“It was amazing, Cujo, thanks,” she said and walk toward the rest of her friends.
It took them another forty minutes to see everybody off, clean down the boards, and rinse off the life jackets.When everything was loaded and secured on the special trailer, Connor suggested going out again, just the two of them.
“What’s got you out of sorts?”Connor asked, pushing them at a fair clip through the water.Cujo was glad of the pace.A good workout would settle the feelings rushing around inside him.
“That obvious?”Connor had always been the more intuitive.
“Nah.Not really.You just seem a bit down.”
“Things are happening between me and Drea.Well, they were, until I spent time with dad and mom the last couple of days.”He hated sounding weak, but Connor got him better than most.The sky was almost blood red, impossible to paint, yet painfully appropriate.
Connor started to pull away.“Yeah.The mom-thing is fucked up.What’s the deal with Dad?”
“He’s waited for her.All these years.”Cujo paddled hard to close the gap.“We had words about it.She’s going to hurt him again.”
“But she might not.We owe it to ourselves, not her, to figure out if she’s changed.But what’s it got to do with you and Drea?”
It sounded so simple when Connor put it like that.“I don’t know.I thought I had my head on straight.We’ve done okay in life without Mom.”
“So…” Conner said, slowing his board down until they faced an open expanse at the end of the waterway.
“You’d think I be over this shit.Over the fact she left us.”
“You think Drea’s going to do the same to you?”
Cujo couldn’t answer.All along, he’d thought the problem was he didn’t want to get involved.That he somehow was being pulled into a relationship he didn’t need.Or that it was unfair on the woman because of his cancer.The reality hit him hard.His deepest fear was that he would fall hard and fast, and that Drea would leave him as heartbroken as his father.
“You know.Mom isn’t Drea, and you aren’t Dad.Not to say you won’t have issues, hell, I don’t know a single couple that doesn’t.But they’ll be your own.”
They stood on their boards in silence, studying the dying embers of the sunset.
He needed a good night’s sleep, then in the morning, he was going to find Drea.He owed her a huge apology.
And maybe a couple of orgasms.
***
Drea’s eyes itched as she struggled to get her key into the lock on the front door of her house.Running on four hours sleep was getting old fast.
The hundred-dollar tip from Trip sat in her wallet, taunting her.Lord knows it would come in handy for this week’s groceries, but keeping the money felt wrong.
Perhaps she’d give it to Cujo to pay off part of her car debt.
The idea of getting into bed alone when what she really wanted was to crawl into bed next to Cujo’s warm naked body was a touch depressing.But her mom would need help in the morning, and Cujo hadn’t responded to her text.
She pushed the door but it wouldn’t open, something was blocking it.She sighed and rolled her head to loosen the stiff muscles in her neck.Please don’t let something else be broken.One step forward, two steps back.Drea put her shoulder to the door and gave it a shove.She stepped inside, the pole that held her mom’s oxygen tube was lying across the floor.Drea’s heart sank, and she ran into the living room that doubled as her mom’s bedroom.
“Mom!”she cried, as she sank to her knees, careful not to move her.Rosa’s leg was bent at an awkward angle and she had a large bump on her head, likely from hitting it on the floor.
“Drea,” she croaked, grasping for her daughter’s hand.
“I’m here.How long have you been like this?”Drea pulled her phone out of her pocket, and perched it under her ear as she dragged the tank and mask closer, fixing the elastic around her mom’s face.
“Nine one one.What’s your emergency?”
“My mom, she’s fallen.She has COPD.Her leg looks broken.Please.She can’t breathe.”She gave the operator all the information she asked for and put the phone, still connected, down by her side.
Drea brushed her hand across her mom’s forehead.“They’re on their way, Mom.I—”
