Page 83 of A Line in the Sand
“Oh, Dad. There’s so much I need to tell you.” Molly tucked her legs up under her, and Ursula stretched out beside her with her little head on her paws, settling in for the long haul.
On the other end of the line, her father’s favorite La-Z-Boy groaned into recline position. “I’m all ears.”
***
“King me.” Uncle Henry aimed a triumphant grin at Max as he slid one of his red checkers into place on the game board that lay between them on a table in the senior center’s lobby.
Max had exactly one black checker left on the board, as opposed to Henry’s half a dozen double-stacked kings. Henry could have put the entire game to bed six moves ago, but he kept pushing his game pieces around in seemingly random moves.
Max inched his lone checker forward to a spot where Henry could jump him from three different directions. His uncle’s fingertips lingered in the vicinity and then veered to the other end of the checkerboard where he moved one of his kings to a lonely, insignificant corner.
Max narrowed his gaze at Henry, but his uncle didn’t look up. He just picked at a piece of nonexistent lint on his cardigan.
For the first time in the two days that had passed since the Under the Sea Ball, Max consciously let himself think about the moments at the dance before everything had gone so horribly wrong—the laughter in Molly’s eyes, the way her dress shimmered like starlight, the tantalizing curve of her neck beneath her upswept hair…the things she’d said.
Since that utterly disastrous night, Max had done what he always did when life got messy—he’d thrown himself into his work. With Opal’s donation in the bank, he had more than enough to keep him busy. It was a win–win situation—great for the aquarium and great for Max.
Or it should have been. But somehow, the more he tried not to think about Molly, the more the memories kept tormenting him. And they were never the good memories—never thoughts of her sunshine scent or her candy-floss hair or the way her smile alone could save a man from drowning…never the sublime warmth of her kiss.
Instead, all Max saw when he closed his eyes were the tears that had streamed down her face. He’d made the woman he loved cry.
And he definitely loved her. He’d fallen for Molly, head over heels. But he’d realized it just a beat too late.
His chest burned with the hot sting of regret. He needed to get back to the aquarium, back to his office where things were clear and logical and less likely to leave him feeling like he had an aching, gaping wound in the place where his heart used to be.
Max sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Uncle Henry, are you losing this game on purpose so I’ll stick around and spend more time with you?”
Henry froze.
Well, look at that.Max came closer to smiling than he had in days.Molly was right.
“You could have simply asked, you know,” Max said.
“Really?” Henry snorted even louder than Bingo the pug did whenever his flat snout got within sneezing distance of the sand. “Kind of like all the times I invited you to come to the island for holidays or vacations?”
The hole in Max’s chest felt like it was caving it on itself. “That was completely different.”
“How so? You were too busy working to make the trip back then, and since the day you arrived in Turtle Beach, all you want to talk about is the aquarium. Seems about the same to me.” Uncle Henry reached out, grabbed one of his kings and jumped over Max’s last checker.
Boom. Game over.
“But you brought me here to save it,” Max countered.
Henry let out a laugh. “Is that what you think?”
Of course he did. Henry had told him that very thing at their first yoga class. Hadn’t he?
“Son, the aquarium has been running on a shoestring for years. Did I think you’d be able to turn things around? Of course I did. But that’s not why I asked you to take over as director,” Henry said.
Max was at a loss. Before he realized what he was doing, he’d started resetting the checkerboard for another game.
“You know how proud of you I am, Max. I love you, son, but you’ve turned into a total workaholic. I’m guessing it has something to do with your parents and how hard things were for you after they divorced, but take it from an old man. It’s no way to live.” Henry pushed a red checker from one square to the next, making the first move. “When you got passed over for the director position in Baltimore, I knew it was time to make my move. I didn’t ask you to come to Turtle Beach so you could save the aquarium. I asked you to come back here so the aquarium could saveyou.”
Max went very still.
Uncle Henry cocked an eyebrow. “It was working, wasn’t it?”
Yes…yes, it was.
