Page 20 of The Jackpot Screwer
“I’m twenty-five, Austin. What do you think?”
He grinned. “Damn, you’re in trouble now.”
“Austen,” Mom chastised. “Don’t say damn.”
“Son.” Dad sighed. “Just go back to bed.” He leaned forward and kissed Austen’s hair before turning him and pushing him back toward his bedroom.
“Hey, Dad,” he said pulling on Dad’s arm. “Are you staying here tonight?”
Dad took a deep breath. “No, I’m going to get an Uber back to my apartment. Now, go to bed.”
“I’m always sent to bed,” Austen complained as he dragged his feet. “I never get to hear the good stuff. Like when Shaw got caught feeling up Patty Donahue. I was just sent to bed that night too.”
“No way,” I cried, making a grab for Austen’s arm. “Stop, tell me all about it.”
Austen turned and started to laugh. “Last summer when Mom and Dad got Patty to sit, Shaw came home a day early and when I went to bed, he and Patty got down and dirty.”
“Austen,” Dad yelled. “Bed. Now.”
“What, that’s what happened?” he remonstrated, allowing Dad to turn him toward his room again.
“Why did I not know this?” I asked.
“Because,” Dad said, throwing Austen a warning glare. “It wasn’t important.”
“So, he was just feeling her up?” I called.
Austen continued walking. “One hand up her shirt the other down her pants,” he called without turning around. “On Mom’s new sofa.”
I burst out laughing and watched my little brother wander back to bed, leaving my parents to deal with their other errant child – the one who’d got herself knocked up.
“Okay.” I sighed and flopped down onto the sofa that now felt kind of dirty. “Go for it. Tell me what a disappointment I am and how I’ve ruined my life.”
Mom sat next to me and placed a cool hand on my forearm. “We don’t think either of those things, honey. It’s just such a shock. I mean you and Carter being together in itself is huge, but having a baby together, well…”
“Mom’s right, sweetheart,” Dad said, starting to pace again. “A few short months ago you hated each other. Now you’re bringing a new life into the world; together.”
I nodded, understanding their worry. Carter and I seemed like a real bad idea on paper. We didn’t have a great track record of even being amicable with each other and now we were having a child.
“I understand how it must look,” I replied. “But I swear, we do love each other, and I won’t let this change what I want to do with my life.”
“So, if you love each other, why aren’t you still a couple?” Mom asked. “You’ve barely been together a few months and have already parted. Doesn’t look like you have this figured out so well, does it?”
She was right, it wasn’t a good sign for our future. “Lots of kids have parents who are apart. Look at us.”
Dad narrowed his eyes on me. “Your mom and I are sorting through things and we’ve been married twenty-five years.”
“Twenty-six, Jim,” Mom corrected.
Dad winced and rubbed a hand down his face. “Twenty-six, sorry. You’ve already fallen at the first hurdle, sweetheart.”
“I just want to be sure me and a baby are what he wants,” I replied.
I also needed to be sure I wasn’t going to end up like my mom; crying about my man leaving one day.
“You know what he’s like; a big stupid idiot,” I stated.
He really was, but the thought of the big stupid idiot still made me smile.
