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“Only if we can pillow fight. Just you and me though.”
He cracks up. “Yeah, right. Video and send it to all the cousins.”
I smirk, “Nah, just our ‘rents and the aunts and uncles.”
“Dude. We have to! Please do this for me.”
Taking a drag from my beer like I’m thinking on a pillow fight video, I make him wait and then dryly, “No way in hell,” raising my voice to shout, “You can stay! I have pulling scheduled for tomorrow.” Looking at Ethan I explain, “When the veggies are ready to be picked, timing is everything.”
Not a guy to work with his hands, my cousin nods like he knows absolutely nothing about the art of farming, but respects it. We’re different, always have been, but it never mattered. Ethan is my best friend among the cousins. We used to hit the city together when we were single. We never fought. Never had to explain anything.
I shout to Jonny, “Come in here!”
My son runs in wearing spare swim-trunks they keep for guests who hadn’t planned on using the pool. The brown hair he inherited from me is plastered to his head, hanging over his green eyes we just got contacts for. “Yeah, Dad?”
“I’ll pick you up tomorrow around one.” Glancing to Ethan I ask, “That okay on a Sunday?”
“Yep.”
Jonny frowns. “You’re not going to bowl with me?”
The room is silent for a second until Kaya runs in, looking like she blow-dried her hair. She halts. “What’s going on? Feels weird in here.”
My chest is tight. I know Shelby will have a fit for a couple of reasons.
Ethan announces, “He’s afraid I’ll beat him at bowling, too.”
I laugh, but it’s forced. “I’ll stay for one game.”
And I win. But when they try to get me to play another, Ethan walks me out instead. Jonny runs after me, “Dad!”
“Yeah kid?”
He runs into the foyer after us, body lanky from the latest growth spurt. It’ll be years ’til he’s a teenager, but he’s already the tallest in his class. I’m six-six so it’s no surprise. The intensity with which he hugs me, is. I lock eyes with Ethan, hugging my son just as hard. “I’ll see you tomorrow, buddy.”
“K, Dad.”
“Go beat Michael and show him who’s the real Cocker.”
He laughs, and runs off. Kids, they live in the moment. Reminds me to do the same.
Ethan suggests, “Why don’t you stay over and leave early?”
“I’m in the middle of a divorce.” Snatching up my phone and keys from where I left them under a chandelier the size of my barn, I see a text from Shelby and mutter, “Gonna be a long time before I have fun again.”
“You had some today.”
“Today was like taking a deep breath.” Snatching up my phone I see Shelby has blown it up. “I’ve been suffocated for way too long.”
Opening the door, I stroll to my Jeep, looking forward to riding with the top off the hour distance back to home, and Ethan calls out from his double doorframe, porch light like a football stadium spotlight. “You can handle this one of two ways, Ben.” I jump into my seat, twilight at my back. “See the fight as a fight…”
“Or?”
“Freedom that’s worth fighting for.”
“Never getting married again.”
He nods once, face serious, “We’ll see.”
