Chapter 15

"Daddy, may I borrow the car?" Audrey asked the following Saturday.

Brian looked up from his laptop. "May I ask for what purpose?"

She smiled. "Well, I was thinking Heath and his new little lady friend would need a ride to the movies."

"Oh, in that case, I don't see the problem. Keys are on the hook by the door."

"Thanks, Daddy."

"Make sure you put gas in it; I don't own stock in gasoline," Brian replied.

"Of course," Audrey said.

"In addition, if you get another speeding ticket, young lady, we're going to have issues and it's coming out of your allowance," Brian warned.

"I'll be more careful this time, Daddy."

"Good girl. Think you can get your mother from the chiropractor on the way back and then pick me up some cigarettes?"

Audrey nodded. "Sure, but aren't you forgetting something? They won't sell me cigarettes. I'd have to send in Mom and she may draw the line at doing that."

"She's been 'drawing the line' at me smoking for years, where have you been?" Brian asked with a grin.

"Can't say I blame her."

"Don't you start, Audrey Barbara."

"Anyway, if I'm going to get the little lovebirds to the theater on time, I better get moving," Audrey grabbed the keys and gave her father a quick kiss. "I should be back in about half an hour."

A short time later:

"Here's a good one," Kellie said from the back seat, looking over a movie listing. "It will start about ten minutes after we get there."

Heath leaned over to look. "A girl movie? Ewww. Come on, Kel; can't we do better than that? Here, here's something really cool."

"Ewww, that one has blood in it!" Kellie cried.

"You are such a girl," Heath sighed.

"And neither of you can get in to see that anyway," Audrey spoke up. "You're under seventeen. You better agree on something because we're almost there and I have to get Mom from the doctor on the way home, not to mention you guys need to be back home in time to get ready for the dance."

"Yay, dance!" Heath cheered.

"And to think a week ago, you hated the thought of that thing," Audrey teased him.

"Well, yeah, that's before Kel here came into my life, thanks to you," Heath grinned at his sister.

"More like you can thank her cousin Bryan," Audrey nodded.

Heath turned to Kellie. "Dad really likes you too."

"He's kind of cute for an older guy," Kellie giggled, blushing.

"Yeah, he tends to get that a lot," Audrey laughed.

"Your mom's nice too," Kellie added, "but not to sound mean, but how come she talks like she does?"

"It's okay, Kellie," Audrey replied. "Not many people are nice enough to ask. Anyway, Mom's partially deaf. She wears hearing aids, but she's had hearing problems since she was little. As you can see, though, she functions just fine."

"Plus she and Dad are nuts about each other," Heath snickered. "Kind of gross at times, but yeah."

"And there's nothing wrong with that," Audrey interjected. "Wait until you get a wife, mister."

"I'm not even fourteen yet!" Heath protested. "Geez."

"All right, you two," Audrey stated as they pulled up to the theater. "Here we are. Now, I'll be back to pick you up at four thirty. Be right out front, okay?"

Heath nodded. "Gotcha."

"And no sneaking in to the gory movies, Heath Christian," she warned as he and Kellie climbed out of the car.

"All right, I'll be nice."

Audrey smiled and nodded, watching the two disappear inside before finally heading toward the chiropractor's office to pick up her mother, arriving about ten minutes later.

"Where's your dad?" Steffi asked as she got in.

"He had me pick you up on the way home after I dropped Heath and Kellie off at the movies. I'm picking them back up at four thirty. Oh, and Daddy wants cigarettes."

"Then he should have gone and gotten those himself," Steffi shook her head in disapproval. "He should know by now how I feel about buying those for him."

"Sorry, Mom. I'd do it, but they won't sell to me because I'm underage."

"I wouldn't encourage it anyway. Those things are going to kill him." Steffi sighed again. "I guess he could be doing a lot worse, though. All right, we can pull up to the first store we find on the way."

They proceeded to do so, Steffi coming out with a bag a few minutes later with a look of disgust on her face. Ten minutes later, they had arrived home.

Steffi tossed the bag in Brian's lap. "Here's your death wish," she snorted.

"Thanks, baby, love you too," he grinned up at her. "How was the chiropractor?"

"I think I get that much better each time I go," Steffi replied, her mood changing. "Pretty soon I should be back to normal."

"You're moving around a hell of a lot better, I will give you that one."

"Which reminds me, I need to go lay out Heath's clothes for the dance tonight," Steffi said.

"Mom, don't you think Heath is old enough to lay out his own clothes?" Audrey wondered.

"Perhaps, but the last time I let Heath do it for something special, he ended up with a far worse combination than your father would on his best day."

"Hey, come on," Brian protested. "I looked pretty damn good for the Hall of Fame this year. Everyone said so."

"Because I picked everything out," Steffi reminded him. "No offense, but you and your son are clueless about things like this."

"Of course," Brian said. "We're men."

Steffi rolled her eyes. "How well I know. In any case, I need to get upstairs and prevent another fashion disaster from happening before your son returns home."