20. Adam
TWENTY
Adam
Adam
Night could not have come sooner. With nothing to do, every hour felt like a week of waiting. What was I supposed to do all day, sightsee? I would if Casey asked me, but alone? Not a chance.
When it was finally time, I put on my nicest clothes.
Jeans that didn’t have permanent dirt stains around the knees, and a button up shirt that wasn’t plaid.
Then I drove to the restaurant an hour before we were supposed to meet up.
The seating hostess found us a table, and I anxiously sipped my iced tea as the minutes ticked by.
My phone battery was already dangerously low from how often I kept checking the screen.
I glanced around the restaurant, watching the other guests at their tables.
The smell of hot food mixed with pheromone incense was making my stomach rumble.
There.
Casey appeared in the lobby with Marshall right behind him. They quickly walked over to our table, and I shot up from my chair without thinking about it. Casey looked okay. A little pale, but his cheeks were flushed pink. My shoulders slowly relaxed, knowing he was fine.
I sat down, digging my nails into my palms to stop myself from pulling his chair out for him.
“You made it,” I said with a wide smile, my eyes locking onto Casey’s when Marshall turned to remove his jacket.
The red in his cheeks deepened, and he quickly picked up his menu, purposely hiding behind it.
Oh. So that’s how he was going to be? Pretending I’m not here just because we were in public?
“Pops!” David hollered from across the restaurant, raising his arm to catch my attention.
All eyes were on him as he approached our table with a tall, dark-haired woman.
Dina came with him to Hanford. I guess they were done pretending they weren’t a thing.
He pulled her chair out for her and took his coat off, laying it over his seat.
“Hey, Casey! Nice to see you again. This is Dina, my deputy.”
“And his girlfriend,” she added, crooking her eyebrow at David with a smirk. They looked so happy.
Marshall sat between us, obscuring my view of Casey. He still had the menu pulled over his face, as if that would make us forget he was there. “You two finally made it official, ehh?” Marshall flopped his hand over the back of Casey’s chair and leaned over to kiss him on the head.
Calm. Just stay calm, Adam.
This was a regular dinner with my sons and their partners. That’s all it could be. Right now, Casey was just my son’s boyfriend. My son’s boyfriend, who was being kissed on the lips right in front of me.
Trying not to rip my menu in half, I ignored the PDA from both of my sons. They pawed their partners like we weren’t in public, as if the menus were coated in an aphrodisiac. I cleared my throat and gave them both a pointed stare over my menu. “We’re in public,” I reminded my sons.
“Aww, come on, Pops,” David complained as he leaned against Dina’s shoulder with a grin. “Let us live a little. You should, too. I bet there’s plenty of single omegas in Hanford that would love to make out with you inside a restaurant.”
“Yeah! We should find you a date,” Dina chimed in.
“I bet Marsh knows a few omegas at the hospital, right?”
The topic wasn’t new. Ever since my boys were teenagers, they’d been encouraging me to date again. I hadn’t been interested at all, not for a single moment, until I met Casey. Having this conversation with him at the table was almost too much.
“Alright, enough,” I barked out. “Let’s just order. I’m starving.”
When the server arrived to take our order, David and Dina recruited Marshall to help them decide what to eat. With the three of them distracted, my eyes shifted towards Casey, and his gaze met mine over our menus. The timid, almost panicked look in his eyes sent pangs all over my body.
I wished I could tell him everything would be fine. I wanted to hold him in my arms so badly, my arms ached. Instead, I dropped my menu and glanced at Marshall, where he was bent over David’s chair. I couldn’t spend this entire meal pretending my omega wasn’t here.
“What would you recommend, Casey?” I asked.
Marshall quickly glanced in our direction and gave me a pleased thumbs up. He assumed I was being friendly and making an effort to be nice to his boyfriend. I was, but not for his benefit.
Casey, on the other hand, looked like a startled deer as he lowered his menu and reached over to point at something on mine.
“This.” Steak with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes.
Mouthwatering. A hot, hearty meal was exactly what I needed.
But then again, there was something else I’d rather be eating, and he was sitting two seats away from me.
I leaned back and cleared my throat, pushing those thoughts far, far away. “That sounds delicious. Thank you, Casey. I’ll have the ribeye steak platter, and an extra side of broccoli. Medium well on the steak.”
Marshall returned to his seat in time to order his own meal: something fried with more fried things beside it. “Typical dad,” he said with a grin. “Can’t go any meal without vegetables.”
I gently smacked him with my menu. “You should eat your vegetables too, Mr. Doctor.”
“He never does,” Casey remarked. Our eyes met again, and we shared a smile across the table. I wished he was beside me so I could hold his hand under the table. But that would probably just make me even more turned on.
A painful twenty minutes followed. Everyone was chatting and having a good time. Meanwhile, I was struggling to find something to say. Casey smiled and added to the conversation, his eyes flicking towards me every so often, then flitting away again like I wasn’t even there.
This is what it meant to be with him. Hiding my need for him, and pretending I wasn’t about to go insane without his touch. I knew it had to be this way. So why did it bother me this much?
Our food arrived, giving me a welcome distraction with each bite of steak. Delicious. Casey had excellent taste in food. Between spoonfuls of mashed potatoes, I stole glances at him every chance I could. The sensual looks on his face as he ate his meal made my cock throb to full attention.
I carefully readjusted myself under the table, leaning back in my chair to give my cock more room.
“Excellent suggestion, Casey. Thank you.” I speared a piece of broccoli and ate it as he watched, sinking my teeth into the green stalk the exact way I wanted to bite his skin.
His cheeks flushed bright pink, and he quickly went back to ignoring me.
Cute. It was so much fun riling him up. I’d punish him for ignoring me later.
Marshall sat back in his chair, gliding his fork over the top of his food. “How long are you staying, Dad?”
I’d only been here for a few days, and he was already trying to make me leave.
I bit back a retort, knowing it would only make things worse.
“As long as you’ll put up with me, son,” I said with a forced chuckle.
“I haven’t taken a day off in years. It’d be nice to relax for a bit.
Lane’s got the business covered for as long as I’m gone. ”
My answer wasn’t what Marshall was hoping for, if his brief scowl was anything to go by. He wasn’t attentive enough as Casey’s Alpha to sense my true intentions. I’d be able to smell an invasion of my territory a mile away.
Everyone sat frozen as Marshall pushed food around his plate with a fork. David, no doubt expecting a fight, quickly took over the conversation.
“I’m here on my own, if anyone cares. Dina wanted to see the big city, so we thought we’d take a little vacation for a few weeks.”
“One week,” Dina murmured, her wineglass halfway to her lips.
“Yep, one week.”
“Son,” I said, waiting until Marshall glanced over at me. “We haven’t spent time together since you left home. So let’s do that. Okay?”
Scoffing, he tried not to roll his eyes.
“A little too late for that, right?” He got up and put his coat on.
“I’m… I’ve got stuff at the hospital.” Marshall walked away from the table, his footsteps making my stomach sink.
That went horribly. He was civil when we were in Oakridge. I guess that was over.
David leaned back, his arm slung over Dina’s chair. “That didn’t take long.”
“Stop it. I didn’t come here to fight with him.”
“I know, Pops.”
Casey stood up and mumbled that he was going to the restroom.
The conversation at our table continued, but my eyes were fixed on Casey’s back as he weaved through the restaurant and disappeared through a doorway.
How long should I wait until I went after him?
David and Dina seemed distracted, but they would notice if we were both in the bathroom for too long.
I got up and stacked my empty dishes on the table.
“I’m gonna get some air. Be back in a bit.
” I went straight for the bathrooms, stopping inside the doorway.
One side led to the restrooms. The other to the outdoor patio.
David was too distracted to notice me going left instead of right.
I pushed the omega bathroom door open and stepped inside.
There were a few stalls and some urinals across from the sinks.
A pheromone dulling air freshener went off every few seconds, making the room smell like cherries.
Casey was unzipping his pants at a urinal when he spotted me closing the door. He waddled over to me with his pants wide open. “What are you doing in here?”