Plus, if I have my way, I would be out hunting right now. My inner leopard is begging to come out and play. I need to get out all of these frustrations before it’s too late.
We sit in the booth closest to the back of the room. Braydon’s already looking through the menu as if he’s not getting chicken tenders and chocolate milk.
“Dad,” Braydon’s little voice clears the air.
“Yeah, bud?”
“Are you really mad at me?” He asks me.
I shake my head. “Nah. I’m worried, though. What’s been goin’ on at your ma’s house?”
“Hi! Welcome back!” Sheila, our normal waitress, greets us. She’s a pretty girl with a lot of miles on her. Plus, she’s a frequent flyer at the club. The woman is up for just about anything.
“Hey, Sheila. How are ya?” I ask to make small talk. I’m not always a complete jack ass, but if we get the small talk out of the way, she’ll leave us alone. I need to focus on my son right now.
“I’m great! I’ll see you later tonight?”
She’s asking if I’m going to be at the club tonight because she wants to fuck. That’s the only reason why she would bring up the club right now.
I look at my son staring innocently off at a wall. “Nah. I have my son. You know how it goes,” I lift a shoulder up and then get back to my son.
I have every intention on hunting tonight. Eating this shit holds no interest for me. The only thing I really want is a water and get on with the day. However, I have to keep up appearances.
“Water and a coffee for me. Braydon, do you know what you want?”
“Yes! A chocolate milk and chicken nuggets!”
“Anything for you to eat?” Sheila asks me with her eyes shifting around the room as if she’s trying to keep what I am a secret.
No one in this little town has any idea who or what we are and we like to keep it that way. The more people that know about our business, means the more trouble we’re going to find.
“I’m good. I ate earlier.”
Sheila scurries away and does one backwards glance at me. I know she’s trying to tell me she wants to hook up, but I’m not interested.
Besides getting Braydon, the only good thing about today was meeting his sexy little teacher. If they had teachers who looked like her in school, I would have never missed a day. I could have been fuckin’ dyin’ and still gone to school.
Ms. Burns, or Dana, has this gorgeous hair that outlines her perfect skin tone. Her watchful eyes were checking me out so hard core. Plus, I loved hearing what she was thinking.
The woman wants me as much as I want her. However, I doubt she’s looking for a quick fuck.
Ever since my dad, Red, stepped down from being president, I have had zero time to actually date a woman. Trina and I had already divorced by the time I came president. She was pissed as fuck when she found out what kind of money we were bringing into the club.
“Dad, if I tell you what’s going on at mom’s, can you promise to not tell her I told you?”
I purse my lips. “Bud, I won’t tell her you told me but if it is something bad, I’m gonna have to talk to her.”
“Will you make it so I can’t go back to her house?”
Our drinks are dropped off at the end of his question.
“What do you mean?”
“Okay. Mom is really tired all of the time and she keeps having guys over. When they go to sleep, my mom doesn’t wake me up to go to school. That’s why I haven’t been going to school.”
“And what about the dirty clothes?” I ask nonchalantly.
“Mom forgets to wash my clothes a lot and I have to wear whatever I have that’s not too dirty.”
My eyes widen and then narrow. That bitch! She’s bringing johns over and forgetting about our son? I can’t believe how bad it has gotten that it has come down to this.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask him and take a drink of my water. The water is not the same as it is coming from a river or a creek, I’ll tell you that!
“Well, mom told me that if you knew what was going on you wouldn’t give her any more money. She said she’s broke and needs money. I didn’t want to make my mom homeless!”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing right now. “You are not responsible to take care of your mom. Do you hear me? Your mom is a grown woman who is responsible for taking care of you. Not you take care of her. You don’t worry about her and money. Anything else going on?”
I want everything out in the open so I can focus on how to get Trina out of Braydon’s life. She needs to get the fuck out and leave us alone. All she does is cause problems and I’m done with them.
“Not really.”
“Does mom still go outside and then come back a lot?” After Braydon came back to my place one day, he told me how he picked up a flute from his mom’s. He said it smelled funny. She had a crack pipe out in the open for Braydon to find! I threatened her and she started going outside.
“Yeah!” He murmurs and downs half of his milk. “Hi, Ms. Burns!”
And what do my eyes see in front of me?
222
Dana
The hardest part about living alone is making dinner for just yourself to eat. All of my childhood, my mom would spend countless hours cooking this delicious dinner and then we would all sit around the table to eat it. It was a nice memory until I
