Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Lane was a year older, so perhaps not technically a classmate, but a friend from school, nevertheless.
It would just shine a less flattering light on our age difference.
I had to ask her, though. I had to send the picture to Marina and ask if she remembered him.
To be perfectly honest, I would understand why Lane would lie about not knowing me from before if it turned out that he’d gone to school with Marina.
Surely I could move past that.
When I scrolled through the other photos I had of Lane, the answer was a resounding yes. I had to move past it.
I hadn’t taken many photos, five—no, six. But this one right here, of just him and me on the sunbed of my boat… He’d been half asleep and grinning sleepily, his face almost buried against my neck.
A single fucking week, and my whole outlook on the future had changed.
Fucked up was what it was.
“What’re you doing?” he mumbled.
“I’m takin’ a damn picture. You’ve taken way more. It’s my turn.”
He chuckled drowsily and kissed my neck. “That wasn’t a complaint, Daddy. No need to get defensive.”
Jesus fuck, I missed the boy something fierce.
After blurring out Shay’s face in the first photo, I cropped it so Marina wouldn’t necessarily see where Lane was. I didn’t need her asking if her former schoolmate had visited me in Florida. Then I sent her the picture along with a text.
Do you know who this is?
I had this distinct feeling of calling someone the Sawyer kid at some point, a faint flash of a memory that’d resurfaced when Walker had revealed Lane’s last name yesterday.
I’d full-named Corey every time he’d stopped by.
“Hey, if it ain’t Corey Cruz!”
He’d found that funny.
No lie. It was a bit of a mindfuck to be in the same kink community as someone my daughter had been friends with throughout high school. Possibly junior high too—I wasn’t sure. I was sure I’d seen them both run through sprinklers in their bathing suits, however. I’d taken them to museums and the movies and amusement parks too. Corey’s mom and I had had each other on the metaphorical speed dial.
I reckoned that was another thing that didn’t help. Having a kid so damn young, I’d felt older by the time Marina had started school, because the parents of her friends had been significantly older. And if I’d wanted to get involved with her education, I’d had to spend time with the kids’ folks.
Now I was gonna be a grandfather before I’d turned forty-two.
The fuck was up with that?
Men my age were still having kids of their own.
“Ty!”
Fuck. So much for listening on one ear. I pocketed my phone and uncapped my water, and I spotted Macklin coming toward me.
“Hey! Master’s on his way too. He’s just wrapping up a talk with someone.” He squeezed himself in next to me. “So what did you think?”
Oh yeah, what did I think?
I chuckled under my breath and rubbed my eyebrow. “It was, uh…educational. Eye-opening.” I cleared my throat, struggling to shake my previous thoughts about Lane. About the age difference, about the possibility that he’d gone to school with Marina. And the guy next to me could shed some light on it all if I shook the answer out of him. “I could relate more when it was your turn,” I admitted. “I like how you and Walker utilize kink to condition better habits.”
“That’s where it’s at.” He beamed at me. “So listen, a few of us are gonna go upstairs and have some drinks and playtime—separately but in the same playroom. You wanna join us?”
If my mood hadn’t been in the process of tanking, maybe I could’ve accepted.
Alas…
“Another time,” I replied. “I’m gonna finish my water and then head home.” I’d only had one beer and a drink, so I should be good to drive within the hour.
Macklin tilted his head at me. “Are you okay? You seem a little down.”
I was a little down, and it bothered me a fuckload that I wasn’t hiding it better.
I flicked Macklin a glance and found I had zero energy to beat around the bush or mind my own business. Although, this was actually very much my business.
“Lane told you how he and I met in the past,” I stated. He instantly went rigid. “If you deny that to my face, we’re gonna have a problem with trust in the future, Macklin.”
As if on cue, guilt seeped into his expression, solidifying my conviction.
Thing was, Macklin and Lane were good guys. I believed that wholeheartedly—but they’d gotten themselves tangled up in a lie that was seriously gonna piss me off soon. I wasn’t an unreasonable man. I understood gray areas and how different circumstances could shove black-and-white right out the window, but enough was enough.
“Just do me a solid and confirm it,” I told him. “You’re protecting him somehow. He confided in you.”