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“Hey, you,” I say and kiss her on the cheek then look at my father. “Hi, Dad.”
“This is your dad? Oh my god, I should have known. The resemblance is right there now that you’re both standing in front of me.” She smiles.
My father looks between me and Lexi, brows raised with an obvious question. “Noah, I wasn’t expecting to see you here. It’s a good surprise, seeing as how it was your brother I was intending to run into, but he left early today as if he sensed I was coming.”
“Well, I’m sure he didn’t know you were coming to see him. I’m on my break, stopped in to see if Lexi could grab a cup of coffee with me or something. By the way, Dad, I’d like you to meet Lexi Brooks. Lexi, this is my Dad, Joseph James.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. James.” She shakes my father's hand.
“Same here, Lexi. Thank you again for helping me.” He holds up the little box in his hand.
“It was my pleasure. And yes, I’m due for a break. Just give me five minutes to check out and get my bag from the back.” I nod and she says to my father, “Have a nice day, Mr. James.”
“You too, Lexi.” She leaves and he says, “This is a surprise. I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”
“I am. It’s new and she’s great.”
“The big grin on your face since your eyes landed on her told me what you thought already.” His lips quirk up in a small smile.
I’m not even going to try to deny it. As soon as I saw her…yeah, she’s all I wanted to look at.
“She seems nice. Black, huh.”
I sigh, looking at him. I don’t know where he’s going with this but I hope it’s not where I think he’s headed with it. I’m not in for it. I’m going to shut that shit down. “Is that a problem?”
“No, no!” He raises his hand. “You’ve never dated…you know…before.”
“Not true. You know when I was in college I didn’t bring everyone I dated home.”
“I guess. It’s not like with your brother though. Sometimes I wish he would have considerednotbringingeveryonehome.”
“What?” I say, feeling defensive on Holden’s behalf even though I know he can defend and speak for himself which he’s done too many times to count with my father. That’s something that’s been going on between them for years, saying too much to each other but not enough of the right things. Mostly me and my stepmother try to be neutral and unbiased with both of them. But that’s when we can get both of them together in the same space.
“He could be more selective, not bringing everyone home is all I meant. Plenty of nice young women out there.Plentyof them.”
“Dad, he’s bi. Don’t you think it’s time you accepted it? Don’t be one of those people.”
“I’m not.” He gives me a hard stare. “But it’s a hard thing to accept when you walk out in your yard, where anyone could see your sixteen-year-old kid with his pants below his ass and some guy on his knees in front of him—doing the goddamn thing he was doing.” He huffs with a red flush creeping up his neck to his face.
Back to this, I see. This has been a major thing in my house for years. That night wasn’t one of Holden’s best, with a house full of extended family. That was a dinner that will not be forgotten, by anyone. Ever. “He was wrong and he was acting out. He wanted you to accept him and take what he was telling you seriously.”
“That’s not the way to get me to accept something. He intentionally wanted to disrespect and embarrass me in my own house. You never did things like that.”
“Holden and I are two different people, Dad. In all fairness, I did some stuff too. I just didn’t get caught.”
“Yeah, but it’s the lack of respect with him that really pisses me off.”
“Maybe if you tried to respect more or any of his decisions—”
“When he—”
“Dad.” I stop him, seeing Lexi coming back and not wanting to have this conversation between us, again, in front of her. “Let’s shelve this conversation for later. By the way, he might be coming to dinner—strong maybe.”
He rolls his eyes. “That’s what you said last time. Your stepmother was disappointed.”
“Something came up that he had to do.”
“Uh-huh, we’ll see,” he says with a heavy dose of skepticism.
