I hear him scribbling something, and I turn around in the seat while Jackson drives so I can figure out what he’s doing. That’s when I see that the paper says, “Child for adoption,” a moment before he presses it against the window.
“Oh, Waylon, you’re stuck with us now. Now and forever, all mine,” I say as I grab the paper from him, ball it up, and then throw it at his head. In true Waylon fashion, he doesn’t catch it and takes it right to the forehead. “Your reflexes astound me.”
“Thanks,” he grumbles. “Where are we going? Or are you going to blindfold me, traumatize me, and then do something weirdly nice that creeps me out?”
“That one,” I say.
“We thought maybe you’d enjoy doing the skydiving thing again? We didn’t have a lot of time to really plan anything and they had an open slot,” Jackson says as he absolutely shatters my plan to blindfold him.
Waylon is thrilled by Jackson’s words even though it wasmyidea. “Ooh, really? Yes! I want to learn to do those flip things like the instructor was doing.”
“It was my idea,” I mutter.
“Your idea was to blindfold me!” Waylon cries.
Jackson nods. “It’s okay, Waylon. I told him no and that we’d do the skydiving instead.”
I glower at my traitorous husband turning our child against me!
When we reach the place, Waylon doesn’t have to be dragged in like he did last time. He nearly skips inside, which is why we should have put the blindfold on him to slow him down. What if he trips?
“Waylon, you look too happy, it’s bothering me,” I call after him. “I just came here hoping that the bad guys would attack us like they did earlier today, and then I could shoot them frominsidethe wind tube thingy.”
“Hon, you think… you think you’re going to be in the wind tube thingy, and the bad guy is going to be like, ‘Hold tight, let me come in too.’ And then they’re going to just like… slip in and you’re both going to do what exactly? Float for a bit until you can attack him?”
“That’s the plan, Jackson. Why do you insist on ruining all of the fun that could happen in my life? I can kill a man with anything.”
“Definitely with your ego,” Waylon comments.
“He’s vicious!” I say as we sign all the waivers again before the instructor takes over.
“Hi, I’m Ronny, I’ll be your instructor for today. Oh, I had you guys not that long ago. Everyone remember the basics?”
“I do!” Waylon says. “Will we get to do more stuff this time?”
“Yeah, I think I can show you a few new things,” he replies before we get suited up and Waylon heads on in. I think he’s thrilled that because it’s just the three of us, he gets a lot more time in the tube.
“You should have a fight club here and make people fight in these things,” I say.
“Maybe we already do. First rule of fight club,” Ronny jokes before waving Jackson in.
Jackson gives me a look. “Stop starting things.”
I give him my very practiced innocent look. “I’m not!”
Waylon joins me to watch Jackson’s turn. “Waylon, look at your father. Look at him finding his coordination,” I say as Jackson accidentally flips around and the instructor has to stabilize him. “He’ll be able to jump over fences in no time at this rate.”
He scrutinizes his new father. “I’m just… fascinated that you guys accomplish anything. Like when dealing with you normally, I forget you’re competent. Cassel sent me a clip of you throwinga plate at that man to disarm him and Jackson like batting an old video tape.”
“Hold on… you have a video of this?”
“I wasn’t supposed to tell you because Cassel said it’d go to your head.”
“Sure as fuck will. My son called me competent,” I say as I wipe a fake tear away.
“Ha. Ha. I… I’m going to be honest… I actually thought it was pretty impressive, and it made me want to learn a bit more about fighting. But the look on your face makes me want to learn nothing from you.”
“You are evil and I’m fine with that.”
