AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He coughs as he inhales. “Should quit this poison,” he rasps as he flicks an ash.
“Me too.” I take a drag. I smoke a few a day. Maybe ten, sometimes less, sometimes more. Depends on how busy I am. But he’s right. I should quit.
“Yeah. Before your lungs turn to shit.”
“Yeah.”
Silence settles between us, but it’s companionable. I’m not a quiet guy, but around my dad I don’t have much to say, mostly because he don’t. I take another swallow of my beer.
“You eat?” he asks.
I shrug. “I’ll eat later.”
He smirks. “Got a girl yet?”
These are the two questions he always asks.
And I always answer the same way, except today I surprise him. “Yeah, I think I do.”
He shifts in his recliner so he’s almost facing me. “You shittin’ me, Casper?”
I snort out a chuckle. “Wait’ll you see her. She’s gorgeous from her toes to the top of her head.” I pause as I think about her. “I haven’t seen the arches of her feet yet, but soon, I’m thinking.”
“Not like you to be turned by a pretty face,” he grunts as he settles back in his chair. “You got dozens falling over you.”
I don’t bring girls home to dad, but I don’t sugarcoat my life. He knows who I am and what I do. He knows I’m a whore. “This one’s different. She’s more than a pretty face.”
“Not tappin’ her yet?”
What a ridiculous question. “Of course, I am.” I think about Evanee. “I’m no trophy so I gotta figure out how to make her want to stay. She’s confident, smart, and knows what she wants. Gets it too.” I grin. “I can’t really figure it out myself.”
The old man laughs. “Now she, I gotta meet.”
Fuck. This was why I was dropping by, but lookin’ at my old man, the overgrown yard, the shack I grew up in, I start doubting myself. “She a veterinarian, got degrees and shit.”
“Too good for your old man then?” He tries to sound casual, but there’s a hurt undertone.
“Nah,” I say, deciding if I have to meet her fucking county club parents, then she can slum with me for a while. Maybe she needs to know where I come from before we’re settled. Maybe I need to know how she’s gonna be around my pops before I get in too deep. Maybe she’s not perfect. Then what?
“I’ll set something up,” I tell him.
He grins and I see light in his dirty dishwater eyes. “I’ll cook.”
I groan and slap my forehead with the palm of my hand. “I want you to meet her, not poison her.”
He laughs. “I’ll throw something decent in the oven.”
“Fairs fair, I guess. I gotta meet her parents and they’ll make me eat some of that goose liver pate shit.”
“She’s posh then.”
I hear the same doubt in his voice that I had a minute ago, but it’s a done deal. “As they come.”
He runs a critical eye over me. “You meetin’ her uppity parents lookin’ like that?”
I’m offended as I look down at myself. Sure, the jeans need a wash and the boots are worn, but the T-shirt’s fresh out of the laundry basket. “Of course not. I’ll change my clothes, leave my cut at home.” I think about it. “Take a shower.”
“Get a fuckin’ haircut,” he growls as he stabs a finger at my head.
