Page 14 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

Then he wondered where the fuck he even came up with that word.

“Are you asking me to call you?” he asked.

“Text works,” she said. “I’d rather talk to someone in person than on the phone.”

“Where the pen pal comment came from?” he asked.

“Something like that.” She was reaching her hand for the band holding his phone there and he let her pull it out. She held it to his face to unlock it and then started to punch something into it and put it back. “Text me when you’re ready to get that drink. Don’t stress about the fact tonight or tomorrow might be too early. I’m free if you are.”

“Good to know,” he said.

She turned and started to jog back to her shoes with her dog. She picked up the heels and turned the corner barefoot, giving him one hell of a strut in the process.

He grunted and then continued on his run, going past where she’d turned but looking down the street and seeing the house she’d gone into.

He could get her address back at work anyway. If he wanted to, he could look up the owner of the home but wouldn’t. It’s not like he cared one way or another.

The houses around here were nice and on the new side. She had to have a good job to either own or afford the rent. She was dressed professional enough, but that didn’t mean a lot either.

He turned again once he was past her block and went back home. He just would start off in a run each day and then turn back after twenty minutes. He never followed the same direction daily, but he knew he could get his way back easy enough and ran in all sorts of directions trying to get a lay of the area he lived in.

Toward the middle of the island, overlooking the water facing Plymouth, he could get to either port in less than twenty minutes, if need be, driving.

He was five minutes or so from where he worked. He could walk if he wanted to but no reason to do that when he got his exercise in running.

When he returned home, he pulled his phone out and unlocked the door with his app. The old man had a lot of security.

The place was still decorated as it had been when he moved in. Van hadn’t come with much other than the clothes on his back. The furniture here was nicer than anything he’d ever owned.

He walked past the kitchen and through the living room, then down the hall to his bedroom that overlooked the water.

He thought of the sexy woman he just ran into and tried to picture her in a bathing suit swimming in the bay and then said that was nuts. No one did that around here. He saw people in kayaks and canoes, jet skis and paddle boats. But no one just went out to swim laps for exercise.

Then he reminded himself, Kelsey might just be crazy enough to do it.

Now he had to decide if he was crazy enough to actually reach out and go on a date with her.

5

FALSE SENSE OF CONFIDENCE

Kelsey opened the door to a newer pub on the island later that night.

She knew most of the businesses around here, but plenty changed ownership.

Though her father had his finger in more pies than most, he didn’t own many food establishments on the island.

She looked around and didn’t see Van so decided to just wait a second more before she went to the hostess's table.

“Hey.”

She turned and saw him opening the door behind her.

“Hi,” she said. “I just got here and didn’t see you.”

He held two fingers up to the hostess and she nodded back and put them at the table to the right and by the wall.

“I come here a lot,” he said.

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