Chapter Forty-Eight
Tyler
We had stayed at the hotel about two weeks. It was fucking fantastic!
I knew right away that we should have done this when we first started seeing each other. Since were in a beach town, we didn’t actually need a car for anything and with the funds I had saved up, we were doing pretty damn well.
I had won a lot of strongman competitions over the years and that had made a world of difference when it came to having money to burn.
Of course, I had spent a shitload of it on my car; I paid in cash, so I wouldn’t ever have to worry about anything and now the only matter that we had to address was how to get back to it.
Still, that wasn’t a big deal, I thought, since my mother and Ashley’s stupid ass father had probably not even noticed that we left. We figured they were living it up, fucking as much as possible, before my mother went off with the body builder I had found her with when Ashley’s father wasn’t looking in order to fuck some more.
Regardless, it was very possible that neither one of them even remembered that we were still on the same damn island, much less care whether we ever came back or not. They were probably just as happy, if not happier, without us.
And that was fucking fine with us. The less we were looked for, the happier I knew we would be.
So, I figured when we got tired of the island, or before Ashley returned to school, we would take a bus back to her father’s house and take the car. I would get Ashley back to school and after that, I planned to travel the country and fight in competitions, while she got a part-time job and went to school.
I knew that together we could do this and that was the first time that I was sure about including anyone in any of my future plans.
I had to admit that it felt pretty fucking cool.
However, I was concerned, slightly for Ashley. I knew women pretty well and the fact that she was not even interested in trying to talk to her father about what had happened bothered me slightly.
I had no idea what the hell there was to say. He was an ass all around, end of story, but I still thought that her sheer lack of interest in talking about him was a little odd.
I tried to bring it up over the course of the two weeks staying at the hotel, but she just changed the subject. I got that she didn’t want to talk about it, but I also didn’t know if shutting her father out completely was such a good idea.
When I made this suggestion, she was quick to shoot it down, telling me that my experience and her experience were two totally different situations. I didn’t press the matter.
Then one night, while Ashley was working on some school preparation stuff, I decided to go out for a run alone.
I was used to running alone. Even though we were enjoying our newfound freedom to just be ourselves, independent of any parental figure, neither one of us were the up the ass, overly gooey type and so, we liked to have our space.
The run for the first few miles went well. I ran along the beach and enjoyed the sand being kicked up between my toes for a little longer than I supposed I should have, because when I looked up, I noticed I was dangerously close to the back of Ashley’s father’s house.
I wasn’t scared of the asshole, but I also didn’t want to instigate anything. The last thing I needed was any kind of official police report written about my ass. So I decided to stay away.
It wasn’t that I was afraid of anything, but who the hell knew what the future would bring? I didn’t want to risk my name coming up too many times in the police reports.
After all, I did kill my father. Whether the court saw it that way or not, whether I did it on purpose or not, wasn’t the point. That was all technicality. The fact remained that if it wasn’t for me, driving that car at that time, down that road, my father would still be alive and therefore, I killed him.
I certainly didn’t need any kind of report with another father-figure.
However, as I realized that I was too close and began to turn around, I was met by a fist to the face.
It didn’t really hurt, despite the obvious intent, but it did catch me off guard. I stumbled backwards.
I caught my attacker just as he barreled into me during my misstep, which caused me to hit the ground. But once I had a solid hold on him, I was able to easily push him off of me.
“Dude, what that fuck?” I screamed, moving toward him, but stopped short when I realized that this was Ashley’s father. “Get the fuck away from me,” I warned, trying to once again resist the urge to beat his face in.
“You took everything from me, you dirty bastard!” Ashley’s father screamed.
I couldn’t help but rear back and glare at him. “What are you talking about? I didn’t take anything from you. You did it to yourself.”
With a growl and a plunge forward, my former stepfather ran at me again in a fit of rage, but I just turned away from him and watched as he lost his balance on the sand.
When he was finished with his tumble, he turned around and spat, “I’ll tell you what I’m talking about you good-for-nothing little shit! You took my daughter away and then your whore of a mother left me for some beach bum…She’s living it up somewhere other than my beach house, just screwing her brains out, while I sit here and rot!”
“Well, if it’s any fucking consolation, at least she isn’t screwing her brains out with some beach bum in your beach house, because that’s what she did to the other assholes she married,” I answered, trying not to snicker. I knew I was being insensitive, but he was still a major dick and I really didn’t give a shit whether his feelings were hurt or not.
“What is wrong with you people?” he screamed, now on his knees, looking completely beaten. He glowered up at me with a hateful look in his eye, but I didn’t care. He could hate me all he wanted.
“I’m not my mother. Believe it or not, I love your daughter and I am going to be able to provide for her and help her better than your sorry ass could,” I answered sharply. “Sure, you’ve got money, but that’s all you’ve fucking got. I don’t know what you were like when your wife was alive, but shit, ever since she died, all you have ever cared about is yourself. Your daughter needed you, in her teenage years as well as this summer and you always had something else on your fucking mind.”
Once I got started, I was on a roll. As I was speaking, I realized the truth in everything I was saying and in a way, felt very bad for Ashley; but on the other, I was proud of myself for being able to be the one on this side of the argument, the man that she wanted, not the man she was tired of being disappointed by. “So, I didn’t take shit from you. Ashley was done with you long before I came along and my mother is her own person. She’s a bitch and I do believe every word you said, but in my opinion, it is exactly what you deserve.” I narrowed my eyes at him and answered, “And if you ever fucking touch me again, I will call the police. We’re two grown men and out of the two of us, I’m not the one who really should know better.”
At this, I turned my back on the man. He seemed broken enough and if he did touch me again, I promised myself that a police report was not the only thing that was going to fuck up this guy’s life…even more than it was already.
I just walked away, until I heard Ashley’s father call to me, “Tyler?” in a small and careful voice.
I turned around to face him. “What the hell do you want now?”
He sighed and actually looked fairly humble, before he answered, “You’re right. I’m sorry. Do you think you could get Ashley to sit down and talk to me?”
“I can’t get Ashley to do shit,” I answered honestly and when he looked up at me with question, I added, “I don’t control her and I certainly can’t predict what she is going to say about your ass, especially after this…”
“I’m sorry!” he said again. “Please, could you maybe exclude what happened and just tell her that I would like to see her?”
I thought about this for a long moment and made a conscious effort not to tell him to fuck off. Yet, when I spoke again, I was sure that I would be able to focus on what was right, instead of sinking down to his level. I had made a lot of progress rising above such petty shit and I didn’t want Ashley’s father, of all people, the worthless sack of shit that he was, to be the catalyst that shook me off of the right path. Therefore, I nodded and answered, “I will tell her. What she does with that information,” I shrugged, “none of my fucking business and honestly, it shouldn’t be any of yours either.”
He wagged his head up and down as though eternally grateful. “I know…I know…Yes. Of course. Thank you.”
I turned and started to walk away from him again.
“You’re a good man,” Ashley’s father called out carefully, as though trying to make amends with everything that had happened.
I stopped short but didn’t turn around. Instead, I sighed and nodded my head once before I answered solidly, “Thanks to your daughter, I know that I am,” but as I started to run again, I thought, doesn’t mean shit coming from you, though.