Eric (Men of Honor 2)

Lately, though, Lora has been growing more and more accepting of Eric, who doesn’t force the issue with her and doesn’t try too hard. Everything he does is natural, like when he gave her a bankcard and told her that he and I would be putting her allowance on it every week, same as with Tyler.

He didn’t leave any room for argument, and Tyler had taken her attention away by making a joke about him being the oldest and should be getting more. Then he switched up and said that females need to buy more gook for their face so he wouldn’t mind if we gave Lora just a little bit more to pay for her face.

The two of them had started bantering back and forth playfully, and that was the end of that. Come to think of it, there have been a few times where Tyler stepped in and smoothed over a situation that my stubbornly independent daughter may have otherwise taken issue with.

I heard the car coming up the driveway and ran to the door, all pretense gone now that they were back. Tyler greeted me at the door with a smile before walking past me into the house, asking about dinner, and I walked out to meet his dad. “How did it go?” I looked at his face because even though we’ve known each other for a little less than a year, I’ve come to know him well enough to know when he’s hiding something from me.

“It went great, babe, no need to worry. He won’t be bothering you again.” He pulled me in and kissed my forehead before wrapping his arm around me to lead me back inside. “You girls didn’t eat without us, did you?”

“No, I know how you like for all of us to eat dinner together.” It’s one of the things I love about this man, the way he goes out of his way to make me and my daughter feel welcomed in his home. Plus, once I heard the story of how he’d raised Tyler on his own after his ex-wife walked out on them, I knew he would be the right fit.

I had no reason to doubt since I’d heard the story from Janelle, who, although she hates Janine with a fiery passion, isn’t one to lie for Eric. “Oh, shoot, I forgot.” He turned back to the car and opened the backdoor, coming away with a plant and a bouquet of flowers. Just then, Tyler flew past me and walked straight to his dad.

“Hands off, old man.” He took the bouquet from his grinning dad and walked back inside. “What’s that about?” I asked, and Eric shrugged and hugged me with his free hand as we walked inside.

“It’s nothing, Ty, and I just figured that you and Lora could do with some flowers after meeting your ex and his wife.”

“That bad, huh!”

“Nah, it was okay, it’s just…that chick is a piece of work. By the way, expect an apology letter in the mail from the both of them.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Tyler told them both they owe you and Lora an apology.”

I snorted at that one. “There’s no way Kristen is ever going to do that.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure; my money’s on Tyler.” He seemed so sure of himself it was on the tip of my tongue to ask him just what had happened, but he distracted me with a kiss at the door.

* * *

ERIC

* * *

My damn son is a player, not only that; he’s showing me up in front of my new wife and daughter. I didn’t say anything, but somehow he realized that Justine was a little out of sorts because of the unwanted out of town visitors, and though I’d remembered to tell him not to tell Lora anything about them being here, he was going out of his way with her too.

He was very attentive to Justine at dinner, asking her questions about the crap she was working on in the craft room. She beamed under his attention, and it wasn’t long before my ears were starting to bleed. Tyler, the ass knows damn good and well that he has no interest in that frou-frou shit, but because he knew hogging my woman’s attention would piss me off, he just had to go there.

He pointedly ignored the looks I gave him and laughed his ass off when I all but dragged Justine up from the table. Dinner had been over twenty minutes ago. “Dad, aren’t we watching a movie tonight?”

“It’s a school night.” Little shit stain. I’ma get him back for the snicker I heard as I walked away. At least Justine was laughing and not sulking, so I’m guessing Tyler and I had done a good job distracting her. I have to get my boy something for his help today. Not sure what to get him since he has damn near everything. One of the best perks of making it in life is that I get to spoil my kid. He has pretty much everything I do when it comes to manly gadgets and toys, well, almost all.