“No, we did. Once he was out of their lives, our mom’s renewed their friendship and they raised us together. They still joke that raising kids with your best girlfriend is a much better bet than raising them with a man. I honestly can’t disagree. Zack’s mom is like my second mother.”
“This is all so crazy. I don’t understand what he was doing. He ditched my mom when I was eight and Finn was five. Then he only came back briefly once. But now I realize, he must have come back after he’d already been with your moms. He was
just a regular P.I.M.P. apparently.”
They snicker and look at each other before turning back to me.
“So, what do you really think old Max is up to?”
An hour later I park my bike in a space at the boardwalk. After spending time with my brothers, I’m in a good mood. There aren’t too many people that I can talk to about my current fucked up situation. However, I’m determined to put it all out of my mind. It’s a beautiful day, cool and crisp. The weather is unseasonably warm and I realize how close to spring we are.
The boardwalk isn’t my favorite place, usually because it’s chock full of tourists, but this is where Emma wanted to meet. I’ve asked her out for weeks so if she’s willing to give me a chance, I’m willing to meet wherever she wants.
Emma stands a few spaces over peering into the trunk of an older sedan. When she straightens and sees me walking toward her, she waves. “Hey. I thought we could take a walk on the beach. I packed a small cooler for us.”
She points to the small red and white cooler in the trunk of her car. I lift it easily.
“Did you pack anything for me?” It doesn’t feel like there’s much in the cooler and definitely not enough to feed two people.
She blushes. “Probably not enough.” Her head disappears into the front seat of the car and when she emerges, she’s holding a thick multicolored beach towel.
“I’m prepared.”
She’s so cute that I don’t have the heart to tell her that half of my body will likely be hanging off that towel. We walk down and find a spot on the sand. There are only a few people out here. It will be a completely different scene once summer comes. She spreads the blanket and I set the cooler on one end to hold it down. Emma sits on the other end facing me.
“Are you hungry?”
I squint up at the seagulls diving above us. They remind me of my conversation with Finn a few days ago. At least I could tell my brother that I finally made it to the beach.
“I could eat. That’s true pretty much all of the time.”
She laughs softly. “Yeah, I’ll bet. Well, if you’re good, I even have desserts in here.” She pulls out sandwiches, small snack bags of chips and a plastic container of red velvet cake.
“You know, I’ve never been on a date where the girl planned everything. Will I get my balls back after this is all over?”
She looks up at me, and then lets out a little giggle. “Is it that threatening?”
“No, I’m just joking. Badly, obviously.” I look down the sand to where a few other couples sit on towels, similarly enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. The sky is a crystalline blue dotted with fluffy white clouds that look like floating cotton balls. I close my eyes and let the breeze coming off the water flow over me. Above me, I can hear the cry and call of the seagulls.
“I’ve never really been a beach person.”
Emma stops her fussing with the food. “Sorry, we can go if you’d rather do something else. I just thought it would be a quiet place we could talk.”
“No, this is nice. I find myself willing to make an exception for you. So, how long have you worked for Patrick?”
Her face falls slightly. “Just a few months. After my parents died, Mr. Stevens was the one who handled their estate. He’s an old family friend. I think he just feels sorry for me, really.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“No, it’s okay. I know you didn’t know.”
We sit in awkward silence for a minute before she asks, “So, what about you. What did you do before you worked as a bodyguard?”
“I was in the military. I’ve been working for Alexander Security ever since I got out.”
“What branch of the military?”
“Army.”