“Independent? You can’t be serious. Kelcie, come on, stop being so delusional,” James said in a tone that I was not going to allow.
I spoke before thinking and stepped into James’s space. “The only delusional one is you if you think you even know your son after months of ignoring him,” I said, pulling myself up to my full height. I didn’t have a short temper, but this conversation was pushing my limit of control.
“Who the hell—” James took a step forward. I stared down my nose at him.
“Shaw. Don’t—” Kelcie glared at me and put her hand up to stop my progress.
James wasn’t a stupid man. He knew I had fifty pounds and at least five inches on him. He turned on Kelcie and focused his vitriol on her instead. “This is all his influence.” James gestured to me. “Is this your lame attempt at getting him to finally notice you?” he sneered. “To climb into his bed and live out the fantasy of being a perfect family?”
“I think you better leave.” It was the only warning I was going to give him.
“Is he involved in the parenting of our son now?” He stepped around us, pointing at me. “Tell me, has he lived through some of his monumental meltdowns?”
I spoke before I could even think of the words I formed, everything coming from my heart. “He has been here…hanging out with your son.” I pointed at myself. “He is sharing something Aaron loves and encouraging him. Where have you been? You can’t just put him on a shelf and take him down when it’s convenient.”
Kelcie put up her hand. “Shaw, stop.”
Pointing at my own chest, I leaned toward him, causing him to take a step back. “He has been fortunate enough to become friends with your son. He finds spending time with your son a priority, not a scheduled commitment.”
James pointed at Kelcie, forcing out a condescending chuckle. “Are you really so pathetic that you would dangle our son out as a special project for Mr. All-American-Has-Been just to be part of his life?”
He raised his voice. “He’s not a normal kid. When are you going to understand that?” Then he turned on me, eyes wide with fury and hands gesturing. “Has he had a game when a play didn’t go his way, or an official made a call that didn’t go by the book? Have you heard him scream because they were wrong? Have they had to stop a game so Kelcie could escort him off the field kicking and screaming he was right and they were wrong?”
The pain etched on Kelcie’s face was all I needed to see. He was resurrecting memories the two of them had shared. Times when they hadn’t been able to get through to Aaron when he was young. I reached for her hand, and she flinched.
That cut deep.
James spotted the way she withdrew from me and doubled down. “No matter how much you want a little mini-me running around, it’s not going to be Aaron. He has special needs, and not your celebrity or even all your money will change that. He’s not a normal boy.”
“I’m not a normal boy,” Aaron said, once again making a timely entrance. We all froze. He stepped around us and stood in front of his father, his back straight, and purposefully stared him down, which left his pathetic excuse for a parental figure squirming.
Kelcie reached out for him, but I gently coaxed her back to me. “Let him do this.”
“I’m not a normal boy. I’m an amazing kid.” Aaron looked over his shoulder at me. His voice softened, “That’s what Shaw says.”
I nodded at him and tentatively reached for Kelcie’s hand, and she absently allowed me to hold it.
“TJ Smith thinks I’m brilliant. TJ SMITH! The kids I play flag football with think I’m a fast runner and great at juking.” He stared up at his father, who couldn’t even make eye contact with his son. The decreasing difference in height between father and son gave this conversation more validity and weight.
Aaron wasn’t a little kid anymore. He was growing into a man, and he was well-aware of what people thought of him—including his parents. “Of course my teachers think I’m smart. And then there’s my ultrasonic hearing, which is my superpower. You and Mom seem to keep forgetting about it. So, of course, I hear much more than you think I do.”
“Aaron, son…” James’s pale face was flushed, hopefully with the shame and embarrassment he was experiencing at being caught speaking about his son that way.
Aaron broke eye contact, staring over his father’s shoulder instead. “I know you’re my dad and that you love me. But I don’t understand why you are so angry at me.”
Kelcie’s breath hitched. “Aaron, I don’t think?—”
“Honey, let them handle it,” I whispered.
She yanked her hand out of mine, letting me know I’d gone too far.
Her focus returned to Aaron and a backpedaling James. “Aaron, your father isn’t angry at you. Things are just complicated right now.”
James jumped in. “Aaron, it’s just that competitive sports in the past were very difficult for you to deal with?—”
“I was eight the last time you let me play baseball. It was boring. Of course I had time to argue with the umpire—he was an idiot,” Aaron said. “But I don’t understand why you’re saying these things about me.”
Kelcie stepped forward, and this time, I kept my mouth shut. “Okay, I think you gave your father some things to think about. Why don’t we sit with this and discuss it later? Maybe you can talk over the phone this week, or he can come up, and you can have lunch together next weekend.”
