Cardboard Cutouts
Chapter 3
We were only kids. Your dad said,
Stay away from my daughter.
I told your dad,
I love your daughter.
The past 16 years have been consumed with work and raising our kids. Beckett got diagnosed with HCM when he was 12. It was during a pick up game. It was summer. Weeks before the new school. He had the ball in his hands ready to shoot then the next minute. He had fallen and was still. He woke up in the hospital surrounded by his parents.
After various testing he was given answers. And even though Brooke and Lucas were then aware of what was going on. They hadn't wanted this condition for any of their children.
But Lucas knew what that meant and what it was like to live with it. He reassured his son then that with precautions life didn't have to change much. Beckett had found peace within his books and movies. And sketching. Which his mom taught him how to do.
Benjamin had natural talent and pure love for the game of basketball. He was on the Raven's basketball team. He had prepared all summer before freshman year to make the team. He was the more outgoing one between the brothers.
He had a girlfriend and friends.
Beckett was more shy and reserved regarding those things.
...
Sloan Scott the only daughter of the family had her mother's personality. Her love of fashion. Cheerleading. Her love and support of family. She was very protected by her big brothers. Even more by her father. She was also well read. Smart. And far from naive.
You never knew what to expect when it came to Sloane.
Brooke and Lucas knew her teen years would be eventful. So they were savoring the calm of this time.
...
Brooke counted the tips she had gotten from her work.
She divided it. Putting some away and the other half in a seperate holding area meant for Sloane to go to cheer camp.
Lucas got into bed on his side.
"Keith wants to step down and give me the body shop." Lucas announced.
Brooke looked back at him with a surprise expression.
"That's incredible. You would run it all and yet you don't seem happy or excited. Why is that?" Brooke asked.
"I turned the offer down. I work there because its all i've ever known and it's why we're able to stay stable. That doesn't mean i love it."
"I was supposed to do more then work at an auto body shop."
"You were supposed to be have a fashion line. Travel."
"And make a difference. Not be one of the many waiting tables from one place to the other." Lucas admitted.
"I love our life. Our kids. No one gets everything they want." Brooke replied.
Lucas turned out the lights and closed his eyes.
His life. The possibility and future shut closed when Brooke decided that she wanted to go through with their first pregnancy all those years ago.
He loved being a husband and a father. But something was missing.
While they watched all their friends go off to college or leave town.
They remained here. And now. Lucas was beginning to feel restless.
As if his life was over before it began.