Father & Son: Book two of the Jensen Family Series (3 page)

“Huh, you’d think she could at least ask
me if I minded taking care of Luke.” Carmen huffed.

“You aren’t taking care of him, I am. I offered
so that she had some time to herself and besides that, you were asleep, neither
of us saw any reason to wake you up.”

The tone of his voice made her look up,
narrowing her eyes at him as she recognised his belligerent tone and set of his
shoulders and knew they were very close, once again to arguing.

“Look, Paul, I know you are upset,” she
began.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” He cut
her off “Especially in front of him.” He gestured to Luke.

“Ok, you are right.” She conceded, she
flicked through the pages of properties most of which were unsuitable, sighing
deeply when she came to one sheet depicting a once beautiful, now shabby, five
bedroom detached house. With a little work, it could be fantastic, the only
reason the estate agent had sent it was because with the repairs it required,
it was just within her price range.

“Anything worth looking at?” Paul pulled
her out of her daydream, having left Luke to his colouring; he came to hover in
front of her.

“Not really, only this and it’s far too
big.” She held out the sheet with the five bedroom house on it.

Taking the sheet, he sat beside her,
carefully reading through the details. “It needs a lot of work but it’s
doable.”

“I could never afford to run a house that
size.” She replied.

“Hang on, just think about it.” He turned
towards her, his face alight “The house is huge, there’s more than enough room
for you and Gavin and even Helen and Luke.”

“Are you suggesting that Helen sells this
place and we get a house together?”

“Yes. Absolutely! You have the money from
your house and this one is worth at least twice what it was now all the repairs
have been done and I can do most of the work on that house myself so that won’t
be an added cost to you, I’ll take care of all of that side of it. I could even
divide the house in two if that works out better for you two and it means Gavin
won’t grow up an only child and neither will Luke and you and Helen will have
each other for support.”

“Paul, even with the money from both
houses, it’ll still be a bit tight affording this place and that’s if Helen is
willing.”

“I’ll chat her into it.” He grinned “You
don’t have to worry about the shortfall; I’ll make up the difference and
anyway, we don’t have to offer the full asking price.  Now that both businesses
are making a profit, I’ll hardly even miss the money. The least we could do is
go and look at the place.” He flipped over the page “The garden is massive,
look at this; the boys could have hours of fun out there, after I reclaim it
from the brambles anyway.”

His enthusiasm was contagious and she
found herself smiling along with him and even began making plans on how to
approach the conversation with Helen.

Later that day, with Helen warming to the
idea, they made an appointment to visit the house, as it was vacant; the estate
agent let them have the keys and allowed them free access to the property. They
left Gavin and Luke with Helen’s childminder neighbour so that they could
concentrate on exactly what would need doing to the house.

Paul left the two women to wonder the
house, deep in conversation while he, note pad in hand, went from room to room
making minute examinations of each of the ground floor rooms before heading
upstairs. It took a while before Carmen noticed his absence and called his
name.

“Up here.” He called from the top of the
stairs where they joined him.

“It’s much worse than the bumf says it
is.” Carmen stated.

“I know, but it does mean we can get away
with offering a lower price. I’m going up in the loft.”

“It might not be safe.” She touched his
arm in caution.

“I’ll be fine.” He smiled, standing on a
chair and settling his hands on the edge of the loft hatch, getting a firm
grasp before hauling himself up through the hole. “Big loft,” he looked down at
Carmen before wandering away, “It’s going to need a new roof.” He called.

“Can you do that?” She called back, his
head appeared in the ceiling above her.

“No, but it’s not a problem. I know people
in the trade; I’ll get it done at a reasonable price.” He sat on the edge of
the loft hatch and slowly lowered himself down, giving both women a flash of
his toned abdomen shortly before he landed on his feet “What do you think?” He
asked.

“It is a lovely house.” Helen said.

“And it’s in a good position.” Carmen
added.

“What did you mean when you said that you
could divide it?” Helen asked.

“Well, you could keep some common rooms
but up here at least, I could make it like two apartments, both of you could
have en suites if you take the larger two bedrooms.” He backed up towards the
front of the house as he spoke, gesturing to the two large bedrooms either side
of the hall “The boys could have the smaller rooms and share the family
bathroom or if that isn’t what you want, we could work something else out.”

“Could we both have en suites and leave
the rest of the upstairs as it is?” Helen mused.

“That would be easier.” Paul confirmed “I
can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work.”

“Other than the fact that you are useless
when it comes to plumbing.” Carmen pointed out.

Paul smiled, wiped his grubby hands down
his jeans and stepped closer to her, his arms circling her waist “True but as
I’ve told you before, those things aren’t for you to worry about.” He pressed
his lips to hers “It also means that I have a plausible excuse to stay here
when Mum starts nagging me about going home.” He added.

“Alright you two, either give it up or get
a room.” Helen tutted but she was smiling, she liked having Paul around. “What
do you think Carmen?”

“I think, if you are really alright with
selling your house and provided our offer gets accepted, we would be stupid not
to go for it.”

Helen put her house on the market the
second their offer was accepted and the two women began packing the non
essential items. Paul spent his seventeenth birthday with them for which Helen
baked a cake and Monica paid a flying visit to give her son his gift and to
re-acquaint herself with her Grandson. Only to ruin the weekend by insisting
that Paul return home with her, she left somewhat upset by his refusal the next
day.

By this time, Gavin was almost three months
old, a routine had been well established within the household and although as
an extended family they functioned well, things between Paul and Carmen had
deteriorated further.

Paul gave up asking Carmen for sex, he
gave up the intimate touches with which he would try to turn her on, they
barely even kissed anymore. He resigned himself to waiting for her to be ready,
promising himself that he wouldn’t cheat on her even though his regular visits
to the local gym afforded him plenty of opportunity and while he did understand
that the thought of sex was actually terrifying her at the moment, it didn’t
help his frustration, he still found her incredibly attractive and his groin
would stir every time she undressed in front of him earning him a dirty look and
quite literally the cold shoulder.

He resigned himself to self pleasuring but
even this didn’t go as planned, it seemed that every time he had five minutes
alone, Carmen would walk in on him, she would tut in disgust and tell him to
stop so he took to hiding out in the bathroom instead of chancing getting
caught in the bedroom to no avail, Carmen cottoned on to what he was doing and
would bang loudly on the door, demanding to be let in.

“For God’s sake woman, just give me five
minutes alone.” He eventually lost his temper and raised his voice.

“You are disgusting.” She shouted back.

“No. I’m not. I’m just performing a
function that you won’t do for me.” He retaliated.

“What do I have to do to get you to
understand how I feel?”

“I understand, I do, but you won’t even
kiss me anymore. I have needs Carmen. I’m seventeen years old and my sex drive
is way through the roof, I’m frustrated and I’m only doing this to stop me from
pestering you.”

“Perhaps if you didn’t pester me I would
come around to the idea quicker.” She sniped.

“Yeah? Perhaps if you let me have the odd
wank in peace, I wouldn’t pester you and let you come around to the idea in
your own time.” He hissed.

“You’re male, you will never understand
how it feels after a baby is born.”

Paul raked his fingers through his hair “I
cannot believe you are pulling that old chestnut again. I’ll give you all the
time in the world, surely you know me well enough by now to know that, but a
little bit of affection every now and then would be very much appreciated, I’m
not sure you are even capable of that anymore.” He spat, he didn’t give her the
opportunity to reply before grabbing his gym bag and heading for the door.

He attacked the weights with vigour and
quickly regretted the decision not to warm up completely as his chest muscles
began to scream in protest. He had to admit defeat when he felt the right side
of his chest seized under the strained muscle and sat, hunched forward,
clutching the injured muscle, only leaving the gym on the advice of the
resident trainer who told him to sit awhile in the sauna and then to take a
gentle swim before going home.

The heat of the sauna ironically helped to
cool his temper; he stayed there quite some time until he felt his bad mood
fade and grew tired of the sweat streaming down his body. Leaving the sauna, he
stepped under the poolside shower before taking a slow stroll to the deep end
and diving in.

Surfacing, he pulled in a lung full of air
and settled into an easy front crawl, reaching the shallow end and standing up
and that was when he saw her, the buxom brunette that he had first met when he
accompanied Helen, Luke and Carmen to the pool, what now seemed like years ago
when Carmen was still pregnant. He had had several conversations with this girl
since and quickly realised she was only after one thing, she hadn’t batted an
eyelid when she tried to tell him her name and he had told her that names would
only complicate things in the long run, she had simply smiled and said “Ok”
before swimming away, resuming their conversation the next time they met in the
pool.

Glancing over her shoulder as she opened
her locker, she smiled when she saw him follow her into the changing room,
dropping her towel as he got closer. Paul bent to pick up the towel and held it
out to her, keeping a firm grasp on the corner he held so that she drew him
towards her when she tried to take it from him. She laughed softly and turned
back to her locker; he heard a zip opening but couldn’t see what she was doing.
He took a step back as she turned fully towards him, his gaze drifting down
over her body encased in a one piece swimsuit which could prove problematic, it
barely covered her breasts, her hardened nipples obvious in the chill of the
changing room, looking lower he could clearly see the dent of her navel and
lower still, the cleft between her legs.

Dragging his gaze back to her face, he
smiled at her, his hand closing around the one she held in front of him, a
single condom held between her fingers, an eyebrow raised in expectation. His
initial thought of pulling her into one of the family changing cubicles was
superseded by the notion that it was too obvious a move and the staff there
would more than likely spot them as those cubicles were poolside, he instead
guided her to a single changing cubicle in the centre of the changing rooms and
out of view of the pool, the small size of it working to his advantage, he
didn’t want her to move much, it wasn’t necessary for what he had in mind.

Shooting the bolt home, he prised his wet
swimming shorts down from his hips and wasted no time in covering his erection
with the condom. During this time, the bouncing brunette freed her breasts from
her costume and eased aside the crotch, she wrapped a hand around the back of
his head and guided his mouth to one pert nipple as he stepped closer, gasping
as his fingers stroked and delved into her wetness while nibbling on her
breast.

Quickly coming to the conclusion that this
girl was as ready as he was, he pushed her back against the melamine wall of the
cubicle and lifted one of her legs. Her free foot she raised to stabilise
herself on the small built in bench as the young stud in front of her rammed
home.

Paul expected the guilt to hit him on the
short walk home but it didn’t. He thought that perhaps it would kick in once he
actually got home but no, nothing. Hearing Carmen’s voice and Luke’s giggle he
headed upstairs, certain that guilt would kick him in the nuts when he set eyes
on Carmen.

Standing in the doorway of Luke’s room, he
watched as Carmen read aloud from the book on her lap, making different voices
for each character and causing Luke to squirm in fits of giggles. He took a
moment to analyse his feelings. Did he feel any affection for the woman in from
of him? Certainly. Was he feeling guilty for having sex with someone else,
nope, he felt satisfied for the first time in a long time, he felt relaxed, at
ease but he most definitely didn’t feel guilty about it. Did he still love her?
Hmm, that was the question he hadn’t really wanted to ask, afraid he would have
to be honest with himself and admit that he no longer had any deep feelings for
her, they had all been transferred to his son.

Spotting Paul in his doorway, Luke began
to jump up and down on his bed, shouting “Pa. Pa” his name for Paul, unable to
actually pronounce his name yet, making Carmen turn to watch him walk into the
room. She was still seething at him and didn’t return the smile he directed at
her.

“Hey bud.” He lifted Luke from his bed.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep by now?” He asked as the boy jumped up and down in his
arms.

“Yes he should but Helen gave him biscuits
before she left and now he’s on a sugar high. I can’t get him to sleep.”

“Where has she gone?”

“On a date. Her first one since he was
born.”

“Well, you can’t begrudge her that. I’m
going to have a soak in the bath, I’ll take Luke with me and get him to wind
down in the bubbles.” He told her, avoiding eye contact and concentrating on
the blond bundle in his arms. “Is Gavin alright?”

“He’s fine, sound asleep. We need to talk.”
She responded.

“After my bath.” He said over his
shoulder.

With Luke finally settled and after
checking on his son, Paul walked downstairs to face the music and was met with
Carmen clutching a large glass of wine which was clearly not her first, she lifted
her legs onto the sofa as he entered the room, preventing him from sitting next
to her, forcing him to sit in the armchair opposite her. He hated this chair.
It didn’t match the sofa and had short stubby legs making it low to the ground
and extremely uncomfortable for his long legs as he either had to scrunch them
up under the chair or stretch them out in front of him, it also put him a full
head and shoulders lower than Carmen.

She glowered at him over her wine glass,
expecting him to start the conversation but he just sat back, stretched his
legs out in front of him, laced his fingers across his stomach and stared at
her.

“Are you going to walk out every time we
have a disagreement?” Carmen asked taking a large gulp of wine.

“No, but then again, I don’t intend to
argue with you anymore.” He sat forward “I want to be with you Carmen but not
like this. We used to be so good together.”

“You used to show some tenderness and
patience, since Gavin has been born, that seems to have gone out of the
window.” She accused.

“I could throw that straight back at you.”
He answered.

“All you want from me is sex.”

“That’s unfair. Perhaps I did expect
things to go back to the way they were after Gavin was born but I quickly
realised they wouldn’t. I was wrong to pressure you but equally, you didn’t
give me the space I needed to deal with it and honestly Carmen, I can get sex
anywhere, I wanted it with you.”

“So what are you saying? That unless
things improve with us, you will go elsewhere to fulfil your needs?”

“I won’t intentionally go looking if
that’s what you’re getting at, but at some point I’d say it’s going to happen.”
He replied honestly, consoling himself with the fact that technically, he
wasn’t lying.

“Where do we go from here?”

“I don’t know. I want to be here. I want
to be in Gavin’s life. I’m not convinced that by staying together we are doing
the right thing.”

“But what about the house and everything
here?”

“The other house is within weeks of being
finished, I have removal people on standby and I’m here aren’t I? Everything
will be perfect with the house when you are ready to move in, Helen has a buyer
for this place, it’s just a case of tying up a few lose ends and I will deal
with that. As far as we go, I think we just need to give each other a little
space. I’ll camp out in Gavin’s room to give you a breather; you let me know
when you are ready to have another go at us.”

Carmen was silent for a while,
contemplating everything he had said. She didn’t doubt for one second that he
would support her and be there for their son, he hadn’t failed her yet and had
done everything he said he would, but he had just told her that he could and
would go elsewhere for his physical pleasure and she would not tolerate that.
He was right when he said they needed space from each other, in her opinion,
they needed a lot of space.

Paul watched Carmen as she mulled over
what had been said and he felt decidedly uncomfortable, like his future was
being decided for him. The feeling of dread deepened when she finally looked up
at him.

“I think you should leave.”

“Leave? What? Why?”

“We aren’t working Paul and like you said,
we both need some space. You sleeping in Gavin’s room isn’t enough space for
me. I need you to leave. Go home.”

“Just like that?” He asked.

“Just like that.” She confirmed.

“What about Gavin?”

“You can visit any time you want.”

“Thanks!” He spat “Because it’s oh so easy
for me to get here and you live just around the corner.” He scrambled out of
the chair, his voice thick with sarcasm as he glared at her while pacing.

“You don’t need to be facetious.” She told
him “It would be better for you to go home and spend some time with your
family, maybe after we are all settled in the new house, we can review where
we’re at and take it from there.”

“It’s going to make it a little difficult
for me to be a part of my son’s life when you live four hours away.”

“Difficult, yes. Not impossible. You’re
nothing if not resourceful; you will find a way to overcome the distance. I
won’t ever try to stop you from seeing him”

Paul stopped suddenly in his pacing and
turned to face her. “Damn fucking right you won’t stop me. I will haul you over
the coals to get access to him. I have the resources and I won’t hesitate to
use them.”

“Do not threaten me little boy.” She
hissed, her eyes narrowing as she threw herself off the sofa and closed the gap
between them. “I will make every effort to make Gavin available for your visits
but I will act in his best interests and if I feel you are upsetting his
routine, I will put a stop to it and there won’t be a damn thing you can do
about it.”

“Huh, I beg to differ, he is
my
son, he bears
my
name, I will fight for him.” He growled.

“He may be your son and he has your name
for now, that can be changed.”

“Not without my permission it can’t. Don’t
push me Carmen.”

“Christ. This isn’t how I wanted this to
go. I thought you would be glad to leave.”

“And leave my son behind? You thought I
would be glad about that? You are one sick and twisted lady.” He turned towards
the hall door.

“That’s right, walk away, it’s what you
always do.” She mocked.

“I’m doing what you asked me to do. I’m
going home and I’m walking away so that I don’t say something I shouldn’t. Do
me a favour and leave me in peace to pack my bags.” He took the stairs two at a
time, grabbing the two holdalls he had brought with him; he began methodically
packing his clothes into them, waiting until he was calmer before calling home
and asking Monica if he could come back.

Bags packed and sitting in the hall, Paul
climbed the stairs again and went into the room occupied by his son. Reaching
into the cot, he swept the sleeping infant into his arms and settled into the
rocking chair in the corner of the room, memorising every tiny feature, his
weight, his scent and holding him fiercely before reluctantly kissing the soft
down on his head and returning him to his cot when he heard the horn from the
waiting taxi sound.

“See you soon son.” He whispered. He
nodded a curt goodbye to Carmen as he left the house, his gut in knots, his
heart hammering; he hadn’t known it would be so hard to leave his boy. He
paused on the doorstep, torn. He didn’t want to go but with the way things
stood, he felt he had no other option open to him.

In the taxi on the way to the train
station, Paul brooded about leaving his child before coming to the conclusion
that the space would probably do both Carmen and him the world of good or it
would prove that they were too broken to fix, either way, he would have an
answer on which way their relationship was going. Sadly, Gavin would be a casualty
of their failings but he wouldn’t let the boy down, not now, not ever.

It was late, very late by the time he
arrived home. He didn’t get a chance to use his key in the lock as the door was
flung open and Monica pulled him into her arms.

“Are you alright?” She asked.

“I’m fine Mum.” He smiled “Can I come in
or are we going to spend the rest of the night on the doorstep?”

Monica stepped back and allowed him into
the house offering to feed him while she fussed over his bags, asking him what
had happened and why was he home?