Page 104 of Until Landon
If that doesn’t turn him off nothing will.
“So I’ve heard. Dad would agree with you.”
“Hunter is a good kid. Man. Kid. It’s in a state of flux. He has heart and he’s smart and hard working. But you get that first taste of freedom and all you want to do is fuck around. Because you can.”
“He’s just young.”
“That excuse has an expiration date.”
He chuckles at my assessment.
“It’s true!”
I’m chuckling too, mixed with a mother’s fear.
“He might think not having to go to school is going to be a free pass. He hasn’t said as much, but I’m afraid of the possibility.”
“I don’t think you should assume the worst.”
I sit with the idea.
“Maybe he’ll find work. Or he might decide the work he can get at this stage isn’t what he wants to do again. If ever there was a time in life to be unsure and experiment, it’s when you’re nineteen, Kim. Life doesn’t have to be figured out by then. He just needs a job so he can find out what a forty-hour week looks like. That’s the lesson there.”
I lean in and rest my head on his shoulder.
“I built him a nest here. But I don’t want to push him out before he knows how to stand on his own.”
He has the strangest look on his face.
“Birds and children fly away. We did, you and I.”
I rest in the words and think about the cycle of life. Landon breaks the silence.
“I was talking to my father today. Like one of our old deep dives.”
“What about?”
“The important stuff. Love. Kids. Choices.”
“Did you come to any conclusions? Tell me so I can know how to navigate my life too.”
“I think I have figured a way through this.”
“Really?”
I sit up.
“We love each other,” he says.
“I thought you knew that.”
“I’m not finished. Here’s the problem as I see things. I need to go back to Memphis for the next six months. At the minimum. You want to be sure Hunter is moving forward and not sitting on his ass in Smryna.”
“That’s about it.”
“What if I hired Hunter to work for me? We worked good together at Dad’s. I could teach him. He’d stay at my place for free, so he could learn to save a little. And we’d get to know each other. He’d be living with his boss, so he couldn’t call in sick. But I’d be living with my girlfriend’s son, so I couldn’t be a complete dick to the kid.”
I’m stunned into silence at first.
