Page 36 of Cash

"Can I trust you to be alone for a few hours tonight while I go out to dinner?"

He just sat there staring out the window. The whole trip home was made in silence. Cash pulled into his garage and River got out and slammed the truck door behind him. He sulked into the house, leaving the door open behind him.

"Good talk," Cash called out behind him.

Fuck. He needed to stay home and figure out what the fuck was going on here. He pulled out his phone and ordered a couple pizzas. Then he sighed as he pulled up Evie's contact.

Cash - I think I'm going to have to take a raincheck tonight.

Evie - No problem

That was it. Why was this woman so infuriating? She gave him nothing to work with.

Cash - Tomorrow?

Evie - Sure

Loud music started blaring from upstairs as Cash stood in his kitchen. What was happening? His life was unrecognizable to him right now. He went from lots of women and spending the off-season free time how he pleased, to chasing one beautiful but infuriating woman and babysitting a teenager with a bad attitude. How the playboy has fallen.

If they were both going to make it through the summer, they needed to come to an understanding. Cash wasn’t an unreasonable man, but he also wasn’t going to let River do whatever he wanted. He couldn’t believe he was about to set some rules, but he needed to.

About an hour later, the music upstairs stopped just in time for the pizza Cash had ordered. He set up the pizza and some sodas in the movie room and made his way upstairs and knocked gently on River’s door.

Nothing.

“Can I come in?”

Nothing.

“River?”

“It’s your house,” River grumbled on the other side of the door.

Cash opened the door and saw River sitting on his bed, his back against the headboard and a frown on his face that would rival some of his own.

“Can we talk?”

River just looked at him and shrugged. Cash walked in and sat on his bed.

“Look, I’m happy to have you here this summer. I don’t want to babysit you because you’re too old for that, I want to be able to trust you.”

River just looked at him. At least now he was making eye contact.

“I won’t make you go to the rink with me anymore and I’ll give you more space. But if you go back to the city anymore, I’ll put you back on a plane so fast your head will spin. That being said, if you want to go into the city, I’ll take you sometime when camp is over. We can see bands and record shops…all of that.”

River’s glare softened and he nodded.

“Do you think we can come to an agreement? I like having you here. You're a great kid and a killer musician if I’m being honest.”

With that admission a hint of a smile crossed River’s face before he had the chance to shut it down.

“Basically,” Cash continued. “I’m willing to trust you but I have to know where you are. At all times. Can we do that?”

“Yeah, we can do that.”

“It should go without saying, but I’m saying it, no drugs, and no trips out of Glendale without checking with me, but besides that just keep me posted on where you are, and I think we can make this work. Does that sound fair?”

“Yeah,” River said. “That sounds fair.”

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