Brown eyes filled with remorse looked up at him. It was uncanny how much they looked alike. Selfishly, it pleased him that when he looked at his son, he saw a mirror image of himself rather than the boy’s mother.
“First off, I will always come for you. I don’t care if it’s raining, snowing, or you’re in another state. I don’t even care if it’s not an emergency. I will always come for you.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Second, you will never bother me, and tough shit if you interrupt something. You come first, Ezra. Always. It’s part of being a dad.”
Ezra nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Third. No more getting into cars when there aren’t enough seat belts to go around. Ever. You got me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m glad we understand each other.”
There was a pause as Lucas picked up his coffee cup and went to top it off. He had a feeling he was going to need extra fuel for the next part of this conversation.
His son watched him, waiting. When it was clear Lucas would say nothing else about the accident, his son seemed nonplussed. “That’s it?”
“Yup.”
“I’m not grounded?”
“Do you think you should be?”
“Well… no. I mean, it was an accident. Ryker didn’t mean to hit anyone, and we certainly didn’t want to either.” He stopped, an odd look on his face.
“But?” Lucas asked.
“I just figured you would ground me from riding in the car with Ryker anymore or something.”
“Ezra, you’re eighteen in a few months. You’ll be going to college next fall. You’re a little old for me to be grounding you, don’t you think?”
“I guess.”
“I thought it was an accident. You look like you’re feeling guilty. Do you want me to ground you?”
“No!”
“So what’s the problem?”
Ezra sighed, running his hand through his hair, once again looking like a mirror image of him when he made the samegesture. “I just… I feel like I should do something. I mean, I wasn’t driving, but I was there. And Ryker really could have hurt those people. And us. Kennedy was hurt badly. The rest of us were lucky.”
“You were lucky.” He eyed his son over the cup’s rim. “Is there something you could do that would make you feel better? Less guilty, even though technically it wasn’t your fault?”
The boy sat for a moment, playing with the knife he’d used to spread the cream cheese on his bagel. “I feel like I should check on Kennedy and Oscar today. Maybe take them lunch or something?” His mouth twisted. “Probably Ryker, too, although I still think he was faking his injury for attention,” he grumbled.
“I think that would be a wonderful gesture. Shows you care about them and are concerned for their welfare.”
“Well, I know Ryker won’t do it, even though the accident was likely all his fault, so I feel like I should step up.”
He hid his smile behind the cup raised to his mouth. Ezra was a good kid, and it amazed him that he had done such a good job raising him. Part of it was probably just the kid’s nature, but he’d be stupid not to realize that most of it was parenting. There were many nights he’d lain awake, worried about the lack of a mother's presence in the child’s life. Wondering how badly he was fucking up trying to do the single-parent thing. As time went by, he realized he’d done pretty damn good as a father, and this was one of those times.
Sometimes, letting kids think about it and figure things out for themselves was a far better route than punishing them. They were often harder on themselves than any parent could be.
"Can I ask you something?”
Lucas nodded. “Of course. You can ask me anything.”
