5
TATE
“It’s a shame we were unsuccessful. I was hoping we could eat mushroom’s tonight. I haven’t had them in a while.” Mom was disappointed.
Ronan, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less about Mom’s lack of mushrooms in her basket. “I heard there’s a place where you’ll definitely find mushrooms. Lots of them, actually.”
Mom turned to him and put the empty basket on the table in front of her. “Why didn’t you tell me before? What place?”
“The grocery store.”
Dad and I laughed, and Mom rolled her eyes at Ronan’s joke. “You’re so not funny, Ro.”
“Sure am. So, what’s for dinner?”
“Pasta.”
Ronan and I groaned at Mom’s response.
“Kids.” Dad’s voice was serious, and his expression hard. “We told you we can’t eat dinner at the restaurant every night. We eat what your mother cooks.”
“Hey, weren’t you the one talking about cooking in this kitchen since we now have one instead of a small grill? Why don’t you cook tonight?” Mom challenged.
Dad raised a brow, and with a sigh, he ran his hand through his brown hair. “I don’t have enough things to put together a nice dinner for us.”
“Then go get them at the store in town.”
Ronan and I watched them closely as they stood there, shooting each other looks that told us just how annoyed they both were. Not with each other, but with themselves.
Mom threw her hands into the air and sighed heavily. “I’m too tired to cook. I was so hopeful to find mushrooms and make a nice risotto with them.”
“So…if neither of you want to cook tonight, do we get to eat at the restaurant?” Ronan asked, smirking.
Mom and Dad looked at each other, both seemingly exhausted.
“Fine with me,” Dad said, sounding defeated.
“Yeah, whatever. Let’s have burgers,” Mom added. She wasn’t very happy with their decision, but she was on vacation too, and she didn’t have to stand in the kitchen.
“Awesome! I’ll go take a shower before dinner.” Ronan left the kitchen after kissing Mom’s cheek.
“A shower is just what I need,” she said, turning toward Dad with a gentle smile. “I won’t be long. I just want to eat and sleep.”
Dad put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head, and whispering something I couldn’t hear to her.
I wished he’d be like that with me. And for the first time, I felt jealousy. I didn’t want to be jealous, but I couldn’t help it. Dad looked at me and raised a brow, and I frowned at him, wishing he would treat me the same.
Mom pressed a kiss to Dad’s lips, then she headed to their bedroom, leaving me alone in the kitchen with him. I kept looking at him, but he avoided my gaze the second Mom left the room.
“Seriously?”
“What, Tate?” He sounded annoyed.
“Why can’t you look at me?”
He lifted his gaze and raised a brow at me. “I don’t know what your problem is.”
“My problem is the way you act around me. First you almost kiss me—”
“Tate.”
“What? Am I wrong?”
“You’re being too loud,” he shot back, his glare darkening.
“I’ll whisper, then.” I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.
“What you’ll do is stay quiet. Go to your room.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, Tate, I’m being serious. You’re risking a lot right now.”
I furrowed my brows. I was angry and upset. How dare he treat me like this when all I wanted was to talk?
“Risking a lot like earlier in the woods?” I asked, my voice trembling. Shit, I didn’t mean to get emotional, but, apparently, it helped easing the tension between us.
Dad’s expression softened, and he lowered his gaze again as a heavy sigh left him. Taking a moment to think, he lifted his head to look at me again, and he took a step toward me, reaching for my hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to raise my voice. Sweetheart…look at me.”
I swallowed and bit the inside of my cheek before meeting his eyes. I didn’t mean to use this moment of weakness to my advantage, but how else would I get him to feel sorry for me?
“You know why I act this way, don’t you? I’m trying my hardest to protect you here. To protect us and what we have.” He kept his voice low, and he leaned in until his forehead rested against mine.
I closed my eyes and squeezed his hands. I needed to feel him more to realize that this was real. “I know, but you’re not protecting my heart if you keep pushing me away.” If he saw how much he was hurting me, maybe then he would be gentler to me.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, sounding hurt himself. “I might exaggerate with my reaction in moments that are new to me, you know?”
I nodded, smiling gently. “I get it. I’m sorry too. I don’t want to make things hard for you.”
He let go of my hands and put his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I buried my face into his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist to keep him right there. I didn’t want to let go.
He kissed the top of my head, then rested his chin on it while he rubbed my back with his hands. “Please don’t be mad at me, sweetheart.”
“I’m not mad,” I assured him.
We stood there for a while, and I didn’t want this moment to end. If I could, I would’ve stayed like this forever, but that wasn’t possible. However, I could take advantage of this moment.
My body was pressed against his, and I moved my right hand between us, pushing it down along his stomach until I cupped his cock over his pants.
Dad sucked in a breath, but he didn’t push me away this time.
Instead, his hands moved down my back and cupped my ass, squeezing it gently while he buried his face into the crook of my neck. “We shouldn’t be doing this,” he muttered.
His cock was throbbing, and he pressed himself more into the palm of my hand.
“I know. But it feels right.”
His hands gripped my ass again, and he held me tightly against his body, not letting go of me. “Fuck, it does.”
I continued to rub his cock, feeling it harden under my touch, but as much as we were enjoying this, we had to stop before we got caught. For now, that was enough for me. I could go another few hours without touching him this way.
But I knew once we were apart tonight, I would miss him.
***
“This truly can’t become a habit,” Mom said, shooting us a serious glance. “We can’t eat burger and steak every night. It’s not healthy.”
“There are healthy options on the menu,” the waitress, Yulia, said. She had just brought us our food.
Mom looked up at her. “Thank you, Yulia, but this is a conversation I would like to keep between my family and me.”
“Of course. I’m sorry, Ma’am. Enjoy your dinner.” She smiled at us apologetically, and I wished I could’ve told her not to worry about the way Mom reacted to her statement. She could be a bitch sometimes.
“You didn’t have to be rude to her,” Ronan told her with a frown.
Mom glared at him, and the grip around her knife and fork tightened. “I was simply letting her know that I don’t need her input in my family’s business. And, again, this will not become a habit. We can come here on the weekends, but during the week, we’ll eat our own food.”
I started to eat my steak, not wanting to argue with Mom. In this state, her behavior could change at any second, and if that happened, I didn’t want to be in the middle of it.
“I’ll have to go to the store tomorrow morning then,” Dad said, smiling at Mom.
“Can I come with you?” I asked, looking at him with excitement. “Please?”
“I can go alone.”
There it was again.
The pushing.
“You should let her go with you, Reid,” Mom told him.
“Fine.” Dad really didn’t want to argue tonight.
I grinned happily and continued to devour the steak and potato wedges I ordered. I would manage going days without eating here, but I sure as hell was already excited to come again at the weekend.
Ronan couldn’t let Mom’s comment toward Yulia go. He kept on arguing with her, saying that she could’ve been nicer, but Mom didn’t think she had been rude. Something was off between them. Normally, Ronan and Mom were like best friends. They never argued, never raised their voices, and it was always them who could talk about a topic they disagreed about, and still end up laughing and joking with each other.
They listened to one another, but tonight, they were constantly interrupting each other.
I finished my steak and put the knife down, but continuing to eat the potatoes, using the fork in my left hand. Dad was next to me. I knew he was annoyed by the other two, but he kept quiet, not wanting to add any fuel to the fire because that’s what he was good at when he wanted to be.
I placed my hand on his thigh, smiling at him when he glanced at me. I wanted to distract him, to take his mind off the other two arguing, and to remind him of the things we did and said today. In the woods and in the kitchen.
He didn’t push me away this time. No, he even parted his legs wider so his was pressing against mine.
With my hand on his inner thigh, I moved it further up until I was cupping his crotch, and his cock twitched immediately. I started to massage him, squeezing his hardening cock through his pants.
The others weren’t paying attention to us, and they weren’t aware of what was going on under the table. Good, they didn’t have to know.
I continued to touch him while finishing my potatoes, and after putting down my fork, I leaned back to get more comfortable. Dad cleared his throat and placed his left hand on mine, and just when I thought he was going to take it off him, he squeezed it harder, making me tighten my grip on his cock.
A pleased smile tugged at my lips. He was letting me touch him. He wasn’t pushing me away, and he was even encouraging this.
He kept his hand on mine, and I felt his cock harden under my touch. Everything around me disappeared, and all I could focus on was Dad. I didn’t want this to end. I wanted to touch him forever. I wanted to keep making him feel good, but I had a feeling that he would soon push me away again.
He had to.
We couldn’t sit here like this forever.
But I wish we could’ve.
And I wished it could’ve been just the two of us.