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I laughed. Xander had decided to drive up to Bear Trodden Acres the weekend before to surprise Lolly with the fact that we’d arrived in Colorado a few days early. He’d seen her car in the parking lot, so when she hadn’t answered the door, he’d started to worry that there was a reason she couldn’t get to it and he’d let himself into the apartment.
And gotten an eyeful.
Seeing your aunt naked on a frequent basis was bad enough, but seeing her getting pleasured by a sixty-something-year old man on the coffee table was entirely another.
I kissed his cheek and then stepped out of the shower and quickly dried off. I nearly tripped over Bear when I opened the bathroom door. The dog always slept with Lucky, but when it came time for breakfast, he never failed to search me out since I was typically the first one up each morning. The animal sent me a baleful look like he knew what Xander and I had been doing.
“If you still had certain body parts, you’d understand,” I said to the dog as I padded to the dresser to slip on my clothes. Bear followed me from the room, so I fed him first before getting the coffee going. Once I’d let him outside, I hurried to Lucky’s room.
“Come on, buddy, time to get up,” I called as I flipped on the lights and pulled the cover off his bed. I tossed it to the floor before going to the window and drawing back the curtain.
“Too early,” he groaned as he covered his head with a pillow.
“I’m leaving in fifteen minutes. If you aren’t in the car with me, I’ll assume you’re going with Xander to pick up Aunt Lolly.”
“I’m up,” Lucky said as he tossed the pillow aside and sat up.
I chuckled. “Thought so.”
“Hey B,” Lucky called just before I left the room.
“Yeah?”
I stopped in the doorway. Lucky had turned seventeen a month earlier, and I couldn’t get over how much he’d changed. He’d grown taller and filled out, and while he was still lean, the many weekends we’d spent hiking in the Catskills had given him quite a bit of muscle definition. But even though he’d changed physically, he still carried some of the same insecurities that came with the trauma he’d faced as a child.
It hadn’t quite been a year since he’d come to live with us, but there were times where he still seemed to worry that we were going to change our minds about him being ours. It wasn’t so much that he said anything; it was in the way he behaved. He was always on his best behavior, and if he did something he perceived as bad, like breaking a dish or getting a less than stellar grade on a test or report card, there’d be this silent plea in his eyes as he apologized or told us he could do better.
Xander and I hoped it was something he’d eventually outgrow. In the meantime, we did anything and everything we could to remind Lucky on a daily basis that he was loved unconditionally and here to stay.
Lucky fidgeted for a moment. “You think they’ll like me?”
“Who?” I asked as I moved farther into the room.
“Nothing. Never mind… it’s stupid.”
Deflection was another Lucky trademark. I went to sit down on the bed next to him. “Who?” I repeated, though I suspected who he was talking about.
When he didn’t say anything, I asked, “You mean the kids out here?”
He nodded.
Even though school didn’t start for a few months, Lucky had been stressing about not making friends long before we’d left New York. While he’d had an okay year at his previous school, he’d continued to feel the sting of losing Calvin. His feelings for the other boy hadn’t waned like we’d hoped they would. Our hope was that some distance would help, and if we were really lucky, he’d meet someone else out here who could take his mind off his first crush.
“I think they’re going to see the same things Xander and I do. That you’re an amazing kid, Lucky. And they’d be damned lucky to be friends with you.”
Lucky nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”
I leaned my shoulder against his to give him a little bump. “Did you see what I did there? They’d be lucky to be friends with you…”
“God, you’re such a weirdo, B,” he said, his voice sounding a little lighter.
I put my arm around him and gave him a quick kiss on the top of the head. I knew he was probably too old for the displays of affection, but as long as he continued to indulge me, I’d keep on doing it. Anything to make it clear to him how much he was loved.
“Get moving, or the only muffins you’ll be seeing this morning aren’t the good kind.”
