I pulled her on top of me. “I can’t promise that I won’t unintentionally hurt you, but know I won’t ever treat you like he did.”
“I hope so,” Brooklyn whispered, and the line crossing her forehead vanished.
“But I do need you to be honest if I say or do something you don’t like. Or talk to me whenever you get scared about us. I don’t have it in me to keep proving myself because of what he did to you.”
Our eyes locked in understanding.
Brooklyn pushed up on my chest and reached for another condom on my bookshelf behind my head. She slipped the rubber on me and eased down my erection and rocked me slowly, showing her appreciation with the sensual thrusting of her hips.
THE CHRISTMAS SEASON
Chapter 5
Carter
Sekani and I listened to his eclectic playlist on our way to pick up the twins for our weekend ski trip. “This is Pretty Kicks.”
“Pretty Ricky?” I asked, though I knew that wasn’t who he said.
“No, Dad.” He had the age-old tone of all children once they believe their parents are lame. “Kicks. They’re this J-pop group. Elle and I are supposed to go to the concert in January.”
“E not going with you? He loves concerts.”
He shrugged. “He didn’t seem very interested when I told him about it.”
“Maybe he’s not into J-pop,” I offered.
“E is a mixer. He loves all music, especially Asian culture.” He tapped his head back against the leather seat.
Internally, I sighed. My sons weren’t close like my brother and me. Ethyn resented Sekani because he’d been used to being my only son, and a part of him believed that Sekani replaced him in my heart. I hated that my actions led to the rift between my children. Ethyn had been the angriest and hurt the most from the divorce. My energetic, friendly boy became a sullen, irritable teen who grated my last nerve.
Only in the last year, he seemed to melt some of the icy chip he had towards me.
“I’m sorry.” I surprised myself with the apology that slipped out of my mouth on its own volition.
“For what?” Sekani slanted a gaze my way before staring out the windshield.
“It’s my fault, the two of you aren’t close like your uncle and me.”
He shrugged. “We have different mothers and grew up in different households. Elle loves being a big sister, so it’s cool. I stopped trying a long time ago to get E to like me.”
“He likes and loves you. E just isn’t good with expressing himself as I do.”
“That’s not true. I never doubt how you feel about me. You’ve always been there, even when my mother made it hard for you,” Sekani said earnestly. “I hear how my friends can’t get their fathers to spend time or even talk to them, and I realize how lucky I am to have a father like you. If it wouldn’t hurt Mama so much, I would stay with you.”
Tears pricked my eyes, and I held my fist to his. “Naw, I’m the lucky one to have a son like you, who keeps a smile on your face even when you’re in deep pain.”
“My name does mean ‘joy’.” He bumped my fist before turning the volume up. “Listen to this song.”
With one hand at the bottom of the wheel, I leaned back and allowed the beats of my son’s favorite music to flow through the car. In the week since Thanksgiving, I’d been avoiding Joi and not taking her calls or deleting her texts before reading them. I didn’t want to relive the past and get caught up in “what ifs” when I’d already moved forward even before I met Brooklyn. I’d been relieved when he limped out of the house alone to slide into the front seat, which he would only hold until we picked up the twins.
Thirty or so minutes later, I pulled up into the circular driveway of the charming cottage of my ex-wife and her husband. My beautiful, bubbly daughter rushed out the door first and hugged Sekani as he exited the car so that shecould take the front seat. Whenever my children rode in the car, Elle had the front seat. Thankfully, she preferred braids, baggy, loose-fitting clothes, and rarely wore makeup. She had a rigorous practice schedule because she had Olympic hopes in track and field.
She leaned over to kiss my cheek. “Hey, Daddy.”
“Hey, my evening star. I missed you.” I smiled.
Elle had a hold on my heart from birth, even as I recognized she wasn’t my baby. My ex-wife had her own secrets while we were in college. She had sex with Grey, her current husband, a day before she had sex with me, resulting in a rarity—a set of twins with two different fathers. Ethyn was mine, and Elle was Grey’s. Yet, I loved them both the same.
