Page 26 of Too Close To Call

Sad thing is, I scroll through the pictures anyway, but I don’t share them. Instead I grin at the shot of Daisy in her blue bathing suit with the biggest smile on her face as she dumps a sand bucket full of water over Tori’s head. I hadn’t even needed to prompt her—much—to get her to do that. Then there was the chase that ensued. Tori came after both me and Daisy, threatening retribution for the dunking.

I swipe and the next picture is of Tori looking at Daisy as she plays at the edge of the water. The love on her face causes a warm feeling to radiate out from my heart. I make myself look at the two dozen images I took during our day together, and then I go through and delete each one.

Taking them had been wrong. Confusing even. I’m not letting Tori back in my life. These pictures were taken as keepsakes of a memory, a memory to take out and revisit through the years. To do that would be like a sucker punch to the gut each time I’d look at them.

I reel my line back in, put my fishing gear away, and join the guys. I might as well get their intervention out of the way so they’ll report back that I’m fine. I’m hungry and, from the looks of my cooler, there’s nothing left. Not even the chicken salad sandwich. I’m sure it was Bode who ate it, knowing it was the last one.

“Can we get this interrogation underway? Go ahead and ask all the questions. I want to get back home because I’m hungry.” I stare pointedly at each of them.

David grins, holding no guilt for eating all my food. “Our boy is finally seeing reason.”

I cross my arms and lean back against the seat cushion. “I just want to remind you that you all were whiny sons of bitches before you got married. Every single one of you.”

Bode’s ears perk up like a dog on the scent. “So you’re saying this is that type of relationship?”

“What?” I ask, sure I heard him wrong.

With a look, Rod calms us all down. He is our uncle, but he’s not all that much older than us. “We know Tori is working for you. And she brought her daughter, Daisy.”

“It’s the same Tori that messed you up. Both times,” Bode states and tosses his head back, draining the beer can.

“Why is she even on the island? Didn’t she do enough damage the first time?” David asks.

“Or the second.” Without a lick of manners, Bode pulls the last beer from the cooler. “Are you sure Daisy isn’t your kid? We saw her in The Creamery last week and I gotta tell ya, man, she looks like Mom.”

“Just say the word and our girls will run her off,” David throws out. David, the upholder of the law on Faire Island, is offering to run Tori and her five-year-old daughter out of town.

I throw up my hands because getting a word in edgewise isn’t happening. “Hang on. Whoa. Stop. Just stop. I have never asked anyone to fight my battles for me and I’m not starting now. Why you would even think that is beyond me. First off, Ryan Busch is Daisy’s father and he and Tori have done a wonderful job raising her.”

“But he slept with your girl. We hate him, right?” Bode asks.

My head tips to the side at finding a lot of problems with that question. “No, I don’t hate him. Ryan was a very good friend for a lot of years. While I don’t like what they did, I can understand the emotions involved that contributed to it happening. I suppose you would say there were extenuating circumstances and Daisy is the result.” I blink. That’s the truth and that revelation stuns me.

Rod stares a bit too long before he asks, “That doesn’t get under your skin? Your girl sleeping with another man? Having his child?”

My fists tighten. “Hell yes, it does. Then I looked at it from her perspective. She was through with me, or so she claimed. Now she shows up and wants to wipe the slate clean.”

“That’s why she’s here?” Rod asks with a nod like it finally makes sense. I’m glad it does to one of us.

“Yeah. To see if there’s anything left between us.”

“And is there?” David asks.

I scrub both hands through my hair and over my face. I would rather swim with sharks than answer that question.

Bode sits up straight and chuckles. “Oh, my God, you slept with her.”

“What? No!” I quickly deny, but then stutter, “Yeah... but it was an accident.”

Bode and David about lose it over my reply. Bode laughs out loud and pokes me with, “You accidentally impaled her with your dick?”

“My dick wasn’t involved,” I snap, and then mumble, “Even though he wanted to be.”

“You got her off?” Bode asks, but it sounds more like a statement.

I cross my arms and glare back at my brother. “I’m not going to answer that.”

David punches Bode on the arm. “He did. And they’ve only been together at the garage or at his house yesterday.”

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