Fraternizing with the Enemy (Rewritten)

Chapter Forty-Six

Fraternizing with the Enemy
Chapter Forty-Six
Reed Archer
Direct continuation

Justice's dad leads me away from their group and in the direction of the wall on the other side.

"So, you're dating my son." He says more as a statement than a question.

"Yes, sir." I answer, and he scowls.

"Drop the 'sir', it makes me feel old." He then sends me a small smile to tell me he meant it in a nice way.

"Okay." I say.

"And you've been dating a couple of months, yes?"

"Yeah. We started dating during camp." I say. "We shared a cabin together and eventually we just kinda...fell."

"I see. You've seen my family, you know I don't have any girls. I've never had to give this talk to anyone before."

"Yeah, I understand."

"You know what usually comes after this?" He eyes me. "I'll warn you anyways. You know we're rich, which I'm hoping is not the reason you're interested in my son. You also might know that I'm a powerful man, which means I know some bad people, people who aren't afraid to hurt you if you hurt my son. Do you understand?" I nod my head. "Good. Now, I know a lot of people in this town and I know a lot about your family. I've heard about the things they've done and I've heard about the things they've done to their kids." He stops us, turning to face me. I do the same and face him. "If they ever do anything to you, or you need something or somewhere to stay, you come to us. I don't believe in hitting children. We will take you in with open arms. I know some people aren't okay with homsexuality. We are, I am, because my mom was married to her best friend, another woman. I was adopted from a bad home from a couple of towns over. I lived in a meth house and was well on my way to becoming an addict. My adoptive parents saved me."

"I had no idea." I say. "Justice never mentioned it."

"I know. It's not something we talk about. I accepted where I came from a long time ago. But that's not the point of this talk. If you need something, don't be afraid to ask. And if I find out that you're just with my son for the money or some other similar reason, your parents will be the least of your worries."

"I completely understand and I have no intentions to hurt him. I love your son and I don't ever want him to hurt. Seeing him like this during storms is torture enough and I don't like it." I say honestly. "And I don't care about how much money you and your family have. I'm not gonna lie, it was part of the reason I didn't like him before we got together."

He smiles back at me, a prideful one. A fuzzy, warm feeling that I've never felt before enters my stomach and folds over my body like a blanket.

"One last thing, very important. What temperature do you like your house at?"

"Sixty degrees." I say. What was with them? That was the second time I'd been asked that. First by Ryan and now by their dad.

"Good, I like you. My name is James, son, you may call me that." He holds out his hand for me to shake.

I smile back at him. "Thank you, James."

"Now let's get back. If my wife finds out that I talked with you, I'll be in deep shit." He laughs and we walk back in silence.

Justices mom and Nan weren't back yet. Justice was standing with Hayden discussing something that didn't look too deep. I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his waist from behind, leaning down to kiss his cheek.

"Hey," I say softly into his ear.

"Hey," he grabs onto my arms where they cross over his chest. "Dad didn't scare you too much, did he?"