Page 29 of Clean Slade
Was God playing a prank on me? Or was it just plain old tragic irony? It had to be one of the two because I refused to believe fate was bringing us back together.
I refused.
EIGHT
KING
The days passed with peace, food, and critters.
If it hadn’t been obvious Slade was great with Mac before, it became so the more time they spent together.
So much so that she would follow him around by the end of our third day at the yurt. She’d even stopped asking me to take her to the bathroom outside, choosing instead to make him her Designated Restroom Attendant, as I liked to call it. It had even caught on.
“DRA duty calls,” he’d say, taking her to the cubicle and waiting outside while she listed all her favorite things.
If anyone had been watching, they’d have thought this was a regular gay family on a winter vacation, and I hated that.
It wasn’t as if I needed more excuses to fantasize about the beautiful Black man. Him being the perfect surrogate dad to my daughter was icing on the cake.
Was it crazy that I liked it? That I tried to imagine a future where he, Mac, and I were a happy family with no more ties to the Italian Mafia and no one out for blood?
My phone pinged, and I picked it up. There was a message across the screen from Tiago.
Tiago:
Hey, sweetheart, how is it going? I haven’t heard from you in days. Are we still on for tonight?
I read and reread it, and I almost wanted to slap myself.
This. This was why my fantasies were stupid. This was why I was wasting time thinking of stupid what-ifs and ludicrous scenarios that would never come true.
I wasn’t on vacation. I was in hiding. Slade wasn’t my boyfriend. He was doing his job. Although, to be fair, he wasn’t being paid for it.
Regardless, I couldn’t let my imagination run wild. That was what got me in trouble in the first place. Distraction. Getting distracted by living my life instead of fighting to protect it.
If I hadn’t settled in Mayberry, if I hadn’t gotten comfortable with our lives there, this wouldn’t have happened. He wouldn’t have found me.
I’d already made the mistake once. I couldn’t afford to make it a second time. Especially with the threat of the first one looming over me.
I left the message unread.
What did I say? How did I explain? I’d lied to him. I’d been lying to him and everyone else since I moved here. Talking to them only threatened to implicate them with my father even further, and I wouldn’t have that.
We were already in deep shit as it was. I couldn’t afford to put my friends’ lives at risk too.
We’d made plans for tonight. We were supposed to meet at the Outpost and see in the new year together. Obviously, I couldn’t go. And replying to his message had its own risks. Slade had told me only he, Autumn, and Wyatt knew we’d gone into hiding together, and even they didn’t know where we were just to be on the safe side.
“…and Princess Jasmine.” Mac was the first to step back inside from the restroom, lost in the counting of her new list.
“Wait a freaking minute. Why is Princess Jasmine last on your list?” Slade asked, following behind her.
Mac shrugged and reached for one of his teddy bears she’d taken with us.
“Although I do have to commend you on putting Esmeralda first. Everyone always forgets Esmeralda. You taught her well, Dad.” He turned, andno,butterflies did not stir in my stomach. No, sir. Nothing happened to me internally or externally whatsoever at the ease with which he’d called me dad.
“How do you even know Disney Princesses?” I asked, offering him a fresh cup of coffee.
“Um…because I’ve been around for the past three decades? How could I not know?”
