Page 37 of Catching Our Moment
“Honey, I didn’t mean that?—”
I couldn’t leave her dangling. “Oh, you know, probably some dry business function that would bore any teenage kid to tears. There’d be nothing else to do but stir up trouble.” I waved it off.
“I don’t get in trouble.”
I took a step back in surprise. “You don’t? Seriously?” I studied him. “Why not?”
“Because you aren’t supposed to break the rules. That’s why there are rules.”
“Are you sure you’re your mother’s son?” I deadpanned. He furrowed his brow to understand me better. “Oh, dude…how do you have any fun without breaking a few rules?”
He narrowed his eyes at me, still fidgeting with his fingers. “I don’t understand.”
Kelcie put her arm around Aaron. “Shaw’s joking with you,” she whispered.
“Is he making fun of me?” he whispered back, but loud enough for me to hear.
I shook my head. That wasn’t where I was going with this. I remembered Grace telling me to be direct with Aaron. No sarcasm or inferences.
I squatted down, giving him a higher position. “No. No. Not at all. I was joking because I was trying to make you laugh. Because I was a bit of a rule-breaker when I was younger. Your mom—” I glanced up at Kelcie, whose eyes began to warm because of the effort she knew I was making. “She liked to have everyone believe she was a major rule follower. But really, she led the charge in finding ways around the rules rather than breaking them. It’s how we were such good friends.”
“My father used to pay me an allowance to keep Shaw out of trouble.” She tapped her hand on his shoulder, pointing at me. “It was my first babysitting job.”
“Wasn’t Shaw my age?” he asked sideways over his shoulder at her.
She nodded, smiling, and winked at him.
“Oh…I get it, because he was immature like a child.” He put his hand over his mouth to try to hide his laugh. “Shaw, she said you behaved like a child.” He guffawed.
I jokingly glared at Kelcie but then shrugged and smirked because Aaron was amused. My mission of removing James’s taint from the evening was accomplished.
“Yeah, well, if it wasn’t for her keeping me out of trouble, we probably wouldn’t have made it to the state championships our junior year…”—I narrowed my eyes as if concentrating—“and maybe our senior year either.”
“Definitely senior year. Remember? You always wanted to skip fifth period with Mandy O’Hare,” she said, hand on her hip.
I smiled up at her with devilish amusement. “Oh, yeah. Good ol’ Mandy.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but I saw the tilt in the corner of her mouth.
“Tell you what,” I said, wanting to maintain the momentum, “how would you like the job of babysitting me?”
Aaron chuckled, and Kelcie’s brows drew together. She was obviously wondering where I was going with this.
“I’m so bored.” I stood and threw up my arms in exasperation. “How about tomorrow you come home from school and keep me company?”
“He goes to Maeve’s after school, until I get off work.”
“Even though I told her I could stay by myself. I’m not a child.” Aaron glared.
“Of course you’re not,” I said.
“And you aren’t supposed to be driving yet,” Kelcie countered.
“True…”
“I can walk a few blocks by myself, Mom,” Aaron grounded out.
Kelcie shifted, closing her eyes to this well-worn argument.
