Her Paradise

“You wanna go to the beach with us?” Derick says. “I need to remind all these boys around here that I’ll fucking kill them if they start messing with you. Doesn’t matter I’m not around. I’ll still find out, and when I come back I’ll kick their asses.”

I shake my head. His comment is nothing new.

“I’ll go change.” Cyrus stands before I can answer Derick.

“Yeah, let me go grab some stuff,” I say before I lick the syrup off my lips and watch Cyrus leave the room.

“I need a shower,” Derick says and leaves next.

I drop everything into the sink. I’ll wash the dishes when we get back.

I head towards my room to pack a beach bag. I should probably pack a picnic basket, too. Maybe Derick will meet some girl on the beach and leave Cyrus and me to be alone. A day at the beach with him sounds perfect.

I enter my room but stop when I see Cyrus is there pacing back and forth. I shut the door quickly and my heartbeat picks up. Maybe he’s going to kiss me now. I smile, but it drops away when his eyes meet mine and he stops pacing.

“That shit cannot happen again,” he says in a low voice.

I swallow hard and feel a lump start to form in my throat. But I push it away and focus on the anger that’s rising in my chest.

“What happened to not cursing around me?”

“This isn’t a game, Sammy. You’re sixteen.”

I straighten my spine. “You were going to kiss me,” I grit out. “That wasn’t one-sided. Plus, I turn seventeen next week.”

His breathing grows heavy and I can tell he’s fighting with himself about what to say next.

“You stay away from me and I’ll stay away from you. We only have a few more days to make it through,” he finally says.

“Get out of my room,” I tell him and open the door. He stands there for a second before he nods his head and walks toward the open door. He stops when he’s next to me.

“Put on a fucking shirt.” I see red, but he’s already out the door, so I slam it behind him.

I’m so mad I want to scream. “Fuck you, Cyrus Walsh. I’ll make sure you don’t have to spend one more second around me.”

Little did I know he wasn’t going to make that an easy task…

1

Cyrus

“Think she’ll ever speak to you again?” Derick says as he casts out his fishing line.

“Yeah,” I answer, reeling in my line. “But it will probably be to tell me exactly what angle to put my head so it goes up my ass in the most painful way.”

“She was always really good with math.” He looks over at me and starts laughing as he shakes his head.

“You tell her you were coming with me today?”

“There’s nothing that happens with you that she doesn’t know about. Even if she’s not hearing it from me. Been that way since the day I brought you home.”

I think about the first time I saw her. She was wearing a yellow dress and holding a sign that said Welcome Home, Derick! I was behind him waiting for him to hug his sister and dad before he introduced me. Her dark eyes looked up at him like he was her whole world and I’ve never been so jealous of my best friend before.

I never had any family to speak of. My mom gave me up when I was born, but I was never adopted. I bounced around different foster homes until I aged out of the system then joined the Marines. I met Derick at basic training and he told me all about the island he came from. Every time he told stories from home I found myself listening intently. He even taught me how to fish and we became best friends. I didn’t plan on falling for Sammy, but the first time I saw her I was a goner.

The worst part was that I knew damn well she was sixteen. Derick had told me endless stories about his kid sister, but all I could picture was this scrawny tomboy with braces. But she was a beauty unlike anything I imagined, and she knocked me right to my knees. Literally.

I stumbled over myself as I stepped towards her and fell to my knees in front of where she stood. I might as well have been proposing to her with the way it looked. If I’d had a ring in my pocket I would have pulled it out and made her mine. But instead I stood up and shook her hand like the Marine I was trained to be.

“Do you regret bringing me with you?” I’ve never asked the question before because I’ve always been afraid of the answer. But now that things are the way they are with Sammy, what else do I have to lose?