“Not in the least,figlio. May I ask why he took off?”
“For the same reason I explained before. He told me that when Gabby handed the baby over to me and he saw the instant love on my face, he couldn’t bear hearing me telling Gabby that I would adopt her, knowing that he didn’t want a family. As an aside Mamma, Gabby needs to stop railroading me. She sent a text to Jude attempting to explain, but it was weak.”
“I know, I know,” Mamma agreed. “Psychologically, bearing a child and raising one is not for her. She’s been a different person ever since she got pregnant. I wish I’d have seen Jude leave but we were so engrossed with the baby.”
“Mamma, I need your opinion on something. I’m the first man that Jude’s ever been with. I’m worried that part of him running away is he could find another man who’ll fall in love with him and make him top priority in their world. When I asked him, he denied wanting anyone else. But I thought maybe you could bring the subject up to him. You don’t have to tell me anything, but I would rather him leave me and Isabella now than a year from now. Plus, the fact that I’ll be living in Italy for six months and can’t even think about that now.”
“Figlio, tackle one thing at a time,si?”
“Si, Mamma. All right; I have to get back to Jude. I came down to my truck to talk. You’re sure about him staying?”
“Si, and I’ll text when Gabby has left. She’s experiencing postpartum depression and she’s not in a good mood.”
“That works.Grazie, Mamma.”
“Ciao, Ethan.”
When I returned to Jude’s room, I smiled when I saw him sitting on the bed with his hand on the strap to his duffle bag, ready to go.
“Are you in a rush to get out of this room or to be rimmed for an hour before I fuck you?”
I pulled him up, chest to chest, our cocks gliding against each other under the fabric of our jeans. “Where are we staying?” I asked, our mouths so close we shared warm, breathy pants.
“The SpringHill Suites, four stars with a king-sized bed, no jacuzzi in the room but a rooftop pool overlooking the ocean, with a spa.”
“I can work with all of the above,” I said and palmed his ass cheeks with both hands.
“Is everything good at work?”
“Yeah,” I answered dismissively, massaging the round globes, the motion not giving me the satisfaction I needed with the clothes a barrier between my hands and his skin. “Can we get out of here now?”
I grabbed Jude’s duffle and hand in hand, our fingers entwined, we walked to his car. I tossed his bag in the back seat, then captured his mouth in a messy kiss, a hint of what was coming. Regrettably pulling my lips from his, I glanced across the highway and saw the sprawling SpringHill hotel. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
“Okay,” he said.
My truck happened to be parked only three cars away. I got in, started the engine, and drove out of the parking lot behind Jude. I was curious why he hadn’t called me Daddy yet. He said in his text yesterday that he didn’t think he was deserving, but I thought now that we’d made up, he would’ve gone back to the endearment automatically. Unless he found it weird, since Isabella would be calling me papa, which was close enough in meaning to a daddy. I intended to bring it up in case his reluctance was a by-product of another issue.
In the parking lot of our new accommodations, we found spaces next to each other. “Jude,” I asked, “do you need me to take anything out of the trunk?”
“No, I’m good with what’s in the duffle but how about you? I can pull out a pair of sweats from my luggage for tomorrow.”
“Nah, I’m good.” I closed the trunk and taking his hand again, we strode inside to the reservation desk, probably looking like any other loving couple. The woman at the desk glanced between us as Jude took care of checking us in. I assumed she was assessing wrongly that we were a biracial couple. Jude and I were a stark contrast of light and dark and the only clues that Iwasn’t Black were my eye color and my hair, which was soft and wavy.
When it came time to pay for the room, I blocked Jude’s hand from using his credit card. “My treat,” I insisted and hovered my card over the tap-to-pay machine until the green lights came on.
“Why are you paying when it’s because of me you had to drive down here?” Jude’s voice was sullen and flooded with guilt.
Walking to the elevator, I said, “I was actually thinking that in one year, I never took you anywhere. We went for day trips and that was it. So, I’d like to fix my negligence starting now. Consider my treat an early Valentine’s Day gift.”
Jude giggled and kissed my hand. “That’s right, it’s tomorrow, isn’t it? That was Gabby’s original due date.”
In the elevator, I pressed for our floor and dropped his duffle. Backing him up to the wall, I asked, “Did you think you’d be gone and wouldn’t celebrate?”
His eyes fluttered closed for a moment. “I think I did.”
“Is that why you won’t call me Daddy? Or did you decide you didn’t like it anymore?”
“I wasn’t sure if I should wait until we see how I react to Isabella,” he confessed.
