Chapter 45: Confrontation
*If you want to live a life you’ve never lived, you have to do things you’ve never done. – Jen Sincero*
It was a little lie. Not big. But it would guarantee that her uncle would be home. Looking at the text again, Dean sent it.
‘Uncle O. Need you to sign papers for coach. Be home after school. No practice.’
It was lunch. Reese would be up. She checked her family app and found him leaving the Family Advocacy Center. Good. Maybe Bunny could talk some sense into him.
Plus, he knew that she had her coach for math in the morning. Seriously. What kind of a coach also taught trigonometry? The sadistic kind.
Then again, what kind of an athlete took trigonometry? Possibly a masochist. Obviously, it was a good relationship.
She had made a joke about that one time and the coach heard her. The next day at practice, Dean had found a note in her locker. “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” Dean had busted out laughing and tucked the note away before anyone else saw it.
It was currently framed and sitting on her trophy shelf. State dive champion sat on one side and second place national on the other. Her junior Olympics medals hung beneath them. But her pride was the assistant for the Special Olympics certificate.
Dean chatted with her friends at the lunch table and smiled when she got a message back from ‘King O’ stating that he would be home. The rest of the day seemed to drag out. It did not help any that the substitute teacher in ASL was struggling with understanding the lesson.
Eventually the day ended. She had told her coach that her mom was calling that afternoon. Not a complete lie. She would talk to her mom today. Sometime around eleven tonight.
Dean pulled the Mustang into the driveway and saw that JD was already there. She pulled in behind the Impala blocking any escape route.
“Hi.” JD said getting out of the pickup.
She drank in his swimmers body covered in faded denim and a Motörhead t-shirt. As she got out of her own car, he did the same to her.
She knew that she looked good today. Skinny black jeans with a short sleeve purple sweater. Her hair was pulled back in a braid. Her gold necklace with the pendant of a tiara above the D rested on her shirt.
“Hey. Ready?” She asked giving him a hug.
“Not certain. What are we doing?” he hugged her back.
“Finding out what the hell happened.”
She grabbed his hand and lead him into the smaller house.
“Uncle Owen!”
“Back here, princess.” He called from his office.
“You look like shit.” Dean said getting her first look at him since Saturday.
“I’ve heard that today. JD, what are you doing here?”
“I asked you not to hurt my mom.” JD replied leaning against the doorframe.
“And I told you, it’s over when she said it was.”
“Is it over?” Dean asked quietly.
“I don’t know.” Reese said. “I don’t want it to be over. She asked for time. I have to give her that.”
“She’s fucking crying herself to sleep!” JD screamed at him.
“What do you want me to do?” Reese demanded loudly as he stood up angrily.
“She asked me for space. If I force myself into her life when she doesn’t want me there, what the hell does that make me? Your father was an asshole to her. Her own father basically walked the fuck out on her. Her stepmother used her as a damned punching bag. Her stepbrother raped her whenever the hell he felt like it. I will not be the next one in line to misuse her.”
Reese walked over and looked down at the younger man. “I will not hurt her.” He growled out.
“What are you going to do?” JD growled back.
“I’m going to give her what she asked for.” Reese said with his shoulders slumping in defeat. He scrubbed his hand over his face and then through his short hair. “Past that I don’t know. Hope and pray she doesn’t walk away.”
“She likes dahlia flowers. Always likes going to the arboretum when they’re in bloom. And hibiscus. Star something lily.”
“Why are you telling me that?”
“It wasn’t until you came into her life that I realized how sad and lonely my mom was. She really had no one. On the days that she didn’t want to go to the gym, she went just to see you.”
JD swallowed the lump in his throat. “I knew that she had a hard childhood. And after I saw dad at dinner a while back, I realized how badly he treated her. But you, you didn’t see the overweight middle-aged mother. You saw Helen.”
“She’s a great lady.” Reese said softly as Dean wrapped her arms around his waist. Out of habit, he hugged her and kissed the top of her head.
“She is. Whatever it is that spooked her, I hope you two make it past that.” JD admitted.
“It was the playroom, wasn’t it?” Dean smiled at her uncle.
“I’m not discussing my sex life with either of you.”
“Because you don’t have one right now.” Dean replied.
“Dean.” Reese warned.
“Tell me I'm wrong.” She challenged.
He sighed and squeezed her as he rested his chin on her head and closed his eyes. “You’re not wrong, princess.”
“I know, king.”
“Is it because of her size?” JD asked.
“God, no. I love those thighs.” Reese grinned as an image of her popped into his head.
“Gross. Gross. Gross.” Dean said jumping away from. “Don’t you have control over that thing?”
“I haven’t had sex in three months. He quit listening to me sometime around week two.” Reese admitted and JD laughed.
“You don’t…?” JD made a jerking off motion with his hand.
“Gross!” Dean said.
“Princess, don’t even go there. I know that you used my account to order yourself a toy.” Reese said with a cocked eyebrow.
She looked away, a guilty blush covering her cheeks.
“And no. If my partner abstains, then I abstain.”
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