The Reluctant Dom

Chapter Twenty-One

Kaden and Leah’s wedding anniversary was July nineteenth. The three of them celebrated together at a beach resort in St. Pete at Kaden’s request. Seth tried to gracefully suggest he stay home or get a separate room, but Kaden wouldn’t hear of it.

“I want you there, man,” he’d quietly insisted one morning while they were discussing it without Leah.

“But that’s for you guys to celebrate.” In Seth’s mind the phrase “last anniversary” had to be pounded back into its dark hole with a mental sledgehammer before it started him crying.

“You’re a part of us. I want you there.”

Seth studied him. “Why?”

Kaden wouldn’t answer at first. Finally, “Please don’t make me say it.”

Seth closed his eyes. “Okay,” he softly said.

It was a good weekend. Seth did his best to take as many pictures of the two of them together as he could. Leah did let Seth get his way once. He sent them out for a sunset walk together, alone, after taking pictures of them on the beach. The next night, Seth gave in and joined them, the three of them walking hand in hand in the white sand as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon into the Gulf.

Seth did his best to take pictures in a way that wouldn’t accentuate Kaden’s weight loss.

In early October, an unwelcomed late-season guest by the name of Hurricane Mabel formed in the Caribbean Sea and worked her way north. Seth kept a close eye on it. By the time it drew south of Cuba, he knew he needed to prepare.

The corrugated metal window shutters were neatly stacked in the corner of the garage. He sent Leah out for supplies and several gallons of diesel for the backup generator he’d installed that spring. Kaden walked outside as Seth started moving the shutters to place them by their respective windows.

“What can I do?” he asked. He’d lost more weight, and his skin tone didn’t look good. The jaundice had started.

Seth shook his head. “You can chill out and keep me company. You get hurt, Leah will have my nuts in a sling.”

Kaden frowned. “Come on, I’m not fragile. Let me help.”

“No. The last thing I need you doing is stressing yourself out. You want to help? Go move anything you can off the lanai into the dining room.”

“I’m not a fucking invalid!”

The anger in Kaden’s voice made Seth turn.

“Dude, I’m not saying you are. I don’t need you wearing yourself out. Leah needs you. Anything you do that stresses you or tires you out, that cuts down on the time.” It was a cheap shot, Seth knew it. But he also didn’t want Kaden getting hurt. His strength and balance had deteriorated over the past month. “Seriously, if you can clear out the lanai, that will help me. And walk around the property, make sure there’s nothing that can blow around, make room for Leah’s car and the bike in the garage. That’s stuff you can do and I won’t have to. It’ll save me time, seriously.”

Kaden scrubbed his face with his hands. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize.” He sensed an imminent meltdown. Better now than if Leah was home.

Sure enough. Kaden closed his eyes. Seth cringed when he saw his friend’s tears. “I just feel fucking useless.”

Seth put his arms around his friend, held him, tried not to think about how he could feel nearly every rib and vertebrae through Kaden’s shirt. “You’re not useless, buddy,” he gently said. He felt Kaden crying, didn’t acknowledge it, didn’t try to comfort him the way he comforted Leah. Kade didn’t want that. He just needed to vent. “You don’t make my job any easier if you wear yourself out and make yourself sicker faster.”

Kaden eventually nodded and stepped away, turned, wiped his face. “Thanks, man. Sometimes I just…” He faced Seth. “Sometimes I just wish it was over. And then I feel fucking selfish.”

Seth shook his head. “No, don’t feel like that. I know you’re in pain.” He knew Leah had to see it, but she didn’t talk about it.

Two days later, they sat in the living room and played Monopoly while the storm howled outside. They’d lost cable an hour earlier. The lights flickered several times, but they hadn’t lost power yet. Leah sat on the couch with Kaden while Seth sat on the floor.

He’d noticed, especially over the past few weeks, that Kaden had stepped back in many ways. Seth suspected it was a combination of having his hands full dealing with his illness, he felt like shit, and that he was trying to get both Seth and Leah used to Seth’s new role.

Seth also noticed he was now the hard-ass, the one who had to stand up to Leah and discipline her when she needed it. Kaden would let her get away with anything and everything.

He wasn’t sure if that was intentional on Kaden’s part or not. But now Seth led every session, took the lead in keeping her focused and calm.

He tried not to think about it. It was hard enough doing it. Especially when she turned the full force of her eyes on him.

He’d creatively used the blindfold on her one day when she tried to sucker him into getting her way, made her stay blindfolded for over an hour while she went about her daily business, blindly groping her way around the house. Kaden had laughed and deferred to Seth and his creative use of corrective measures.

At least it worked.

Later, when the men were alone, Kaden had smiled. “You’re getting the hang of it, buddy.”

The power finally went out. When the lights didn’t come back on, Seth grabbed the battery-powered lantern he’d kept at his side. “I’ll go check the genny.”

Fortunately, the generator breaker panel was inside. For some reason the genny main had tripped, probably because of the frequent power surges. When he flipped it, it rumbled to life outside and the lights came on. When the power was restored, it would automatically trigger the genny to shut down.

He returned to the living room. “I suggest shutting off anything we don’t need.” He’d already unplugged the stereo system and TV in the living room to protect them from surges.

They tuned their radio to a local station simulcasting a Sarasota TV station and listened as the weatherman gave them a play-by-play of Mabel’s torturously slow landfall on the Florida peninsula.

By seven o’clock it was pitch black outside, and Kaden suggested going to bed early. It was either that or sit and listen to the wind howl outside and the eerie sound of things thumping against the house.

The next morning they still had no power, but the worst of the storm was over even though gusts of wind and trailing rain bands still swept through their area.

Seth went outside and did a quick check of the yard. Kaden’s truck and his own car, parked by the house, were undamaged, just covered with leaves plastered on by wind and rain. Some small limbs down throughout the yard, one on top of the house but it didn’t look like any tiles were damaged. He couldn’t tell from the ground, and it was too windy to get a ladder out to go up and look. No rain had leaked through as far as he could tell from checking the ceilings inside. Until he could get into the attic for closer inspection, he wouldn’t know for sure. He’d have to replace some of the screens on the lanai, which was to be expected and something he could do himself.

Kaden stepped outside. “Well?”

“I think we’re okay. I’ll start taking the shutters down tomorrow. Too windy to do it today.”

“With both of us doing it, it won’t take long.”

Seth didn’t reply, pretended he was studying the power lines running along the edge of the property. They looked intact.

“I said, with both of us doing it—”

“I heard you.”

“You were ignoring me.”

Seth turned to him and dropped his voice. “Let me do it. Come on, it’s my job, okay? This kind of shit is what I can do. Let me do it.”

Kaden’s face hardened. For a moment, Seth thought he was in for another confrontation.

Then Kade laughed. “You’re not going to melt down on me like Leah over your laundry, are you?”

“I just might if you don’t let me do my job.”

Kaden looked up at the gunmetal grey sky and took a deep breath, blew it out. “Okay. I still feel useless.”

“No, you need to change your thinking like you’ve done all along. I feel like a fucking freeloader. This kind of shit, I can do it and I do it well. At least one thing I don’t totally fuck up. Let me have my pride, dude.”

Kaden met his gaze. “Sure you don’t want to go into psychology instead of nursing?”

“Fuck you.” But Seth smiled. Crisis averted.

“You wish. Not in your wildest dreams, buddy.”