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“Oh my God,” she muses, dropping her head back. “Hell has frozen over or something, I swear. I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” she shakes her head and brings it back up. “I never thought I’d see the day. So have you guys been hanging out?” Before I can answer, she jolts forward, wide-eyed, and sucks in a sharp gasp. “Has he been mean to you?”
“No, no,” I shake my head and wave my hands, willing her to calm down. “We haven’t hung out a lot. I gave him a haircut a few days ago, and he kind of freaked out a little and left, and then he came back this morning and offered to coach Luna’s team.”
“He’s so fucking weird,” she muses, folding her arms on the side of the chair, “but he’s still a good person that I wish would start enjoying life again. It seems like he’s tried while I’ve been gone, and he’s doing something nice for Luna,” she reaches over to pat my arm and I nod complacently. “Why do you seem so bummed about that?” She gives me her wide greenI’m listeningeyes. I take a deep breath and pluck up the courage to say how I’m feeling out loud.
“Well, one, you know how I am about people giving me help.”
Melanie heaves a big sigh but doesn’t respond otherwise. She and Matt, along with my mother, have tried to reason with me, but they also know what a difficult battle it is.
“And two,” I tell her before my first point can be come a topic of discussion, “he doesn’t live here, and it’s probably only a matter of time before he goes back to the other side of the world.”
“Which will be hard because Luna likes him,” Mel gives me another sigh with an understanding nod.
“And so do I,” I confess. “As Luna would say, Ilike himlike him.”
Ben
What the fuck did I get myself into?
My head! My ears!I don’t know which is going to rupture first as I endure the cacophony of Luna singing along with Taylor Swift at the top of her lungs. Her friend Brayden seems to be with me on the choice of music, but he’s only making things worse by yelling “Turn this crap off and put on your uncle’s music!”as he holds his hands over his ears.
Speaking of ears, mine are still ringing after I pull up to the salon and kill the engine along with the radio.
“Is that your uncle?!” Brayden asks Luna excitedly as we all unstrap. I look up to see that I’m parked next to a pretty sweet Jeep, and sure enough, Matt is lounging back against the front grill with his arms crossed.
“Uncle Matt!” Luna gleefully calls as she pushes open her car door. I take my time getting out of the car so they can reunite, and so that I can try to calm my buzzing ear drums. If that didn’t make me want to crawl back below deck on my sailboat, nothing will.
“Hey, Ben,” Matt greets me with an outstretched hand, seeming unbothered by Luna on one side of him talking a mile a minute about everything she’s been doing while he was on his honeymoon, all while Brayden acts as his own personal fan boy on his other side.
“Hey, Matt,” I return as I shake his hand.
“Glad to see you’re still here. What made you stay?” he asks as he looks between me and the kids, a million questions on his face, no doubt wondering what I’m doing at his sister’s place of employment with her kid.
“I took a few days to recoup at your place,” I explain as I rest my hands on my hips. “And when I came to Kasey for a haircut, I found out Luna’s coach got injured, so I offered to help out in the meantime.”
“Nice,” he tells me with an appreciative nod as Luna proceeds to jerk on his arm for attention.
“So how was the honeymoon?” I ask, after reminding myself that normal humans generally engage in polite small talk.
“Do you smash your guitar on stage?” Brayden asks Matt, with intense, wide eyes. Clearly Matt’s used to this kind of attention as he rests his hand on the kid’s shoulder.
“I’ll answer all your questions in a minute buddy,” he placates him before turning back to me. “It was fantastic and relaxing, but it’s good to me home. Speaking of, we just got back and were going to ask Kasey and Luna to dinner. Do you want to join us?”
I take a second to respond, not sure if I should tell him I was originally going to have dinner with Kasey and Luna, but decide against it. They have more of a right to plans with them than I do.
“I’d love to, but if you’d prefer it be a family thing, I totally get that,” I respond, holding a hand out in an understanding gesture, yet I feel a slight pang in my gut when I consider the idea.
“No,” he scoffs like that’s ridiculous, “we’d love to have you. And it’s our treat, to thank you for everything. I insist.”
“Okay, I guess if it’s alright with Kasey,” I think back to her disposition earlier and wonder if I should give her an out, even though I don’t want to.
“Hey, Loser, you’re coming to dinner with us!” Melanie caws from the sidewalk as she comes out of the salon with her hand clutching Kasey’s.
“Nice to see you too,” I snarl with an eyeroll. Shithead.
She ignores me and opens her arms for Luna to run into. After a mini family reunion, we start walking in the direction of Howies, an outdoor pizza joint with an arcade and play area where we’re apparently going. I let Kasey walk ahead and catch up with her brother as the kids run circles around them and just as I feared, Melanie hangs back and walks along beside me.
Fuck this moment in my life.
