Page 4 of Until Forever

I smirked and shook my head. “Well, thanks, but no thanks. I know I messed up. Spare me the lecture, okay?”

He shot me a look, but refrained from saying the words we both knew were true. This was more than just a little mistake. That marina had been our grandfather’s legacy, and he left it in my care. It’s not like it was in great shape by the time he died. It had been closed down for over five years. But if I had started working on it sooner, it could have been salvaged. It was going to take more than “Oops, I’m sorry!” to make it right.

“Listen, this isn’t your problem,” I told him. “You got granddad’s house, and you’ve done your part by taking care of it. Plus, you’ve got a family to look after. I don’t need you to clean up my mess. I’ll find some way to fix this.”

He didn’t look so convinced, but after checking the time on his watch, he decided to let it go—at least for now. “I’ve got to get home for dinner. You wanna join us?”

“No, not tonight,” I declined. “Thanks, though. Maybe one night next week?”

He nodded and gave me a quick hug before climbing in his truck and hitting the road, leaving me behind to sulk and stare down the old rotting building some more. After a while of beating myself up, I headed down to Jake’s, the local bar, to drown my sorrows.

There were pros and cons to growing up in a small town like Silver Point. The pros were it was easy for everyone to commiserate with me. They knew our grandfather and how much the Mullins Cove Marina meant to him, so they knew how big of a blow this was to me and my brother.

“Don’t beat yourself up too much, Keith,” Jake said as he slid a beer across the counter, trying to cheer me up. “That place was ancient, and everyone knew it was in bad shape. Even if you had buckled down and started working on it years ago, who knows if you could have saved it. And anyways, you’ve still got the whole road named after him. And the lake. Those things will be his legacy now.”

I tried to take comfort in his words, but the cons of growing up in a small town were that we both knew what Derek said was right. I didn’t do everything I could have. I was too busy sitting right there on that same barstool night after night, chasing after whatever random woman happened to come strolling through.

My big brother was a lot like our granddad. They were family men, and hard workers. Those things meant more to them than anything. But I had always been more rambunctious and restless. I didn’t have the same desire to settle down, and that fact had led to me being infamous around town for being a ladies’ man. That was another con to a small town. It was kind of hard to avoid getting roped into being with just one woman when all the women you were messing around with knew each other. They all talked about me, but thankfully, there were still a few women left who either weren’t looking for a relationship or had it in their heads that they could change me. It would have been really lonely without them.

I was hoping one such woman was walking in as I had the thought, but I looked up to see someone who was the opposite in every way. Lana Miller.

She looked better than ever with her long legs and platinum blonde hair, bleached out from the sun. She had gotten more tan since moving away to LA, but her nose and cheeks were still sprinkled with the freckles I remembered her having when we were younger.

Her icy blue eyes met mine for a moment, but she was quick to look away. I tried not to stare as she leaned over the opposite end of the bar to order her drink.

“When did she get back in town?” I asked Jake when he got back from serving her.

“A couple of months ago,” he replied. “She hasn’t been around town much. She’s been holed up at the hospital mostly. You heard about Claire Foster’s accident, didn’t you?”

I shook my head. I had been too wrapped up in every last-ditch effort I could think of to change the town counsel’s mind about the marina. “Accident? No. What happened?”

He whistled. “It was horrible. Some guy from out of town was speeding through. He was texting on the highway at almost a hundred miles an hour. It was a head-on collision. He died instantly. Claire almost didn’t make it, too. She’s still in a wheelchair.”

My heart sank just to think about it. “No wonder Lana is back then. Those two have always been attached at the hip.”

“She’s moving back for a while, from what I hear,” Jake added. “Didn’t you and Lana used to be friends back in high school?”

“For a little while,” I huffed. “Until she turned on me for no damn reason.” I rolled my eyes, remembering how much she hated me. “Women. Psh. What are you gonna do?”

As soon as I said it, one of my ex-flings came walking in. I perked up, thinking maybe she was as lonely and bummed out as I was. Maybe even enough to forget how mad she was at me for not calling after the last time we spent the night together.

Her eyes ran over me for a moment, but she was quick to scowl and head over to the table where Lana was sitting.

“Great,” I groaned. “Now they can talk all night about how much they both hate me.” I slid down from the bar stool and tossed some cash on the counter. “I think that’s my cue to leave.”

“Have a good night, Keith.”

I marched out the door and started the walk home. My small house was quiet and dark like it always was. Derek inherited our grandfather’s home because it was big enough for a family. Still, I kept it simple in my one-bedroom home with only the basics. The front room was open, with the kitchen on one side and the living room on the other. It led to one small hallway with a door to the bathroom and another door to the bedroom. Aside from a few family photos on my dresser, I didn’t keep much around.

I flipped on the living room lamp and the television, then heated up a microwave dinner and cracked open another beer. After dinner, I leaned back and finished the last of my beer, then nearly fell asleep on the couch. Thankfully, I snapped to before I was too far gone and got up to shuffle to the bedroom. My neck always killed me after a night of sleeping on the couch.

As I lay down in my bed, everything Derek said earlier that evening kept haunting me. He was right. I had no direction or purpose. If I didn’t want a family, fine. But the least I could have done was see to it that the marina was preserved.

The guilt sank in deeper, making it hard to sleep. I lay there and stared up at the ceiling in my dark bedroom until, finally, an idea came to me. The town counsel had assured us they wouldn’t be reversing their decision at this point, but maybe just maybe, there was someone on the counsel who could talk through everything with me. If I knew every last thing that was wrong with the place that led to it being condemned, maybe I could make some kind of plan for fixing it or rebuilding it. I didn’t know where I’d get the time or money, but I had to try.

I shot up out of bed and reached for my phone to give George Rustle a call. He loved to fish and had been a big fan of both my grandfather and the marina. If anyone would be willing to help me, it was him.

It was late, but thankfully, George picked up—even if he was quick to discourage me.

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