Page 14 of Dark Rules

I picked up my phone and called my mom. The woman I thought of as mom, though, I no longer reminded myself that she wasn’t really my mother. She’d been a mother to me when I’d needed one, and that was what mattered.

“Hi there, Mom. How are you?” I said as soon as she picked up.

“I’m alright, honey. How are you?” Her voice, always a little thin and soft, sounded tired now.

I’d tried to get her to bring in more help around the house, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She didn’t want Dad to think he was a burden at all, even if there were alarms on all of the doors and windows now because he’d started to wander in his sleep after the stroke. It wasn’t really that he was a burden, people weren’t burdens after all, but he did require more care now. She refused to have anyone in but the maid and the man they kept to take care of the heavy labor around the house.

“I’m good, Mom, real good.” I couldn’t hide the smile in my voice. Memories of Stephanie flitted around in my head, her smile, the soft sounds she made when she was asleep, and I couldn’t help but smile. I’d called for a reason, though. “How’s Dad? What’s going on?”

“Oh, just a little chest cold that won’t go away, Dylan. The doctor gave him some medicine that should help.” I could tell by the way she tried to brush it all off that she wasn’t being totally honest.

“You know I can come back if you need me, right? I’ll always be available for you and Dad.” I felt guilty when I said that. I had turned my phone off last night, but not because of them. I’d just wanted to be away from the constant ping of emails from the hotels we owned for a little while.

“I know, honey, you’re doing a great job taking care of everything, though. You’re way out there at the beach, and you don’t need to worry about us. Just enjoy your time out there, won’t you please? I know you’re looking to expand, but Dylan, you need to take a break, honey. You work too much.”

“Well, you know better than anyone else, Mom, this business doesn’t create a lot of time for peace and quiet. I’ve found a few moments, though, don’t worry.”

“Hmmm.” She hummed into the phone, and I could picture her face, scrunched with doubt, but then I heard her chuckle. “You might not be our biological son, Dylan, but you sure are like your dad, you know?”

I laughed softly with her and had to agree. “He taught me well. I followed his example, and I have some big shoes to fill.”

My dad was well over six feet tall, and he was a muscular guy, at least, he was before the stroke. Now, he was less of the man he had been. His muscles had shrunk as he recovered from the stroke, and his back was stooped now. Overnight, he’d gone from vital and healthy, to a shadow of who he had once been. His muscles had withered over time, and that, mixed with the paralyzed arm and the slurred speech, had turned him into an old man.

My heart ached when I thought about it all, and I had to take a deep breath. “Is he going to be alright?”

The question came out quietly, softly, a gentle demand for the truth. I deserved honesty and asked for it now.

“It could get bad, but it’s being treated. He should be alright. I’ll let you know, though, Dylan; I promise. I won’t keep you in the dark.” Her voice, always so frail, had a strength behind it when she spoke this time, and I knew she was being honest.

I’d found Dad when the stroke had started. He’d been in his office, trying to call someone, but he couldn’t remember the number. He’d tried to ask me to help him, and the words had come out completely garbled. I’d known something was wrong immediately and had phoned for an ambulance. I was glad now that I’d taken part in the first aid courses all of the staff were required to take. We’d been taught the warning signs of a stroke, and it had taken a second for the signs to coalesce in my head, and I’d acted quickly.

“Okay, I may be unavailable this evening, but I’ll take my other phone with me, okay? If you need me it will work.” I had an old flip phone, good only for phone calls, really, and kept it on hand when I went somewhere that I didn’t want to be disturbed. The only people who had the number were Mom and Dad. It wouldn’t disturb me if they needed me; it was my honor and duty to be there for them.

The rest of the world could fuck right off.

“I know, son. Listen, it’s time to give him his medicine, so I need to go. Please, try to have some kind of fun, won’t you, son?” I could hear the worry in her voice and wanted to make it go away.

“I have, Mom, I promise. My evenings, and sometimes even the days, have been really good. Stressful sometimes, but good. Now, go see to Dad. I’ll talk to you soon. Love you.”

She responded with her own declaration of love and hung up. She was right, I needed to enjoy the place a little more than I had so far. Dad had worked hard at his business, and he’d worked harder to spend time with his family, but he never took time for himself. Oh, he’d go to the gym at the office, and he’d take care of his body, but he never really took time off to enjoy life for himself.

I always suspected one of the reasons they hadn’t had children of their own was the fact that Dad never really stopped working long enough to make any. Which kind of felt disloyal, but it was something I’d wondered about. Neither of them talked about why they’d been childless when I came along, and it didn’t feel proper to ask.

The couple had always been loving, accepting, and encouraging to me, and Mom had always been affectionate, but some things were just personal. I’d come to them as a very young teenager, but despite that, I’d felt as if I’d been with them all my life by the end of the first year. I could barely remember my former life. It was a life not worth thinking about.

I got up from my desk and went to look out of the large window in the room. The beach was in view, some distance away, but still there. I watched it for a while, and then, I went into the bedroom and changed. I put on a pair of dark blue jeans, something I very rarely wore, and a long-sleeved gray shirt.

I had plans later. I was taking Stephanie to a new club, but I’d decided to spend a little time on the beach before that. I drove the car out to a public parking area and got out. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do; it was too cold to swim, even though the sun was out, and most of the tourist attractions held little appeal to me. I started to walk, the black leather loafers on my feet weren’t exactly adequate for beach walking, but I didn’t mind that there was sand in my shoes.

I headed down to the firmer, but wetter, sand near the surf, and put my hands down in my pockets to keep them warm. I had to admit, the sea air was cleansing and smelled good to a boy who had spent his youth surrounded only by freshwater lakes. That was, until my adoptive parents came along and showed me the coast of California and Washington state. I’d even seen the coast along Oregon as they took me along on their travels.

After I’d graduated high school, I’d spent a few weeks up in Vancouver, Canada and had gone back since. The coast was different in each place, but it always smelled the same. The sea, for all its roiling rage, or placid, seductive calmness, always smelled like the same. It calmed me, those few times when I’d escape to it, and the effect was no different now.

A breeze picked up, and my hair blew in the wind. Time for a cut, I thought, but Stephanie loved to run her fingers through it, and I loved how she gripped at it when she came. I closed my eyes as those thoughts filled my head and heard myself groan.

Fuck, that woman was incredible. I sat on a dry patch of sand and looked out at the ocean. I saw gray waves crash and knew a storm was likely on the way. The ocean was usually quite calm here, but today it twisted and churned wildly, stirring up the sand beneath. I thought that was how I felt at the moment, like the sand being churned up by a wave of something I couldn’t control.

I had to get this woman out of my system, I decided, contradicting myself. I’d wanted to know more about her; I’d wanted to spend more time with her than we’d agreed to. But that wasn’t possible; it simply wasn’t. Even if she made me hard as a rock with only a brief thought, she wasn’t meant for me. No woman was.