Page 29 of Freeze Frame

FIFTEEN

DAVID

DidI want to discuss my sex life with my son? Not really, no. But he had the unique perspective I required, plus having walked in on Josh and me, he knew the facts which would save me from speaking in hypotheticals.

I invited him over for breakfast a few days after Josh failed to return my calls. Or my texts. I might have gone a bit overboard, but I wasn’t ready to take the hint just yet. Maybe he wanted nothing to do with me. Maybe I needed to give up. Maybe I needed a big, grand gesture or something.

Jax walked into the kitchen, his hands over his eyes. “Is it safe?”

“Yes, you dork. It’s safe.” I threw a tea towel at him, hitting him in the chest.

“Well, apparently I can’t be too careful. The last time I was here, you were two seconds away from doing things that I’ve only done in porn.” Jax slipped past me, left the towel on the counter, and headed for the coffee pot.

“I’m sorry if I scarred you for life or anything.”

I’d gone through great pains as a single father to give Jax stability, and that meant not having him walk into his kitchen to see his father making out with half-naked strangers. Only Josh wasn’t a stranger to Jax.

“Okay, old man.” Jax leaned against the counter with a coffee in hand. Sometimes he was a force of nature. Not like a storm or a hurricane, but like a creek that looked calm and easygoing on the surface but had a hell of a current underneath. And before you knew it, he’d dragged you someplace you weren’t sure you’d have ended up otherwise. “Out with it.”

I plated our food. Unburned bacon. Scrambled eggs. Whole wheat toast. I slid a plate over to Jax. He put his coffee down, scooped his eggs onto his toast, layered the bacon on top and then put the other piece of toast on the top before giving it a nice squish.

“He hasn’t returned any of my calls. Or texts. Part of me is screaming to take the hint, but the other part of me really doesn’t want to.” I did the same thing Jax did with his breakfast and assembled my own sandwich while Jax chewed his first bite.

“So don’t give up,” he said around half a mouthful.

“One, don’t talk with food in your mouth. And two, isn’t that like harassment?"

Jax shrugged. “Has he told you to leave him alone?”

“Well, not with words.”

“Then keep at it. Or you could do something special.”

“Like what?”

Jax laughed. “I don’t know, Dad. What did people used to do, you know, back in the day?”

“Back in the day?”

“Yeah, when you were a horny teenager. What did you do to impress the girls? Or the guys.”

“Well, back then I wasn't really out, so it was the girls. Hell, I didn’t know that other attractions were even an option.” I’dgrown up in a conservative, God-fearing kind of family in a community that was much the same way. It wasn’t until I broke free of that place and went to college that I discovered that there was a whole different world out there.

“Okay, so what did you do to win people over before I came along?”

“Well, back when I was young, you know, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.” Jax shoved me gently, making me laugh. “Yeah, I’d make a mix tape because cassette decks still existed.”

He rolled his eyes and made a show of taking a large bite of his sandwich. Which meant I had to deal with him staring at me, telling me with his eyes that I was an idiot.

“You know that playlists are a thing, right? It’s like a mix tape but for people born after the year 1995. You could make him a playlist of all the songs that remind you of him or songs you think he’d like.”

“Jax, I’m fifty-two years old.”

“So? Is your dick past its expiration date or something? Or maybe your sense of fun? You’re old, not dead. Remember when I was a kid and you always told me that I could be whatever I wanted and do whatever I wanted so long as it wasn’t hurting anyone? Well, that same shit goes for you too. What’s it going to hurt if you make him a playlist?”

It was my turn to stuff a bite of sandwich in my face to keep myself from having to answer that.

“Exactly,” Jax said. “Unless….”