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“So you’re serious about her?” Boomer set a mug of coffee infront of him. His cell phone went off. He checked it and then placed it backdown on the table.
“Is it Lou?” There was no question she would have gotten anotification that the doorbell camera had gone off. If she’d looked, she wouldhave seen it was her dad.
His cell started ringing again. “Yes. Hang on.” He slid hisfinger over the screen and brought it to his ear. “Hey, sweetie. Yes, I’m hereand I’m talking to him. I was happy to know he wore a condom. Don’t worry aboutit. This is between me and TJ. Have a good day at work, and you should knowthat your mom wants a word.” Then he hung up and settled into his seat. “So?”
Boomer had asked him a question. “I’m always serious aboutLou.”
“Then why did she cry over you so much?”
So they weren’t pulling punches. This was probably a talkthat had always been inevitable unless TJ wanted to fade out of her life. “Itwouldn’t have worked back then. If I’d gotten physical with her back then, Idon’t know that we would even be friends today. She had work to do.”
“And you?”
“I had to figure out how I could possibly add to her life,”he admitted. His cell buzzed. He glanced down. Lou was calling him now.
“You should answer her,” Boomer offered. “She won’t stopuntil you do.”
He answered and brought the phone to his ear. “Hey.”
A long sigh came over the line. “I need you to tell my dadthat it’s all for the op. Nothing happened. We’re the same as always. It’sgoing to be okay. We can get out of this. I don’t know what the condom thingwas about, but tell him you were joking. Hey, there’s half a cheesecake in thefridge. Offer him some.”
She thought she could get everything she wanted out of this?Sex with him, but she didn’t have to admit that she was in a relationship withhim? She could have the orgasms but spare herself the shame of slumming?
“And I need you to stay in our bed.” He didn’t want topretend. He was done with that, and anyone who thought last night was actingwas going to get an announcement. “For once I would like to wake up with youactually in bed beside me. We can’t always get what we want, baby. Now you getback to work and I’ll handle your dad. Also, Molly is very interested in ushaving safe sex. I’m going to go over all the ways we won’t be making anyone agrandparent until you agree to marry me.”
A chuckle came from the other side of the table. “That makesme feel so much better.”
“Is he sitting right there?” Lou practically screamed thequestion.
“Where else would he be? I gottago. What do you want for lunch? I should be there before then. Or we can goout,” TJ offered.
Lou hung up on him.
“I guess that means no lunch.” He set the phone back down.“See, I keep screwing up with her.”
Boomer stared at him for a moment. “What changed? I have toask because you’ve been insisting there was nothing between you for years.”
He needed to figure out how to make anyone understand. “Whatif you had met Daphne right after her husband died?”
“I met her a couple of years after he died, so I get yourpoint. She would have been raw then. She wouldn’t have given us a chance. Shealmost didn’t anyway. I had to kind of sneak date her for a couple of weeks,”Boomer explained. “She had the mistaken impression that I was involved withsomeone and therefore safe. But that’s not the case with Lou. Lou’s been inlove with you since she was twelve. I think her feelings for you have cost herevery relationship she’s been in.”
“No, sir.” He was going to own up to this. “It wasn’t herfeelings most of the time. It was me because she kept picking guys who were notworthy of her.”
Boomer bristled, his shoulders squaring. “That’s not yourcall.”
TJ matched his energy. “It sure as hell is when they’replanning on stealing her research. Then there was the prom date that was reallya bet with a bunch of jocks to see how fast he could get her in bed.”
Boomer’s face went a nice shade of pink. “What?”
“Lou knows. About all of it. About how either Kala or Iwould deal with problems so she didn’t have to. So she could just be Lou. LikeI said before I love your daughter. I’ll do anything I need to do to protecther. When she was dating that asshole, too-old-for-her professor, I didn’t doanything.”
“Because you couldn’t find anything on him?” Boomer asked.
TJ shrugged. “We tried. You should understand that Lou’sdates have been vetted since she was able to date.”
Boomer let out a long sigh. “Then why, son? Why not love herthe way she should be loved?”
“Because up until now I didn’t think I could,” TJ replied.“What was I supposed to do? Should I have gotten some minimum wage job and beenher dead-end boyfriend? Should I have slept with her knowing I was going intothe Army and we would be apart for years at a time? Should I have asked her togive up her dreams and marry me? What would you have had me do, sir?”
