Chapter 18: Approaching the BenchThe rest of the winter vacation went by in a blur of hospitals and caring for Charlie. He had his surgery three days after Christmas. Elyse and I stayed by his side and brought him plenty to do, but he was mostly interested in sleeping.
I had to admit, he’d been a little more edgy since they made him quit smoking before the surgery, so the lead-up to Christmas had been intense. He was eating bags of sunflower seeds by the pound, but heaven forbid you chew in his direction.
Once he’d woken up from the anesthesia and been given pain killers, the first thing he did was complain about the breeze around his privates.
“I’m all…bare. I mean, I manscaped, but I haven’t been bare down there since I was a child. I don’t like it.” He lifted his blankets and gown, c
