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We both know from experience that if a teenage daughter wants your help in the bathroom, she’ll tell you. If she doesn’t, then stay the fuck away.
“Lady problems, most likely,” Brad observes, making me wince. As a doctor, it’s just a habit to get annoyed by some of the stuff people come out with, even my best friend.
“How the hell is vomiting aladies’problem?” I challenge him angrily and again, only feeling annoyed because it means another minute I can’t spend looking at Beth if she’s in the bathroom with Lucy.
Brad’s got the hide of a rhino and only chuckles to himself knowingly. “Six months,” he says to himself, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a couple of beers as if he’s the world authority on all things “ladies.”
I should show a bit more respect. Brad had Lucy here for a long time, and not once would he accept my attempts to pay her way, even though she has her own cards I pay for, which I hope she’s been using so Brad hasn’t struggled. Brad does fine. He got into sports medicine when we were in college. I was on the fence between a football career and medicine. I picked medicine after Lucy’s mom, Cathy, got sick. We were just dating back then. Lucy wasn’t even a thought. I was young, dumb, and naïve enough to believe that I could cure her—save her, even at the end.
Having a beer with my buddy should be something I crave as much as seeing my daughter—popping the top and clinking the bottle, creating a poor attempt at a smile as he welcomes me home again. I can’t help thinking how extra bitter and cold the beer is in my mouth. I don’t enjoy it as Cathy’s memory flashes in my mind along with the now-permanent tape of Beth.
“She’ll be fine, Bo,” Brad assures me, jutting his chin to the back door, urging me out onto the porch overlooking the yard that leads to a wooded creek. At first, I figure it’s to give the girls more privacy. The sound of dry heaving isn’t exactly a welcome home soundtrack, but once we’re outside, I can see Brad’s face with concern.
“I just wanted to let you know… and this is hard for me to say, Bowdie,” he starts to say in a low, confidential tone, making my guts twist into a guilty knot. A cold sheen of sweat dots my brow.
He knows. Of course, he fucking knows! Any fool could see the way you’ve been ogling her.
In a moment, I’m prepared for the “keep your goddamned eyes off my daughter” speech, but it never comes.
“What is it?” I rasp, feeling my throat drying up despite taking another pull from my beer.
“It’s-it’s just that… Well,” he says, looking uneasy.
“Brad,” I tell him firmly, signaling to spit it out.
“They’re just at that age, I guess,” he muses. “Boyfriends, I mean, and well… I just—” he starts to say, but I’ve already got him by the collar.
“What do you mean she’s got a fucking boyfriend?” I snarl, shocking Brad and only surprising myself that I haven’t grabbed his throat and choked him because I’m so mad. A surge of rage courses through me at the thought of it.
The unthinkable… Beth with a boy. Fuck! Beth with anyone except me. It’s not gonna happen!
“Hey… Hey! What the fuck, Bowdie!?” Brad says swiftly, holding both his arms out in a display of instant surrender, but it’s hard for me to let it go, to let him go.
“I just figured you oughta know,” he explains, my eyes wild and my free hand balling into a fist.
“I thought you’d rather hear it from me than Lucy,” he says meekly. “Just as well, if this is your reaction to her having a boyfriend. Jesus, Bowdie!” he exclaims, haughtily freeing himself from my grip and readjusting his collar before stepping back inside, shaking his head to himself.
Lucy? A boyfriend?
Six months ago, that would have been my biggest fear as a parent, that and her getting knocked up, but I’ve had other things on my mind since then. The only thing hearing that Lucy has a boyfriend makes me feel is a new kind of panic.
Oh, thank fuck for that, but if Lucy has one, then who’s to say Beth doesn’t either?
In a split second of a New York minute, I’m flinging the screen door open with a bang, spinning Brad by his shoulder to face me.
“And Beth!?” I gasp, feeling all my sanity about to leave me for good if it turns out to be true. If Beth has feelings for anyone else, there’s no telling what I’d be capable of the way I reacted just now. If Beth already has a boyfriend, I’d have to do the unthinkable.
“And Beth, what?” I hear her ask with concern and suspicion, shifting my gaze to see Beth standing in the hallway by the kitchen.
CHAPTERTHREE
Beth
Dad tries to brush it off, but I can see something happened between Bowdie and him in a second. Lucy’s pretty much told me to leave her alone, and now it looks like these two are having their own problems. This is not the Bowdie Bigg fantasy I’ve been having for months on end, and it’s not how I want to face the reality of it being just a fantasy, either.
“It’s nothing, sweetie,” Dad smiles, “How’s Lucy? Is she alright?” he asks with genuine concern.
Bowdie only gives me a dark look before he moves toward me, but seeing him look past me, I know to get out of his way. His huge frame fills the hallway as he reaches the bathroom door in four long steps, knocking gently and murmuring to Lucy.
