Chapter Three
“You have got to tell me what the dessert did to get you to make those noises,” Dade said with a grin. Cliff had been eating his dessert and making the most delicious sounds, which seemed to reverberate through him.
“Do you want a bite?” Cliff asked, and offered him the spoon. Dade took a small bite of the chocolate concoction and groaned himself. “So, you get it now?”
“I do.” He didn’t dare have any more than that.
“You can have some more,” Cliff offered.
Dade sighed. “I wish I could. Most of their desserts are chocolate, and I can’t have them.
Chocolate is one of the things that triggers a migraine for me.
If I have too much, I’ll spend the entire day in a dark, silent room either wishing the pain would go away, or asleep because the medication takes over and knocks me out.
It’s either one or the other, so chocolate is my enemy in a way, and I do my best to stay away from it. ”
“You have to be kidding. Chocolate is one of the great joys in life. I’m sorry you can’t eat it.” He finished his dessert. “You should have said something. I could have ordered something else, or we could have gone for ice cream. There’s a fantastic place on the edge of town.”
“It’s okay. I’m trying to watch what I eat, and dessert is one of those things I can do without.” He finished his glass of wine and was just content. It had been a long time since he was simply happy in someone’s company. There were no expectations or pressure. It was easy being with Cliff.
David returned to the table and took care of the dishes. Dade paid the bill, and then they left the restaurant. He stood out front, not sure what he should do. It was probably time to go home, but Cliff offered him his arm, so Dade took it, and they slowly walked up the street.
“I feel like Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis, when she and John take their walk after the ball. Though he proposes to her and they have this lovely moment of fantasy before she and her family are supposed to leave town.” He drew closer against the chill in the air.
“Does this feel too old-fashioned?” Cliff asked.
“My friends always tell me that I was born in the wrong age. That I don’t act like someone from now.
Maybe I watched too many old movies.” They slowly walked down the sidewalk, past the antique store and one selling handmade soap.
Traffic continued past, but Dade barely noticed it.
“Sometimes there’s no such thing as old-fashioned.
I mean, we’re two men, and I’m holding your arm in public.
That’s the least old-fashioned thing I can think of.
” He leaned slightly against Cliff as they continued past the church to the square.
“I don’t think care, respect, and courtesy are out of date or should ever be considered as such. ” He liked that Cliff seemed attentive.
“Daedalus!” He knew that sharp tone and tensed, pulling away from Cliff as his father approached, in full officer and command mode, as usual. His father never did anything any other way.
“Yes, Father.” He addressed him the way he always had.
After all, the general had never been a dad to anyone.
He was a father in the most remote and formal way possible.
“What is it you want?” Thankfully, he wasn’t in uniform; that would have been humiliating.
His father had retired from the army as a general two years ago and had returned to Carlisle at that time.
He’d pulled some strings to get himself officially transferred to the barracks and then retired so he could stay here.
Why he didn’t get himself transferred to Area 51 or somewhere much closer to his sister Maria in Las Vegas, he had no idea.
Maybe his sister hadn’t wanted their father living so close to her any more than Dade did.
“I found you a much better job than the one you have. It’s a civilian job with the army, and it pays much better than… the one you have.”
Dade rolled his eyes. “I’m perfectly happy where I am.” He cleared his throat. “This is Cliff.” He refused to introduce him by his rank, or his father would get on his high horse and talk Cliff’s ear off about getting ahead, showing respect, and God knows what else. “He and I had dinner together.”
“Yes.” He nodded to Cliff but turned back to Dade as though he didn’t matter.
“Cliff saved my life. I told you that my apartment filled with smoke. Cliff came in and got me out. Otherwise, I’d have died from lack of air.”
“Don’t be dramatic. I’m sure you would have found a way to get out.
You’re my son, after all, and nothing would stop me from getting out of a room with a little smoke.
” He was as dismissive as usual. “Anyway, I want you to meet with the people from this school. It’s a military academy. ” Of course it was.
“No, thank you. I’m happy right where I am. I love my students, and I’m happy here.” He tried to keep his voice neutral because his father would only get pushier if he got upset. “Is that all you wanted to tell me?”
“Yes. I’m meeting your mother for dinner.” He turned and took two steps. Dade didn’t wait around for his father’s parting shot. Instead, he headed down the sidewalk, with Cliff coming along next to him.
“Saracina… I knew that last name sounded familiar. That was General Thomas Sacarina. He’s your father?”
“Yes. Now, can you imagine growing up in a house with him? Believe me, I try not to remember it as much as possible. Everyone says he was a great leader, but as a father….”
“You told me he was the one to make all the decisions for everyone.”
Dade laughed. “There were no decisions to be made. My father tended to bend the world to what he wanted, and it only got worse when he was promoted to general. I can’t tell you how disappointed he was that I didn’t go into the army or go to West Point.
I got a scholarship on my own and went to a college of my choosing.
He nearly busted a gut when I told him I was going to teach.
After I graduated, he told me he could get me a position as an officer, and I could start my military career then.
” He sighed. “I told him I was going to make my own way. I’m sorry. I know you like what you do.”
“I really do. But then again, I didn’t grow up in the army.”
“You got that right. I felt like I was part of the service since I was five years old. My father had my future laid out for me since I was born. He planned everything out then, and every time I didn’t measure up, I was sure to hear about it.
” Dade shrugged. There was nothing he could do about it now.
“Well, I know that if I have any children, or am lucky enough to raise them, they can be whatever they want to be. That’s how I was raised, and I made my own choices.
I went to West Point, served my allotted time as an officer, and came to love my life.
I decided to make the army my career, and I’ve never come to regret it.
When did you decide to become a teacher? ”
“I was fifteen and I’d just moved back from Germany to the US.
We were stationed at Fort Bragg, and it was my first day at a new school…
again. There were only so many classes available, and I ended up in an art class.
It was that teacher who saw something in me that others didn’t.
He encouraged me to draw and even paint.
I was only at that school for six months, because my father was needed somewhere else, but he changed my life and gave me something that I took with me to the next school and the one after that.
His name was Glenn Rough. He retired a few years ago, but I still keep in touch, and he sort of saved me. ”
“How so?”
“In a way he gave me a voice that my father couldn’t take away.
No matter what, I could draw, and I learned that I was really good at something other than disappointing my father.
So that’s what I try to do with my students—help them find what they’re good at and encourage them.
That’s all kids really need. It’s what I wish I’d had more of. ” He turned to Cliff, who was nodding.
“Not everyone in the military is like him, you know. Your father is the man he is, and for good or bad, that’s the father you got. But not all of us act like him.”
“I know that,” Dade said. “I do. But I lived with this for so long. It’s not just the way he acts.
I have roots in this town, and I don’t intend to leave.
” He paused so he could think clearly about what he wanted to say.
“If you and I were to date… or get involved, what would we do when you get deployed elsewhere? I don’t know about you, but I can’t give my heart to someone who is going to leave in a year or two.
And that goes with your job. I’ve already relocated too many times in my life, and I can’t do it any longer.
My entire childhood was spent living out of a suitcase, or at least it felt that way.
I don’t want my adulthood to be like that either. ”
“Even if it’s a good opportunity?” Cliff asked.
“By whose standard? My father is a general. That means he took every opportunity that came his way and made the most of it. And along the way, he dragged the rest of the family with him. There was no consideration. He never hesitated to take what was offered so he could get ahead. I was eighteen, and two months before high school graduation, when he took a posting to Guam. He expected me and everyone else to just go with him. I refused. I was of age and told him I’d live on the street before I’d go.
I was staying and graduating from my school, and I was never moving to Guam. ”
Cliff sighed. “Let me guess. He went to Guam and reported for duty, and you stayed here.”
“This time, Mom put her foot down and said that she was staying too. Maria did as well, and father went alone. We joined him for summer vacation, and then I returned to the mainland for college and never moved with them again.”