Page 140 of The Champion
“You know Richmond follows that. With the chase—”
“Sway,” Emma silenced me. “We. Need. A. Night!”
“Youneed a night. My kids are good.”
Emma looked over at Casten gathering all the sugarpackets on the table at Starbucks and then stuffing them in his pocket forlater. It explained his sudden bursts of energy late at night.
“You don’t have angels either.” Emma remarked gesturingto Arie who’d been staring intently at a group of teenagers before she rolledher eyes. It was slightly amusing every time I saw her roll her eyes. Come on,at four years old, anyone wouldn’t be cute rolling their eyes?
“Emma, Jameson will never let me go out in Atlanta. It’sout of the question.”
“Okay,” she turned to me. “Just don’t tell him. Say we’regoing out.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening. I don’t lie to Jameson aboutthings like that. He just worries that we will get into trouble and you know usEmma, we get into trouble.”
“We do not.”
“Really? What about the time in Los Angeles when we wentshopping and those fans attacked us?”
“They didn’t attack us Sway.”
“What about the time in Richmond when we went to thatrestaurant and had to sneak out the back because our kids trashed the place?”
“Our kids won’t be there.”
She had an answer for everything so I pulled quick timeand went for the pole.
“What about the time we went to Jacksonville and we endedup—”
“All right. I get the fucking point.” She glared leaningback in the seat to drink her ice tea.
Emma didn’t like to be reminded of our trip toJacksonville last winter when we got so shit faced that Jameson had to carry usback to the hotel and Emma ended up naked on her balcony singingTake meBreath Awayto a hobo on the street. After that night, she wasn’t allowedout with adult supervision and Alley wasn’t enough. You get Alley drinkingenough and all her commonsense turned into bullshit.
The sun coming in through the window next to her sparkledher long black waves of hair. I reached out to touch her hair as I always did.It was mesmerizing.
She slapped my hand away. “Stop that.”
“It’s just so pretty.”
“Yeah well, touch your husband’s hair, not mine.”
Casten, with a bright smile sensing some opportunity,moved from the chair next to me after collecting enough sugar packets andjoined Arie at the table next to us. Arie, Casten and Noah sat quietly watchingthe teenagers again all with her same curiosity.
“Sway, please. Ineedto go out and Andrea isflying in, Ami said she’d come.”
“Wait a second,” I waved me hand around before grabbingher face between my palms seeing through her wicked ways. “You’ve alreadyplanned this fucking trip, haven’t you?”
Emma nodded.
“This is peer pressure you know.” I flipped the lid to mymocha and handed it to the barista for a refill. She knew me well andunderstood when I was here with Emma, refills were imperative. Fuck my watertheory.
“It is not.” Emma argued handing the girl her ice tea fora refill. “Peer pressure is for high schoolers.”
Sam, the barista here at our local Starbucks laughed atour argument and our kids destroying the small café.
“No, it’s not.” I told Emma. “Peer pressure is foreveryone.”
“Bullshit.” She sighed reaching for her lotion to latherup. “Just got out with us,”
