CHAPTER FIVE #2
She leads us through the restaurant, past all the people waiting inside, to a section in the back with large, private booths.
“Wow,” I whisper, sliding across the bench.
“Scooch, baby.”
I look at the inch of space beside me and the completely open bench on the other side. “What?”
“Slide over.”
I move farther over, and to my surprise, Dread slides in right beside.
The hostess slides our menus in front of us with a smile. “Your server will be right with you.”
Dread’s arm drapes casually across the back of the booth behind me, and I try to focus on the menu instead of the warmth radiating from his body.
In less than a minute, our waitress arrives. She’s a pretty blonde with a bright smile. “Can I get you folks something to drink?”
“I’ll have a bourbon, neat,” Dread says, then looks at me.
“Just water, please,” I say, not wanting to spend money on overpriced cocktails.
Dread frowns. “Get whatever you want, baby. This is on me.”
“I’m fine with water,” I insist, even as my eyes drift to the cocktail menu.
“She’ll have a glass of the Cabernet,” Dread tells the waitress, who nods and walks away.
I narrow my eyes at him. “I can order for myself, you know.”
He chuckles. “I know. But you kept looking at the wine list.”
I can’t argue with that. I was looking.
We sit in comfortable silence for a moment, and then Dread shifts to look at me more directly. “So, what’s the deal with your kids’ father?”
“Eddie?” I sigh. I was wondering when he was going to ask. “It’s… complicated.”
He places a hand on my thigh under the table, the heat of his palm seeping through my jeans. “I’m pretty smart. I think I can keep up.”
I blow out a breath. “I’m not really sure where to start.”
“The beginning is usually a good place.”
I roll my eyes but find myself telling him anyway. “Eddie was a counselor at my summer camp when I was sixteen.” I smile, thinking about the crush I had on him the year before. Innocent, naive. The smile slips off my face.
“He was older, you know? It was silly.” I trace patterns on the tablecloth with my finger.
“When I showed up that summer, he was just…always there. Smiling, telling me how pretty I was. A week into camp, I was hooked. Thought I was in loooove. Pretty stupid, right?” I pause, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“Anyway, one night he invited me into his cabin, and one thing led to another—”
“Wait.” Dread looks down at me, his brow furrowed. “How old was he?”
“Twenty-five.”
His brows shoot up. “And you were sixteen?”
“Yep.” I pop the P.
He blows out a breath. “Baby, that’s fucked up.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “You don’t even know the half of it.”
“Fuck,” he mutters, his jaw tightening.
Our waitress returns with our drinks and a basket of bread. “Are you ready to order?”
“Give us a minute,” Dread says, not taking his eyes off me.
When she walks away, he squeezes my knee gently. “What happened with you two?”
“I ended up pregnant with Tommy.” I shrug, taking a sip of the wine, savoring the rich flavor on my tongue. “My parents found out, and they threw me out of the house.”
“Damn.” Dread rubs his hand up and down my knee, the motion soothing.
I smile despite the sadness of it all. “I’ll never regret having my son. The timing was way off, but that’s life. It throws you curveballs. You can either stand there and strike out or swing and hope for the best. And my boy is one of the best things in my life. Both my boys are.”
“Where’d you go when your parents threw you out?” His voice is soft, like he genuinely cares about what I went through.
“My cousin had just moved into a duplex on Freeport Street. She took me in.”
He kisses the top of my head, the gesture so sweet it makes my chest ache. “That’s tough, baby.”
“But wait. There’s more.”
He chuckles, probably thinking it can’t possibly get any worse. It really does.
“No, seriously. There’s more.” I take another sip of wine for courage. “He got me drunk on my eighteenth birthday and…”
“No!? Jackson?”
“Yep. That’s how Jackson was conceived.” I laugh, but there’s no humor in it. As an adult now, I realize how very wrong it all was. How illegal it was when I was only sixteen.
Dread’s arm tightens around me. “Pisses me off that fuckhead took advantage of you, but you got your boys out of it, and they’re great.”
I look up at him, touched by his words. “They are pretty great, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, baby.” He kisses my lips softly. “They are.”
By the grace of the Gods, our waitress arrives to take our order, saving me from my embarrassment.
As we wait for our meal, I can’t help but think I’ve never met anyone quite like Dread before.
He doesn’t hold anything back, and I like that about him.
There’s no guessing, no games. He’s straightforward and honest, even when it’s rough around the edges.
It’s refreshing after years of Eddie’s manipulation and lies.
I know I should be careful, but for once, I don’t care about playing it safe.
For tonight, at least, I just want to feel alive again.