“Dad, I don’t mean to be a certain way, but do you think next time you and Fern can, you know. . . keep that shit in your room. Fern’s hot and all, but I don’t need to be imagining her in her maid get up. Fuck. I bet no other kids see their stepmoms in maid outfits. Can’t you two be normal or something?” Tor grumbles as I pull out on the road.
I chuckle at the reminder I didn’t need. It’s bad enough she and I have to sneak around like teenagers, let alone my teenager walks in on us. All through lunch, I teased her with the toy she gave me the control of. I didn’t stop there, though. Fern’s joining me for the first time in a group setting tomorrow when the club goes for a ride. We’re spending all day on the road, savoring the wind therapy being on a bike gives us.
“I’ll try to remember that, but I gotta say she’s got a smokin’ body,” I state truthfully.
I love seeing her come out of her shell and not worry about her scars. I don’t want Fern to feel discouraged in her path to come back to herself.
“You really like her, huh?” Tor asks knowingly.
I’ve never been one to lie to my son, and I’m not about to start now. “No, Tor, I don’t like her. I fuckin’ love that woman.”
“Isn’t it too soon?”
“I’ve known Fern for months. Before the day she was burned, she and I were startin’ something. I backed off when I shouldn’t have. It resulted in me losing time with her, time I could’ve used to help her heal. Instead, Fern went into her own head.” She shut down and didn’t want anyone near her.
“So, now what are you going to do?” Tor asks while I pull into the parking lot of GameStop.
I park his car and turn to him. “I’m going to find a time when I can tell her I don’t want this to end.”
“Good, ‘cause I like her.” Of course, Tor does.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, Fern’s funny and caring. She listens and doesn’t turn into a bitch at the drop of a hat.” I listen to my son talk, continuing on about Fern.
Now, Tor hasn’t said anything to me about the obvious age difference Fern and I have, so now’s the time to ask him. “Does the age difference she and I have bother you?”
“Why would I have a problem with y’all’s age difference? I mean, as long as she’s not my fuckin’ age or younger than me, we’re cool.” He shrugs.
Well, okay then.
Dropping the subject, the two of us get out of his car and walk into GameStop. I enjoy spending this time with my son, even in a gamer’s shop, picking out a video game for him to play. With his life being turned upside down and twisted around, Tor needs these times to be a kid and not the adult he’s turning into.
Tor scans the shelves, and I look around. I spot the new Xbox he’s been talking about since he came to me. I pick it up, look around, and then over to Tor. He’s reading the back of a game case, so I take the box over to the cashier and hand my card over. It’s time Tor got a new Xbox anyways. I tell the cashier to hold the bag back there while I go back to my son, and I check out the game he’s looking at.
“This the one you want?” I ask him.
“Yeah, the game just came out with a new expansion pack, and I hear you have to fight Fenrir at some point in the game. It’s cool as shit,” he says, talking about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Grinning, I shake my head at him. “Don’t tell Fenrir that. He’ll want to play it, and then Charm will get pissed and put something in his food again.”
“Seriously?” Tor quirks a brow.
“Oh yeah, you’ve heard the stories.” I chuckle.
Tor laughs and moves on to look at other games. I look at the headsets meant for gaming. Tor has one, but it’s not the best. I pick up one I think would be better and notice a gaming chair that’s cool as shit, and it sits on the floor with armrests on either side. The chair even has Bluetooth compatibility. He could use that in his room at Fern’s house.
Putting the headset box on top of the chair’s box, I bend and lift the big box into my arms. I carry it over to the counter with a beaming smile on my face. He’s going to love this. I just know it.
“Dad?” Tor calls my name.
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing?” he asks, coming to the counter.
“What’s it look like?” I grin.
Tor’s eyes scan over the box as the cashier scans each item. When she’s done, she tells me the total, and I pull out my card. After I finish paying, the cashier places the receipt into the bag and hands that one and the one with Tor’s new Xbox to me.
“Have a good day,” she says sweetly, eyeing my son.
“Thanks, you too. Tor, grab the boxes, will ya?”
“Sure,” Tor utters in complete shock. His eyes on the bags, and he sees the one with the new gaming console.
I grin at my son as his eyes come to mine. Seeing the way they light up, I know without a doubt getting him this shit means something to him. He’s never gone without but only because what he has, he’s always asked for. And this stuff right here I knew he wanted and was waiting for Christmas to ask.
Now he doesn’t have to, and he can spend time being a kid for a little while longer before it's time to go out in the real world. If you ask me, he needs to make up for growing up too quickly.
Fern and Charm are taking Saraya to a friend of theirs who’s a midwife and can confirm she’s pregnant or not. Not that I don’t believe the girl, she’s got a face that you can see once held pure innocence but had it taken from her. The way Saraya is around Tor, I know something else happened between them. Only neither has said what it is yet.
Chapter Eighteen
Fern
I’ve been in a lot of embarrassing circumstances throughout my life, but that was the absolute worst. Now I’m sitting in front of my best friend, who’s currently red-faced, laughing her ass off at me. Charm has her hand in front of her mouth and inhales deeply through her nose before laughing again, and again, and ultimately repeats the process.
I cross my arms and sit back further on the recliner in her house. “If this was going to happen to either of us, I figured it would be you. You have triple the risk.” Charm and Fenrir have three kids in their house, while Runes and I only have to worry about Tor. I don’t know how the hell those two have any sort of sex life with all the kids they have. “Where are the kids, anyway?”
“Fenrir took them to the clubhouse. They wanted to go and see it for themselves. He asked me if I wanted to go too, but I needed some bestie time. It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve actually sat down and talked.”
I nod, agreeing with her statement. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”
Charm widens her eyes. “Obviously, if I chose your ass over my hot as hell ol’ man. Ooosh, he’s a walking piece of art. I swear. I could just stare at that beard, those abs, and my eyes could linger down his—”
“Whoa! Enough!” I holler, holding my hands up in a desperate plea. I don’t need to know where her mind’s going. I really don’t.
Charm throws her head back and chuckles, smirking at me. “Okay, okay, so how have you been? The sex incident took over our conversation.”