This story is fictional and contains incest between father and son. If that is offensive to you, please find something else to read. Cheers!
**
Fresh out of university, Adam got hired as regional manager for a national group of independent auto repair and body shops that lobbied their interests at the state and federal level. Adam was responsible for Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas and spent his days either on the phone or his laptop.
It wasn't very exciting, but he had a pregnant girlfriend and bills to pay, and at least this was something he understood.
He'd been a natural fit for the job because his dad, Jack, had owned a dozen auto repair shops throughout southern Missouri and northern Arkansas when he was growing up and would sometimes get to tag along when he went to check in on them; Adam understood the challenges small shop owners faced and could speak their language.
Adam idolized his dad, wanting to be just like him for as long as he could remember. His single mother worked in one of dad's shops and would sometimes need to take him to work with her, and Jack would carry him around on his shoulders and take him for ice cream; Adam begged his mommy every night to make Jack his daddy.
When she was killed in an auto accident when he was seven, and with no other family in the picture, scary strangers started hanging around and whispering about something called an orphanage.
He still remembered the day Jack had set him down and asked Adam if he would like to live with him.
"Forever? You won't leave like Mommy?"
"I won't leave, buddy, I promise."
"And you'll be my daddy?"
"That's right."
"Okay."
"Yeah?"
Adam grinned and nodded; the scary people went away, and Jack became his dad; Jack's mom moved in to help out, and Adam was happy from then on.
Jack and Adam were inseparable. Jack would pick him up from school every day and take him to the shop, where he'd play and do homework on a little desk beside his dad's. he saw the kind way he treated his employees and customers, and the respect they had for him was obvious to Adam.
As he got older, Adam wished his dad would marry one of the many women he dated who were clearly interested, wanting him to be happy, but his dad told Adam he was the only family he needed; Adam decided he was never getting married, either.
He was a month from graduating university, preparing to go to work for his dad, with dreams to add even more stores, when it all came crashing down. Jack was overextended, and when a string of loans came due that he couldn't refinance at the same time his sales numbers went soft, the banks called the loans, shut him down, and sold everything to recoup their losses.
Losing everything he'd built over twenty years sent Jack into a depressive spiral he was still struggling to get out of. Adam was devastated, too, but he had a newly pregnant girlfriend to think of and needed to find a job.
(Six months later)
**
"Hey, Dad, how are you doing?" Adam asked, setting groceries down in the backseat and getting in his car.
"Oh, I'm hanging in, Son, just finished working out. How are you?"
"Actually, I've got some good news. You gonna be home in an hour?"
"As always," Dad sighed.
"Well, get the grill ready, 'cause I got a couple of aged ribeye's, two big spuds, and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black to wash it down with."
"Ok, Son, I'll get her ready. See you soon," his voice a flat monotone.
Adam sighed, praying his news would perk him up.
**
Adam shook his head as he pulled off the dirt road and shut his engine off. Before the bank took it six months ago, they had lived in a really nice house in mid-Missouri. Now, Jack was living in a thirty-year-old double-wide mobile home on farmland owned by a guy named Tamar who let him stay there for nothing in exchange for keeping his farm equipment running smoothly.
The only good thing that had happened in the last six months was that Jack had lost fifty pounds and had started lifting weights. As Jack walked toward him, Adam thought how good his dad looked as he approached fifty.
Jack was 6'1 and 220 pounds, with a barrel chest of salt and pepper hair, muscular arms and thighs, with tattoos and a handful of small scars. His black hair was long, as was his beard, both with a spattering of gray, his eyes a brilliant blue.
Adam wished Jack was his biological father and had his strong build; instead, he had topped out at 5'7 and a buck fifty, with brown eyes and dirty blonde hair to his shoulders. He had been a long-distance runner in high school and college and still ran a few miles three times a week.
**
"So I just visit the shops that ain't part of the association, shoot the shit a while, share some war stories, point out the benefits of membership, and line up a time we can go out together and discuss the particulars?" Jack asked.
"That's it."
"Well, shit, boy, that's right up my alley!" Jack laughed, tossing back his drink, and Adam realized it had been a long time since he'd heard him laugh.
"That's what I told my boss, Charlie. Nobody can point out the benefits of being a member like someone that was one for years."
Using past tense was a mistake and Adam saw the pain replace the spark in his dad's eyes, reaching over to squeeze his leg.
"Don't, Dad. Here's your chance to get back out there, get in the game, maybe get a little shop, and build it back up better than before. Don't give up on yourself before you even start; you taught me that, remember?"
Dad smiled and squeezed Adam's hand.
"How'd you get to be so smart?"
"I had a really great teacher," he grinned.
"Okay, tell me what I gotta do," Jack smiled, reaching for the bottle.
"You can start by getting a haircut and losing most of your beard."
"Yes, boss," he grinned.
**
"Oh, that's great, honey! And he's excited?" Allie asked.
"Mmmm, more than I can remember in a really long time. Fingers crossed. Now, how are you and our little man doing?" Adam asked, resting his ear on her big belly.
"Kicking the crap out of me, per usual," she laughed, stroking his hair.
He raised up and pecked her lips lightly.
"Not much longer, honey," Allie said.
