I know the foreplay has been long with this story, lots of build up, but I promise it's worth it. I hope this part being a little longer eases the sting. Enjoy!

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The next several days passed in a slow blur. Rebecca did some business things when needed, but their property held lots of things to do. We played multiple sports together, I tried to keep up with her on her morning runs, Kent and I even did a few activities together. I didn’t see much of Tate, he was usually dancing in the studio, playing video games in the game lounge, or doing something in his room. My small frustration moment from a few days prior had turned into compassion. This kid didn’t need to hate me, and I wanted him to be around his family while he still had the chance before leaving off to be a college boy. The other kids didn’t seem to mind that he wasn’t around, in fact they kept saying how peaceful their days had become. Family life wasn’t supposed to be like this, but I had no idea if they even wanted my help, let alone if I could be of assistance to them. 

I hadn’t even had the courage to mention the incident to Rebecca or any of the rest of them for that matter. What was I supposed to say? “Hey, just so you’re aware, I pinned your son to the wall for being a jerk and he keeps getting on my nerves, but it’s all ok because he looked at me like an innocent puppy dog afterwards and I have no idea what that means. Is that normal for him?” No way.

One morning while I was in the gym, Tate showed up again to hit the punching bag after his dance routine. I had passed the door earlier and heard the music, but didn’t want to be a disturbance, so I had kept on walking. It was now or never, maybe I could say something and try to fix what I had broken before it was time for me to leave, whenever that was.

Tate was really hitting the bag this time as I approached the boxing area. Moving behind the hanging dummy, I took hold with both hands tight as he punched it a few more times. He hesitated with his swings a few times and relaxed his body a bit, but then kept going at it as if nothing had happened. Punches were thrown for another 15 minutes before Tate gave up and turned his back to me to grab a drink from his bottle on the floor. Nervous feelings overtook me as I fiddled with my wedding band and approached him, glancing up into his sweat covered face. His green eyes softened as he looked down at me with caution etched into his body language.

I gave him the best smile I could while also not feeling the guilt crashing down on me for pinning him in the hallway. “Hey Tate,” I began. Ideas would not come to my brain, so maybe if I just started talking, it would come to me. “Listen, about the other day, I’m really sorry. I made some judgements that I shouldn’t have, and I mean it when I said I was a guest in your parents’ house and should act as such. My intention was not to harm you or cause you grief, some instincts just take over for me occasionally and they came out with our interaction. I hope you can forgive me.”

There’s that blank look again. The one that can’t be deciphered as “I don’t care” or “Get thee hence before I punch you in the face”. I doubt he was one to hit a woman, but I wasn’t going to win either way.

“Ok Tate, I tried”, I sighed, walking past him to the exit door.

Before I even got halfway to it, I heard behind me, “What do you mean instincts take over for you?”

I stopped dead in my tracks. This was the part of my apology he wanted to pick up on? He could’ve easily told his parents what I did to him, tell me off, accept my apology, but no, he wants to get to know the scary part of me. Slowly turning around, I wondered what I should tell him. Tate was 18, there’s a 14-year age gap between us and he wanted to know a part of me I had only recently discovered.

There were those nerves again as I scratched my nose and looked away. “Tate I’m sorry but that conversation isn’t exactly appropriate to discuss with you....”

I trailed off as his feet moved quickly towards me. My feelings of nerves got even worse with him this close, and I felt like the child in this situation, even if our ages indicated otherwise. He took a deep breath and appeared to want to say something but couldn’t find the words. Inching backwards, I took my chance to leave the room and avoid opening this can of worms. Tate sighed and let me walk away, regret filling his face, but not knowing where to start.

My guest room was only a floor away, but it felt like a huge climb from the way my heart was pounding out of my chest. I collapsed onto the bed and tried to gain some semblance of composure. A knock sounded at the door, and I about jumped from my skin. Muffled voices were heard behind the door as I took deep breaths during the short walk from the bed.

Jacie and Jane were at the door and beamed at me when I swung it open wide. “Well, hello, what’s up you two?”

“We are inviting you swimming with the rest of the family”, stated Jacie. “Lunch will be poolside and it’ll be a lot of fun. You should come!”

Swimming was like breathing to me, I did better in the water than I did on land, and it showed when it was time to compete when I was younger.

I chuckled to myself, “Yes, I’ll be there girls. Thank you so much for considering me, I’ll be down in a moment after I change.”

My choice of swimwear was a small bikini that covered enough, but I also had no idea how conservative Rebecca, and her family were. The red top was cut low with a large ring in the middle and tied around my neck and in the middle of my back with small strings. Matching bikini bottoms tied on the sides and curved around my thick legs to accent them well as well as my nice round behind. I had started taking care of myself in recent years after being horrible about it during my pregnancies. My abdomen was the only thing I was self-conscious about with many stretch marks littering the front and sides and my “post baby pouch” still around just a bit.  It was what I had to work with right now, so I might as well roll with it and own what I had in front of the others.

I had seen the pool during Rebecca’s tour, but didn’t get a nice, good look at how tired I had been after my long trip. The “cliffs” came out past the water's edge and hovered at various heights above the water that ranged from 8 to 20 feet. Dark green paint covered the basin under the water making it look straight from a tropical paradise. Pool chairs lined the deck on various sides and there was a small pergola near one of the walls that surrounded the entire pool area. The women of the family were lounging on chairs or under the pergola eating fruit and other various snacks around the table. As I walked towards them, I became a little self-conscious as they all looked like bikini models straight out of the magazine.

Taking a deep breath, I wandered over to the pergola and was greeted by several “hi” variations as I realized there were a few more women around than the 3 of the family. Rebecca stood up from her chair and introduced me to her local friends, Shasta, Candace, Ryli, and Heidi. Everyone was nice and polite as everyone resumed what they had been doing before. I removed my white bikini cover up and made my way up the stairs to the uppermost cliff height.

Binding my hair with my hair tie I always kept around my wrist, I prepared myself for the fall ahead of me. I kicked myself as I might look ridiculous after this. The water might be freezing, I have no idea how deep the water below me was, I was once again jumping before planning. Laughter came from my lips as I thought about my long-observed belief that marriage was similar to cliff jumping. If you looked down, you would chicken out, so the only option was to run, jump, and trust the water catches you as you fall.

“Whoo hoo!! Go Andrea!” I heard Rebecca call out from her sunbathing chair below. The other women gathered around and joined in with some chanting as I prepared myself for the leap. Showing off was definitely my thing, I took every chance I could to perform the balancing act I walked between cocky and confident. My legs shot me forward towards the cliff edge, feet pounding the ground below, then feeling my toes curve around the lip. I pushed with all my might as I felt myself lifted into the air, then gradually feeling myself nearing the unknown depths below. Sharp needles pierced my skin as I hit the liquid surface, both from the cold water as well as the sting from the height above.

Rising out of the water, I could hear cheers around me. My sarcastic smile came out as I expertly swam to the side of the pool with my head above the water. There wasn’t much to grab onto for support, but I managed to heave myself out of the pool and bow to the cheers in front of me. Two yells were heard from behind me as I turned around and saw Shasta and Heidi throwing themselves off the bottom cliff. I joined in on the cheers this time as the two women stroked to the side where we stood.

After a couple of hours of swimming, Kent appeared at the gate, walking straight towards Rebecca. The thought of making a joke of “no boys allowed” died on my lips as I saw his stern face and working jaw. Rebecca pulled him aside and seemed to grow irritated the more they talked about their subject of conversation. Kent nodded to us as he left the pool area and Rebecca collapsed into a chair suddenly looking exhausted from the words exchanged.

Jacie sighed and shook her head. Turning to her sister-in-law, she said, “How much do you want to bet this is my brother’s doing?”

“Allen?” I asked. “Why would Allen be the cause of a discussion like that?”

Jacie rolled her eyes and replied, “I’m talking about Tate. Little devil always knows how to cause trouble at the worst times.”

I contemplated the two conversations that had occurred in front of me and the possibility that the cause was the problem child of the family. If he was certainly causing this much grief, I wondered about the possibility of what I could do to get through this young man to maybe help this family get a little peace in their lives.

My guest bedroom shower was calling my name by the time the pool party had ended. Kent was grilling everybody steaks as the women took to the bathrooms to wash off and get ready for the evening to wrap up. As I passed down the ground floor hallway, I heard music blasting in the house that was slowly growing distant, then disappeared. I wandered the hallways looking for the source, pushing my ear against this door and that one to solve the mystery. When I came down to the exercise floor, there was definitely sound coming from behind the studio door. Lights were beaming through the glass and Tate was the only one found inside the room. Curiosity about the fights earlier got the best of me as I eased open the wooden frame and hid myself against the wall trying to camouflage myself as much possible.

The song ended and I couldn’t help myself as I burst out into random applause at his body movements that were obviously being done in anger. Tate spun around to look at me, then rolled his eyes and went to the sound system. I followed behind him with my sarcastic smile plastered on my face.

“Bravo Tate. Way to move it move it! You sure know how to being an audience towards you ya know?”

Fury was in Tate’s eyes as he turned around and looked at me. “What is your problem?” he bellowed.

His tone took me aback, but I was willing to poke the angry grizzly. I sauntered myself towards him as I looked up into his mask of fire, unafraid to back down when maybe most would. Stopped in front of him, I merely said, “Was it you causing all the drama this afternoon? Your dad came to find your mom about something while we were at the pool and your sister thought it might be you who started the whole thing.”

Tate scoffed in frustration as he turned back around to gather his gear. “I don’t have time for this!” He snapped and took off towards the door.

This kid was getting on my last nerve with his disrespect. “Tate” I said in an even tone. It didn’t stop him, but I knew what would. “HEY!” I yelled out. It was still in an even tone, but I knew it got attention well from other people when I knew they needed to listen to me.

He paused in his steps and gave me a confused look when I approached him. “Look Tate, I know you’re just a kid but...”

“I told you I’m not a kid”, he protested.

“Ok well then stop acting like one. You have loads of people around you trying to help you and you’re so willing to just turn your back like no one even cares about you. Why can’t you just talk to someone?”

More confusion appeared on his face as he questioned, “Why do you care? You don’t know me or anything about me, so why do you care about anything that I do or say, or whatever?”

Suddenly I didn’t have an answer for that. That must have been what he wanted because he took the opportunity and fled for the door. Good question Tate, why did I care so much?