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“It’s not what you—”
“Oh my God, are you—”
We spoke at the same time.But I recovered first and made a split-second decision to go with direct honesty.“Roxanne,” I said softly, imploring her with my eyes.“Please don’t say anything, okay?”
“To Ben?”She shook her head.“Of course not.I wouldn’t—”
“To Leo.”I swallowed hard.“And of course, not to Keith.”
“Leo doesn’t know?”Confusion clouded her eyes and she glanced behind her, as if the men would be hovering.“How can he not...how far along are you?”
Both were questions I didn’t want to answer, but I could tell she wasn’t going to be satisfied until I said something.“It’s just not a good time to worry him with it right now.”
“Why would he be worried about a baby?”
Tears welled up in my eyes and I couldn’t answer her because there was no answer for that question.Besides, from what she’d just told me, it wasn’t Leo who should be worried about the truth.It was me.
~Leo~
“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”
I looked over at Ben, who was balanced like a pro on his board, paddling through the water with an ease that made me more than a little bit jealous as my toes dug into the foam under my feet in a desperate attempt to keep my balance.
“Dad, hurry up and catch up to me,” Ben called moments before he dug his paddle in and moved even farther away.
“I would if you stopped moving long enough,” I yelled after him.The action caused me to lose what little balance I had.I dropped to my knees to keep from plunging into the water and making a fool of myself, again.“This is fucking stupid,” I muttered under my breath.
“I heard that.”Ben laughed and circled around closer to me.“Mom said using curse words is the sign of low intelligence.”
“Your mother is right.”I slowly stood again and took a moment to find my center of gravity again.“But sometimes the only word to fit a situation is a curse word.But only if you’re an adult,” I added quickly.I could only imagine what Lexi would say if that piece of information found its way back to her.“So don’t try it.”
Ben laughed again and brought his board to a stop next to mine.“You need to relax, Dad.You’re trying too hard.That’s why you keep falling.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”I tensed my body and reached forward with the paddle, wobbling uncontrollably.“How am I supposed to relax?”
“Just breathe.It’s just like standing on the ground.There’s no reason you would fall over standing on the beach, right?So don’t fall over on the board.”
He made it sound so simple, too simple.I snuck a glance at him and quickly looked away again because it was only discouraging to see the way he ran up and down, with no concern for balance, or falling into the cold water.“Seriously, Dad.Breathe.”
I did as instructed, because I had nothing to lose by trying.I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply and filled my lungs before I exhaled slowly.I did it two more times before I reached forward with my paddle and dipped it into the water.To my surprise, the board moved easily through the water and even better, I didn’t wobble at all.
“See?It works.”
I opened my eyes slowly and saw him in my peripheral, moving slowly alongside me.“It does seem to be working,” I admitted reluctantly.
“Just keep breathing, Dad.”
I did as my son suggested and it worked.After a few minutes, I relaxed my toes and even started to enjoy myself.We paddled around the bay in front of the hotel’s beach, and at one point I was even comfortable enough to risk a glance at Oasis.There was no doubt it could be a beautiful resort with a little bit of work.Work I was more than willing to put in.But first, I had a few minor—okay...not so minor—details to work out.
“So what do you think of it here?”I asked the question casually as we pulled the boards up onto the beach and flipped them upside-down.“Do you like it?Think you could see yourself spending a little time here?”
“Of course.”Ben grabbed my paddle and took them to the storage shed next to the board rack.“This is the coolest place ever,” he said when he returned.“I’d love to hang out here more often and Evan and Ruby are awesome.Can they come visit us at home?After we’re back?I think they’d like our lake, too.But it’s probably too cold for them.They’re such wusses—they thinkthislake is too cold.”Ben laughed and I gave him a minute before trying to pull him back to the conversation at hand.
“So, if I was to talk to your mom about maybe having a change of scenery for a while, do you think you’d be okay with that or would you miss your friends too much?”I knew it probably wasn’t the best way to approach the conversation of potentially moving to Lake Las Vegas, especially considering I still hadn’t said anything to Lexi.I hadn’t really planned to try to get Ben on board first, but hanging out with him on the water, it just seemed like a good time to ask him about it.Besides, I was pretty sure I knew what he’d say.
“Likelivehere?”His eyes got wide and he stared at me.“Instead of Lake Lillian?What about Mom?”
“Well, of course Mom, too.”
