SWNOVELS Class Act: Chapter 20
pleased at Emery entering the kitchen, wearing my shirt. Since he hadn’t planned on staying over, he hadn’t brought a change of clothes. I’d thrown his costume into the wash so he would have that to wear later. He’d mentioned something about borrowing a shirt from Mandy, but one glare from me and he’d changed the topic.
From the grin he’d worn, he’d deliberately made that suggestion to get a reaction out of me.
“You already got started?” He hopped up onto a stool at the island, a smile lighting up his entire face. “I would’ve helped you if you’d waited.”
“Can’t I make breakfast for you?”
His cheeks flushed, and he bit his bottom lip. He looked as giddy as I felt inside. Where was the guilt that should accompany what we’d done upstairs just now? Where was my sense of shame? Emery’s happiness outshined any other feeling.
“I won’t turn you down.”
I sucked in a deep breath. From the way he watched me, he wasn’t just talking about breakfast.
I blinked, and for a second, it wasn’t his face I saw but Teresa’s the day we first checked out this house and decided we were going to buy it. We’d danced around this kitchen full of excitement about moving our family into our dream house.
“Abe?”
I snapped up my head. “Yes?”
“Your face… Are you regretting what we did?” he asked, sounding uncertain.
“No.”
Never that. I knew one thing for sure. I’d fallen in love with Emery. Throughout all our interactions, him sitting on my lap and snuggling into my chest, stealing hugs, and chastising me for making a mess of my office, I’d fallen hard.
For better or worse, my future was entangled with his. The vines of our life might be armored with thorns, but I could see the delicate rose of love blooming. Those prickly thorns would come in handy for those trying to pick that rose, but the people closest to us would hurt too. Was there any other way?
“I made pancakes,” I said. “Do you want eggs?”
“No, just lots of syrup.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
He smiled, but it still seemed hesitant, as though he didn’t believe I had no regrets. I placed a stack of pancakes on his plate and passed him the syrup and a cup of coffee. He took it with a lot of creamer, while I had mine with just sugar.
“Aren’t you eating?” he asked as I took the stool across from him.
“I had a protein shake.”
He pointed his fork at me. “Ah, so that’s how you manage to look so fucking good at your age. Have all of us gay students panting hard after you and all that.”
“You’re exaggerating. You’re the only one shameless enough to carry on with a teacher.”
My face heated, and he laughed. When was the last time my stomach had flipped this way over a compliment? Hell, when was the last time someone had paid me such a compliment?
“We’re a mess. Aren’t we?” he asked with a dimpled grin.
“Speak for yourself.”
He dribbled way too much syrup on his pancakes, cut off a piece, and held the fork to my lips. “Open wide. From your demonstration earlier, you know how to.”
“Em—” He shoved the piece of pancake into my mouth. I glared at him as I chewed, but he just went back to stuffing his mouth, looking all innocent, like he hadn’t just casually mentioned me sucking him off over breakfast. Sighing, I put a couple more pancakes into the microwave to heat.
“So that’s where the magic happened.” He pouted. “I thought you’d made them from scratch.”
“Some other time.”
“There will be other times?”
As I plated the pancakes for him, I couldn’t resist dropping a kiss on his mouth. He tilted his head back and slipped a hand into my hair, deepening the kiss into more than I’d intended for it to be. His mouth was sweet from the syrup, almost as sweet as the basic essence of him.
I pulled back. Shit. We were being reckless. When I’d checked on Mandy, she’d still been asleep, but for all I knew, she was already awake.
“I asked Teresa for a divorce.” I took my seat.
Emery widened his eyes. “You did?”
“Yeah.”
“Holy shit. I thought that’s what you meant, but when Mandy said you two went to a hotel together…” He shook his head. “Which means Mandy doesn’t know.”
“Not yet, and we never booked a room together. I haven’t slept with Teresa since you and I started our thing.”
He dropped his gaze. “You don’t have to lie to me for me to feel good. She’s your wife, so I understand.” He frowned. “I don’t enjoy thinking about it, but I understand.”
“I’m not lying to you. I’d never lie to you. Emery, what we have here, has to be based on truth. Others might accuse us of things and embellish what we’ve done, but we will always know our truth.”
He nodded slowly and put his fork down. “Okay. What do we do now?”
“I need to know what you want out of this. Is this just a short-term fling for you or do—”
“It’s not. I want to be with you, Abe. I know this will make me a horrible person, but I want to take her place.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve made me feel things no one else does. And you’ve cared for me when no one else has. I want to be the one who takes care of you because I know you’ll do a good job taking care of me in return. And… And I just want to be with you, okay?”
I chuckled at the frustrated rush of words. “I just need to make sure that—”
“That you’re not throwing your life away for a fling? Are you worried you’ll divorce her for me and regret it?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, because at this stage of my life, I would still divorce her, even if you tell me right now that you’ve changed your mind about us.”
“May I ask why you’re divorcing her? Why now?”
“If I told you I’m doing it because of you, how would that make you feel?”
“Don’t make me say it, Abe.” He glared at me. “It’s already bad enough knowing I’m a horrible person for wanting this. Do you have to make me say it out loud too?”
I sucked in a deep breath, and my heart pounded in my chest. “Yes, because I enjoy hearing it. I like hearing how selfish you are when it comes to me. That you don’t care what anyone will think about us as long as you have me. Until you came along, I’d forgotten what it feels like to be wanted by someone that much for who I am and not what they want me to be.”
“Then I’ll say it, Abe.” His cheeks were red, but he looked me straight in the eyes. “If you walked out on your wife right now, I’d hold your hand, follow you anywhere you want to go, and spend as long as it takes on my knees, on my back, whichever way you want it, making it up to you.”
“Is this just sex for you, then?”
He startled. “What? No. It’s—it’s just that I don’t have much of anything to offer you, and I assume that’s what makes a man happy. Right?”
“No, not right.” I frowned. “Emmy, I love your body and the crazy way it turns me on. What we did earlier almost drove me out of my mind, but I enjoy spending time with you. You’re sweet and kind, and I love how adorable you are. Do you know what it does to me when you hug me? When you climb into my lap like you belong there?”
His chest rose and fell. “Does that mean you…”
“I’m in love with you.”
He closed his eyes, and a tear slipped from under his eyelid. “I hoped and hoped, but I didn’t dare believe it.”
“Well, you should. I love you, Emmy. Love doesn’t solve our situation. It doesn’t stop Teresa from wanting to contest the divorce, which might be a drawn-out, ugly affair, and we’ll have to keep this a secret until you graduate, but I’m crazy about you.”
Emery laughed and scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hands. “It’s okay. I know people are going to call me a home-wrecker and a gold digger when we come out. I can wait for that to happen.”
“Where’s the gold mine?” I asked. “Everyone knows a high school football coach doesn’t earn shit. Teresa pays for the majority of the costs of the house, so I’ll be the one to move out.”
“Will you miss it?”
“Honestly? Parts of it, yeah, but I’d miss you more if I gave up on us.”
Emery’s smile was so sweet I knew I was making the right decision. “Do you mind if I spend the weekend here? My dad’s being a bit of an ass again.”
“I’m sure it’s fine. You’ve slept over before.” I gestured at the faint scratch on his cheekbone. “What happened to your face? Did he hit you again?” My blood boiled. I hadn’t asked before because I hadn’t wanted to make a mess for him, but now…
“It’s nothing.”
“Emery.”
“Emery!” Mandy shrieked, pounding down the stairs. “Oh fuck, Dad’s going to kill me. Emery, are you down here?”
I got up from the counter and poured myself another cup of coffee. Mandy shuffled into the kitchen, one hand cupping her head. “There you—” She squeaked when she saw me. “Dad! You’re back already.”
“I am. I got in earlier and saw you were sleeping, so I didn’t wake you. How was your party last night?”
“Umm.” Mandy glanced at Emery, who squirmed. From the look in his eyes, he wanted to warn Mandy that I knew, but with me watching him, he was silent. “It was great.”
“Yeah? Lots of kids turned out?”
“A few did.”
“You had no issues, then? You know, I drove by last night.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I was surprised that the party seemed over already.”
“Umm, I didn’t want to disturb the neighborhood, so we did the responsible thing and shut the party down early. Right, Em?”
“Mandy, your—”
“You look pale,” I cut off Emery. “Are you sick?”
“No, I—”
“He knows, Mandy!” Emery blurted out, then grimaced at me. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t watch that anymore. It was just painful.”
A part of me felt happy his friendship with my daughter meant so much to him, but another part felt petty he hadn’t sided with me and allowed me to torture Mandy a little. To see how far she would go to try to cover up what had happened last night.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” Mandy said. “I didn’t supply the alcohol, I swear.”
“But you didn’t exactly stop its distribution either. In fact, you were drunk last night. Mandy, I expect better from you.”
She lowered her head and clutched her hands in front of her. “I’m sorry.”
“You were reckless last night. You passed out. Do you know what can happen to a young woman when they’re completely wasted at a party?”
“Or a young guy,” Emery added.
I glared at him. “You’re included in this conversation. You both are. In less than a year, you’ll be off to college. I can’t monitor what you do there, and the only way I won’t worry is if I know you can make smarter decisions. You didn’t prove that to me last night. You also put my job on the line by having alcohol served under my roof to teenagers I’m responsible for. If this gets back to the wrong person, do you know what this can do to my career?”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“No, you weren’t. When your mother gets here, we’ll talk about this and your punishment.”
“What’s that?” Teresa breezed into the kitchen and removed her shades. Why was she back already? She’d booked her hotel for the entire weekend. “Who’s being punished?”
“Our daughter.” I tried not to look at Emery, lest my countenance betrayed us. “Despite our rules, she had alcohol at the party, and when I got home, she was passed out.”
Teresa turned to Mandy. “Honey, is this true?”
Mandy nodded. “Please don’t be disappointed.”
“Well, it couldn’t be that bad,” Teresa said. “The house looks good, so I can cancel the cleaner.”
“Yeah, it’s clean because Emery organized a clean-up crew while Mandy was sleeping off the alcohol.”
Teresa finally looked at Emery. Shit, I shouldn’t have drawn Teresa’s attention to him, but as long as we did nothing suspicious, she would never guess that Emery was the one. She wouldn’t expect me to be with a man.
“You’re a genuine friend to Mandy.” Teresa smiled at Emery. “Thanks for helping her out. If you don’t mind, we have some family matters to discuss—just the three of us.”
Emery jumped down from the stool. “Umm, sorry. I’ll get out of your way.” He rushed out of the kitchen. I resisted the urge to go after him.
Please don’t be too hurt. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.
“I’ll do anything you guys say.” Mandy looked miserable. “I know it was wrong, so I’ll accept whatever punishment you come up with.”
“Good. That was highly irresponsible of you, young lady.” Teresa brushed Mandy’s hair back from her face. “But we all make mistakes. We’ll let you off with a warning this time. Don’t do it again. We expect better from you.”
“Thank you, Mom.” Mandy threw her arms around Teresa and hugged her. I bit my tongue to repress the retort that threatened to spring to the surface.
I could see right through her game.
“Now go on upstairs and take a shower. I can smell the alcohol on you.”
Mandy hurried from the kitchen, leaving Teresa and me alone. I unclenched my jaw.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” she asked.
“You letting her off just like that? Without consulting me first?”
She shrugged. “She’s a good girl. Plus, she’s no longer a kid. She’s at the stage where talking to her should be effective. And really, Abe, we drank too when we were her age. You seem to have forgotten a lot of our history together.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. We both know why you went the way you did. You’re trying to manipulate things so Mandy will side with you in the divorce.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She pointed at Emery’s plate. “He’s here again?”
“Yes. He’s having issues with his father and will stay with us over the weekend.”
“And that’s your decision alone to make?”
My throat went dry. She’d never disagreed with Emery staying with us before. Had she somehow figured out how Emery and I felt about each other?
“Of course he can stay,” she said. “He’s Mandy’s friend, maybe even more, given how close they are. Still, you decided for us. I’m just showing you how hypocritical it is that I can’t decide alone about our daughter, but you can about other matters.”
I got up and grabbed Emery’s plate and cup. “I don’t want to fight with you.”
“It’s all up to you, Abe. Stop trying to walk out of our marriage, and there will be nothing for us to fight about.”