Well, Rachel used to be my rock too – and look what happened to her.
But Mom was different. She was the one that I would turn to if I ever had a problem. But I saw her changing over the years, especially after she married Daniel. One year into the marriage and she was gone.
"No," I whisper. I don’t want to talk about Mom. Just like the rest of the family. We have a tendency to sweep things under the carpet, which means that even though she was suffering with her addiction for years, no one rushed to help her. We knew what was happening; we just didn’t want to believe it.
Just then, Colt jumps into the pool; maybe he's trying to lighten the mood because the next thing he does is flick water in my direction, "Are you going to sit there all day staring at me? Or are you going to join me?"
"Why did you do that?" I squeal. I'm tired; I came out here to sunbathe, and now he's trying to drag me into the pool.
He ignores me and keeps spraying water in my direction. I could move, but I’m enjoying it. Especially when I move out of the way of the water and I notice that my tits are practically coming out of my bikini top. I’m tempted to take it off. Maybe I should say
fuck it, and throw caution to the wind.
"Colt! You want me to come in?"
He laughs, "What do you think?"
That's all it takes. I run and jump into the water; not the best move, especially because I feel as if I may have strained my ankle by doing so. But I need this; I need something to take my mind off of Zach. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to just stay around here during the summer and not bother going anywhere else. After all, Zach has pretty much blown up my summer travel plans. And there's something about Colt that's making me feel something I haven't felt in a long time.
"You know, if that bikini top of yours is too restrictive … you could always take it off."
I splash water in his direction and then swim a little closer until our faces are inches apart, a devilish smile forming on my lips. He looks at me and we lock gazes.
Then I hear a sound, like a stifled cough. I look up and see Daniel standing at the edge of the pool. He's in a tailored suite and it looks like he's come straight from work.
"Well, look who decided to show up," Colt says. I can tell he's annoyed to see Daniel.
"It looks to me like you two are getting along just fine without me," Daniel smirks, pulling up a chair.
"Based on your messages, it sounded urgent. I rushed here, and here you are, taking your sweet time," Colt continues. "Was this some kind of a joke? I was on my way to Bali; I hope you have a good reason for holding me back."
"Look, I'm sure you two have lots of big plans this summer, but before any of that happens, we need to have a serious talk," Daniel says. I watch as he cracks open a beer and pours it into a pint glass. He takes a serious sip and when he pulls his mouth away from the glass, I notice a bit of the beer's foam clinging to his upper lip. I imagine walking up to him, wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders and slowly licking the foam off, carefully dragging my tongue over his contours, and then tracing one finger along his lips and cheeks. Oh god, why did that image just creep into my brain? What's come over me? First, it's my stepbrother, and now it's my stepfather. Either I've been starved for real sex for too long, or this Southern California sun has fried my brain.
Daniel
Just when I think that life can’t get any worse, I’m proven wrong.
Sometimes life feels like one giant poker game and you never know what kind of hand you're going to be dealt. Will it be a royal flush today, or will you be left scrambling to match a single pair?
Do you see what I mean? There's no fucking telling.
And if you don't believe me, let me paint you a picture.
My first wife, Linda, used to complain about stomach pains and we thought that it was her bad diet. So we threw ourselves into a healthy lifestyle—diet, exercise, the whole thing. We joined a gym and worked out together. You know how they say that dieting and exercising in pairs is better than doing it alone? Well, we thought it was a good approach… until we learned it wasn't enough.
A visit to the doctor showed that it was worse than that. A simple diet couldn’t fix her problem. She had stomach cancer. That's what you call one bad hand of poker. But I took care of her until the bitter end.
Because I’m Daniel Morgan and that’s what Daniel Morgan does. He takes care of people.
I tried to take care of Colt. It was a bit tricky, I'll admit; the boy had lost both his dad and his mom in the space of five years. Also, I had limited exposure to kids before that. So, I had no fucking idea what I was doing, but we made it work, and in those days he used to call me Dad. I mean, I was never really his father and Linda didn’t think it was necessary to make me his guardian in any way when we got married - just because he was already so close to 18. And you know what? We had a great relationship, and even though he wasn’t my son, I treated him as my own.
Years later, a mutual friend invited me to a party and that was how I met Clara. A few dates later and there I was, falling hard for her. I knew I had to marry her. Clara was charming, a flirt, and she had a sense of adventure. Not to mention she had a sexy swagger that made my heart gallop. She drove me crazy in the best possible way.
In a sense, she was Linda's complete opposite. Maybe that was the reason why I was drawn to her, but it all came at a price, I realized she wasn't high on life; she was high on an opioid addiction traveling at 100 miles per hour.
Those days were difficult. But as hard as they were on me, they must have been brutal for both Colt and Karen.
It almost felt like as Clara came into the picture, Colt began to grow distant. Whatever we had built up through our shared loss began to be forgotten. Almost like Colt felt I was betraying his mother’s memory. When that wasn’t the case. At all.