Ripped - Cassia Leo Page 0,37
which is still covered in construction dust, as she cleans my hand and wraps it with gauze. “You’re still getting in fistfights and you want to have five kids?” She looks up at me with disappointment in her eyes. “Maybe we should worry about taking care of the ones we already have first. Have you talked to Andy about retiring yet?”
I pull my hand back, squeezing my fist tightly to stretch the gauze out. “Not yet.”
“Why not? Surfline magazine is coming to do that interview in five weeks. Don’t you think you should talk to Andy before then? You know they’re going to ask you about it in the interview.”
I stare at the teak bathroom vanity, which is missing the granite countertop we ordered. It seems like everything in my life is either unfinished or in upheaval. Is it so wrong if I want this one thing, this major part of my life—my career—to stay the same?
“Maybe I don’t want to retire yet,” I reply, my gaze still focused on the vanity.
“Oh, my God,” she replies, and I finally look up to see her eyes wide with horror. “I can’t believe this. You’re actually considering leaving me alone with four kids. I can’t fucking believe this.” She stands up to leave and I grab her arm, but she shakes my hand off roughly. “I trusted you to do the right thing and now you’re backing out on me?”
“I’m not changing my mind, I’m just… I’m thinking about alternatives to retirement.”
She shakes her head as she moves around me and goes back to bed. As I come out of the bathroom, I get hit in the face with a pillow.
“You can think about your alternatives on the sofa.”
I sigh as I snatch up the pillow, gritting my teeth as I head out to the living room. What happens when your wife becomes pregnant with twins while your career is just starting to take off?
Lost the event in Portugal. Lost my top CT ranking in the process. Pissed off the editor of one of the most influential surfing communities. Pissed off the commissioner of the World Surf League. Came home and pissed off my wife, ended up with blue balls and a night on the sofa.
Well, it’s official. My shitty life has become a punch line to a very shitty joke.
Thirteen
I had the foresight to set my alarm for a few minutes before Lindsay and the girls wake up, so I can take the blanket and pillow I slept with back to the bedroom. Kaia and Mila don’t need to know that Lindsay and I are having problems. I don’t think Kaia has quite gotten over the fact that Jason Greene didn’t turn out to be the wonderful guy she thought he was. She doesn’t need to find out her parents also aren’t invincible.
When I enter the bedroom, Lindsay is still asleep, on my side of the bed, hugging a pillow to her chest. I set my pillow and blanket down on the cushioned trunk at the foot of the bed and make an effort not to wake her as I leave. I enter Kaia’s room and sit on the edge of her bed. The movement of the mattress wakes her. She smiles when she sees me, revealing that she lost another tooth while I was gone.
“Hey, jack-o’-lantern, when did you lose that tooth?” I ask.
She narrows her eyes at me as she sits up and touches her finger to the gap in her top teeth. “This? Two days ago, at Uncle Mark’s.”
“You went to Uncle Mark’s?”
She nods enthusiastically. “Mom and Grandma Margaret took us. We helped him sanding the canoe and he let us paint our names on it. Well, Mila can’t write her name, so Uncle Mark helped her. Then my tooth fell out when we were eating pizza.”
I smile and pull her into a hug. “I’ll bet it takes half as long to brush your teeth now, right?”
She laughs as she hugs me back. I get a pang of sadness in my belly as I imagine my girls having such a monumental experience without me. I remember the first time my mom took me to my uncle Mark’s workshop, where he makes custom sailboats, canoes, and surfboards by hand. I was dazzled by all the tools and shiny boats and boards. Uncle Mark gave me Ripped, my first surfboard, that day.
After a very tense breakfast, I throw my wetsuit on underneath my clothes so I can go straight to