Page 200 of The Champion
“I’m trying to convince her I love her and that I wassorry. I never meant to hurt her. It’s like the only reason she wanted to havesex with me was because she thought that’s what I wanted. This is so messed upand not what I need right now.”
“Story of my life...doyou know how long it took for me to figure things out with your mom?”
He shook his head. “I met mom when I was eleven,completely infatuated with her but thought it was only physical attraction...anyway, we did the whole friends withbenefits thing after I pretty much slept with every woman that was thrown mydirection. Broke your mom’s heart and then finally when I was twenty-three, Iwised up and realized how much I loved her.”
“So you slept around a lot.”
My turn to groan, “More that I care to admit; don’t do itby the way,”
“I don’t plan on it. Shaylee assured me of that. I didn’tfeel anything but disgust afterwards.” He was silent for a few minutes. “What shouldI say to Lily?”
“For one, don’t lie to her,ever.” I warned. “Theydon’t like that. And don’t sleep around. If you’re serious about Lily, which Ithink you are, treat her right. Tell her how you feel and if she’s not ready tohave sex anymore, don’t pressure her.”
“I didn’t, like I said dad, she practically attacked me!”he said defensively.
“Regardless, sex complicates things sometimes.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Don’t be stupid either. Keep using protection. I’m notready to be a grandpa. I can’t even handle you three let alone anotheryourunning around.”
“Really?” he challenged. “It’s not me you need to worryabout.”
He had a point there. Arie was the troublemaker and thefact that I thought she was an angel made it worse. Casten, well he couldpotentially be a problem as well but at his age, we still had time to steer himin another direction.
When I walked back inside the house, Sway was sitting onthe kitchen floor with a bowl and a spoon eating fudge she’d just made beforeit settled. “Please tell me he’s not a man now?” she wailed, her tears mixingwith the chocolate over her lips.
“I wouldn’t say he’s a man but...” I let my voice trail off trying to tell her without tellingher.
“Oh god!” she cried out stuffing another spoon full offudge in her mouth.
Sitting down beside her, she offered me a spoon full offudge which I took. It’d been a rough day. “I probably should have talked tohim sooner.”
“Go talk to Casten about it, right now!” she ordered.
“Honey, he’s twelve...I—”
She held up her hand. “You’re in no position to decidethat, now are you?”
“Point taken,” I grumbled hoisting myself up from thetile floor. “But you’re talking to Arie about sex. I can’t do that.”
“I already have.”
“She just turned fourteen!”
“Yeah but it’s important. Besides, she was curiousbecause Lexi started her period when we were shopping one day. It was a fuckingdisaster! I had to explain, she thought Lexi was dying.”
“You couldn’t just say that once a month you bleed?”
“I’d rather educate her on it.” she shrugged pouring hotwater into the fudge bowl. I leaned against the counter and sighed. Thisparenting shit was hard exhausting work. “I mean, my dad just told me that hewasn’t qualified for that sort of thing. I ended up having to ask the kidbehind the counter at the Texaco in town how to use the goddamn tampons.”
“Who the hell was the kid and why didn’t you ask my mom?”
She pushed me down the hall, “It doesn’t matter. Go talkto Casten.”
Let me tell you something about Casten. Everything isfunny to him. He’s just like Sway in that regard but worse. It might not befunny at all, but Casten will laugh. When he was little, he used to think thatif you screamed in pain, that was funny. So after my conversation with Axel, mywife’s nervous breakdown, and finding out my fourteen year daughter alreadyknows about the align boring process, I wasn’t really in the mood to be talkingabout this with my twelve year old son, who would more than likely, laugh atme.
Casten was outside with Cole and Lane setting up newjumps for their dirt bikes.
