“Good evening, Max.” Ethel pushed her purple glasses higher up on the bridge of her nose. “You look…”
“Naked?” Opal suggested.
Ethel shrugged. “I was going to say ‘comfortable,’ but if the shirt fits…”
“You meanshoe.” Mavis shook her head.
“No, I mean shirt.” Ethel waggled her eyebrows. “Because he’s not wearing one.”
The three women collapsed into laughter.
Max couldn’t help but crack a smile. “I had to give up my shirt for a turtle and I wanted to stop by and see Henry on the way home. I’m going to go see if he’s in his room. You ladies try and stay out of trouble, okay?”
Doubtful.
Max held his hand up in a wave and headed toward his uncle’s room while the women continued snickering behind his back. He laughed under his breath. Opal, Ethel, and Mavis could be a handful, but they were harmless enough.
The exchange was quickly forgotten, though, when Max knocked on Henry’s door and his uncle announced he was on his way out.
“Again?” Max said. “Where to this time?”
“Volleyball league. We have a big game tonight.”
It was official: Max’s elderly uncle had a more active social life than Max could ever dream of. “You guys have a volleyball league?”
“Every Thursday night.” Henry waved toward a wall calendar pinned to his refrigerator door with a magnet shaped like a turtle. Nearly every square was filled with Henry’s neat handwriting. “See?”
Max raked a hand through his hair, tugging hard at the ends. “You wouldn’t want to skip it just this once, would you? So we can visit?”
“No can do. My team is depending on me, but you’re welcome to join us.” Henry glanced at Max’s torso and frowned. “But only if you put on a shirt so you don’t make the rest of us look bad. We’re not sixty anymore, you know.”
Max’s lips twitched. “I’m aware.”
Henry grabbed a garish Hawaiian print shirt from his closet that had cartoon sea turtles swimming amongst the hibiscus. “You can borrow this one.”
“Thanks.” Max slipped it on. The shirt was approximately three sizes too big and looked nothing short of comical paired with his tailored dress pants. He definitely wouldn’t be makinganyonelook bad.
“Come on, then.” Henry waved Max out to the hallway and clicked the door shut without bothering to lock it.
“So is this beach volleyball or standard court volleyball?” Max asked.
Henry shook his head. “Neither.”
What could that possibly mean?
“Intriguing,” Max said.
He knew better than to ask questions. His uncle had never been much of a talker, and he wasn’t about to waste words on senior volleyball when he had so much other information he wanted to drag out of Henry.
“How are things going at the aquarium?” Henry glanced at him. “Have you figured out the money thing yet?”
Max almost asked if he was joking. How in the world was he supposed to solve the aquarium’s financial crisis in just a matter of days? Henry’s expression was dead serious, though. And despite the fact that Max had been lured back to Turtle Beach under dubious pretenses, he didn’t want to stress Henry out any more than necessary. The older man was already getting winded and they hadn’t even reached the end of the hallway.
“Not yet. I’m working on it.” Every one of Max’s eggs were now in the SandFest basket. A win would only be a temporary fix, but it would help keep the doors open until he could come up with a better plan. “We saved a green sea turtle this evening. It was in the surf right out in front of the house, struggling to swim with a fish hook caught in its fin.”
“We?” Henry shot him a sideways glance.
“Molly was out on the beach when it happened.” Max cleared his throat. “Her little dog too.”