Page 64 of Center of Gravity
He shook his head. “Infomercial o’clock. Your mom will be home soon, why don’t you go to bed? I’m all right.”
I stretched out. “I can stay for a little bit. Do you want me to do the pressure point thing with your hand?”
He gave me a sad smile and shook his head again. “How about you just talk to me for a while.”
I leaned back in the chair and kicked my feet up onto the side of the bed. “I’m going to get a loan. For school. I printed a bunch of options out and Rob helped me figure them out.”
“Good boy. I’m glad to hear that.” His smile hitched higher. “I knew you’d come around, though.”
“You did not.”
“I did. A father always knows.” He pinched my ankle weakly. “How’s Rob?”
Delicious.No way was I going to say that, though. We did havesomeboundaries.
“He’s good. His parents’ house is on the market now so he’s back in the city, but I saw him last night. He was…very helpful.”
Dad quirked a brow but didn’t say anything else, so I told him about the letters we found to Rob’s dad.
“What?” I asked when I finished. He was frowning.
“I think I have some of your mom’s and my old letters somewhere. But we talked on the phone a lot, too. Now it’s text this and text that, sexting. DTF.”
I laughed. “DTF. You’ve been watching MTV.”
“I was surfing and got stuck there. Some chubby-cheeked Jersey boy with hot-dog lips and a bad tan talking about a girl being DTF.” He shook his head. “It’s so aggressive and impersonal. Don’t get me wrong, your mom and I, we were down for a good time. Don’t make that face at me. It was different, though. It was about connection and communication, not about sticking your dick in any hole that’ll have you.”
“You’ve been watching too much TV, in general.”
“Well, my options are limited right now.”
“I feel like you’re kind of dancing around some father-son lesson here.” I arched a brow. And I was totally willing to entertain it since he’d perked up a bit, but he just waved his hand thinly.
“Fuck, I don’t know. I guess I’m saying there’s nothing wrong with falling in love.”
“I didn’t say there was.”
“But it’s also a really good idea to finish your degree.”
“Yes, we always circle back to that, don’t we?”
“You know the best way to shut me up about that? Stick your diploma on our mantel.”
I laughed and we chattered on about the classes I’d take, about the moves Tom and I had done that afternoon, until I heard Mom get home. I straightened his covers, helped him to the bathroom and back, then settled him under the covers again.
“Son,” he said as I smoothed the sheet over his chest. “I think I’m about done.” He’d said it before, but he rarely called me son, and I knew this time that he was serious. My breath caught and became a solid ball lodged in my throat, but I nodded, bending down to kiss his forehead. “It’s your choice and I’ll love you no matter what.”
“Back at ya, kid. ‘Til the world falls off its axis,” he murmured.
I thoughtabout calling Rob that night, sat in my bed tossing my phone back and forth between my hands. He would talk to me if I told him, I thought. He would be sympathetic. But somehow the idea made me nervous, like it would upset whatever fledgling thing—if anything—was between us. I wanted to be with him again, sleep with him again. Ineededit. But I didn’t want to complicate things and apparently Rob didn’t either. He’d made that clear even before I’d left that morning. When I’d asked if he might come back next weekend for another round, there’d been an empty pause before he’d smiled and shrugged. “Maybe.”
I didn’t hearfrom him again until the following Friday when he texted me to see if I had plans for Saturday night. I texted him back:I don’t if that means you’ll get on your knees for me.
He replied,That can be arranged, then before I could reply, added,You know, you’re a demanding bastard.
Me? I wasn’t the one denying orgasms last time.
It went from there until I was sending him pics, telling him how I was jacking off thinking about him.