River's End (River's End Series, #1)(87)

Ben’s cheeks turned a shade of red Jack had never seen a person turn. Ben didn’t answer so Jack took that as a no. “Damn it, Ben. Have you two already had unprotected sex?”

Ben finally shook his head no and Erin suddenly stepped forward. “Jack, perhaps I should take Marcy home?”

Marcy’s head jerked up as relief washed over her face. Jack nodded yes, urging them to go. If Marcy’s parents were different, and actually cared, he would have promptly told them what their daughter was up to.

When the girls left, Jack and his son endured a terrible silence. Jack took a breath and sat down across from Ben. “Look, I’m sorry I lost my temper, Ben, but you’ve got to understand how serious your actions tonight were. You stole a truck, you can’t legally drive, and you involved Marcy in that, then you nearly had unprotected sex. You can’t do that, Ben. You know about safe sex and pregnancy. Do you really think I want to help you raise a kid right now? Or stand around worrying while you get tested for some terrible, often incurable, disease?”

Ben’s face fell. He never considered any of that in his hormone-driven rush to have sex. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Jack laughed harshly. “Yeah, until you can talk about it, you shouldn’t be doing it. Take these,” Jack said, pushing the condoms his way. “I can’t stop you, Ben. If you really think you’re ready to do that, I’m sure you’ll find a way. But I have to tell you, as your father, it’s a huge mistake. You’re too young. It’s much more than you think, and you need to be more than you are now for your partner. I know you might think you love Marcy, but you’re really young, Ben.”

Ben shook his head. “I don’t love Marcy. I kind of like her. I like Dottie Carmichael; she’s in the class below me. But she won’t, you know, do that kind of stuff.”

Jack sat back, his anger finally fading. “You already know then that it isn’t right. You’re my son, and I know I taught you that much. Just because Marcy might, doesn’t mean you should. And Ben, any young girls who do it are usually a lot more complicated than just eager to have sex.”

“I know, Dad,” Ben said after a while, his cheeks still blushing. Jack sat back, rather surprised to find Ben listening to him. He previously avoided talking about the subject because he thought Ben wouldn’t even hear him out. Instead, Erin’s warning rang clearly in his head: he was Ben’s father, and he had to at least try to guide him.

Ben continued, “I thought I could get some experience. ‘Cause, you know, a lotta guys I know have already done it. I thought I should too.”

Jack finally found a reason to smile. “My ass, those boys you hang out with have ever had sex. I’ve seen every pimply-faced, brace-toothed, skinny, pathetic lot of them, and if they say they’re having sex, that’s all they’re doing: just saying so. I promise you, Ben, when you’re old enough, and in love, it will become a totally different experience, and so much better than sneaking around in a car with a girl you don’t even like.”

“You mean different than you sneaking around with Erin? She was Joey’s girlfriend, Dad. How could you do that?”

Jack had carefully kept his sex life away from home and his sons for the last five years. And now here they were, at the critical point where Ben finally needed Jack to set a good example, and yet he did just as Ben tried to do. He snuck off to have sex; right on their ranch land with a woman he had no business having sexual relations with.

As he considered what to say, Erin walked back inside. Jack glanced at her, and then at his son.

“No one was awake at Marcy’s house. She walked right in through the front door. No one at her house even cares that their fourteen-year-old daughter was out past midnight, do they?”

Ben squirmed. “No. Her dad doesn’t pay much attention to her.”

Erin nodded. “I told her she deserved better, and was much too young, and that you were just using her to have sex. You should be ashamed of yourself, Ben. I only hope she listened to me.”

Jack almost spoke up in defense of Ben, but Ben looked truly contrite at hearing Erin’s words. Erin wasn’t finished. “You don’t get it, Ben, what it’s like for a girl like her. I was just like her. No one cared what I did. So she has sex only because she can, and because no one cares. The thing is: she’s looking for someone who cares. She’s hoping by having sex with you, perhaps you’ll care about her. I don’t think for a second you will, because I also know you have a girl named Dottie who calls and texts you frequently. Decide now what kind of man you’ll be, Ben. One who takes advantage of vulnerable, insecure girls while stringing the one you really like along, or a man who respects himself and all women by thinking about more than what might feel good in that brief moment.”

Ben shifted uncomfortably and Jack did too. Her words were spoken with a level of anger and passion that went far beyond her outrage on behalf of Marcy and Dottie.

Ben stared at his hands. “I thought she wanted to.”

“She just wants you to like her. She’ll go as far as it takes just to make that happen.”

“You mean no girl my age really wants to have sex?”

Erin shrugged. “No. There are girls who want to, and are ready. But it’s probably not the one you see as a slut. Or the one doing it so easily.”