Page 8 of Resting Beach Face
“Sorry, Mabel, I’ve got to get ready for work.”
I hightailed it back inside, a chuckle working its way up my throat. It was one thing to tease our nosy neighbor, but another to encourage a setup with her granddaughter. Still, maybe Mabel’s impressions of me weren’tsobad if she wanted to foist Sadie on me. That was progress, right?
Katelyn was in the hall when I came in. “What are youdoing?We need to go!”
“The women in my life are far too bossy.”
“We’re just bossy enough,” Kat threw over her shoulder with a smirk.
She took after me just a little too much.
I retreated to my bedroom to dress in my Swallow’s Nest Resort uniform of khaki pants and a forest green button-up shirt. It was short-sleeved, but it would still suck during the hottest part of the day.
Thankfully, I’d spend most of my time in an air-conditioned hotel lobby. I’d had worse jobs. Far worse.
I popped into the bathroom to clean up my face. I didn’t have time for a full shave, but I tamed my scruff to more of a designer stubble and used some hair wax to make my hair strands look artfully wavy instead of a bedhead mess. I wanted to look like I’d rolled out of a bed in a movie—not in real life.
“I’m heading to the marina!” Kat called through the door. “I don’t want the Millers to leave without me.”
“And let their poor Benny suffer all day without his love muffin?”
“Ugh, I hate you,” she called without heat.
A few minutes later, the front door closed. I followed not long after, gaze sweeping over the sacked-out form of a man who hadonce been my father. It had been a long time since he’d been anything but a mess.
He lay on the sofa in a stained undershirt, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos still resting on his chest. Drool trickled from one corner of his mouth.
The coffee table had been cleared and wiped down, but by tonight, Dad would have worked his way through a twelve-pack of that shitty Pabst again. I swear half Mom’s paychecks went to enabling his addiction, but she never wanted to hear it when I talked to her about cutting him off.
“He’s living with pain,” she’d say. “We don’t know what it’s like. Just try to cut him a break.”
But I’d been cutting him breaks for nine years. For a long time, I’d hoped things would change. That Dad would recover and come out of his funk. But at some point between years five and nine, I realized that I’d lost my dad the day of the boating accident that broke his back.
That man was gone, and he wasn’t ever coming back.
I quietly closed the door behind me and cut across the street, between two houses, and through the park. As always, my gaze was drawn toward the Treehouse B&B and its lush gardens. Sometimes, I spotted Declan out digging in the soil or pruning roses. There was no sign of him this morning.
I didn’t have a car, to save on expenses. Swallow Cove was small enough that I could walk most places without too much effort. Sometimes I went by my friend Sawyer’s place to catch a lift to the resort with him. But today, I was meeting Poppy for coffee at Just The Sip, so I turned the other direction.
When I arrived, Danny was serving a young couple. The guy was blushing and stammering while his girlfriend laughed at him.
Danny’s T-shirt read “Just The Sip” with a winky-faced emoji over the i. There was an image of a frothy drink with alotofcream at the top and a puddle of coffee at the bottom. Beneath that, it said “Unless you want to swallow more!”
I snorted as Danny finished torment—erflirting—with the poor guy and I stepped up to the counter. “Nice shirt.”
Danny grinned and tugged the hem forward so he could gaze down at his handiwork. “Isn’t it great? I just got them made.”
“It’s very you, but does this mean I won’t get to walk in here to see a new gay pun on your T-shirt every other day?”
“Oh, heck no. I mustexpressmyself as the amazingly gorgeous—andavailable—gay man I am. I mean, just imagine if my Prince Cumming walked in and he didn’t know I was a desperate bottom just aching to sheath his sword.”
I groaned. “Man, that was bad, even for you.”
He laughed, eyes sparkling. “Can’t fault a guy for trying.”
I folded my arms on the high counter between us and made eye contact. I let my lips slowly tilt up in a smile that had never failed to make someone look twice. “Maybe you don’t need to try so hard.”
“Is that right?” Danny bit his lower lip as he looked me over. “Lord knows you don’t need to try at all.”
