little baby, he couldn’t be sad with you around. You are the only reason your father has had to smile… ever.”
She tilted her head. “How do you know that?”
The breath quite literally left me. Yeah, dimwit, how do you know all this? I had just been effectively put in check by a twelve-year-old.
“I did know your dad… um… pretty well back then. I did my best to make him smile when I could, but I wasn’t really what he needed at the time. He needed you.” I paused until she met my gaze again. “Look, I know that lately it might feel like you and your dad don’t totally understand each other like you used to. But I’m telling you, Tempy, I’ve never known a man who loved his daughter the way he loves you. In fact…”
I reached back and pulled my wallet from my back pocket even as the logical part of my brain was screaming at me, asking me just what the hell I thought I was doing. I dug through my wallet and pulled out the old, folded picture of the two of them and handed it to her.
It had been taken about two weeks after her birth, not long after I met him. Wyatt had been like a dead man walking, grief-stricken and exhausted.
I had stepped in after meeting him, offering my help while I was out of school for the summer, a little surprised when he grasped onto the offer as though I had thrown him a lifeline. On this particular evening, he had finished feeding her. As he snuggled with her, he had drifted into an exhausted slumber, with Tempy not far behind. I had snapped a picture, printed it, and carried it with me ever since.
“He looks so much younger,” Tempy whispered. “Is that me?”
“Yes. You were just about two weeks old there. Your dad was so exhausted, but look.” I pointed to him. “Even there he’s smiling. While he’s sleeping. You did that for him, Tempy. Only you.”
I bit my bottom lip, my throat closing a bit. I wasn’t jealous of a kid. It wasn’t that at all. Just talking about it had dredged up so many memories. Hopes that I’d had that were crushed just a few months later. I think it was that night that I had started to fall hard for Wyatt Worth…and I’d been helpless to change it ever since.
Tempy stared at the photo for a long time before raising her keen gaze to me. “You love my dad, don’t you, Mr. Waite?”
I leaned back in my chair, needing a moment and a little distance. I couldn’t lie.
“Yes. I do.”
Tempy seemed to absorb that with a lot more poise than I would have thought possible.
“Can I keep this?” she asked, holding the wrinkled photo up.
“Of course you can.” It was probably time that I let it go. Whatever was going to happen with Wyatt and me needed to be based on the future rather than the past we had shared.
The bell for dismissal rang. Tempy tucked the picture in her backpack.
“I better go or I’ll miss my bus.”
I nodded. Then she surprised the hell out of me, leaning down to give me a quick hug before spinning and jogging for the bus. I had to blink back the moisture in my eyes. As I tried to digest what had just occurred, one thing I knew for sure, I was going to hear from Wyatt Worth.
14
Wyatt
Austin’s words echoed in my head. Could you walk down this street right now and tell everyone you met that you’re in love with Vance? In love with a man? Sitting in my office at the diner, I wasn’t any closer to being able to answer that than I had been last night, or in the shower this morning, or while I drove into work.
Dammit, I hadn’t been able to get my little brother or Vance out of my head all morning. I rubbed the back of my neck as I watched the food services truck unloading our order. I rubbed my forehead as I checked the order and realized it was wrong…again.
“Todd!” I called.
My assistant manager stuck his head in the door, brows raised. “What’s up, boss?”
“Order’s wrong again.”
“Um, Wyatt…you were the one who filled out the order and called it in this morning.”
I opened my mouth to argue but the distant memory of angrily jabbing the keyboard drifted back to me. I slumped back in my chair, shaking my head. “Fuck, that’s right,” I breathed. I shot him an apologetic look. “Well, shit. I’m sorry, Todd. Look, can you take this and fix it? I have a few other things hanging that I need to take care of. Let me double-check it before we send it.”
“No sweat.”
As he left my office, I shook my head again. I really needed to clear the fog in my brain and start making some decisions. I wasn’t in a position where I could just let life drift along. I had too many people depending on me.
Worse things could happen than you having some personal happiness. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Why was it that Austin always seemed to say the very things that my own inner dialogue periodically tossed my way anyway? Then once he did, it was like a terrier with a bone. My brain couldn’t let go of it.
I grabbed my phone and dialed Vance, but all I got was voicemail. I let his voice roll over me like a gentle wave and nearly forgot to leave a message. I didn’t want to go into any great detail so all I did was ask him to call. As soon as I was done, I shot Ethan a text to get an update on Tempy. His reply was quick: Yes, Tempy got off the bus with Reece and Cara. Another late evening?
No. I’ll be there at six. I hit reply.
I was giv
ing myself an out, a way to escape. I shook my head as Austin’s accusation pounded through my head yet again. I had no idea if I had the guts to announce to the world that I loved a man, that I loved Vance Waite. I was no closer to answering that than I had ever been.
My phone buzzed. Vance’s number popped up on the screen.
“Hey, Vance.”
“Sorry, I just got away from school and heard your message. I, uh... meant to call you.”
“You have some time? I’d like to meet up.”
There was a hesitation on the other end of the line before Vance said. “Sure. No problem.”
“Same bar?” We could keep it nice and friendly, platonic, just two friends getting together to talk.
“Please, no.” He chuckled nervously. “I don’t think I want to risk it again. My place is fine.”
In an instant, my imagination conjured up exactly what my last experience at Vance’s place had been like. Hot. Steamy. As emotionally charged as it had always been between us, and boy, did I crave it.
“Okay. Give me a half hour or so.”
“No problem.”
After I ended the call, all I could do was sit and stare at the wall calendar facing me. What the hell was I doing? Getting ready to let history repeat itself? I still hadn’t moved a few minutes later when Todd knocked on the doorjamb.
“If you’ve got a minute, I’ve made the corrections to the order. Take a look.”
I double-checked it carefully. He had found and fixed the mistakes I had made with both the chicken and the produce order. It seemed Todd was taking my concerns to heart.
“This looks great, Todd. Nice work. Go ahead and submit it so we can get it in here tomorrow.”
“Will do, Wyatt.”
Todd left and my thoughts returned to Vance. I was meeting him at his place. He had asked me the last time where we were headed, and I hadn’t been able to answer. I still couldn’t. The whole thought spooked me.
Everything with him had felt so natural all those years ago. I had been drowning in grief and confusion, overwhelmed as any new parent was. Then Vance had walked through the door. Hardly more than a kid himself, but calm and capable. It had been so easy to let him in. So easy to let him take Elaine’s place in helping with Tempy. And then that night when I had seen how he felt…
I put my head in my hands. God forgive me, I had taken advantage of his crush. That’s all it had been at first. When I finally realized I was as emotionally vested as Vance, it had scared me. Subconsciously, I had already realized how much I cared, but that last night we’d been together, it had finally punched me in the face.
We had put Tempy to bed. After we left the room, I had pushed Vance up against the wall, desperate to get my mouth on him. Something about watching the way he cared for my daughter just melted me. I needed to show him how much it meant, and I couldn’t put it into words.
So I had shown him how much I loved him with every touch, kissing his forehead, his eyes, and finally his mouth. The spicy smell of his aftershave, the faint salt of his skin. Unlike me, his chest was smooth and nearly bare, just a slight arrow of hair leading to where I wanted to put my lips.
“Wyatt,” he’d murmured. “We shouldn’t do this out here.”
We had used the living room, the kitchen, the shower, but this night I finally took him to my bed. Piece by piece, I had stripped off his clothes, caressing him with my fingers and tongue, memorizing every inch of him.
Vance’s moans of pleasure spurred me on. I took him in my mouth, cupping his balls then kissing and licking his shaft, his nuts, and the tender skin around his ass.
“Please,” he finally begged, “I need you inside me.”
I had been relentless that night, knowing that he had to go back to school, that the idyll we had created would have to change. As I pushed into him, reaching around to stroke him to a climax at the same time I found my own pleasure, the words had nearly left my lips.
I love you, Vance.
I blinked my eyes with a start, realizing I was still in my office in the diner, staring at the wall calendar. I hadn’t said it back then. Just a few days later, a customer had caught my attention when I dropped in on the diner and asked me about Vance. “You hire him as a nanny or something? Good kid, I know his brother from up in Gaton. Must be nice having him around after Elaine, god rest her.”
So instead of telling Vance how I felt, I had told him that I needed some space. And space had turned into a pit of guilt, and when he came to check on me—worried about me getting enough sleep taking care of Tempy on my own, because that’s just who he was—I had ended things.
Why?
The truth was I had freaked out. When I finally realized that I had moved him into every aspect of the life I had shared with Elaine—including our bed—I couldn’t handle it. Add to that the rumors that had begun to get back to me. Some were simple curiosity, but some were a lot darker—questioning a man in his mid-thirties taking in a kid not too long out of high school, right after his wife died.
And now, he was back in my life again. Fate, whatever, had thrown us together because of Tempy. What I didn’t know was whether I was capable of handling it any better than I had before.
But I was about to find out.
I shut down my computer and pushed out of my chair. My gut rolled. Whether it was nerves or anticipation, I wasn’t sure. All I could see in my mind was the beautiful blue of Vance’s eyes and the honesty that always shone so brightly from them. I needed him with the same intensity I always had.
I forced myself to breathe slowly as I headed to the front of the house. The crew was cleaning up while business was slow. Todd was totaling the cash register. I touched him on the shoulder.
“I have an appointment. I’ll see you first thing in the morning.”
“Okay. I got the order in. They said they can put us at the top of the list for tomorrow.”
“Super.”
The truck was already blowing cool air when I unlocked the door and slipped behind the wheel. I didn’t take the long way around, didn’t try to pretend I was headed anywhere except straight to Vance’s apartment. His car was parked in front of his door with an empty space next to it that I pulled right into.
I let the truck idle for a moment. I had reached a point of no return. The problem was that I still wasn’t sure what awaited me at the end of the journey. I cut the engine and hopped from the cab. As I hurried along the sidewalk, Vance opened the door as though he had been watching for me.
And there it was. The bright, intelligent gaze, the slightly fuller lower lip, now stretched into a generous smile of welcome.
“Come on in,” he said and stepped back through the door.
As I followed him, my desire was already racing at the speed of light ahead of my brain. I shut the door behind me and reached for him, pushing him against the wall and tilting his face up to mine. I needed to feel that mouth against mine, needed to lick my way inside and tangle my fingers in the thickness of his hair. Beneath my onslaught, Vance was laughing with surprise as I pulled back slightly so we could both catch our breath.
“In a hurry much?” he asked, his fingertips stroking the stubble along my cheek.
I leaned in, pushing my hips into the cradle of his and groaning as our cocks rubbed together. “Need you, Vance,” I muttered just before I began kissing him again. I felt as if I were standing in the midst of an earthquake. My world was definitely rocking and Vance was the anchor. “I need you so damn much.”
15
Vance
Wyatt was like a man possessed, kissing my forehead, my eyes and finally my mouth.
“Smell so good,” he muttered against the side of my neck. “Always have.”
He tugged at my shirt, clearly impatient to get to my skin. How could I resist such an onslaught? My heart was pounding right along with my cock, my entire body yearning for his possession. That desire had never disappeared, and getting a taste of him a few days earlier had only made me hungry for
more.
I slid my hands over his shoulders, his thick muscles making my desire pulse until I was nearly lightheaded with need. One of his hands was slipping inside my waistband, stroking my eager cock.
“Slow down,” I begged, afraid it would be over too soon if he kept up his firm, rhythmic touch. I wanted it to last, wanted to be able to touch and savor him. He had always been so in control—but not now, not today.
His urgency reminded me of the way he had always approached me in the past, but I wasn’t nineteen anymore, and I wasn’t going to totally cede control to him. I grabbed his wrist.
“Easy, Wyatt.”
“Let me see you, feel you.” His expression was filled with hunger…and something else I hadn’t seen before. Jesus…did I dare hope that Wyatt had finally changed his mind, finally accepted the fact that we were meant to be together?
I stroked the side of his cheek. “Let me love you. I’ll get us both naked, Wyatt.”
A wry grin spread over his lips, as though it hadn’t occurred to him that I might take charge. How lonely it must have been for him always having to be the strong one, the one in charge. He had spent the last twelve years being the best father he could for Tempy, but at the expense of his own soul. What I didn’t know was if I possessed the power to change that.
I touched the hollow at the base of his throat and felt him shiver. It had always been sensitive. “Raise your arms.”
I tugged the polo shirt off over his head, dropping it to the floor before I used my fingertips to trace the outlines of his pecs and the ridges of muscle in his abdomen. The passage of time hadn’t changed that, nor had it altered the flutter I felt at the light dusting of hair that covered him.
I leaned in and tongued his nipple, smiling as it instantly hardened at my touch.
“Vance,” Wyatt whispered, no louder than a breath in the stillness of my apartment. I smiled at him, my fingers making quick work of his belt buckle and the fly of his jeans. His rigid shaft pushed against my hand as I tugged down the zipper.