Page 45 of Tameron

He hummed deep in his chest. ‘Yes. Late deaf.’

‘That-that,’ I signed. ‘We had…’ I stopped. I didn’t really want to give my old man dirty details about my sex life. But I did want some advice. ‘You and Mom didn’t fall in love right away, did you?’

He snorted. ‘You know the story. She didn’t want a guy from a hearing family. Thought I was too slow. It took a lot of roses and chocolates to win her over.’

I was pretty sure it was more like showing off his abs and strutting around campus in a muscle shirt everywhere she was than flowers and chocolates. But my dad was both a peacock and a romantic, so he probably did both.

He didn’t question me when I brought up their romance. It wasn’t a Deaf conversation if you didn’t tell three irrelevant childhood stories before getting to the point.

‘How long would you have waited until you gave up?’

‘On your mom?’ He scoffed loudly and clicked his tongue. ‘Never. Never give up on your mom. She was the one. My true love.’

A year ago, I would have laughed in the face of the idea of true love. Now…I wasn’t so sure. I was happy to be patient with Tameron. I was happy to let him experiment with me. And there would never be strings unless he asked for them.

But I wished I was brave enough to ask him if he wanted more than just…this.

‘Dayton,’ he said, using my childhood sign name of a D tapped against his heart. ‘What happened?’

‘I like him.’

Dad sat back with a small huff. ‘Does he like you?’

‘Yes. But I don’t know if he likes me the same. Or enough.’

He pulled a face. ‘Sorry. That’s hard. Do you have faith?’

‘Some.’ Enough for now, but how long would it last? ‘I want you to meet him. Even if it turns into nothing, I want him to experience a Deaf family. Deaf joy. He hasn’t had a lot of that since he was discharged.’

‘You know we can do that,’ my dad pointed out with a grin. ‘When do you see him next?’

And, well, that was part of the problem, wasn’t it? It had been over a week now, and while he’d replied with emoji to my kitten pictures and we’d ended the night on a promise that both of us wanted to do this again, there’d been nothing more.

No conversation, no asking to see me again, no nothing. Just…pointed silence.

‘I don’t know,’ I confessed.

My dad cracked his knuckles. ‘Let me know when you do. I don’t need much of an excuse to fire up the grill and text the whole family.’

That made me laugh, and it felt good because it was true. Once I got Tameron to agree, there would at least be something good for him to experience. Something different from what he’d seen in the past few months as he learned the language.

And maybe with that bridge, he would have a bit more hope. Maybe with that bridge, he’d see something in me worth keeping around.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

TAMERON

“You’re being a dick.”

I looked up from the book I’d been reading on my Kindle, curled up on the couch, and found Nash pinning me down with a hard stare. “What?”

“You’re being a dick.”

I had heard him right. “What did I do now?”

“Dayton said he hasn’t heard from you in two days.”

I made a face. “Christ on a bike, he’s bitching to you about that?”

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