2. Ben
TWO
Ben
Not Long Afterward…
A fter the game, Ethan and I are playing pool at their mansion, while his wife, Charlotte, is in the backyard with the kids. “I’m beating you worse than my son’s team beat yours today.”
Snatching one of the sandwiches Charlie left out for us, I smirk, “You’re a competitive sonofabitch, you know that?”
“Don’t talk about my mom like that.”
“I’ll talk about Aunt Drew any way I want.”
Ethan laughs and mutters, while aiming his pool stick for a 5-ball corner pocket move, “I dare you to say when my dad’s here.”
Thinking about the look on Uncle Jake’s face if he were here, having him react to me implying anything about his wife other than glowing testaments, explodes a laugh from my gut.
Ethan raises an eyebrow.
He hasn’t seen me laugh in years.
“I’m gonna have to try that,” I snort.
“I dare ya,” he grins, happy I’m more like my old self.
Pointing at my sandwich I list, “Broiled salmon heaped with hummus, green bell pepper, cucumber sliced thin, a mix of diced cabbage, kale and sprouts, heirloom tomatoes and topped with crumbled feta cheese? I need to step up my sandwich game.”
Just as I finish, she walks in — Charlotte, Owner and CEO of Wyntech. She exudes the grace of someone who went to boarding school, looking like she comes from money, which she does, unlike many of the Cocker Family. Most of us are a down-to-earth bunch. Congressmen don’t make much, save for the excellent benefits and smarts at saving, and Grandpa had six boys to raise with Grandma staying home. They have a nice home just up the street they bought right after getting married when money meant different things, but it’s only recently paid off. What our great-grandpa Jerald left was all for his grandsons, the six Cocker Brothers, two of which are mine and Ethan’s dads.
But this mansion was all Ethan’s doing; he had it before he met Charlie. It was a total surprise to her, because she thought he was just some guy doing freelance fixing computers at her company, dressed as usual — and how he is today — in his uniform of jeans and a graphic t-shirt, hair a shaggy mop. Patents from multiple software systems, mostly in the security and privacy sector of the government, made him a billionaire from discipline, hard work, and a brilliant mind. His sense of humor didn’t hurt. You need one when you’re playing with the big boys, he told me once.
They could hire a chef, but she made these herself. I watched. Still, teasing her is a must.
You sure you’re not hiding a chef in that house you call a kitchen?”
Her long red ponytail flips over as she whips her head to side-eyeball me. “You trying to piss me off?”
“Maybe.”
Ethan laughs one big “Ha!” then subdues the grin at her faux-reproachful glare.
Kaya runs in with her strawberry hair flying as she informs the large room, “Bathroom!” She tries to grab the cue ball and Ethan blocks her with his stick, making her laugh and continue on her way.
Charlotte hasn’t let me slide though, determined to defend herself, she locks eyes with me. “My dear cousin-in-law jerk, I could hire someone and I won’t lie, when things get very tough at work — fucking mutiny attempts, so hard being a woman still to this day, the bastards — and/or when Ethan is bogged down with some new software invention he’s obsessed over…”
Ethan’s voice overlaps with, “Inspired! ”
“…and he won’t come out of his techno-cave of an office, I’ve leaned on help. Yes, I have.”
I point my half-eaten masterpiece at its maker. “So you admit it!”
Mrs. Charlotte Don’t-Fuck-With-Me Cocker stares at me and says, really low and dangerously, “I’m still talking.”
“My mistake,” I bow, chewing.
Ethan snorts. Charlie throws him a look, and he bows, too.
She stifles a grin, and continues, “However!” as if on a podium speaking not to just two insolent men but a crowd full of us, her feminine charm at high volume, hip jutted, “I have decided, on multiple occasions, that while I could pay for help, to make a meal for my family and see them enjoy it — indeed, to enjoy it with them — is one of the simplest yet greatest pleasures in life. And I’m hoping my children continue the tradition and make sure it never becomes a lost art.” She loses the bold announcer voice and softens to add, “There’s something beautiful about doing that. It connects our family. And normally I’d ask for us all to be eating together today but this is a special.” She walks over and touches my shoulder, “You’re here. You both need time alone since it’s been so long.”
She exits and Ethan’s brown eyes are cast to the forgotten pool game. “Hey Ben, I asked her not to bring that up.” He looks at me, his usual humor gone. “Sorry, man. ”
“I don’t need to be coddled.”
“I know, it’s just…”
“No.” I take a bite of the sandwich, chewing for a few bites until I can talk through it. “Just let everyone say what they need to say. Including your Mrs.”
“What about yours?”
“I don’t have one anymore. And I don’t want one.”
“How’s the ex doing?”
“Mid-divorce and fighting me every step of the way, that’s how she’s doing.”
Jonny shouts from outside, his voice not yet dropped, “Dad, I’m all pruned up — can we bowl yet?”
“Yep!”
“Can we stay the night?”
Ethan locks eyes with me, asks, “You wanna have a sleep over?”
“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.”