Chapter 31 – Dallas
“This is some kind of fucked up dream. I'm dreaming, right?” Paloma murmurs to herself. She stops for a moment, pinching a tiny bit of skin on her forearm then shakes her head before continuing her pacing back and forth across my childhood bedroom floor.
I sit quietly on the bed, watching her as she mumbles a string of incoherent words, her face bunched up in distress.
I can’t even imagine how she’s feeling right now. Her entire world and everything she'd thought she knew had just imploded. I’m sure there were also feelings of disappointment that my dad – her dad – hadn’t realized Margarita was Brandy when I’d first asked him all those years ago.
She draws in another shaky breath, “So, you’re telling me, that all along, my birth mom had provided my biological father’s address on the hospital paperwork? And neither of us considered the fact that your, stepfather was my dad?” she shouts loudly, then drops her voice a few octaves.
She pinches the bridge of her nose and then blows out her breath.
“I’d been writing to the address she’d put on her hospital paperwork, and no one even suggested that maybe it was because it was my dad’s address?”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that question because it’s true, in the realm of possibilities, I’d never considered that the man who had adopted me, the man I called dad, might have also been her father.
So, in this situation, silence feels like the best approach.
There was nothing I could say that could take back the past two and a half decades of her missing out on knowing who her biological mother and father were.
Especially given the fact that I grew up having her dad be my own.
The whole situation couldn't have been anymore fucked up.
“I don’t know what to do. Please say something," she begs as she drops onto the bed next to me, then curls her body closely to my side in the fetal position. I lay back, wrapping my entire frame around hers as if I can shield her from these conversations and the inevitable decisions she’ll need to make as I listen to her breathing slow and still.
We remain in silence, her heartbeat resonating against my chest while my mind races in a thousand ways to rewind the day and shield her from this painful revelation.
Yet, amid the chaos, I understand that in a strange, twisted way, this might be a gift.
Answers she may have never gotten if we hadn’t fallen in love.
I gently rub her back, holding her close as we lay in the darkness together.
I'd like to say something selfish like, if you’d never taken the chance at writing to your mother, we’d never have met.
’ But I know I didn't feel that way. I would give back knowing her, even if it pained me to do so, in order for her to have had the opportunity to meet Brandy and Jackson when she was younger and looking for answers.
"You have Brandy's name now. If this is something that you still want to pursue, you should stay and reach out to her. See if she wants to talk. And also, you should stay and get to know Jackson. I think he’d like that.”
“What?” she looks up at me through tear-stained eyes still nuzzled against my chest.
I nod, my voice is steady despite the weight of my words.
"I've had the privilege of knowing him my entire life, and I’d give up all those cherished memories and his love if it meant you could have just a fraction of that time with him.
I know, without a doubt, that he's downstairs right now regretting missing out on the twenty-six years of your life and the chance to get to know you.
He and my mom tried to have children when they first got together, but he was significantly older, and it just never ended up happening.
He doesn't have any other children of his own. He would love to know you, not just as the woman I hope to marry someday, but as his daughter, Paloma.”
She shakes her head again. “I have so many questions. This is so incredibly fucked up. So, you might be my… my stepbrother?”
I laugh. “I don’t want to think about that. I don’t think it counts in our situation. At least, that’s what I’m going to tell myself.”
“What would I even do if I stayed here?”
"You’ve got some downtime between concerts.
See if you can adjust your schedule or plan to return during your next break.
I’ll stay in Lonestar Junction to give you space and time to connect with them.
You can stay in my old bedroom here and fully embrace the stepbrother experience.
Use this time to get to know Jackson. While you’re here, see if you can track down Brandy and arrange a meeting with her. "
She draws in a breath and shakes her head again before ducking her head in between my armpit.
"I think I'd become content believing I'd never know who my biological parents were and now that I have both of their names, I can't even fathom getting to know them."
I take her hand in mine and draw it to my lips before kissing gently.
“There's no pressure to do anything. We can leave right now, fly back to Lonestar Junction and act like this never happened. You can continue with your career, and we can get married someday without ever acknowledging this if you wish. But if this is something you still want, to have some answers about who your biological parents are, I’ll be right there every day, writing to my parents’ address from Lonestar Junction while you’re writing to me from LA.
In a weird way, it’ll be like reliving our past pen pal relationship but from opposite locations. ”
She smiles, “Should you go to my old bedroom at my parents' house to write every day since I’ll be writing you from your childhood bedroom?”
I grin, “Ya know… there were some other things I used to do in this old room if you want to relive them.”
She squeals as I flip her over on to her back and pin her arms over her head.
"Is it too weird to live out fantasies that I've always had about you writing in this room?"
I arch a brow, grinding my hips downward into her pelvis. She releases a moan, the sound going straight to my cock that hardens painfully against my zipper.
"Tell me about them while I undress you."
I unzip her shorts, pull them from her waist and flick my wrist, tearing her panties from her body and revealing that soaking, wet pussy I’ve been missing.
"I've always imagined you with blonde, shaggy hair sitting at that desk in the corner using a mechanical pencil to write."
I pull my cock out of my boxers and stroke it twice before notching it in her opening. "I'll buy a blonde wig."
She snickers, "I like your buzz cut better." She lifts her hips, grinding into my glistening tip and panting. I drag the crown of my cock across her opening, coating it in her juices then swirl it around her clit, teasing her gently.
"Why was I writing to you with a mechanical pencil? That's oddly specific."
She shrugs, her hands reaching for my hips as she works to pull me closer.
"Don't touch or I'm going to tie you down," I warn her.
She groans as her hands go overhead again and I line myself back up at her slit.
"Tell me the reality of what we have is better than your fantasies." I’m teasing her now, and my balls are aching to release inside of her wetness, but I need to hear her say it.
She nods her head, "It's so much better."
I smirk as I thrust firmly inside of her, stretching her wide as she clenches down around me. “You want to act out what I imagined when I was sitting at that desk?” I pull out and press back in forcefully.
“Yes,” she moans, her hands reach up for my hips despite my stern warning. I pull out completely and take her wrists into mine, helping her to stand on her feet.
“Bend over the desk and spread your legs.”
She does as I instructed, her ass pointed upwards at me as I massage each cheek before lining myself back up at her entry again. “Stay still now.”
I buck my hips forward, planting myself to the root inside of her heady heat. One hand steadies her hips while the other presses into her back then threads through her hair, tugging gently. “Good girl. You look so pretty like this stretched all around me taking you from behind.”
“Yes…Dallas, I need more,” she moans, so I give her more. Fucking her repeatedly and on every surface in my childhood bedroom where I first met her through her writing. Once we’re finished, I hold her in my bed and listen to her share her plans for what she’ll do next.
“I promise I’ll support you through it all.”
She turns her face upward, kissing my lips gently. “I know.”