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Everyone rushes to leave practice Friday afternoon. It’s sweltering out and we only have one weight session this whole weekend. After hours of practice this past week, that sounds like a mini vacation.
I finish getting dressed and say goodbye to the few remaining guys in the locker room, leaving through the side door that leads right out into the parking lot. I’m halfway to my truck when my phone rings.
I pull it out of my pocket.
Momisflashing across the screen.
I sigh, then answer.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Are you in some sort of trouble?” she demands.
“What? No.”
“Don’t lie to me, Caleb. Your father and I can help. There’s a private investigator who—”
“Mom. I’m not in any trouble. I swear.” I reach my truck and toss my baseball bag in the back.
“Why did you transfer half a million dollars out of your trust fund, then?”
And…there it is. I kick the back tire as I pass it, annoyed but not surprised. “You and Dad weren’t supposed to have any access or control over that account after I turned eighteen.”
“Our financial manager does. A transfer that size raises flags, Caleb. Is someone blackmailing you? Is it drugs? Gambling?”
I’m disturbed and amused those are the first assumptions she’s making. And dreading the truth. Naively, I guess, I thought she and my dad wouldn’t find out.
“I told your father you shouldn’t have access to that trust fund until you were twenty-five. Did he listen to me? Of course not.”
I keep silent. I’m guessing she knows exactly where the money went. Knew before she called.
“You gave money toher.”
I stay silent.
“Isshein some sort of trouble? There’s—”
“It was a gift.”
“Agift? Your father gave me diamond earrings while we were dating. He didn’t write me a check forfive hundred thousand dollars.I mean really, Caleb, what were you possibly thinking?”
“I was thinking that she needs money and I have money.”
“Plenty of people need money, Caleb. Are you going to start passing out hundred-dollar bills to strangers on the street, too?”
“I’m not planning to spend the rest of my life withplenty of people, Mom. Just her.”
Silence. It’s the farthest I’ve gone, when defending Lennon to my parents.
“You don’t even know where you’ll be living next year, Caleb” she finally says. “I know she matters to you right now, but things change. People change.”
“I’m going to marry her, Mom. You—and Dad—can flip out about it all you want. It won’t change anything. Except your involvement in my life, going forward. I’ll stop answering the phone.”
“There’s no need to react hastily, Caleb.”
“Hastily? We’ve been dating for almost three years, Mom. When are you going to get over it?”
