I felt my balls tighten.
“I’m there!” I bellowed.
That’s when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I saw the fist swinging at my head and did my best to roll with it. Cal clipped my ear, and it hurt like a son-of-a-gun.
“Shit!” I cried out.
“DADDY!” Pam yelled.
“CAL, STOP!” Lacy joined in.
If there wasn’t murder in Cal’s eyes, the scene might have been humorous. There I was, naked, with a slick condom on my throbbing member as I finished my release. Cal wasn’t to be deterred; he was going to kick my butt. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I wasn’t going to let him injure me. He charged me. Luckily, he had no idea how to fight. I took him down and then put him in an arm bar to keep him from continuing.
“DAVID!” both Lacy and Pam screamed.
“I’m not hurting him,” I assured them.
Cal was incoherent, he was so mad. I guess I would be too if I walked in on my daughter having sex.
“Lacy, please take Pam upstairs. Cal and I need to talk.”
I think it sank in that Pam was naked. She ran upstairs, followed by her mom. Cal was still trying to get away.
“Sir, if I let you go, will you promise not to try and hit me?” I asked.
“Hell no! I’m going to kick your butt!”
At least he was honest. My parents listened to classic rock, so I was aware of some of that music. I particularly liked AC/DC and Bob Seger. The song that jumped into my head was by Lynyrd Skynyrd: Give Me Three Steps. In the song, a young guy flirts with a girl in a bar. Her boyfriend shows up and takes exception. The young guy, fearing for his life, begs for just a three-step head start. I chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” Cal asked.
I told him about the song I was thinking of. He calmed down some.
“I promise to not hit you. Now let me up.”
I quickly pulled my boxers and shorts on, not letting my eyes leave him. I left the condom on for now. I didn’t think he needed to see me take it off. I didn’t put my shirt on because I didn’t want to get punched when I couldn’t see him. It was obvious he wasn’t going to give me three steps because he had the route to the stairs blocked.
“Sit down,” he ordered.
I backed up onto the couch and sat. I didn’t think he was going to attack me at the moment.
“How long has this been going on?” he asked.
“Today? Or how long have we been having sex?” I asked.
I swear I wasn’t trying to be a smartass, I was trying to answer the man’s question. I saw his eyes cloud over, so I answered quickly.
“Since last fall.”
“Do you love her?”
“I’m not in love with her, sir. We get together to have fun. We’re just good friends,” I said, hoping he took the news well. “I do like her a lot.”
“I have half a mind to forbid you from ever seeing her again.”
“Sir, the one thing I do know is you’d never win that one. At least, I’ve never been able to order a teenage girl into doing something she didn’t want to do,” I clarified.
“Come to think of it, me neither. That doesn’t mean there won’t be some form of punishment.”
“May I make a suggestion? Call my mom. She’s pretty good at making me pay for my sins.”
Cal smiled for the first time. He knew I was right.
THAT WAS HOW I FOUND myself sitting at Pam’s dining-room table with her and her parents and my parents. My mom had an amused look on her face. Dad was more serious. I knew my mom had talked more than one parent off the ledge when Greg had been caught. This was my first experience of being caught in the actual act. Beth had been worse. We were worried about her being pregnant.
Lacy had gotten me a bag of ice so I could put it on my ear. Pam wasn’t able to look anyone in the eye. I waited patiently while Cal gathered his thoughts.
“We came home earlier today to what sounded like my daughter being assaulted. We found this one,” Cal said as he pointed at me, “doing unspeakable acts to my innocent daughter.”
My mom raised her eyebrows.
“That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it,” Cal mumbled.
“Pam, did David force you?” Mom asked.
“No,” she almost whispered her answer.
“Did David hurt you?” Mom asked.
Pam wouldn’t look up, but she shook her head ‘no.’
“So, it was consensual?” Mom asked.
She nodded ‘yes.’
“If we told you to stop, would you?”
Pam peeked at her parents, then dropped her head and shook it ‘no.’
“How about you, young man?” Mom asked.
“If you told me not to, I would follow your wishes.”
“Good enough for me,” Cal said.
“I didn’t tell him not to,” my mom clarified for Cal.
“What?” Cal asked, confused. “He just said if we asked him to, he wouldn’t see her again.”
“No, he said if I, meaning me, asked him not to, he would stop.”
“So, tell him,” Cal demanded.
Mom ignored Cal.
“Pam, you need to tell everyone what you want.”
“Daddy, David has never done anything I didn’t want him to do. I was the one who initiated things with him. He has only been the best with me. I never feel pressured and he never talks about what we do.”
“Cal, you and I need to talk,” Lacy said. “Thank you for stopping by. David, please don’t see my daughter until we have had a chance to work this out.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
WHEN I GOT HOME, MOM marched me into the office and closed the door.
“David, I thought you were smarter than that. You could have gotten yourself hurt. Even worse, you could have hurt Cal. What were you thinking?” she asked, and then stopped herself and said, “No, don’t answer that.”
I couldn’t help myself. I let a little smile touched my eyes. She saw it, of course.
“This isn’t funny. Cal could have shot you dead and claimed he thought you were raping his daughter.”
That sobered me up in a hurry.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“I’m not stupid enough to tell you not to have sex with her. I couldn’t stop her from seducing you if I wanted to. You say you could abstain, but I know men. What I am going to tell you is to bring her back to your place from now on. You don’t need to rub it in Cal’s face.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now for your punishment. You have to give up the Charger for a week.”
“I was planning on getting the oil changed and having it detailed tomorrow,” I said.
I bit my lower lip. I knew my mom had given me a gift because I would be gone most of the week anyway when I went to football camp in Houston.
“I could have Tami drive it,” I uttered.
“Tell Tami to come over today. She can take the Charger for the week,” Mom said.
Something was fishy, but I was in no position to question my mom, and she knew it.
TAMI CAME TO OUR HOUSE for dinner. Mom made a big production as she handed my keys to her. Angie was dying to know why I was in trouble. Luckily, Mom wasn’t talking. If Mom wasn’t talking, neither Dad nor I would, either.
Tami was in the dark as well, so after dinner I was hustled up to my apartment. She and Angie made eye contact. I could tell the two of them were agreed on her mission. Tami was eager to get some salacious scoop when I floored her.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
I almost laughed aloud because of the ‘deer in the headlights’ look I got from her. It was good to know those words had the same effect on women as it had on men. She finally got control of her emotions and looked me in the eye.
“I’m sorry I ever used that line on you. It really does suck,” she admitted.
“Yes. It is off-putting.”
“That would be the term. So, what did you want to talk to me about, and if you say ‘us’ I will punch you.”