Page 49 of A Fool's Game
And hell, it’s a holiday, and I have every intention of being nice. But that? That little bomb about having lived in this city for years and never once taken a ferry? It’s too much.
“Yeah,” he goes on, as if his hole wasn’t deep enough. “I guess I just got busy with school and stuff. Never wandered out to the islands. I usually head out of town on breaks.”
“I take the ferry every day.”
Gem turns on me once more. “You do not,” she rightly calls me out.
“I used to,” I correct myself, feeling foolish and desperately wanting to talk about anything else right now.
Ainsley changes the subject. “Do you have a big family out there on the island?”
I shrug.
“Yes,” Gem answers for me. “His parents and youngest brother all live at the house. His other brother will be at brunch today from the peninsula.”
“I always wanted siblings,” he says, a bit too nostalgically.
“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.” I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t seem to shake it.
Gem smacks me hard on the arm. “Taylor!”
“Sorry. It’s great. My brothers are great.”
And they are. They’d be a lot better if they got jobs to help with the giant mess of a financial situation we’ve gotten ourselves into with the house, but you can’t make people do anything. Believe me, I’ve tried.
We spend almost the full thirty-minute ferry ride braving the freezing cold wind so pretty boy can stand on the bow like it’s the goddamn Titanic. By the time we walk off, I’m barely keeping it together.
This is not the attitude I need to be taking into that house.
“Anything I should know before we get there?”
I glare over at him, where he cradles the fancy bottle of wine he almost made us miss the bus for. “Take your shoes off.”
He just nods. “Okay, easy enough.”
“They’re going to love you,” Gem assures him, leaning in close.
And, as usual, she’s right.
“You finally made it.” My mother gushes over us as if she didn’t just see me a week ago.
“Come in out of the cold.” My father ushers us all into the mudroom and closes the heavy front door behind us. “Grab some slippers.”
He pauses, taking in the stranger bundled between Gem and I for the first time. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
Ainsley pulls off his black beanie, revealing perfectlymussed hair and rosy cheeks as he holds out his hand. “Ainsley.”
My father shakes it with a smile. “Pleasure to meet you, Ainsley. Any friend of these two is family around here. You can call me Pops.”
After so many years of the boundless enthusiasm of these two, I’m more or less used to it, but I do enjoy watching a new person bathe in it for the first time. It’s like a special little bubble of warmth you think was created just for you.It takes years before you realize they do it so they can float around as if the world is all roses and bunny rabbits, while in reality, it’s crumbling down around them.
“Coats there on the hooks, slippers in the bucket.” My dad continues showing us the way as if I hadn’t spent every day of my childhood in this house.
Pretty soon, we’re following them both toward the kitchen while my mom rattles off the many warm breakfast beverage options she has lined up in her clown-car pantry.
“We saved all your gifts here, Gemma, instead of sending them off with Taylor, because we knew you’d be coming.” My mom stops short in her fussing over Gem and considers Ainsley, wide eyed. “We didn’t know you would be joining us, Ainsley, or we would’ve made sure to get you something.”
Ainsley just flashes another of those prize pony smiles and produces the wine from under his arm. “No need, ma’am. I brought you this as a thank you for having me.”
