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I roll my head around, trying to loosen the tension in my neck muscles, the sound of ‘possible other father’ the most terrifying thing to comprehend.
“The only guy back then I know about is Dr. Bridges.”
“Well, why don’t I give him a call,” my mother suggests. “Maybe I can get him to share with us whether Melody mentioned anyone else to him.”
I shake my head. “He won’t be able to tell you anything. He’s bound by laws that protect doctor-patient confidentiality.”
My mother’s eyes narrow. “He had sex with your wife while she was his patient. I’m sure I can get him to see the importance of bending the rules a little bit.” She picks up her phone and moves into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
Sighing, I cross the living room and stand at the window, watching Teddy as he creeps along the diving board, his nerves apparent as he moves closer to the edge, where Emily waits underneath for him to jump to her.
Dr. Kellen Bridges was the man Melody had an affair with before we moved here, to Sandalwood. The guy I thought was her one dalliance in her struggle to be faithful to our marriage. I don’t see a high likelihood that she would have told him anything pertinent, but if my mother wants to turn over old stones to see what she can find, I’m not going to stand in her way.
“You know, Colton, if you’re going to sleep with your nanny, you should probably not be so obvious about it.”
At my father’s words, I spin around, my eyes wide.
“What the hell did you just say?”
He shrugs. “Look, I get it. I’ve known more than a handful of guys who thought a sexy young thing would make them feel bigger, more powerful. I’m not going to try to make you feel bad. You’re a single guy, and it’s not illegal.”
I let out a noise and rest my head in my hands. “Unbelievable.”
“But it’s all about how things look, you know, and most people think sleeping with your young, attractive nanny…well, it’s not necessarily a good idea.”
“I can’t believe this,” I mumble to myself, unable to look at my father in the face. “Are you telling me you did this when you…”
“No, no, no, Cap. I don’t want you to misunderstand me.”
I turn and glance back at him, wanting to be sure he’s being honest. Even though I love him and think he’s a great man, there have definitely been a few instances in life when he has too closely aligned with the douchebags at his country club. The kind of men who would absolutely cheat on their wives with their nannies and maids and the cart girls who drive drinks around the golf course.
“I have always been faithful to your mother. Always. I’m simply telling you that some fleeting enjoyment isn’t necessarily always worth the fallout in the end.”
“I can’t believe I’m even saying this,” I tell him, my hands on my hips, “but aren’t you the guy who told me to go get laid? Get my ‘dick sucked’,” I add, using air quotes to make it clear that he is the one who suggested it in the first place.
My dad laughs. “I did tell you that, didn’t I,” he says, his rounding tummy jiggling slightly as he thinks back on that conversation we had many months ago. “Well, I’m sorry I didn’t make it clear. Go out and find someone to hook up with. Don’t just have sex with the woman living in your house. It might be convenient for now, but it’s certainly not going to stay that way.”
I shake my head. “You make it sound so trashy.”
“Because it is trashy.”
“Emily could never be trashy,” I tell him. “She is the most…upstanding, kind, hardworking person.”
“And yet, she’s sleeping with her boss.”
My father shrugs his shoulders, his hands raised, as if that sentence alone defines things between me and Emily.
Not that we…need defining. I mean, we’re not a couple. We’re just enjoying each other.
Sighing, I glance out the window one more time before I take a seat at the table with my dad again.
“Here’s the reality,” he tells me, cutting me off before I can say anything else. “You are still dealing with the fallout from the end of your last relationship. You need to be going to therapy and dealing with your anger and grief. You need to be sorting through this mess with the Carpenters. What you don’t need is to make your home life more complicated by sleeping with a woman who works for you, and whom you have no feelings for.”
I bristle at that, at the idea that I don’t have any feelings for Emily. I care about her. I want her to be happy. Aren’t those feelings?
“When did you get on the pro-therapy bandwagon?” I ask instead. “Weren’t you the man who always said therapy is a waste of time?”
My dad rolls his eyes, his hands folding against his middle.
