Chapter 2

The next morning, Joe came into the kitchen rubbing his eyes and sporting a morning erection. If there was ever a sign that things hadn’t changed much over the last year, that was it. He still had many years to go before his body grew out of that particular habit. Obviously, I wasn’t surprised at his hardness. He was a teenaged boy after all. His sister, never one to miss the sight of an erection, looked at it and smirked as she cut into her breakfast. I thought she might say something, but she didn’t. Instead, she just took another big bite of pancake. There was a time that she would have made a grand announcement about her brother’s stiffness, but those days had ended a couple years ago, thankfully.

“Good morning,” I said before Amber could. I still didn’t trust her to not make some kind of mention of Joe’s ... situation.

He grunted, and I suppressed a smile. He had dragged himself straight out of bed and wasn’t fully awake yet. The smell of freshly made breakfast could do that to a growing teenager. Most days I would’ve felt the same, but then, most days I had nothing to look forward to but the job.

I grabbed a plate and stacked a few pancakes on it for him. I watched with astonishment as Joe walked right over to my old coffee maker and poured himself a cup. I was dumbfounded. I gave him a quizzical look but kept my mouth shut. Instead, I looked at Amber and gave her the same confused look. She read me easily and just shrugged like it was nothing new and no big deal. It was new and a big deal to me! When did my son start drinking coffee in the morning? And black at that?

I handed him the heavily laden plate and pointed at the table where the butter and syrup were waiting. Then I turned back to my cooking.

Between the rich scents of the bacon, the frying pancakes and syrup, and the freshly brewed coffee, the kitchen smelled incredible. My stomach rumbled in anticipation.

We chitchatted about a lot of little things while we ate. Mostly, the kids asked questions about the new house. Amber wanted to know about my neighbors. Had I met them all yet and, if so, had I made any friends? This far out of town, neighbors were a little different than when you lived inside the city limits like at their mother’s house. Out here, your neighbor might be half a mile away. That didn’t make them any less close than the ones that lived across a cul-de-sac, however.

I knew what her underlying questions were, though. First, she wanted to know if there were kids her age around, and second and most importantly in her mind, did anyone know we were nudists? Instead of answering her, I just chuckled, leaving her to wonder. That was a rare treat for me to enjoy anymore, and I relished the chance to bask in knowing something she didn’t.

I deftly shifted the topic away from what Amber was curious about to more mundane things. The look she gave me was both hilarious and horrible, but I was committed now to the game I was playing and leaned even further into it.

The conversation wandered before Joe brought up the topic of dinner.

“You have a grill, right?” he asked.

“Of course I have a grill. What guy doesn’t have a grill?”

“Charcoal or gas?” he prodded. The look on his face was grim and serious.

“Neither.” I teased, knowing that would throw him for a loop.

“What!” His forehead furrowed in utter astonishment.

“It’s a wood fire grill.” I smirked and his eyes widened in awe. Then he smiled. As much as Joe was addicted to his phone, he still took after me and I loved to cook, especially over an open fire. I chuckled at how obviously eager he was to get his hands on my grill.

From there, the three of us talked a little about what we could get to throw on the grill. Steak was the obvious choice for Amber and me. Joe, however, shocked me when he mentioned getting some chicken thighs and making barbecue chicken. I had just eaten a full stack of pancakes, but I swear my stomach rumbled again at the thought.

“Oh, that sounds good!” Amber said.

“Yeah, it does,” I agreed. “I guess we have dinner figured out, but we’ll have to go to the store for supplies.”

Both of my kids quickly agreed to that. Joe sat back in his chair with a proud look on his face.

Eventually, the conversation slowed down, and I asked Joe about Warcraft.

“It’s called World of Warcraft, Dad, not just Warcraft.”

“Oh, come on. Give it a rest, would ya?” Amber groaned.

Joe went on and told me a bit about the game and about how his party was getting really good and how well they worked together.

“Don’t forget to tell him about your online girlfriend...,” Amber teased.

“I don’t have an online girlfriend,” Joe snapped, but blushed furiously.

All of this was pretty new to me. I knew he was a gamer. My ex made sure to complain about it when Joe’s grades slipped a little last semester because he was staying up late playing games. The whole girlfriend thing was new. I could tell he wasn’t ready to talk about it, so I didn’t push, but I was interested.

Fortunately, Joe managed to pull his grades back up by the end of the year. Both Amber’s and Joe’s last days of school had gone okay. Joe told me he’d done well on his finals. Not to be outdone, Amber proudly announced she’d aced hers. At fourteen, Amber had just finished eighth grade, so she didn’t have final exams quite like Joe did, but you didn’t dare tell her that.

“I was thinking,” I said, “later tonight after dinner and we get everything cleaned up, we could sit around the fire out back.”

“You mean like when we go to camp?” Amber asked excitedly.

“Yeah, just like that.”

“Yes!” Amber cheered.