He shuffled his feet. Cleared his throat.
We stared some more.
He coughed.
We still stared.
“Oh for God’s sake,” he said, running a hand over his face. “I just… really like him. Okay? And lord knows that you’re all my kids, even if we aren’t exactly related—ah, hell. You really need to do that right now?”
“Yes,” Sandy, Corey, Vince, and I all said at the same time, each of us holding on to some part of Charlie.
“Darren,” Sandy hissed. “Get your ass over here and be involved, you jackass.”
Darren looked uncomfortable at that. “He’s not—he wasn’t talking about me—”
“Shut up,” Charlie said. “You’re as much a part of this as they are. Get your ass over here if this has to happen.”
He didn’t have to be asked twice.
“If anyone looks out here,” Corey whispered, “they’ll probably think we’re attacking Charlie.”
“We are,” Sandy said. “We’re attacking him with our love.”
“Love attacks are the best kind,” I said.
“Yeah, they are,” Vince said, leering at me.
“I regret all of you,” Darren said.
“No you don’t,” Charlie said.
“Is this normal?” Robert asked from behind us.
We reluctantly broke apart.
“Unfortunately,” Charlie said, even though he was fighting a smile. “You get used to it.”
“Good to know.” He looked at us again. “I apologize for the interruption. It seems I’d forgotten to take my Plavix today, and my son was going to drop a pill by for me. I had a minor heart event last year, and I have to keep on a regimen prescribed by my doctor. Terrible things, doctors are. So demanding.”
“Are you okay?” I asked, wondering if Charlie had met this son yet. By the look on his face, he hadn’t.
This was awesome.
“Oh, I’m fine,” he said. “Just one of those things. More precautionary than anything else. I hope you don’t mind if he pops in a quick moment. I promise he won’t stay very long.”
“Don’t worry about it. He can stay as long as—”
“There you are, Dad.”
I looked over Robert’s shoulder to see a man that was almost the spitting image of his father. He wasn’t as slender, and his dark hair was full as was his beard, but he had the same green eyes, the same crooked grin. He wore a pair of khakis and a sweater vest and glasses, the frames thick and black. He looked to be older than us, probably in his mid to late thirties.
He was hot, in a nerdy professor kind of way, the type who looked wholesome but would probably just be a motherfucking freak in the bed.
So imagine my surprise, then, when nerdy professor turned out to actually be a professor.
And imagine my even bigger surprise when nerdy professor said, “Corey! What are you doing here?”