Chapter 89

Jon snapped his phone shut and jammed it in the pocket of his leather bomber jacket. Swinging his legs out from the low slung sports car he thanked the icy wind for its sudden and timely arrival.

Going in to visit his kids with a semi was definitely not the way to make a good impression, especially with it was a very pissed off ex-wife involved. The little conversation with Tessa had gone a long way in relaxing him, though. The ten minute drive had left his gut in oily knots. Picturing her sweet face with a naughty glint in her eyes had him smiling as he approached the house.

The door opened wide just as he hit the steps. Dorothea stood at the door, her face cold and remote.

“Daddy! Daddy!” he heard Jake’s voice a split second before he pushed Dot aside to get to him. A disjointed Transformer was clutched in his hand as he started climbing up his arm.

He hauled him up onto his hip. “Hey buddy, how you doin’?”

He pushed a red, white and blue toy in his face that seemed to be halfway between robot and truck. “Me and Optimus Prime have been towing Bumblebee and Jazz into the hideout. We have to hide from Megatron.”

Jon laughed and nodded. Pirates had recently been replaced by Transformers as soon as the commercials had started for the movie coming out over the summer. “Is Bumblebee safe?”

“Jake get in the house you don’t have a jacket on,” Dot called out.

He hopped down. “I gotta go save Bumblebee before Megatron gets him!” He made sounds that Jon imagined were supposed to signify transforming as he started to click and shift the pieces on the toy as he ran back into the house.

She waited until the pounding feet headed to the back of the house. “What are you doing here?”

“Steph called looking for me. She wanted to go out to breakfast.”

“She didn’t say anything to me.” Her voice and her face were both emotionless as she stared at him. To be more accurate it felt like she was staring right through him.

“Does she have to ask for permission to go out with her father?”

“Now she does.”

Swallowing back the need to shake her, he took a step up. “Does it really have to be this way? I promised that I’d keep my kids separate from Tessa.”

“For now. How will I know when you decide to change your mind?”

“We’ll discuss it-“

“What? Like we discussed it last time? Because my daughter knows about your little girlfriend,” the sneer made it glaringly obvious that she was using the word loosely, “and we sure as hell didn’t discuss it.”

“I’m not going to lie to my daughter’s face. I had no choice but to explain what she’d overheard.”

“Well maybe if you didn’t discuss every little detail of our lives with Richie then it wouldn’t have posed a problem.”

“Dammit, Dot what do you want from me? Blood? I would give it if I could. I wish she hadn’t overheard it yet. I wish it could have been conveniently done in a family meeting with all of us, but it wasn’t and you need to get over it.” Wanting to snatch back the words as soon as he said them he bit back a growl.

“Get over it? This is what I mean, Jon. If it doesn’t suit you then hey, it must be my problem.”

“Look, I’m sorry-“

“Screw your sorries, Jon. This isn’t about us. This is about the kids and what’s best for them. Stability and showing that we are a team is all that matters right now, even if I’m not feeling any team spirit at all.”

Right then it certainly felt like it was about them. Reaching out to touch her, he curled his fingers into his palm when she flinched. Christ, he couldn’t even touch her at this point? “We will always be a team when it comes to our kids, even when we don’t agree. It’s not like we’ve agreed on every little thing we’ve done over the years.”

Her face went blank and closed off. “I’ll get Stephanie, you wait here.”

Feeling the slap that she intended it to be, Jon stood on the portico. Locked out of his children’s home like a stranger? What was it going to take to show Dorothea that his life with Tessa wasn’t a bad thing? That he could be trusted not to take things any faster than she wanted.

He stalked back to the car and leaned against the back quarter panel, trying to cool down. He didn’t need Steph to see him this worked up. She’d know something was wrong right away.

The door opened again and Steph came out alone. Her smile was almost non-existent, but the relief he could see on her face fisted into his gut like a punch. He wanted to make whatever was bothering her go away. He wanted to drag her in for a hug and press a kiss to her forehead like he used to do when she was little. Daddy kisses would always make everything alright.

She wore her new coat and scarf that he’d found in London over the summer. The thigh length coat made her look mature and gave her the lanky look that he remembered on Dot so well when they were kids. She was twisting her fingers and gripping them so tight when she stood in front of him that he just obeyed instinct and pulled her close.

Her arms rose to his shoulders and she laid her cheek against his chest. “Oh, Daddy.”

“I know, sweetheart. It’s okay.” He didn’t know what was wrong yet, but he’d do everything in his power to make it okay.

He opened the door for her and she ducked inside the low slung sports car. Rapping his knuckles against the hood of the car he banked the irritation with Dot. He climbed in and revved the engine until she laughed and shot out of the driveway.

“So, where would you like to go?”

“Can we just go to the house? I’ll cook us something.”

“Sure, Sweetheart.” Jon pulled out into traffic and headed toward the Navasink. He tried to draw her out with small talk, but she seemed so distracted that he finally just gave up and put on her favorite radio station until they pulled into the driveway.

He followed her inside, watched her putter around the kitchen, gathering the fixings for an omelet. It seemed like she needed something to do with her hands as she mixed the eggs and milk with some spices just like her Gram had taught her.

He started some coffee, letting her relax with the simple task. He knew what it was like to have excess energy strangling him. His daughter could be so like him in some ways.

When she settled two plates on the table he sat next to her. She picked at her food, pushing it around the plate and sneaking glances at him. He bit his tongue, wanting to be patient for his daughter. Knowing that she needed to talk to him about something, and that something had her in knots.

“Dad,” she said softly.

“Yeah, Steph,” he said as he carefully set his fork down. He’d plowed through the omelet, not realizing how hungry he was. Normal things like eating had been delegated to his time with Tessa and she’d disappeared on him today without their morning ritual.

“Can I come live with you?”

Of all the things he figured his daughter was going to talk to him about today that was not one of them. He frowned and pushed his plate away. “Can I ask why?”

She pushed her plate aside and crossed her arms over her chest. “I can’t take it in that house anymore, Dad. Mom’s been so bitch-“

“Hey!”

Steph frowned and pressed her lips together then started again. “Sorry, she’s been just so touchy. Everything I do is wrong, she yells at me for everything. She won’t even let me go out with my friends.”

Knowing he was going to be walking a very dangerous and touchy line he chose his words carefully. “Why do you think she’s acting like this?”

“I don’t know! Ever since I told her about what we talked about she’s been so mean. I mean, not like Mom normal bad mood that she’ll snap out of…but really bit-” she stopped and cleared her throat at his warning glare, “Touchy. I just don’t understand any of it.”

“Your mom and I are having a little bit of a,” he paused, unsure exactly how much he should share with his teen aged daughter. “Disagreement about how we’re going to handle telling you guys about Tessa.”

“I don’t know her well enough yet, Dad, but she seems pretty cool. If she makes you happy…” she trailed off.

The tightness in his chest eased as confusion and loyalty seemed to swim in her eyes. He’d been so worried about not hurting his kids, that he was doing a bang up job of doing just the opposite. “I’d like you to get to know, Tessa but for now we’ll respect your mom’s feelings about waiting on that.”

“Sometimes you just know,” she said with a wistfulness that may as well have been a twirling spotlight over her head.

“So what exactly seems to be mom’s issue with you lately?”

The sweet, soft look on her face immediately got lost under a dark cloud. “I told you.”

Somehow he didn’t think he’d heard the whole story. “Just which friends does she not want you to go out with, Steph?”

She crossed her arms, “My regular gang.”

Instinct made him push. “Does your regular gang include a guy?”

“So what if it does,” she said defensively.

Ahhh. Jon found himself on shaky ground. He understood that she could be upset about his breakup with Dot, but this was starting to sound more like she wanted to get her own way. That perhaps Dad would be the lenient one and not pay attention to the type of friends she was hanging out with.

And it also seemed that there wasn’t total disclosure over what was going on with his little girl. “Do you have a boyfriend, Steph?” he asked quietly.

“What? No! I-“ Her blue eyes were startled and almost panicky.

She knew that she was too young for a boyfriend. He could see her mind spinning, trying to catch up with what she’d absently said. He wondered if Dorothea knew and just hadn’t felt that was important enough to talk to him about or if all the crap going on between them was causing a few blind spots for both of them.

He hated that he was edging toward the former idea. He’d dealt with the fact that he felt out of the loop a lot of the time because of who he was and what he was, but this much? “Steph,” he took a breath hoping he would say the right thing. “I would hope that you would be honest enough with me on this kind of thing.”

“Dad, you gotta understand,” she said pleadingly. “Mom’s being insane about this. We’re just friends.”

“We talked about the boyfriend thing. You’re still way too young.”

“But he’s not-”

“C’mon, Steph how dumb do you think your old man is? I’ve been the horny teenager already and while it was awhile ago, I remember what it was like.”

“But it’s not like that.”

Jon just sat back in his chair. “Do you want me to ask your mom about it?”

“You don’t understand at all!” She stood and went for the back door, twisting the handle with more force than necessary and left the it wide open.

Taking a moment to drop his forehead to the table and let it bang twice, he stood and followed her. She was halfway across the estate and heading to the river by the time he caught up. “Hey, come back inside you don’t even have a jacket on.”

“I’m not cold,” she said stubbornly as she slipped her fingers inside the sleeves of her sweater. She stared out at the water, her face stony with the definition of teen defiance.

He stood before her and dropped his hands on her shoulders. When she wouldn’t look at him, he squeezed. “Running away from a conversation is not the way we do things, you know that.”

“Why? You do.”

Taking the punch he kept his mouth shut. Is that what she thought of him? Trying to keep the peace between the two households was frustrating for him, but was he just taking the easy way out by falling in with Dot’s wishes? “Running from a conversation and compromise are two totally different things. And the fact that you’re trying to manipulate me by only giving me half the story is pretty low, Steph.”

Her blue eyes went bright with tears. “I’m not!”

He thumbed away a tear. “You know you are. I may be out of the loop sometimes, sweetheart but I’m not stupid. Hell, don’t you think I did the same thing to my parents when I wanted something?”

“But she won’t let me see him at all…well, except for school.” She sniffed and wiped the tears with her sleeve. “Dad, is this what it feels like for you with Tessa?”

Shit. He let his head tip back as he struggled with what to say. It was similar in a way, and if he said it wasn’t it wouldn’t be fair to her. “Ahh, Steph you really are too much like me sometimes.”

He dragged her in for a hug and she curled into him. Her slim, almost a woman body so fragile and trusting as she sniffed against his shirt. His heart broke a little as he realized that his little girl was growing up. “We’ll talk to your mom. We’ll figure out something, I promise.”

She nodded into his chest, but didn’t say anything. They both looked out on the free-flowing river as Jon just added another worry to his list. How on earth was he going to deal with a daughter that wanted to date?