“I’m teasing you. She’s fine, she looks good, and she says she feels good, too. Everything is okay…just like I told you it would be.” I dipped bread into olive oil and balsamic and nearly moaned aloud. “This is delicious.”
“No having sex with the bread,” he chided.
I gave a self-deprecating shrug, charmed by his good-naturedness. Dexter was easy company. I liked knowing we could discuss breakfast cereals, player stats, and bread. It would be nice to stick to lighter topics tonight.
But the first thing out of my mouth was, “Why do you want to be a father? Why go through all this?”
Dexter regarded me thoughtfully. “I’ve always wanted a family of my own.”
“There are other, less expensive ways to do it, you know.”
“I tried the traditional way. That didn’t go well.” He made a face and sipped his wine.
“You were married.” It was a statement. There was no point in pretending I hadn’t heard rumors about him through the Wood Hollow grapevine.
“Briefly. Big mistake, should never have happened.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Meh. Don’t be. We all have rough chapters.” Dexter put his glass down and tore a piece of bread in half. “I’m not getting any younger, though, and at this point in life, I’m not interested in waiting for the right girl or guy to come around. Time is ticking, and I can offer a good home and a good life to a child. I want a chance to do that.”
“You’ll be good at it.”
“Thanks. What about you? Do you want a family someday?”
“No,” I replied. “I’m too…set in my ways. I think you have to be open to change as a parent. And I don’t think I could do it on my own, like you. I would want a partner, and I don’t have one.”
“Ever met anyone you liked in Wood Hollow?”
I rolled my eyes. “Dating questions again. Is this high school locker room talk?”
“No, it’s friend talk, and we’re friends, right?”
“Well, the answer is no. I don’t date. I’m not…” I searched for a word and settled on, “…social.”
“I am—social, that is. I haven’t been with anyone since Reg and that was over seven or eight months ago. And since you know about Reg, let’s get this out of the way…we’re friends only.”
“You already told me that.”
“Well, it’s worth repeating. He’s a great guy, but he’s at a different place in life. I’d rather have the friendship than sex with strings.”
“What kind of strings?” I winced. “No. Don’t tell me.”
He chomped on a piece of bread, his eyes bright with amusement. “Why not? It’s nothing bad. If anything, it’s totally understandable. Reg’s kids come first, and that’s how it should be. I was never going to rank anywhere near them. I’d have to be satisfied with coming in second or sometimes third place behind his job. That’s not for me. I’ve done that my whole life. I didn’t want to resent him—he’s doing his best, and I respect that. So…we’re friends.”
“That’s good.”
“But you know what I do resent?” he asked, leaning halfway across the table.
“What?”
“A severe lack of sex in my life and the knowledge that I might not get any for years. Except I did last week and oh, my God…that was very fucking incredible,” Dexter gushed.
I widened my eyes and for some reason, that made him howlwith laughter. I slid his wineglass out of reach and pushed the breadbasket toward him. “Eat.”
Dexter lit up when our appetizers arrived. We split salads and shared calamari and shifted to neutral topics.Thank God. A Lady Gaga song on the speakers reminded him of the time he’d seen her in concert in San Francisco. He’d been visiting a friend and had an entertaining story about a drag brunch in the Castro District and the time he’d gone for a run and stumbled into the Folsom Street Fair.
He put his fork down and raised his hand. “I was not prepared for that level of leather and kink. Not even close. I was a mile or so into my run and I only stopped out of curiosity, but holy shit, it was—a lot. I literally saw men fucking in broad daylight.”
