Page 3 of Otter Heart
Besides, it was self-care, right?
A brown sign loomed up in front of me with a white arrow pointing toward the lake.
Hardwood Beach, 1 mile →
I couldn’t help but smirk. It had been a long time since I’d been toBonerBeach. The last time had been the summer before college when my uncle invited the family out for the weekend. I remembered it particularly fondly due to the fact that an extremely cute college boy led me back to his place after a day on the sand and let me fuck him. That was actually the day I lost my virginity.
But that wasn’t going to happen this time. I wasn’t a virgin, and I was sticking to my guns. No boys and no sex until I got myself figured out.
I turned onto the beach road with a sigh. Today would just be swimming and absolutely nothing else.
My life was gonna be really boring for a while.
Chapter Two: Mateo
“Bessie!” I called from the living room as I stood up from the couch. “Come here!”
The sound of paws came trotting through the house as she came running. I crouched down, holding my hands out until I felt her warm fur against my fingertips.
“Good girl,” I cooed, rubbing the sides of her face vigorously. She loved that. “Do you want to go to the beach?”
Furious tremors washed over her body as her tail wagged so fast it threatened to tip her over. I couldn’t help smiling as I scrubbed my fingers through her fur. Reaching out, I grabbed the bar at the top of her harness and got back to my feet.
“Let’s get our shoes on and we can go.”
Still wiggling like mad, Bessie led me to the front door. I could feel the heat of the sun streaming through the window, letting me know I was in the right place. Not to mention the walls closed in here, making the space sound smaller than normal. I sat down on the bench next to the door, reaching below it to pull out my shoes. My fingers grazed over a pair of leather sandals, the soft straps well-worn. The second pair was my tennis shoes, the smooth fabric cool to the touch, but not exactly what I was looking for.
“There you are,” I said as my fingers found the third pair.
Barefoot shoes were my favorite, and that’s what I slipped on. They had thin, but heavy tread at the bottom of the shoe that fit the curves of my feet perfectly. Both the fabric and the rubber were very flexible, not only making it easy to walk, but much easier to feel the shifts in the ground below me. With those on, I could easily tell what sort of surface I was walking on, and whether I had to take more care with my steps.
Bessie had her own shoes too, in a small box near the end of the bench. Since she was my seeing-eye dog, she went everywhere with me, regardless of the terrain. She was my lifeline in this world, and that meant I took amazingly good care of her. And that included her feet. I knew it was hot outside and there would be some concrete between the house and the beach. Not to mention the hot sand. I didn’t want her little beans to get burned.
“Paw,” I said, and Bessie immediately placed her paw in my lap.
She switched to the second without a command and then turned around, backing her butt up against my knees so I could slip her shoes onto her back feet. With both of us dressed, I stood up, pulled a hat off the rack next to the door, slipped on my sunglasses, and headed out with Bessie at my side.
The walk to the beach wasn’t long, but it was a bit winding. I lived in a condo development near Lake Michigan that was decently large. I was easily the youngest there, being only twenty-nine, but I didn’t mind. My neighbors were quiet and with my super sensitive hearing, that was a blessing. Plus, everyone knew my name and went out of their way to say hi to me. Being the token blind guy had its perks.
One day I wanted to get out into my own house, but the condo was so nice that I had a hard time convincing myself I could find anything better for a reasonable amount of money. I was lucky that my parents already owned the condo and were happy to let me stay there for free. But most days, I found myself aching for more independence from them. Sure, the condo was great and getting a house of my own was a massive undertakingthat would require amuchbetter job than I had now. But I still wanted to do it.
Everyone liked to treat me like I was made of glass, especially my parents. They didn’t understand that I could take care of myself. I shopped, I paid bills, and I even went out to restaurants and things all by myself. I was just like any other person except that I had the best dog in the world at my side the whole time. In many ways, I felt luckier than most people. But they didn’t see me that way. To them, I was an invalid.
I was just blind, not broken.
“Where are you going, Bessie?” I laughed, pulling her back toward the trail that would lead us to the beach.
I could hear the leaves rustling in the breeze and knew we’d gone about thirty too many steps for her to be taking me to the trail. She whined a bit, but corrected and pulled me up onto the grass. It was odd for her to pull me the wrong way, but then again, she’d been acting a bit restless lately. I reached down and gave her a pat on the side.
“We’re going to the beach, remember?” I paused, running my fingers through the fur on her stomach. “Feels like you could use the exercise, anyway. I’ve been giving you too many T-R-E-A-T-S, haven’t I?”
I don’t know why I bothered to spell it. She knew exactly what I meant, anyway. Slipping a hand in my pocket, I handed her a small treat for taking me to the trailhead and together we started down the boardwalk through the woods. My shoes made a dull thump on the wood as we walked, my hand trailing over the smooth metal railing that was hot from the sun. Meanwhile, Bessie’s nails clicked against the boards with rhythmic certainty.
The air stilled as we entered the trees, and I could smell the humidity rising. There was a small swamp between the condos and the beach. I imagined it was covered in cattails and willow. That’s what it sounded like, anyway. But I’d never been off the path. Jumping the railing was a bit of a gamble because sometimes there was standing water and other times it was just stinky swamp muck. Neither of those things sounded like a goodtime, and I doubted Bessie wanted to be part of that adventure.
We followed the boardwalk across the swamp and through a small patch of woods until I felt the ground below me begin to soften. The wind picked up, sunshine heated my skin, and the scent of the air shifted once more.
Lake Michigan.
