Page 7 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

3.

Livvy

I stand at the edge of my property, the rising sun warms my skin as I look over the Chesapeake Bay, water sparkling like a billion tiny diamonds. Waves lapping against the shore. I spent the entire rest of the day yesterday catching up on sleep. Slept through the day and right on through the night. I guess I needed it, because boy, do I feel refreshed now.

Gage would love it here.Shit!I have to bite back the tears thinking about him always seems to cause anymore. I’m a crazy bitch. But he wouldn’t just love it, he’d totally fit in here, too.

Despite being born and raised in Chicago, he’s the epitome of the blond haired, blue eyed, laid back surfer dude. All he ever missed were the puka shells.

Short, sun-bleached tips with enough wave to run my fingers through and those eyes that sparkle like the water of the Chesapeake. He’d been beautiful our whole lives. I think I’d been in love with him our whole lives. But boy, once puberty hit, it hit with a vengeance—in all the right ways. Shot him up well over six feet, and that lithe, sculpted chest devoid of hair. He always looked like he waxed, but he never has. Just lucky genetics.Huh.

The man just had to smile at a girl and she’d drop her panties.

I saw it happen. That one time got a bit uncomfortable for the both of us. It got even more uncomfortable later that same night when we were almost passed-out drunk and he admitted that he’d only fucked her because he couldn’t have me. He’d wanted me then. Once Houdini targeted me, despite how pissed my brother was, he’d declared his love for me, ruining his friendship with his lifelong best friend.

And how do I repay him? Steal away into the night like a coward. But I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t stay, and he’d never leave. So how could we work when fundamentally we’re so different?

I stay looking at the water until the remainder of the morning fog burns off behind me. Then I turn to go back to my truck—the town and a grocery store beckon. I need food. Then I need to see if the well still works to pump water into the house.

It’s hard, but I have to force Gage out of my mind. He’s my history.

So then why does my heart feel so heavy?

***

“Hey, pretty lady, you must be new around here.”

From anyone else, I’d have crushed the guy’s balls with my fist for that remark. But the guy behind the counter looks close to a hundred years old. His only boon after my morning having been spent standing in a ridiculously long line for a town the size of Smithfield, to pay the deposit and get on the list to have my electric turned on. There I was met by a condescending ‘sweetheart’ too, but the remark had come from a woman who most likely lacked balls to crush. Though, in this day, one never knows for sure.

“Yeah. I’m new,” I say and pause. “But my family isn’t. My great-granddad used to own this station.”

“Seriously? You’re Shelly’s daughter?”

“Yeah.”

“No shit. How is she? Haven’t seen her since she moved away to the Windy City, I think. Years ago. She come with?”

“Oh, um… Granddad didn’t tell you? Mom passed away years ago.”

“Shee-it. Sorry, doll face. No. Skip never told me. He knew? Before?”

“His mind went?” I finish for him, wringing my fingers together until they turn past red to white. I have a hard time talking about her and he apparently has a hard time listening, so I swallow and do my best to end this topic. “Yep. Must have just been hard for him to talk about. He raised her, after all.”

The old guy clears his throat, looking ten kinds of uncomfortable. “So what brings you in here today?”

“Your ‘Help Wanted’ sign,” I confess, grateful that he’s as willing to move past the awkward as me. “Great-Granddad left me the house in his will. I’ve been paying the property taxes all this time, so I decided maybe it’s time to relocate.”

“Couldn’t have a better place to call home.”

“Have an application for me?”

“Skip’s great-granddaughter? Nah. Job’s yours, doll.”

Without thinking, I don’t even saythank youbut pull him in for a kiss on his liver-spotted, bald head.

The cutest blush spreads from his forehead to neck as he reaches up to rub the spot I kissed. “Gonna have to watch it with the smooching,” he mumbles. “The missus would gut me in my sleep if she thought I was skirtin’ around.”

“Well, just this once… What she doesn’t know won’t hurt you.” I wink at him.

---