Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) (31 page)

“Okay. Where’s your sunblock?”

“Ran out.”

“That’s okay. We have some in the RV.”

He bet they did. The RV had everything and was truly a house on wheels. It would be stuffed to the gills with food and water, not to mention there was a spare set of clothing always packed away in the drawers so they could be ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Every so often, his mother would get a wild hair and drag his father to parts unknown. They had driven across most of the country at one point or another.

The only place they hadn’t been was the Pacific Northwest, but he wouldn’t be surprised if that was next.

At three o’clock, he had dragged his lounger and the cooler out to the truck. His mom was changing into her suit and his dad had shucked on a pair of shorts and shirt with his flip flops.

They walked out of the door at three o’ five to see Sidonie and the kids parked on the street.

The window rolled down and Den jogged over to the car. “Hey! I was just about to call you guys and let you know we’re here.”

“Well, we see you.” He looked into the back and saw Mark and Katie goofing off with tablets. “Hey, you guys.”

“Hey!” Katie laughed and kept on crushing candies with her finger.

“You want to follow me?”

“We can, but I’d like to ride shotgun if that’s okay.”

“Sure is.”

He waved at his parents, who understood completely as they got into the truck and backed into the street.

“Hop on in.”

They rode for thirty minutes all the way down College until it turned into Carolina Beach Roach and the ride brought them right into Kure Beach. There would be people, but the tourist season wasn’t in full swing yet, so it wouldn’t be congested yet.

It was the perfect time to make this trip.

Once Sidonie found two white blocked off spaces on the street, she pulled in to the first one and his parents parked right behind her.

Den grabbed the few things he was able to from the back of his truck and his father took out the case with the lures and a beer. They weren’t supposed to drink at the beach, but his father would only cast the lure if he had a beer to sip on while he did it.

Sometimes, he had to just look the other way.

He saw Mark take a cooler and a set of chairs, as Katie picked up shovels and pails along with a boogie board.

Sidonie had her arms full with tote bag over one shoulder and a stack of towels. She exchanged her driving loafers for a pair of bright pink jelly flip flops that had a tortoise on the strap.

“Okay, we ready?”

“Yeah!” The kids whooped and ran for the other side of the street.

Everyone else walked at a slightly more sedate pace.

When they were at the water front, Sidonie took a spot under the pier where the shade was best. They dug a hole and set the coolers inside as his mother unfolded deck chairs.

“I’m headed for the pier, you can come up whenever.” His dad grunted and took the small chest with his fishing gear up the boardwalk.

“All right.” Den nodded and finished setting up his space.

When he was done, it would be the perfect place to get out of the sun for a spell. He walked up the pier and took out a cold soda. His dad had strung the lures already, so Den dropped his line into the water.

“Dad, how did you know Mom was the one?”

His dad looked over and shrugged. “A man just knows. I knew that we would have a hard enough time being that she was Thai and all, but it didn’t matter. I knew that she was supposed to be my wife to be the moment I saw her.”

“How did Mom take that?”

“Heck, she made me chase her for three months before she would even let me take her to dinner.”

Den knew parts of the story quite well. But he didn’t know the whole story, of course.

“So how did you convince Mom to give you a chance?”

“Well, you know her parents had very old world customs.”

“Yeah.” His grandparents emigrated from Thailand and they didn’t have a problem with mixing of races. But they had issues with the fact that his father was a Vietnam veteran.

Not to mention that his grandfather was Vietnamese, so the war was a pretty sore subject between them. Eventually, his dad was able to convince his grandparents he didn’t want to go to war, but he had been drafted almost right out of high school.

When they took an objective look at it, they finally gave their consent.

But his mother had to be convinced for herself.

“I told her that I would leave her alone if she just accepted one date with me.”

“Okay.”

“But when we went on our date, I didn’t have much to offer. I couldn’t take loud noises or even too many people in one place. We went to a drive in and had hamburgers.”

“Really?” He didn’t know that was their first date, but in all honesty, this was the first time they had ever had this conversation.

“Yep. But when we were parked a group of guys decided they didn’t like the idea of sharing their space with a chink. When we left, a car load of them followed us out of the drive in.”

He remembered his mother mentioning something of that nature, but she would never tell him what happened next.

“So what did you do?”

“They tried to ambush us on the back roads. So I showed them a few things I learned in ‘Nam.”

“Like what?”

“I pulled over to see if they would pass us by. But they didn’t, so when they got out of the car calling the two of us all sorts of names and swinging baseball bats, I whooped their asses to kingdom come.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I took a lickin’, but I kept on tickin’.” His dad chuckled.

“I bet.” His father was a large man to begin with, but ‘Nam had hardened him to a degree that a soft group of kids would never hope to compete with.

“Yep. Those were the days.”

“So mom decided to go out with you after that?”

“Yep. We were going steady as of that night. She gave me my first kiss that evening. Before then, all I had experience with were loose women that camped out with the servicemen. But your mother taught me that love added something to the experience that no whore could ever replicate. There’s something about being with a woman that you have feelings for, it can’t be faked.”

Den knew exactly what his father meant.

“Women want to be protected, son. They need a man that will let them be a woman, the same way a man needs to have a woman that lets ’em feel like a man.”

Wasn’t that the truth?

“By taking on those boys that night, your mother saw that even though I wasn’t what she had imagined for herself that I would protect her with the last breath I had. That can count for a lot, especially now a days. That woman you have there is a good one. She would do anything for you. Just make sure her efforts aren’t wasted. Appreciate her and her children, she has done well with ’em. They’re respectful, but she nurtures ’em and lets them be themselves. You can’t ask for more than that.”

“Yeah. I know, Dad.”

“You think she’s the one?”

“I know she is.”

“Then make her realize that even though she could do without you that she wouldn’t want to.”

“How do I do that?”

“Show her what it’s like to have a man that will do anything for her. Small things add up. Take out her trash and hold open doors for her. Fix her broken toilet and help her move furniture. Let her know that you can provide for her if she needed you to. I know she makes a lot of money, she’s too smart not to, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t give her things she would never think to give herself.”

“What do you give the woman that has everything?”

His dad laughed. “Everything? Nah, she doesn’t have everything. She doesn’t have a man.”

Den bristled at the idea of her having anyone but him. “She does. Me.”

His dad grinned and pulled on the line as a series of nibbles hit the lure below. “Well, that’s a good enough start.” His dad nodded and took a sip of the cozy covered beer.

“How did you propose to Mom?”

“Well, that was interesting. I asked her father first, but told him not to tell her before I could. When we went out that night, we had dinner in Raleigh and on the ride back I asked her to pull the map out of the glove box and stopped like I needed to check the directions back, even though I knew ’em like the back of my hand. When she looked at the map and pushed her hair behind her ear, I took her left hand and slid the ring onto it. Didn’t even ask her.”

“What did she do?”

“She giggled and her eyes lit up. Then she looked at me and told me that she didn’t want a long engagement.” His father grinned and chugged back his beer.

“We got married three months later, because I wanted to have a home for her. It was just dumb luck that the farm was falling apart and the Getty boy didn’t want to repair it. He just wanted to stay up north and finish his education, so he sold it to me for the value of the land. I built the house with my own two hands and a few buddies that had come out of the service helped me.

“When we finished, the house was tiny. You wouldn’t recall that, but your mom has pictures of the original house. It was only a fifth of the size it is now, but had one bedroom, one washroom, and a large kitchen.”

“That was it?”

“Yep. I added two rooms when she got pregnant with you, but we had long stopped thinking we could have children. And then we were blessed with you almost seven years later.”

He knew his parents wanted more children, but they never got any more. Just him. His father propped a hat on top of his head and Den realized the sun was stronger than he thought it’d be for the time of year.

“I ain’t getting any younger and I would like a grandchild or two before I go.”

“Yes, sir.” He had no idea if Sidonie even wanted another child, but it was worth a conversation in the future.

Women still had babies in their thirties, so maybe she would be willing to start over with him. He just had to convince her she wanted to be with him first. He knew she cared about him, loved him even. Her actions had proven that to him.

After an hour of dangling his unbitten lure into the surf, he stood up and nodded at his dad.

“Go get ’er, son.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Good.”

He wandered back to the oceanfront and looked out into the grey frothing water. Katie played with the sand as she scooped up buckets and piled them one on top of the other. Her attempts at making something were sorely lacking and he leaned over.

“You know you need some water right?” he asked as his shadow fell across the sand and Katie looked up at him.

She sighed. “I thought that wet sand would work.”

“Yeah, but you want the water to smooth it out.”

Den got on his knees and showed her the best way to build a sandcastle. He wasn’t too much help as his right arm was out of commission, but he was able to add a little something here and there. After an hour of smoothing, stacking, spreading, and spraying sand, they had finished a modestly sized structure that wouldn’t house a damn thing, but looked nice enough.

It had been awhile since he had built a sandcastle, and he had to admit, he had more fun than he expected. He heard a yell and looked up to see someone pop out of the water and laugh. Mark ran out of the water with his boogie board and dropped it next to them on hilly structure he and Katie built from nothing.

“Ohh! Mom is gonna flip when she sees this.” Mark laughed.

“I hope that’s a good thing.”

“Yep. Mom has the worst sandcastle building sense ever.”

“I didn’t know that there was a science to it,” Den joked.

Mark rolled his eyes. “Well, if there is, Mom needs to go back to school.”

“I heard that!” Sidonie huffed and Den turned around.

“Hey,” Den said as he looked over her.

Damn, if she didn’t look good, then nothing did. Her bikini was modest, but revealed a crazy amount of skin in the oddest places. There was a top that wrapped over her breasts and straps that crossed oddly around her shoulders and torso. The bottoms were like a tiny pair of shorts that covered most of her bare belly with the same oddly crossed straps.

There were tiny diamonds of skin exposed all over that made him wish that he could touch her. He was going to have to think about baseball if he didn’t want to come out looking like a letch.

“Hey,” she said as he thought about the last game he’d watched. “Like your castle.”

“Thanks,” he responded even as he wondered what she had been doing that had her skin so dewy and glistening. “Where have you been?” he asked out of jealousy tinged curiosity.

“Playing a game of volleyball with some college kids. Katie was over there a while ago, but she quit when the ball smacked her in the face.” Sidonie grinned, but Den felt a bit miffed.

She was way too sexy to be bobbing in front of boys that would only ogle her body. It was his to ogle, not some college kids with half-assed attitudes and full hard-ons.