“Paints a picture, doesn’t it?”
“Not a pretty one.”
“I said a picture; I said nothing about whether it was a pretty one.”
“Fair point.”
“Done socializing?”
“Oh, I’m, uh…gonna join a couple of the guys at the gym later,” he said brightly. “Cade said I haven’t been lifting properly and offered to show me what he learned in the army.”
“Clay joining you two?”
“I don’t know, probably. They seem pretty close. Are they…?”
“Clay is, Cade isn’t…as far as I know,” I said with a frown, and for a moment I thought about warning him but…stopped. First off, it wasn’t fair to assume Clay was only being nice because he wanted to get his dick wet, despite being a walking, talking boner, he was a good man who didn’t treat people like they were holes to get his dick off in. Secondly, I had promised I wouldn’t interfere unless it was absolutely necessary, so even if Clay had…intentions, I needed to let Jude handle it, and if he needed help, let him make the choice to reach out. “Like I said, kid, you’re going to find there’s a lot of that going on around here.”
“I guess,” he said. “But I wanted to talk to you for a bit before I went off and did my own thing.”
“A little solo adventure never hurt anyone,” I said, patting the seat beside me. “Make yourself comfortable.”
“What are you doing, anyway?” Jude asked as he sat beside me.
“I am currently enjoying the enviable task of going through error reports from the computer help system to ensure it doesn’t shit the bed…again.”
“Should you be admitting a problem with your systems to one of your guests?” he asked with a smirk.
“You’ll find that I have a pretty open policy about most things,” I said with a shrug. “Except those covered by common human decency, NDAs, my own moral code, and…HIPAA.”
He smiled, and I remembered that smile on his face when he was ten, the first time I’d met him in person. He’d been a scrawny thing with ears that stuck out, big eyes he hadn’t quite grown into, and a gap between his teeth that was eventually fixed. He’d been covered in mud and grass after playing in the woods behind his house, grinning a grin that was so similar to the one on his grown face that once again, I felt like I had been taken back in time.
“Remember when you tried to scare me with a snake?” I asked, the words leaving my lips before I could question whether a non sequitur was a good idea.
He looked surprised, then chuckled. “Yeah, I used to play back there all the time and find all sorts of things. Mom hated it. I mean, she wanted me outside, getting dirty, being a kid, but I knew it freaked her out. I mean, I was always bringing things back to the house that would freak her out, so maybe that was part of it.”
“Probably,” I said dryly, remembering the exasperated sigh Marc had made when he’d realized the trick his son wastryingto pull. “You were so disappointed when I looked down and informed you it was in fact a snake, and I wasn’t going to feel bad if it turned around and bit you because you were manhandling it.”
Jude laughed. “And then it did, immediately after you said it. Me and Dad both promised each other we wouldn’t tell Mom. I didn’t want to get in trouble, but I don’t think he wanted to either.”
I snorted. “Well, there’s that, but I know your dad pretty well. I’d guess he also thought the bite was enough to teach you a lesson…did it?”
“Mmm, no,” he said after a moment with that same time stream breaking grin. “Well, I was a lot more careful after that,and I learned which animals and bugs shouldn’t be touched, but I didn’t stop hunting them.”
“I suppose that counts as a lesson,” I said with a shake of my head. “Probably not the one your mom would have appreciated, though.”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head.
Marc though? If he ever found out that was the lesson his son had taken, would have given that same world-weary sigh and waved Jude off. I had noted, even back then, Marc was more hands-off with Jude when he thought it was necessary, letting the world and consequences be a teacher where words and scolding might not be enough. And perhaps the former businessman would have watched his son learn to be careful rather than to stop and wearily respect the determination and willingness to learn in his own way.
“So…how’s he been?” Jude asked, and I looked up, frowning in confusion. He took the cue immediately and shrugged. “I mean, it’s my dad. If I ask him how he’s been, he’s going to give me a bog-standard answer. And if I push, he gives me a little more, but it’s not like… I don’t know how he actually is. If he’s allowed, he’ll just make everyone think everything is okay.”
“You have a good understanding of your dad,” I said with a snort.
“Right, and I mean, you already said I’m like him in that regard. I mean, like knows like, so I know he’s holding back, but I don’t know how badly,” Jude said, and his troubled expression tugged at my chest. I remembered when he was twelve and I had broken one of my fingers. Not only had he done his best to look up ways to treat a broken finger before I got it looked at, but he had asked after it repeatedly for weeks. “I’m just?—”
“Worried about your dad,” I said gently. “And there’s nothing wrong with that, especially when you know your dad isn’t the sharing type.”
“So?” he asked, looking at me expectantly. “I mean, does he share more with you?”
