Page 2 of Liberating Love

Jameson waves his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Pssh, Dad. We don’t mind going with you. It’ll be fun. Where do you want to go?”

Holds groans, causing me to chuckle. “Son, I love you, but between you two, and Jovany coming to see me, I haven’t really had a minute to myself. I’m looking forward to a night out. You know I’m a grown man, right?”

Jameson shrugs his shoulders bashfully. “Sorry, Dad. I know I need to chill out. It was just hard when you were gone. I want you to be happy.”

Reaching over, I grab his hand and squeeze. “I’m so happy to be out of there. And I’m thrilled to take the next month and stay here and get to know Holds better, but son, after the holidays, I’m going to rent my own place and get back to the land of the living. I don’t want you to worry about me.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“Promise?” I ask.

“Yeah.”

As I finish clearing the table and washing the dishes I think, as I have so many times before, about how hard the last five years must have been for Jameson. His older brother, Jovany, and him hadn’t been close in years. Jovany favored his mother’s side of the family, in looks and mentality, so he had been closer to his cousin, Cappi, who was the same age as him and hadn’t been approving of his own brother.

Jameson had told me that the family hadn’t responded favorably to him supporting me through my fraudulent arrest and later wrongful imprisonment, but he wouldn’t give me details. Jameson was the only one who’d stood by me from day one and believed in my innocence. The fact that it was my then wife’s brother who had been directing the investigation from his pedestal at the police department, my wife and Jovany had immediately found me guilty, and she’d subsequently divorced me. It wasn’t a period I wanted to relive. Not even in my mind. However, something was changing. Jovany began to visit me in prison within the last year. We hadn’t discussed Jameson or the arrest or the conviction, but I’d told both boys I didn’t want to talk about it.

When I’d first been released, Jameson had wanted to sit and go over my case, what I remembered, etc., but I had made him promise to drop it, and assured him that if he brought it up again, I’d go stay in a hotel until I was ready to rent a place. He hasn’t brought it up again.

“So, Dad?”

Turning off the water, I turn to find my son hovering in the doorway. “What’s up?”

“Do you want me to give you a ride or anything? What do you need?”

“I’m good. I’m going to Uber, now that Holds taught me how.” We share a smile. Both of them had to work one of the days that I needed to check in with my parole officer, so I said I’d call a taxi. The next thing I knew, I had an Uber app on my handy-dandy smartphone that Jameson and Holds had pressed into my hands the minute I got to their house from prison. They said I had to have it. I’d tried to tell them I didn’t need all the bells and whistles, but after only a couple of weeks, I had to admit, I was enjoying what all this phone could do.

“Okay, you’re positive you don’t want me to come?”

“Nope. You and Holds need some alone time, and honestly, so do I. It’s been years since I could enjoy a night out. The night before Thanksgiving used to be a good night to go out when I was young, and Holds told me you guys really enjoyed the place you went to for that Halloween party, so I thought I’d head over there.”

“Oh yeah, that place was pretty cool. Our friend Aiden asked us to go. We’ll probably go back and hang out one day.” He nodded happily. “You should have a great time. They had a decent mix of ages in there, and it wasn’t like it was just a gay bar. It was a bar. Come as you are, be who you are.”

Tucking into his side, Holds says, “Maybe find a nice lady to flirt with,” as he waggles his brows at me.

“Ew. Holden!” Jameson glares down at his boyfriend.

Rolling his eyes for me, Holds smacks Jameson on the butt before heading back toward the living room. “Get over it. Your father’s been in prison, you’ve barely let him out of your sight, and he’s an attractive, unattached male. Let him be.”

Jameson winks at me before spinning around and grabbing his boyfriend around the waist, growling, “Attractive, huh?” Holds pushes out of his grasp and runs down the hall, the two of them teasing and laughing with each other as my son chases after him in hot pursuit.

Chuckling, I bend down and pet Holds’s dog, Peanut, and coo, “Would you like me to take you out before I go? Your daddy forgot about you, didn’t he? But I didn’t. No, I didn’t.” Walking to the end of the hall, I yell, “Don’t worry, boys. I’ll take out the dog before I leave.”

* * *

This is exactlywhat I need right now. The place is packed. I’ve been stir-crazy sitting in the house researching houses and jobs, and I want a night of normalcy. Some time where no one knows what I’ve been through—or thinks they know, anyway—and I can relax. Noticing a man with ginger hair—my personal weakness—I watch with amusement from my spot against a beam by the pool tables as a blond twink chats him up. It’s obvious they know each other, and have probably been intimate based on the way the twink leans from his bar stool into the man’s personal space, wrapping his arms around his neck.

It’s as the obviously uninterested man turns his stool to disengage the other’s arms that I get a good look at the whole package. While he’s not as tall or thick as me, he obviously works out. I can see the definition in his biceps in his tight gray t-shirt, as well as his abs as he sits up from gently guiding the blond back into his own seat. It’s then that I get an eyeful of the full smattering of freckles across his face.Oh good lord. It’s been a few months since I’ve had any type of sexual contact except with my own hand, so my dick immediately goes half-mast as I wonder if those freckles cover his entire body and visualize playing connect the dots with my tongue. Whatever he says next enrages the small cutie, whose pert little ass draws my attention for a second as he stands up, but my attention immediately refocuses on the bigger man at the bar. Taking a chance that his type may run to older and bigger, I avoid the pockets of people and walk over to stand behind the now vacant stool. “Excuse me, is this seat taken?”

He tenses, then turns wary hazel eyes on me, and I hope my luck has finally changed after all these years. Jameson thinks my trouble started the night I was arrested... if he only knew. The man blinks and gestures toward the stool. “Be my guest.”

I squeeze in and fold my large frame into the stool, not missing the way his gaze runs over my body out of the corner of his eye. “Thanks.” He shrugs nonchalantly, but darts tiny glances in my direction as I order a beer and make small talk with the bartender for a minute. “So what brings you out tonight?” I ask as the lady behind the bar moves away.

“I just needed a beer,” he mumbles, his face heating. Huh, the blond guy didn’t make him change colors.

“Do you come here often?” I persist as I angle my knees in his direction, so they’re almost touching his thighs where he faces straight ahead.

Again, he shrugs, but he’s biting the corner of his lip, his face flushes a little redder, and his eyes focus on my hand that’s wrapped around my beer on the bar.

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