Monday evening I come home by myself and am not particularly happy about it. That's the problem with Race being the principal at Pulitzer's – he has to deal with every little thing and that means a ton of extra hours for him; and then, being the stubborn Italian that he is, he won't let me stick around and help out. So I have to drive home in the rain and wait for him in our empty house. Alone.

To make things even better, no sooner have I come in the door and hung my coat up than the phone is ringing. I sigh and trudge into the kitchen to pick it up.

"'Lo," I grumble, leaning against the counter and staring sullenly out the window at the rain-drenched backyard.

"Hey, Dad," says a voice that sounds like a younger Racetrack, thick accent and all. This actually makes me smile a little.

"Well, hey, Junior." It's been a while since Junior called... Race will be sorry he missed it. Good, now I'll have something to hold over his head (like it's hard to hold anything over his head anyway...) and make him feel guilty about. Is that wrong of me? "How's Stanford and sunny California?"

"Sunny. It's actually starting to get a little irritating." Junior chuckles. "But Stanford's good. Keepin' me busy."

"Good. You still got your four-point-oh?"

He doesn't think I'll notice, but I can hear the proud grin spread across his face. Racetrack does the exact same thing. "Yeah, I think I'm managing to hang onto that so far."

"That's my boy." I smile and close my eyes; I miss having someone around the house who doesn't drive me up the wall.

"So, the old man around anywhere?"

I give an exaggerated sigh. "No. He had some 'very important' business to take care of at a staff meeting which I apparently did not need to go to."

"Uh-oh. Maybe they're talking about you behind your back." Junior has that tone to his voice that his father always has – like there's something that's positively hilarious but you're not privy to hearing him laugh.

I roll my eyes. "Nah, I'm pretty sure he's firing the photography teacher."

"Miss Kaiser?"

"No, she quit at the end of last year... got pregnant and wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. This new one is some sniveling little wimp named Jonathon who doesn't know what the hell he's doing." I laugh a little. "I really wish I could be there. I'd give anything to see the look on his face when your pop lays into him. I hate that guy anyway."

I hear Junior laugh. "You've got a sick sense of humor, Dad."

"Yeah, well, I've come to terms with that." I smirk.

"That's what disturbs me about you." He gives a happy little sigh; I can tell he's more than a little bit homesick. "Well, could you tell Daddy I called?"

"You betcha," I say, smiling. I find it so completely adorable that Junior, a boy of almost nineteen, is still comfortable calling his father "Daddy." He doesn't even do it to be cute or to differentiate between Race and myself, he just does it because it's how he was raised. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside... that is, it would if I were capable of feeling warm and fuzzy on the inside, which I'm not, because I'm a manly man. Or something.

"Oh, hey, before I forget," Junior says, "are you and Maria okay?"

"Yeah, of course we are. Why wouldn't we be?

"Well, she called me up last night and was complaining about how you've ruined her life and you think you're her father and you're being totally unreasonable and won't keep your nose in your own business... you know, that whole fifteen-year-old, 'life is unfair,' over-dramatic... thing." He chuckles.

"Oh, she's just mad because I won't let her fool around with random boys in her dorm room." I shrug and shake my head.

"She was what?"

"Yeah, I went over there to bring her some of her things and she had some half-naked, half-witted hooligan in there with her."

"What?" Junior gasps. "Who was it? I'm gonna kill him! I'm gonna fly out there and fuckin' kill him!"

There's that Italian blood slipping through the cracks. I can't help but smile; he doesn't let his roots show too often, but when he does, it's really the cutest thing ever. "Watch your mouth, Junior," I say, though admittedly, purely for good measure. "Anyway, Maria flipped out on me a little, but I think we're okay now."

Junior sighs on the other end of the line. "Dad, I gotta go. I gotta call Maria and rip her a new one before I head to my evening classes."

I'm trying not to laugh. "Be nice, Junior."

"I can't make any promises."

"I'll have Daddy call you later, okay?" I'm still stifling giggles that are threatening to escape.

"Yeah, fine." He sounds thoroughly pissed off.

"Hey, Junior?"

"Yeah, Dad."

"I love you, kiddo."

"Love you too. Bye." He hangs up, and as I set the phone back in the cradle, I erupt into a fit of laughter that I don't quite understand how I was able to control for so long.

"What's so funny?" I look up and Race is standing in the kitchen doorway, and I forget that I was even angry with him in the first place.

Catching my breath, I shake my head. "Nothing," I say, still chuckling under my breath. I walk over to him and put my hands on his cheeks, pressing a kiss to his lips. "Call your son after dinner." And I head into the living room, still grinning.

A/N: I know this chapter seems pointless, but if you look closely, you'll understand why it's important. I'm sorry it's been so long - school is really kicking my ass, and I've been doing a lot more writing on my fiction LJ than I have on FFnet. I'm going to try to make more updates, though. Just don't expect too much from me and you won't be disappointed.

I still love you guys, though, I promise. You're all super-duper important to me. Your reviews mean a lot, even when they're just kind words rather than suggestions. So I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you. - Layne