THOMAS
Thomas scanned the menu,looking for something with enough alcohol to take the edge off, but not enough to leave him too drunk to hold a conversation with Kenzie. He’d almost cancelled their brunch, but their relationship was on thin ice already and he’d been surprised enough when she texted to get together. She’d always reached out to Jennifer, and he’d gotten used to it, but Kenzie seemed to be trying and he didn’t want to push her away by making her feel unimportant.
Unfortunately, keeping their Sunday brunch date meant he’d left Ben alone, naked, and asleep in bed. The relationship with Ben was such a new thing, and while the sex between them was great, Thomas looked forward to enjoying the quieter moments together. The lazy Sunday mornings with game shows on low volume and hot mugs of coffee between them. Bitter-tasting kisses, sharp from sleep, and lust on the couch during commercial breaks. He wanted lunch ordered in so they didn’t have to get dressed and afternoons that led into quiet evenings alone at home.
But brunch with his daughter was a reminder that he had a life outside his new relationship and he needed to pay them both the attention they needed. He didn’t know when he would see Ben again, but he knew he would. Things with Kenzie felt more uncertain.
“Sorry I’m late.” His daughter flung herself into the empty seat opposite him, her massive purse landing at her feet. She looked a little flustered and tired, much like her mother.
“It’s okay.” He tried to not think about the extra fifteen minutes he could have spent in Ben’s arms.
Kenzie looked around, tucking her hair behind her ears. She flagged down a waitress and asked for a third chair.
“Bringing a date?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “My brother.”
“Dakota?” Thomas sat up straighter, looking around to see if he could find his son.
“Are you more excited to see him than me?”
“You know I love you both the same,” he said.
Kenzie snorted and dropped her phone onto the table beside her condensating water glass. “I know I’m your favorite.”
“My oldest daughter.”
“Only,” she corrected him with an arched brow.
He smiled and nodded, relaxing into the ease with which she teased him. It had been so long since things felt safe enough between them for that kind of banter. He was eager to see Dakota too, even though things between them were much more tense than between him and Kenzie. He knew both of his kids thought he’d been an absent dad, and maybe he had, but…he didn’t want to be anymore.
“While we wait for him, how’s school going?”
“Good, but like—”
“Hey.” Dakota’s voice cut Kenzie off, and she let out an exasperated breath.
“But, like, Special Topics in Cognition is really tedious and it’s hard for me to focus on the content of the lecture because the professor has the drollest tone of voice,” she finished her statement and flicked a quick glance up at her brother.
“Dakota.” Thomas stood up and gestured to the open seat the waitress had brought over.
Dakota sat, and Kenzie eyed him while he got settled. Thomas sat back down and smoothed his napkin back over his lap because he wasn’t sure what to do with his hands. What a weird experience, to feel so nervous around and judged by the humans that he raised.
The waitress returned, obviously flagged by Dakota’s arrival, and took their drink orders, leaving them alone in a relatively awkward silence.
“How have things been?” he asked his son.
Dakota gave him a tired look. “Things are…fine.”
“You’re a liar,” Kenzie said.
“Trent has just been a little argumentative lately,” Dakota said.
“Trouble at home?” he asked.
Dakota hadn’t ever come out, so much as just come home one day with a man and said they were getting married. Thomas had been caught off-guard by it, only in so much as before Trent, Dakota had only dated women. At least, as far as Thomas and Jennifer had known. They’d been together for quite a few years, to varying degrees of success, but for as much as Dakota was flighty and non-committal, he seemed dedicated to Trent.
“We’re just fighting,” Dakota said, glaring at Kenzie.
