Read Online Dumb Luck by Lesley Choyce - Free Book Online Page A

your list.”
    â€œWhat list?”
    â€œThe list of things you’re going to do with your life, now that money has given you the freedom to do whatever you want.”
    â€œIs that what I have?” I asked, looking up at a dozen or so seagulls that were swirling round in the blue sky above. “Freedom?”
    â€œYou do. As long as you take charge. That’s one of the things I learned along the way. You hungry?”
    â€œActually, I am. I didn’t eat lunch.”
    â€œNeither did I. Let’s go find someplace expensive. You’re buying, right?”
    I laughed. “So that’s how you take charge?”
    â€œThat’s it.”
    And an expensive meal it was. It came to over a hundred dollars and I didn’t have that much with me. I’d left most of my cash and my credit cards at home. So, in the end, we split the cost. Taylor didn’t seem to mind at all. She smiled. “We’re going to have to work on you a bit. Bring you up to speed.”
    On the drive home, she told me the story of her life. Parents divorced when she was young, mom remarried to an asshole. Divorced. Remarried to another asshole. “It’s like she’s a magnet for them. But now she’s single again. And I feel like I never really had a father at all. What about your parents?”
    I told her about my mom and about my dad and his current plans.
    â€œYou’re lucky. You have them both. Be good to them.” Almost every time she opened her mouth, she surprised me with what she had to say. She wasn’t at all the bitchy, spoiled, hot girl that I had imagined.
    Taylor stopped in front of my house. A couple of kids from school were across the street and looked our way. While they were watching, she leaned across and kissed me again. First she put her tongue in my ear and I felt her breasts pushing up against me. Then she took my face in her hands and kissed me like the first time at the stoplight. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
    When I walked into the house, there was new furniture in the living room and my mom was smiling. “What do you think?” she asked.
    The truth was I liked our old furniture. Now the place looked different and it didn’t quite seem comfortable any more. I wasn’t at all sure I liked the change. But my mom was happy. So what the heck. “It’s looks great,” I said.
    When my dad came home, my mom hugged him and he seemed tired but happy. “It’s all coming together,” he said. “I should be up and running soon. Brandon, I have another appointment at the bank tomorrow around three. I’ll pick you up at school and we can run over. Some papers to sign and that sort of thing. Also, they’ll have some ideas about what you should be investing your money in.”
    Now he was pushing me again, taking charge in a way I didn’t like at all. I didn’t like him making decisions for me, telling me where to be and when, and what to do with my money. But I didn’t say anything.
    He tapped me lightly on the shoulder. “Trust me. This stuff is important. No time to lose.”
    I wasn’t very hungry for dinner after the expensive late lunch. My mom watched me just push the food around on my plate. I got up after a bit and went up to my room. I still had the feel of Taylor’s lips lingering on my mind. Was that for real or was she just using me like she said the others would? By the time I sat down at my computer and checked my e-mail, I realized I was way overdue for a reality check. More requests from desperate people looking for financial help. More self-introductions from girls and women I did not know. Even a couple of guys wondering if I was gay. One guy said I looked gay in the newspaper photos and that kind of ticked me off. Another long e-mail from the twenty-one-year-old who wondered if I’d like to spend the weekend with her at a cottage up the coast. Whoa.
    And then this