BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (67 page)

Valerie made a face and I had a feeling
that I had said too much. “Eww…Are you hungry?”

I shook my head. “No. I always find
something.” I shrugged and added, “Mom is almost always at her boyfriend’s. I
don’t really have much to do with her and just like when I was little, she has
very little to do with me.” I shrugged. “I guess it’s a mutual thing. I’m not
really sure.”

“Well, have you ever considered coming
home?” she asked me, almost as though she was far too hopeful about it.

I tried to remain neutral. “Yeah, I guess.
But it’s not like it’s much better. My dad definitely doesn’t want me to come
back.”

“You don’t know that,” she answered. “I
think he misses you. My mom thinks he misses you and we know that we miss you.
My mom talks about you all the time.”

I considered it for a moment and answered
thoughtfully, “You really think so? You think he actually misses me, you mean?”

“Absolutely. You’re his son. He wants you
to be happy.”

“But this,” I replied, unable to stop
myself, “makes me think that he is just the same as he always was.”

“He is. I just think that you two should
try to work things out. Instead of being so passive aggressive with him, you
need to talk to him. You should tell him that what he is doing bothers you and
that you want to have the father you remember back.”

I stared at her strangely for a moment,
since I wasn’t used to her being so blatant and open with me. “I don’t know. I
think that he’s just going to shut me out.”

She shrugged. “All you can do is try.”
After she stopped the car at a light, she looked over at me and answered with a
heavy connotation, “At the very least, the ratio of food to alcohol is always
far more appealing. If you don’t want to starve, that is.”

I
knew that was going to come back to haunt me,
I thought,
realizing that probably wouldn’t be the last time I had my honest words used
against me.

I shrugged and even as I made my defense,
I knew that it was not only lame, but also far too late. “It’s really not that
bad. I mean, I’m not
starving
. I
always manage. It’s just annoying.”

She nodded. “Well, that still doesn’t
sound like an environment I would like to have to spend my last year of high
school in. Your father might be rough on you, but at least you know that he
loves you and is going to provide for you.”

“Yeah…If he’ll take me back into ‘his
house’ as he likes to say.”

“I’m sure he will,” she answered and then
as she started the car again, she smiled. “In fact, why don’t we test the
waters? Come to the house one night next week. Have an actual home-cooked meal
and enjoy our company. I know that my mother and I would love to have you and
if you feel so inclined, you can talk to your father about moving back home…or
at least have a conversation with him about how you’re feeling and if things
don’t go well, you can just go home.”

With that, we pulled into my mother’s
driveway. I stared up at the house and realized that I really didn’t want to stay
there for much longer. I must have really felt weird though, because I realized
that I was seriously considering what she was saying. In fact, after a few
moments of contemplation, I realized that I actually did want to go to dinner
with them. I wanted to enjoy a meal at the table where I had grown up and spend
time with the people who mattered to me, just as much as I mattered to them.

As I found out, somewhat begrudgingly,
that was an extremely short list.

Finally, I answered, “You know what?
Sure!”

“Really?” Valerie asked, seeming extremely
excited about the possibility of me working things out with my father.

I didn’t know why she cared so much, but I
was happy that she did. It made me feel good to know that at least somebody was
looking out for me.

“Yeah,” I smiled, realizing that her
excitement was somewhat contagious. “I guess I could do that. Just tell me what
day to show up. My schedule is open.”

Chapter
25

Valerie

Even with my excitement over the new car,
after I left Shawn’s mom’s house, I couldn’t wait to get home to tell mom. She
was ecstatic to hear that he wanted to come home, even just for dinner, and
went right to the calendar.

Unfortunately, even though Shawn’s
schedule was clear, that didn’t mean that everyone else’s was. While my mother
made it clear that Shawn was always and would always be welcome to eat over
whenever he wanted, a formal dinner could not be arranged until a week later.

Nonetheless, I was enjoying the
possibilities of our life together. Throughout that week at school even though
everything had changed, it seemed like everything had actually gone back to a
sense of normal that we had not experienced together in a long time.

We started having lunch together again,
and even though we didn’t tell anyone about our relationship, we made it a
point to spend every minute we could together. I picked him up for school and
in return, he had even kept the smart remarks about my new car to himself.

For the first time in a long time, we were
actually having a great time together and I couldn’t wait to see where the new
possibilities would lead.

Still, the week dragged on since I was so
excited about him coming over, but finally, tonight was the night.

So, instead of dropping him off at his
mother’s house, who still hadn’t returned home more than once since he had last
seen her, I brought him back to his family home.

I had to admit though, when we pulled in
the driveway, it was a little strange. So much had changed and so much time had
passed since the last time we had done this, that it seemed almost awkward.

Yet, I was too excited to allow it to be
anything less than exhilarating.

Staring at the house alongside of him, I
knew that it would only be a matter of time before my mother rushed out to meet
us. She was happy about having the two of us home and like me, she had looked
forward to the dinner and talked about it all week.

I only hoped that Shawn felt the same.
Even though he seemed to be happy about the whole thing, today, he was
particularly quiet.

I wanted him to be as overjoyed as we
were. But the fact of the matter was, he seemed as though he was doing this
just to make me happy, or perhaps to make my mother happy.

At first, he seemed to have been into it,
but throughout the week, I was always the one to bring it up. And when I looked
at him now, staring through the passenger’s side of the windshield, I couldn’t
quite pinpoint his expression. There was a slight amount of intrigue in his
eyes, but there was also a sense of reservation and I wasn’t sure why.

However, I knew that it was probably
better not to ask. After all, if I brought attention to his nervousness, or
whatever it was that was bothering him, that might only make it worse. I
doubted highly that he wanted to talk about anything, since we were sitting in
the driveway, and there really was no turning back.

I touched his arm lightly, and when his
eyes broke away from the hard stare he had with the house, I gave him a
comforting smile. His lips curled up in a twisted grin, but then ticked down,
just as quickly and I heard him sigh.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

“Yeah…This is going to be fun,” and
without giving me a moment to respond, he shoved the door of the car open and
got out.

I followed him up the driveway, and as
though she was looking on from behind the curtains, just as I had suspected, my
mother ran outside. She threw her arms up in the air and embraced Shawn
eagerly.

“Hello Shawn! I have missed you so much!”

He laughed somewhat nervously. “Hi…I have
missed you too.”

“We are so happy that you decided to come
to dinner tonight,” my mother replied, stepping back from him and looking him
over. “And it seems like you need a good, home-cooked meal. Honey, you look as
though you’ve lost a good amount of weight. What is that woman feeding you?”

Even though Shawn just smiled, I averted
my eyes. I hadn’t told my mother what Shawn had told me, because I didn’t
believe it was my place. Besides, if I had repeated any of Shawn’s experiences
living with his biological mother, my mom would probably have busted down the
door and dragged him out of there.

That probably wouldn’t have ended well.

Thankfully, my mother didn’t pry too much.
When no one answered her about the food, she shook her head and turned back
toward the house. “Well, it’s almost ready. You know how your father likes to
have dinner at a specific time.”

My mother was almost back at the front
door so she didn’t hear, but I heard Shawn reply in a malice-stricken voice,
“Yes…my father,” before rolling his eyes.
 
That was the beginning of the end of the idea that we were going to have
a nice evening.

The meal was strained from the start and
it wasn’t completely Shawn’s fault. Even though we were certain that Paul had
missed Shawn, you would have never known it by the way he was acting.

Every question he asked his son was
pointed and borderline, if not blatantly inappropriate, while each answer that
Shawn gave was curt and usually sarcastic.

My mother and I just sat across from one
another, giving one another eyes of what was going on. Neither one of us could
understand what was happening between Shawn and his father. Increasingly, we
were growing slightly concerned.

With each word exchanged between father
and son, it became even more obvious that this was not going at all the way
that my mother and I had planned. Yet, when our efforts to lighten the tension
failed, we believed that if we tried anymore, things would turn even uglier.

As it turned out, our input was not needed
to make anything worse.

When Paul brought up the new car, we were
sure this dinner was over. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there.

“So,” Paul exclaimed, almost as though he
was taking pride in the awkwardness that he helped to create, “did Valerie tell
you about her new car?”

“Paul!” my mother hissed, glaring at him.

Paul shrugged. “He’s a man. He should be
able to take it. He should also be happy for Valerie…if he is as good of a
friend as he claims to be.”

“Yes,” Shawn answered boastfully. “In
fact, if you noticed when you drove up, she was the one who brought me here.”

“What’s the matter? Your car didn’t hold
up?” he replied, almost as though he was truly aiming to taunt Shawn.

“Well, it definitely would have held up
better had I had a nice car given to me, but since I had to work for mine and
was limited in the selection that I had to choose from, then yes, it does come
with its challenges.”

“Well, if you weren’t so lazy and I didn’t
have to push you toward every inch you make in your stride, perhaps things
could have been different,” Paul shot back.

“Maybe if you would give me some credit
around here instead of trying to make everything I do seem horrifically wrong,
then I wouldn’t feel the need to give up so quickly.”

“Are you kidding? You give up on
everything.”

“Because you treat me unfairly.”

At this, Paul slammed his fist down of the
table. “I treat you like a man! I taught you to take care of yourself!”

“Yeah, by the very obvious favoritism. I
hope if I ever become a father, I am nothing like you! I want my children to
know that they’re worth something,” Shawn hissed back.

“Well, I hope your children are worth
something and actually apply themselves. Then they will have my respect.”

Shawn landed a low blow that spiraled
everything out of control. “What the hell, Dad? Do you think I’m jealous of
that stupid car? Do you think I care? You might think I’m worthless and that’s
fine, but what I don’t like is being compared negatively to some asshole who
treats his woman like crap.” At that, he shoved himself away from the table and
stormed to his feet. “Why don’t you be more like Zachary? Zachary is the wonder
child. He can do anything you can do but better…that’s what you’ve always said,
right? Well, guess what he can’t do better…be with Valerie.”

“Shawn!” I screamed, getting to my feet as
I felt my blood pressure rise. Immediately, I thought I was going to be sick.

Shawn glanced around at all of the
confused expressions and went on, now far too angry to quit. “Oh yeah…I don’t
know if Valerie told you, but Zachary cheated on her and do you know where she
came? She came to me and we fucked. We’re together now.”

At this, I heard my mother gasp as I
screamed an outraged, “Shawn, shut up!”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Paul demanded, now getting to his feet, immediately red in the face.

“I know exactly what I’m doing, Pops! I’m
fucking your princess and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

Our parents’ eyes grew wide and I was sure
that I was going to be sick. I was about to sucker punch him in the jaw, just
like Dalilah had done, just to shut him up; but before anyone could fully
react, he stared at me and spat, “I’m sorry. As you can see, this didn’t go
well.”