24. PRESTON
Chapter twenty-four
PRESTON
DO NO HARM BUT TAKE NO BULL
“Hi, Izz, I have something I need to talk to you about,” I say down the phone, leaning forward on the clinic counter. It’s been a week since the cinema under the stars, and I can’t keep putting this conversation off, not if I want something real with Dean. And I do. I really fucking do.
“Sure. Is it about Poppy’s birthday? Because you don’t have to worry, I have everything planned.”
“No, it’s about me. Umm, so you know I loved you, right?”
“Yeah,” she says cautiously.
“Good, because I did. I do. I mean, like not the same way as I did then, but you know what I mean.”
“Pres, you’re starting to worry me. Should I come down to the clinic? Are you okay?”
“No. I’m fine. Better than fine. I’m happy. Like really, really happy and I just…” Why is it so hard to tell her? I came out to my parents so easily, and I had no idea what their views on the subject were.
“Preston, whatever it is, you can tell me.”
“After I left Bellerelle, I sort of…found myself, I guess. The world opened up and suddenly I saw who I was and…well…who I…”
I should have done this in person. I should have sat her down and held her hand and told her how much she meant to me, and then…who am I kidding? I would still be in the same position, spitting out half sentences. If I want to be able to walk down the street with Dean, take him to town events, and kiss him without fear of someone seeing and word getting back, I have to be the one to tell her. Just do it. Rip the plaster off.
“I have started to date someone.”
“Oh. Pres. That’s wonderful.”
“It’s Dean.”
I count the seconds that pass in silence. One. Two. Three.
“Beaker?” she asks, her tone not dissimilar to her joy a moment before.
“Yeah. We…umm, is that okay?” My heart is beating so hard that I’m certain it will burst from my chest like that gross alien did in that movie.
“You can date whoever you want to, Pres. You don’t need my permission. Dean’s a great guy, if you’re happy, that’s all that matters. Wait… Did you think I would have a problem because you were dating a guy?”
“Well, maybe. I mean, I didn’t want you to think that because I’m gay, what we had wasn’t real.”
“Pres.” She chucklesandhearing it has this way of settling my nerves. “I’ve known you were gay for years. Your mother told her friends in the store one day about you still not bringing home a young fella to meet the family.”
“Oh.”
“While we are on the subject of big news, though, I have some of my own.”
“Okay, cool, what’s up?”
“Well, you know how I used to love to paint?”
Isabel loved painting as much as I love animals. She said she couldn’t wait to be inspired by the world. I guess it’s yet another reason it should have clicked back then that something was going on when she suddenly changed her mind. I guess teenage boys aren’t always the most observant.
“Yeah, you were always sketching and painting something. Do you still keep it up?”
“I stopped for ages. You know, after Poppy, but I started back up again a few years ago, and…I’ve been accepted to art school,” she blurts, her smile coming through in her voice.
“That’s amazing, Izz. Congrats.”
“The thing is, though, it’s in Savannah.”
“Wow, that’s going to be a long trek. Will you have to go down every day, or are classes only every other day?”
“They’re every day, but driving down to Savannah and back every day isn’t really…”
“Wait. You’re moving?” I ask, and she sighs.
“It’s the only way I can see it working.”
Poppy has only just come into my life. I can’t lose her now. She can’t keep my child from me twice.
“What about Poppy?”
“Well, she’d obviously be moving with me.”
“Obviously, why is it obvious that she would be moving?”
“I’m her mother.”
“And I’m her father.”
“Please, come on, Pres. You’ve been in her life all of five minutes.”
“And whose fault is that?” I ask, my voice louder than intended, but my heart is racingandthere’s a lump in the back of my throat that won’t swallow down.
“Look, I did what I thought was best for Poppy, and this is, too.”
“Moving her out of town from the only home she’s ever known is what’s best for her?”
“I don’t see any other way this works. My parents are too old and they have the farm to look after. She’s too much for them full-time. If we move, I can find her a school close to mine.”
“What about me?”
“Pres.”
“No, seriously. What about me? I can have her. She can live with me. Or during the week she can, and then you’ll be back for weekends.”
“I don’t think I could be away from her all week.”
“I don’t think I can either, but Izz, what is best for our daughter? Is it being ripped away from her family, her friends, and her hometown, to start over in a new school where she doesn’t know anybody, orshecomesto live with me Monday to Friday and still sees her grandparents every day, and her friends? You could drive down to Savannah on Monday morning and drive back Friday afternoon, so really, you would still see her Friday night, all Saturday and Sunday, and Monday morning. Izz, come on, you have to see that my idea is better.” I’m grasping at straws. My world was amazing a moment ago, and now it’s back to the unknown and fearandI hate it. But I also know if I blow up at her, she’ll take her away for sure. I flash back to my reflection in the storefront when I confronted Isabel. I don’t want to be that man. I have to show her that Poppy staying with me is what is best for all of us.
“I’m not sure, Pres.”
“Just think about it. I have the spare room here I was using for storage; I was going to clear it out anyway, hoping she would maybe start wanting to stay weekends.”
“I…I’ll think about it.”
I want to keep going, to keep telling her the million and one reasons flying through my mind that this idea is brilliant, but I also don’t want to push her too hard.
“I’m really proud of you, Izz.”
It takes a few seconds, but then she replies. “Thanks.” While I’m terrified of losing Poppy, I am proud of Isabel for chasing her dream. Parents sacrifice for their kids all the time, but they need to see their parents doing what they love, too. Reaching for their dreams. How else will they know they can reach theirs?
***
“So, Doc. Have you sorted out Poppy’s present yet?” Dean asks from the couch where he’s spent the last fifteen minutes, buck naked, watching me cook us some omelets. We put down a blanket, and I guess, if Izz comes around to my idea for Poppy to move in here, these naked breakfasts will be very short-lived, but I don’t mind, and Dean won’t either. He’s already tried to help sort through the boxes in the spare room. But there’s no way he can carry any of them downstairs with the boot on his fractured leg, so it will have to wait until I can get a few minutes spare. Well, when the minutes I have aren’t being perfectly filled with ecstatic pleasure at Dean’s hands, mouth, and cock. Okay, all of him. I’ve never been this happy in a relationship, and it’s only been two weeks since we started dating. I expect it could be some kind of honeymoon phase, but I will continue to choose to ignore that idea and just revel in the bliss that is us. But while he’s been the reason I’ve not stopped smiling for the longest time, his question sends me into a panic, and I drop the spatula with the omelet only half folded over.
“Fuck, no, and now this one’s going to be ruined.”
“Sorry,” he says, coming to my side and wrapping his large arms around me. His cock rests perfectly between the cheeks of my ass. “That one can be mine.”
“I wanted to make you a perfect breakfast to mark the first time you’ve stayed over.” After our first date at the ranch two weeks ago, we had dinner in the mini barn loft that ended with mutual blow jobs. I’ve attended game night with the ranchfamily,and lost, in spectacular fashion, to Nial, who is so good at Monopoly he has to be cheating. I’ve stayed at his place on four separate occasions, but last night was our first night at my place. I cooked him dinner, and we watched Romance on the High Seas because I’ve quickly learned that Dorris Day is Dean’s favorite, and hearing him sing along to the music in her movies is quickly becoming my favorite. He’s got this throaty rumble that melts me every time.
“I think we marked it prettygoodlast night,” he replies, kissing my shoulder and then picking up the spatula from the floor and washing it in the sink. “How about we brainstorm this together? She likes cows, right, now I know you said she can’t have a cow, but what if she could?”
“Her mother would try to kill meandher grandparents would probably be the ones holding her back, but only so they could kill me first.”
I laugh. “What if it didn’t stay on the Moore farm, but it was still her cow?”
Where’s he going with this? I admit, I have a habit of bringing my work home with me, which is why there’s a cat tree in two corners of my living roombuthosting Fluffy for a few weeks isn’t the same as keeping a cow. Even the mini highlands need more room than this, plus access to a yard, trees, grass, nature, and sunshine.
“I really don’t think this place is suitable—”
“Not this place.” He chuckles, turning off the burner and spinning me to face him. “My place. She could keep it on the ranch until she’s grown and has a farm of her own.”
“You’d keep it at your ranch?”
“Sure. We have a bunch anyway, what’s one more? Unless you’re thinking of that gigantic breed I saw online, that’s about the size of three of Miss Milky.”
Poppy loves Miss Milky more than any of the other cattle on the ranch. More than even Cuddles, who is the cutest pygmy goat in the entire world. I glance over at where he’sasleeprugged up inside one of Dean’s shirts on a dog bed on the floor by the couch. It’s actually a really good idea, but is that too much to ask of him? I mean, he offered, so I’m not really asking at all.
“I don’t think she needs a cow bigger than Miss Milky, but now that you bring her up, she’s about to drop any day.”
“Yeah, I reckon two days and we’ll have a mini Miss Milky unless it’s a mister milky, I guess,” I chuckle.
“She’d love her own Miss Milky,” I offer, biting my lower lip and giving him my best puppy dog eyes.
“Even if it’s a bull calf?”
“Yeah, no, probably not a good idea. I mean, while it’s young, it would be fine, but the males are more unpredictable with their temper as they get older. Okay. Howabout,if it’s a heifer calf, then I buy it from you and give it to Poppy? If it’s a bull calf, it can be bred with your girls like you were planning to do, and I’ll buy one of the other heifer calves, whichever is the cutest.”
Miss Milky isn’t just Poppy’s favorite, she’s Dean’s, too. Maybe this is asking too much?
“I think that’s a wonderful idea.”
“Really? What about your brothers, Kelly, andGramps? Do you think they will mind you selling Miss Milky’s calf?”
“First, I’m not selling, I’m gifting. And second, I’ll message them, but I can’t see any of them having issues with it. Miss Milky is mine. As long as I’m good with it, they will be too. Besides, they’ll love that the calf is going to someone who will give it an amazing life.”
He kisses the top of my head and pulls me close, wrapping his large arms around me.
“You know this means she will probably be over at the ranch every day after school?”
“I know, and if she’s living with you, that means I get to keep seeing you every day, too. It’s a total win for me.”
“You’re a genius, you know that?”
“Tell me again when Nial is around.”
I push up a little on my toes and kiss him, soft, sweet, and perfect.