Page 12 of Devious Temptation
Rhys appears in the open doorway, looking like the spitting image of me at his age, dressed in a black suit with an emerald tie and a red rose boutonnière. Something in my chest clenches as my reality slaps me upside the head. My son is getting ready to go to his senior prom with his girlfriend, who I’ve been lusting over.
I’m such a fucking shitty father.
“Ready? Mom is already grumbling about us having to go over there.” Rhys smirks. It seems like tonight he’s annoyed with Charlotte. Both of them have mood swings that shift faster than a dual-clutch transmission.
“Well, your mom doesn’thaveto go,” I comment, like my son isn’t already aware.
Rhys wanders further into my office, looking at all the colored binders with neat labels written on the spines. “Lucy did a good job. Funny that you never asked me tohelp you organize in here but had no problem allowing her to do it when you weren’t home.” There’s a blatant accusation in his tone and hard stare.
“You never showed any interest in helping me. She offered. That’s all.”
His brows draw together, lips pinching into a thin line. “Yeah, you two seem to be awfully fond of each other all of a sudden.”
“Would you rather me hate her like your mother does?”
His gaze drops, and he shakes his head, staring at the hardwood floor like he’s got something on his mind. He doesn’t move as I stand and approach him. “What is it, Son?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking a lot lately…”
“About?” I prod. Rhys is nearly as tall as I am now. We often get mistaken for brothers instead of father and son. It pisses him off, but I just keep telling him he should feel lucky he’s got good genes.
“College,” he sighs, turning to lean against the doorframe. “Football.” Crossing his arms, he blows out a rough breath. “Lucy.”
I keep quiet, letting him work through his thoughts.
“I love her, you know? I don’t want her to go to California,” he admits quietly. “But I know if I ask her not to go, then that will make me a selfish prick. But if she goes, I don’t think we’ll survive the long distance.”
“If you love her, you won’t ask her to give up her dreams and passions so that you can live yours, Rhys. If you love her,trulylove her, what’s a few years long distance?” My words summon a look of shame that flits across his faceas he reaches up to scratch the back of his head, a quirk he gets from me. I rest my hand on his shoulder. “But you’re also both very young. There’s a whole world out there beyond Chicago.”
I tell myself that I’m doing my job as a father and assuring my son that he doesn’t have to hold onto his past while trying to navigate his future. But I’d be lying if I said there isn’t a small part of me that wouldn’t mind seeing Rhys and Lucy go their separate ways—not for me, but for them.
They both need to live their lives and find who they are away from each other.
“Would you have let Mom go to college on the other side of the country?”
I don’t tell him that I was planning on breaking up with Charlotte until she told me she was pregnant with him. Instead, I try to dispel the seriousness of the conversation with humor. “Rhys, when has your mother ever done what I wanted her to do? Besides, we don’tletour partners do anything, okay? We’re not cavemen.”
He laughs, the edges of his eyes crinkling with a smile. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess I can’t really tellLucy shecan’tgo. Can you imagine how that would go over?”
“About as well as me telling your mother I’m taking away her credit cards, and she’s not allowed to go to Boca anymore.”
In another world,I’d genuinely enjoy being a part of the Bradee’s circle of friends.
Unfortunately for me, my wife can’t seem to keep her damn mouth shut.
“These aren’t terrible, but the gruyere ones you made last time were much better. Just my opinion.” Charlotte holds her hands up after eating one of the homemade crackers Lucy’s mother, Bree, made for a meat and cheese platter.
Bree’s left eye twitches as she plasters a smile on her face. “So sorry they aren’t to your liking, Charlotte. Here, have another glass of wine.”
Rhys coughs a laugh into his hand while Bree’s friends look at my wife like they want to skewer her and roast her over the fire in the pit in the Bradee’s backyard. Lucy has a lot of her mother’s features, from her red hair to the freckles over the bridge of her nose. They have a natural beauty, and I wonder if that’s why Charlotte gives them so much grief.
My wife’s beauty comes from a bottle, a scalpel, and many, many syringes.
Will, Bree’s husband, tips his beer bottle back, gaze swinging to mine with a look that clearly says ‘My wife is about to murder yours if you don’t get her to shut her mouth.’
River’s best friends, Rose and Nova, bound down the stairs in a fit of giggles. “Lucy looks like a mermaid!” Nova exclaims loudly as the girls throw their hands out and frame each side of the stairs dramatically.
Everyone collectively holds their breath as Lucy appears, and my heart skips a beat as her eyes instantly find Rhys. And I’m glad for it because if she’d looked at me first, I’mfairly certain I’d have to excuse myself to explain to my dick why it’s inappropriate to get hard around the girl, especially in front of her parents.
