Page 70 of When The Rain Falls

"Three times a week," he says. "Coach has us on this program and I also follow this account called the Gain Bros. They have a good lifting program."

"I heard of them," I tell him. "Their one trainer, is it Matt? He's a beast. He can deadlift like nine-hundred pounds or something."

"Yeah, bro. He's mad goals." Did Rocky just call mebro? Am I a bro? "Oh fire," he says, walking to my dumbbells and running his hands across them. "You have adjustable dumbbells." He pushes his long hair back out of his face again and checks out myneatly stacked row of weights. I want to ask whatfiremeans, but I don't want to sound lame. I assume it's a positive thing based on the way Rocky’s eyeing them with envy.

"Yeah. Right? Totally fire," I say, leaning an elbow against a stack of shelves. Ruby blows out a huffed breath behind me.

"Rocky, come on," she says. "I'll show you the rest of the house."

"Oh, sure," he says politely. But I can tell he's not done checking out my setup. And I lap up his admiration. Being a single father to two teenage girls, it's a rare occasion when I feel cool. So I might enjoy this moment a little too much.

"Anytime you want to come lift," I offer, trying to use my coolest bro voice. "I'll spot you."

"Cool man. Thanks." He nods.

Ruby drags Rocky out of the garage and I hear them wander around the house before they go upstairs. My phone buzzes and I see a text from Aimee. More like a series of texts. I guess sooner or later I'll have to confront her about last night. I panicked. I don’t know why. Except I do know why. Because I’m not used to anything in my life going well. And things were going well.Very well. And I didn’t trust the universe to be kind. I knew there had to be a catch. So I stopped it. I guess I’m not quite ready to jump. Not all the way.

I find myself wanting to text Aimee. To let her know that Rocky came over and I didn’t lose my shit. That I behaved myself. That he called my weightsfire.

But I don’t.

I walk up the stairs for a drive by check in. Ruby's door is closed. I knock and open it. Rocky's sitting on the floor againstthe bed and Ruby is laying on the bed near his head, looking at something on his phone. They're laughing. Two guilty heads swivel and four eyes turn to me.

"This door stays open," I say and keep walking.

"Ugh. Sorry, my dad is so anal," I hear Ruby say. She's the one breaking our agreement. But I can be cool. I can let this one thing slide.

An hour later they're still in Ruby's room. The door is open a crack. What do highschoolers do in their rooms anyway? It’s the not knowing that eventually kills me.

I hover by the cracked door. It's quiet. Then there's Ruby giggling. Well, I hope it's Ruby. If Rocky giggled like that, I might have some questions. I should walk away. I should trust Ruby and give them their space. But I don't trust Ruby. And it's still too quiet. If they were at least talking, I wouldn't be so paranoid.

I knock on the door and open it again. Ruby and Rocky are both lounging on the floor, watching something on Ruby's tablet, sharing a set of earbuds. Oh. Yeah. Earbuds. That is also a possible reason for why they're so quiet. I hadn't thought about that. They're so distracted they don't even notice me in the doorway at first. I knock louder and Ruby jumps.

"Hey," I say.

"Dad!" Ruby screams at me, pulling her earbud out of her ear. Her voice is angry and full of venom. "Go away."

"Ruby." My voice is full of warning. By now, with my fifteen years of experience, I developed the full range of dad tones. The pinnacle of true parental talent lies in expressing any emotion, disgust, warning, anger, confusion, sadness, shock, and sarcasm, solely with the sound of your voice. Doesn't even matter what words you use. If you can say the wordcowand communicate your complete disgust over a situation, that's it. You've reached pro level. I'm not one to brag, but I think I'm there.

Ruby crosses her arms and gives me a death stare from her cross-legged position on the floor. Suddenly, I'm done playing "nice" and being "cool" about things. If she wants to act like a toddler, I'm more than happy to treat her like one.

"Alright then. Playdate over. It's a school night," I say, opening the door all the way.

Ruby sighs the deepest loudest sigh on Earth.

"Uh, ok," Rocky says as pulls out his earbud and stands up. "Bye, Mr. Finn," he says to me, grabbing a backpack off the floor. Then he looks over at Ruby. "Bye. See you tomorrow."

"Bye, Rocky," I say as he brushes past me. He meets my eyes for a brief second and then looks down at his feet as he heads for the stairs. Yeah, buddy. That's right. Stay intimidated. You saw my weight room.

"I'll text you!" Ruby calls out to him. I watch Rocky slink down the stairs and let himself out. When he has completely disappeared and my house is Rocky-free once more, I cross my arms and look back at Ruby.

"Dad! That was so embarrassing. And you broke our deal." She throws her fists down at her sides.

"I was totally reasonable." I lean against the door frame.

"No, you weren't. You were monitoring us the whole time. You don't even trust me in my own house. It's pathetic."

"Ruby. I checked on youtwice."

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