Page 25 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

SHAME ON THE NAME

All Kelsey hoped for was that Frankie behaved today.

She’d run around looking for everything she’d thought she needed for this outing and sacrificed her own personal style in the process.

He’d seen her made up already. No reason he couldn’t see the weekend version of her.

The last thing she wanted was any man saying she was someone she wasn’t supposed to be. Or saying she was.

Not her and never would be.

Van drove them to the docks and pulled his truck onto the ferry. “We could have taken my car over,” she said. “It’s easier to get on and off.”

“This is fine,” he said. “Do you like motorcycles?”

She turned and looked at him, her eyes on his fitted athletic shirt. She’d bet he did that as a tease and she was completely fine with it.

“Don’t know,” she said. “Can’t say I dislike them but have never ridden on one. Why? Do you have one?”

“Your voice rises when you get excited. Did you know that?”

“Yep,” she said. “I’ve always been that way. Drives my brother insane. You know I’ve got a twin, right? I mean I assumed it when you asked who my father was that you knew.”

“I didn’t,” he said. “Though you’re not the only one that can do research when you get a full name.”

“I’m sure you put my researching skills to shame in your past job.”

“It’s in the past,” he said. “Yes, I’ve got a motorcycle. If you weren’t bringing Frankie, we could have taken that.”

“Next time,” she said. “Oh my God, I can just see riding along the cliffs on it. I won’t tell my mother. She’ll have a heart attack. That would be right after she caught my father from having one.”

He grinned. “No reason to upset anyone. My mother wasn’t a fan either.”

“Did she lecture you when you had it?” Kelsey asked.

“No. I got it after she passed.”

“Because you wouldn’t have wanted to upset her,” she said. “That’s sweet.”

There was more to Van than he was letting on.

They sat in his truck with Frankie and just talked about things on the island during the ferry ride to Cape Cod.

When they docked, he pulled out efficiently and better than she could have done and she’d been doing it for years.

“Tell me where to go,” he said.

“You mean you didn’t research the lighthouses too?” she asked.

“I did,” he said. “Race Point Lighthouse is the closest.”

“And the nicest,” she said. “You’ve got to walk a bit to get there. We’ll wear Frankie out.”

“Between the two of us, we can carry him,” he said.

They parked his truck shortly after and started their trek toward the lighthouse. When they got closer, she saw it was just opening and there were people in line.

“They don’t let dogs in there,” someone said to Kelsey.

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