“I’m home!” I holler as soon as I open the front door. This beach bungalow was my first purchase after I got out of school. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. It’s small, and when I say small, I mean it’s maybe twelve hundred square feet. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a cute galley-style kitchen, and a living room that opens up to the beach that’s our backyard. That’s all I needed, plus it was a steal. If I wanted something like this in California the cost would be double if not triple for half of the square footage. Sure, it needed a thorough cleaning, paint on the inside and out, but I made it work.
“Hey, Luna. He was great today. It won’t be long until Sailor will be walking up a storm,” Mari says, grabbing her backpack off the kitchen chair. It’s just after one o’clock, so Sailor must be asleep.
“Hi, Mari. Yeah, he started standing last night. Did he take any steps?” I ask her.
“Not yet. Just standing, looking like a surfer with his arms being held out. Same time tomorrow?” Mari bringing up the way he stood hits me right in the heart. She’s not wrong.
“Nope, tomorrow is my day off. Thank you again.” I open up my phone, sending her money for babysitting my almost ten-month-old. He is the greatest gift I could have ever received. Even though it came with a pile of heartache, I wouldn’t change anything in the world.
“No problem. Have a good time.” Mari is a godsend. She’s going to college, her hours are pretty flexible, and when Sailor is taking a nap, she’ll take that time to do homework or log in to her online classes. That still doesn’t mean that if I’m running late, that’s she’s thrilled with me, especially if I don’t give her a heads up. I remember building this life Sailor and I live from scratch. Going to school full-time while pregnant was not easy, and then working as soon as my maternity leave was over. That’s where Noelle came into play. She let me work the craziest and weirdest hours to fit around Sailor’s schedules. There were even times I’d bring him into work if neither of us had clients who needed processing. There was no way I’d let him breathe in heavy chemicals. We’d take turns holding or feeding him in between clients, or set up the playpen in the back room for when he napped. Like I said, she was and still is a godsend.
My parents, I love them, truly. They helped out with everything they could while still maintaining their own lives and work schedule. Like I said, it wasn’t easy, but when both my brother and I graduated from high school, started our own path, they did the same. It sucks, honestly, especially with me doing the majority of the work and not having family right there beside me. It was worth it in the end though.
Now that I’m home, I kick off my shoes, pick up around the house, and impatiently wait for my baby boy to wake up.
5
Cruz
It sucked watching the woman who plagued my every waking moment and infiltrated my nights walking away. That’s why I moved my ass to the Wet Spot and made the call I’m on now.
“Well, look what that cat dragged in. Haven’t heard from you in months.” I hear the rustling of papers on the other end. I must be on speaker phone, and Slade is multi-tasking. He never could sit still.
“Yeah, about that.” I’ve been slacking in a lot of areas in my life, so it seems.
“I’m just busting your balls. Everything good down in Florida?” he asks, picking up like we haven’t been out of touch for six months. I try to make a trip to Virginia once a year, though it doesn’t seem like I’ll be doing that this year. Not with me finally knowing where Luna fucking is.
“Living the dream, working and surfing. How are you and Taylor?” We shoot the shit for a few minutes, him letting me know how everyone is up there and how the business is going, before allowing me to cut in, “Speaking of security, do you think you can run a name for me? I don’t have much, just her first name, but I do know she’s local to Cocoa Beach.”
“Yeah, shoot me an email with everything you’ve got on her—name, height, hair color, city, anything else you think will help me. It shouldn’t take too long. It’s not like you’re in California and there’re loads of people. Even if you are in a retirement state,” he jokes. Slade isn’t wrong, but it’s a hell of a way to retire.
“Thanks, I appreciate it. You guys ever wanna come down, my place is yours.”