Malta with My Best Friend’s Dad by Flora Ferrari

Chapter Twenty-Four

Kane

“This is a lot to take on board,” Henry says.

Relief floods me when I study Kelly’s father, who’s sixty-five and twenty years older than her mother. It gives me a flurry of hope when I think about the way they glanced at each other as Kelly and I explained the situation – the love in their eyes, the implicit understanding.

Surely they can understand, can accept the age gap, the blistering beautiful fact of our relationship.

I almost laugh when the thought crashes into me. It’s so much less grim than the thoughts that used to run through my mind when I was on the run and all I could think about was the next day, the next hour, the next minute unless I went insane.

But now there’s a hope swelling inside of me, prompted by Lena’s acceptance. After we hugged and cried together, I surprised them and myself by running around the rooftop and punching the air, letting out whooping noises like I was ten years old.

And that’s how I felt, young and renewed and ready to charge into our future.

Now we’re back on the rooftop, Kelly and I sitting side by side as we stare down at the laptop. Henry and Tamara are in their garden, the sun in front of them so it rests on their faces.

Her mother’s expression is difficult to read, tight and pinched, but Henry’s becomes more and more readable as the long seconds pass.

His frown deepens and he leans forward, running a hand over his bald head. “So you’re saying you want to be my son-in-law, is that it?”

Kelly gasps at her father’s harsh tone. I glance over at her, taking in the sight of her long flowing dark lock, her full lips, and her startling bright eyes.

There’s so much love beaming from every part of her, but even now I have to look away before my carnal instincts wake up, before the never-ending howling of need becomes impossible to ignore.

“Dad, please don’t be like that.”

“Like what?” he snaps. “How do you expect me to react? How old are you, Kane?”

“I’m forty-two, sir,” I tell him.

His expressions changes somewhat when I call him sir, as though he’s just been reminded of my military service. Either that or it’s reminded him that we’re two men talking to each other, and each of us is deserving of respect and civility.

“Do you know how old Kelly is?”

“Dad…”

“It’s a simple question,” he snaps.

“Yes, I do. She’s twenty years old,” I respond respectfully.

Some people are blind to their hypocrisy. They’ll sit in their gas-guzzling cars whilst preaching about global warming, or smoke a cigarette as they tell you all their cardio tips. I wonder if Henry is the same – blind to the fact he’s sitting next to a woman who is twenty years younger than him, just about the same gap Kelly and I share.

“Dad, surely you aren’t going to play the age card,” Kelly says, some firmness entering her voice. She waves a hand. “You and Mom are twenty years apart too.”

Henry flinches. “That may be the case, but…”

“But what, Henry?” Tamara says, placing her hand on his arm. “What can you possibly say? Yes, you don’t like it. You wish Kelly would stay single for the rest of her life. You wish she’d join a nunnery so you’d never have to admit your little girl is all grown up. Let’s face it. That’s what this is about, and the age thing is simply something you feel like you can target.”

“Tammy—”

“Don’t you Tammy me,” she goes on, wagging her finger.

Kelly looks at me with a smile touching her lips. I have to be careful to tame my own expression, lest Henry see me smiling and think I’m making fun of him. I’d never disrespect my woman’s father like that, even if the urge to smile and laugh is moving through me, especially as Tamara wags her finger like she’s trying to get rid of it.

“If her boyfriend had been the same age, you’d find something to complain about. His job, his hair, his way of speaking. You know it’s true. You know there will always be something.”

Henry lets out a long sigh, but he can’t stop a smile from his own twitching lips. “You know, Tammy, sometimes you drive me insane. Fine, fine, you’re right. Maybe this is about me not wanting Kelly to grow up. Is that so bad?”

“But that’s the thing, Dad,” Kelly says, her passion a live sizzling thing in the air. “Think about how bad this could’ve been.”

“What do you mean?”

“She means she could’ve had some spotty stoner disrespectful lowlife for a boyfriend,” Tamara says.

I can’t help but laugh at the fire in her voice, shaking my head as a smirk touches my lips. Henry snaps his gaze to me and holds it there for a moment, but when our eyes meet – as much as they can through Skype – and his own lips twitch into another smile.

“You’d better get used to this, Kane. The Jones women can be real firecrackers when they want to be.”

I know that already, I growl in my mind, my thoughts traveling back to the way Kelly twitched and vibrated for me. But obviously, that wouldn’t be appropriate to mention.

“Kane’s a veteran,” Tamara goes on. “He’s a good man. You heard what he did to keep his own daughter safe. He faked his own death. He disappeared. Think about how awful that would be – knowing that Kelly’s out there, convinced you’re dead, but there’s nothing you can do unless you’re willing to put her in danger. He did that for three years.”

“Am I right in thinking you’ve already made up your mind?” Henry asks with a wry smile.

“How did you guess?” Tamara says, giggling. “Yes, I’ll admit it. I don’t have a single problem with this. My only worry would’ve been Lena, but she’s told me she’s okay with it. She finds it a little strange, of course, but she’s okay. She’s ready to give it a try.”

Henry scratches his head. “We did turn out okay, didn’t we?”

Tamara places her hand on his arm. “I’d say we turned out better than okay. Meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me. And… and look at them, Henry. Can you really tell me they don’t remind you of us at their age?”

Technically, I am around Tamara’s age, but I know what she means. She’s talking about seeing their past selves reflected in me and Kelly – the versions of them when Tamara was twenty and Henry was in his forties.

“Yes, yes, yes.” Henry wraps his arm around Tamara and kisses her on the cheek. “You know they do. But it doesn’t mean a father can’t worry.”

“Sir, I swear to you I only have the best intentions with your daughter. In fact, if the ladies don’t mind, I’d like to have a private discussion with you about exactly that.”

His eyes flit to the camera lens, narrowing. “A discussion about the respect you have for Kelly?”

I feel Kelly’s eyes on me, burning and blazing as she fights the urge to ask me what I’m planning. She knows that the equilibrium we’ve reached is too precious to disturb with questions, but at the same time, I can feel her desire to know bubbling through her, making her so hot beside me that it’s difficult not to grab onto her thigh just to feel its burning tempting heat.

“Yes,” I tell Henry. “Exactly that.”

He nods slowly. “I think I understand what you’re saying. Tamara, do you mind?”

“Of course not. I need to see to dinner anyway. I love you, Kelly. And Kane…” She gives me a stern look, a you better take care of her look.

“Yes, ma’am,” I say.

She giggles and walks away, and then I turn to Kelly. “Do you mind?”

She arches her eyebrow and gives me a curious look, tilting her head, but then she stands and nods. “Sure. Of course.”

I fight the urge to follow her with my gaze as she walks away – the urge to snap my eyes to the way her hips move from side to side, the outline of her delicious ass in the summer dress, the dappling fabric driving me insane.

“So,” Henry says, once it’s just the two of us. “I take it you have a question to ask me.”

“Yes, sir. I do. The most important question of my life.”