Page 28 of Crying Shame

And Sam needed the stability that only Elon offered.

9

Elon

I jogged downstairs, but the only person in the pool was my brother. I dove in anyhow as I had some pent-up tension from being near Clarissa and Sam.

I was trying hard to make inroads, but I had no idea if anything was working.

When I came up for air, Charlie laughed and said, “Looks like Clarissa filled out nicely.”

I swam over to him as if I was trying to block his view of her even though she wasn’t even there. “Hey now.”

Charlie swam like he was perfectly at ease. He treaded water and said, “You’re lucky. I have no idea how you kept her a secret from us, but I’m glad she chose you.”

“Why?”

“You were so fucking serious all the time and so devoted to being the best, getting perfect grades, scoring the winning goal. Honestly, you made me feel like a complete slacker.”

Now that was a lie. I finished my lap and said, “You’re determined to prove how carefree you can be, but we both know that’s just because you’re scared.”

“Of what?” Charlie asked like I’d offended him.

I met his gaze. “Of settling down, though I don’t know why that scares you.”

Charlie glared at me. “Because that would make me… old.”

“Ouch.” I pressed my hand to my heart even though I wasn’t offended. The truth was that nothing was wrong with craving a touch of normalcy. But Charlie was always running too fast to notice what was normal.

He asked, “So why did you dump her years ago when she was clearly the best you’d get?”

“I don’t have a scorecard like you.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“I… was focused on being the perfect son to prove to our parents that they'd made the right choice in picking me to be their son.”

“With all the crap I put them through, they still kept me,” he pointed out.

“I don’t have your charm.”

Clarissa strutted toward the pool holding our son’s hand and wearing a black swimsuit that accentuated her curves. She walked Sam to the steps in the shallow end, and he got into the water.

“What are you two talking about?” Clarissa asked.

I couldn’t look away from her, but I refused to scare her with how territorial I was becoming. We’d made no promises to each other.

She lowered herself into the water and still I couldn’t look away.

“Sam and I want to swim for a while, but you two should take an hour or two and go do something fun without us,” Charlie said.

Sam stared across the pool at Charlie. “Yeah?”

“You said you wanted Sam to bond with family,” I reminded Clarissa, but this was her choice.

Sam waved. “Mom, go. I’ll be fine.”

Clarissa hugged herself. “I don’t like leaving you with men you don’t know.”