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Neal was doing his level best with Emma and Henry. It was Valentine’s day, which was awkward as hell because he and Emma weren’t actually together. He’d hitched a ride up with Belle because she apparently had some plans with his father that Neal had no desire to know anything at all about. what was going on, but he hadn’t quite figured out the custody thing yet (he was pretty sure at this point that he was going to need to move closer) and he just wanted to see his son whenever possible.
So, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was feeling while he walked around with Henry chatting about work and school and what he’d been up to since they’d parted at new years. It was nice and wholesome in a way he hadn’t expected it to be. Half of him wanted to get Emma a flower or something, but the other half of him was terrified she had plans with somebody. He hadn’t actually asked, and worse yet he knew that she knew his last romantic endeavor was a fake proposal with a girl who was currently dating his father. Or at least Neal really hoped it was dating, because he hadn’t actually seen them around town yet.
“Hey Dad?” Henry said after a little while. “Is my grandpa really Mr. Gold?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh. So did you grow up in that big house on the hill?”
“For part of my childhood,” Neal replied. “My parents split up when I was about your age so I spent part of the time here and part of the time in Florida with my mom.”
“Am I gonna meet your mom?”
“Probably at some point. She doesn’t like the weather up here, but maybe in the summer we can take a trip down to see her and go to Disney or something.”
“I’ve never been to Disney.”
“Oh yeah? Well, you’re gonna have a lot of fun.”
Henry seemed content with that, and Neal was pretty proud of the idea. His mother and father seemed to have some sort of agreement that she’d never come north of Baltimore and his dad never went south of Philadelphia, and the space in between was some kind of no man’s land because if they ever got into the same state by accident the timeline would collapse in on itself or something. It had made for a really interesting adolescence, and he wasn’t really sure that his mother had ever forgiven him for going to college in New England.
Neal hadn’t made any real plans for the day. It had been a last minute thing on his part, although it was an awesome idea. He found his feet leading him back towards his dad’s house and he suddenly had a moment of inspiration. There was a lot of crap from his childhood in his old room, and he was sure there was at least a football around there someplace and that was definitely something fathers and sons were supposed to do together and if he was really lucky he should be able to find his old yearbooks and maybe an old gift from Emma he could give to Henry. It was early enough that his dad shouldn’t be home yet anyway, so he felt pretty good about leading Henry to the Victorian house and up onto the porch.
The door was locked, but Neal had a key and he let himself in and looked around cautiously before letting Henry in after him. There was no sign of either Belle or his father, and all he had to do was sneak upstairs quickly and get back out and they’d be fine. He was halfway to the stairs when he heard footsteps above him.
“You’re home early,” Belle said in a giggly, teasing voice and Neal didn’t have time to correct her mistake before suddenly she was at the top of the staircase wearing...things. There was a satin robe, but it was hanging open and exposing a red bra and panty set with matching garter and stockings and he didn’t even get as far as seeing her heels before her eyes went wide and she pulled the robe tight across her chest. “God dammit, Neal!” she shrieked. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Which was the precise moment Neal caught up with the fact that his son was right there and clamped his hand over Henry’s eyes even though the proverbial show was over.
“I wanted to get something for Henry from my room!” he shouted back, because what the hell else could he do but feign the moral high ground?
“It’s Valentine’s day!”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
She made a noise somewhere between a scream and a growl and vanished back behind the banister and Neal was completely sure he had no desire to go upstairs ever again, but before he could retreat his father was at the front door with a bouquet of roses and a bag that Neal was praying just had candy or jewelry and nothing from the drugstore and things were somehow even worse with him than they had been with Belle.
“Hello Neal, Henry,” he dad said, obviously trying to make believe that this was completely normal and not at all awkward. “It’s...nice to see you.”
“Henry and I were just leaving,” Neal said before this could get any worse. “Bye, Belle!” he called upstairs before rushing out the door and into the street as fast as Henry could go.
Neal was still pretty new at this parenting thing, and as a result he was still busily trying to repress this memory on the sidewalk when Henry finally spoke.
“Hey Dad? Who was that?”
Crap. He was way too new at parenting to have this talk with his son.
“With my luck?” he said at last. “That’s probably going to be your new grandma.”
“Oh,” Henry replied thoughtfully. “My other grandma doesn’t dress like that.”
“Yeah, neither did either of mine.”
Neal was definitely never, ever hitching a ride with Belle ever again.
Theo Gold had no idea why his son and grandson had been in the house, but as soon as Belle appeared on the stairs he completely forgot the question. She was a goddess in red satin as she descended slowly and he had trouble breathing as he waited for her to reach him. She was absolutely stunning, and he had no idea how or why she’d ended up here with him but he was glad she did, even if they still hadn’t quite made any decisions about what they actually were to each other.
“You look beautiful,” he said. “That whole get up is...wow.”
“This old thing?” she asked saucily, cocking her hip and smiling at him. “It’s just a little something I had laying around.”
“Well, it definitely suits you. Brings out your eyes.”
He should probably have been looking at her face when he said that, but it was so damn hard when the rest of her was that interesting. Was there no end to how much seasonal lingerie she owned?
“My eyes?” she prompted, and he could hear the good humor in her voice even before he managed to drag his gaze up.
“Among other things,” he said. “Should I be looking forward to your St. Patrick’s Day green?”
“That kind of depends on how well this goes, doesn’t it?” she replied, moving forward and wrapping her arms around his neck gently. “Play your cards right and you might get to see a lot more of this sort of thing.”
He kissed her, and she practically fell into his arms. He hadn’t even had time to give her a present yet but that was going to have to wait, because his bed was upstairs and he needed her to be in it as soon as possible.
Once they were both sated and lying together with the sheets tangled around them, his rational mind took over at last.
“Can I ask you a question?” he said, waiting until she looked at him and nodded before continuing. “What is all this?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, sitting up on her side so she could look down at him.
What he meant was why do you like me? but he didn’t think throwing that question out there after they’d just had sex was going to do much to impress her. She was just so young and beautiful and...he just didn’t know what to make of any of it.
“Why did you come back here?” he said instead. “It’s a little out of the way just for you to come for sex.”
“It is,” she replied easily. “But...I don’t know. I kinda like this.”
“Yeah?”
She blushed, which was a little incongruous for a woman he’d seen naked before he’d even known her real name, but he liked it on her. It was incredibly endearing.
“I have a little bit of a confession to make,” she said. “You think I’m a lot more interesting than I am.”
Now, that piqued his curiosity.
“I can’t see how that’s true,” he replied. “You’re fascinating.”
“I’m really not. I have a little bit of a reputation for being kind of dull, actually.”
“Really?” he asked, trying to parse this information with what he knew of her. She was so much fun – lively, intelligent, and daring – how could anyone think she was dull?
“I had to do a lot of work to get where I am, and I don’t go out much. Most of my time I’m just working or reading. And then I come here and I’m a more exciting woman. I like it.”
He was completely gobsmacked by the idea of it. Who wouldn’t be interested in her? Hell, he couldn’t stop looking at her and every word out of her mouth kept him enthralled. She was smiling self-consciously and he kissed her again, wanting to reassure her of whatever it was she needed from him without really knowing what that was.
“Do you want to go someplace?” he asked her at last. “We can do whatever you like, we can get dinner or drinks or...anything. Anything at all.”
“I think I could make time for that,” she replied. “But I’ll let you surprise me. I like surprises.”
Belle was enjoying her date, such as it was. It was the first date she’d really been on in awhile, and even if it was the same diner Neal had fake proposed at she was having a good time. Although, the waitress was looking at her pretty judgmentally so maybe they should have gone someplace else. But the burgers were good, and he was flirting with her and it was nice. They had a weird amount in common, all things considered, and she was starting to think this was going to end up being more than something wild to do before she settled down.
They were making small talk when she felt eyes on her and turned to see a few people at the counter look back at their own plates as soon as she’d seen them. It was weird, but she didn’t want to focus on it and ruin their day. Still, she couldn’t shake the idea that there was something weird going on.
“What’s wrong?” Theo asked after a few minutes, so apparently she wasn’t as good at pretending she wasn’t bothered as she thought she was.
“Those people over there keep staring at me,” she whispered. “I’m not sure why.”
He glared over her shoulder at the strangers and she was glad that she wasn’t the one on the receiving end of it. She turned back to see that they’d averted their eyes entirely, but he was still glaring.
“Is there a problem?” Theo asked, and one of the men glanced back at them from his menu.
“Not unless you’ve got one,” the stranger replied. “Just trying to figure out why you’re out with your son’s fiance on Valentine’s day.”
And there it was. She’d hoped nobody would remember her, but it was a small town and Neal had made a huge scene between the proposal and then running out after his ex-girlfriend and son. She wasn’t even sure what to say to that, because the truth of the matter was just so incomprehensible that explaining any single part of it sounded insane. Well, there was more than one way to skin a cat so to speak, and he didn’t want to have this hanging over her every time she came down here.
Belle pulled her legs up onto her seat and leaned across the table, grabbing Theo by his tie and kissing him hard on the lips. He froze for a second before sliding his hands through her hair and kissing her back for a long moment before they finally broke apart and she sat down in her seat, casting one last smug look at the people who’d been judging before. It didn’t matter what they thought, she wasn’t going to let anyone make her feel bad about being with him.