Page 78 of Cutter's Hope

“Drywall install. We actually kind of go together,” she smiled.

“Like peanut butter and jelly!” Reaver crowed, proving he was shamelessly eavesdropping from the other side of the deck. Hayden turned and the smile she had for him lit her up from the inside out.

Wow.

“How did you get into, uh, defense contracting?” I hated that question. Really hated it, but she didn’t know. I looked over at Cutter who winked at me.

“My sisters’ dad, he,” I cleared my throat, “He never went after them, I mean, they were his and I guess that grossed him out but me… I was a different story. My mom didn’t believe me. A friend of mine, her dad put her in martial arts and we were thick as thieves. They had money so they asked my mom if they could put me in with her and my mom, the hippy, said no of course. I had to beg and plead and yeah,” I laughed a little bitterly.

“It was my stepfucker that talked her into letting me go. I took to it like a fish to water. He stopped coming into my room when I was fourteen and nearly caved his nuts in. Mom couldn’t really ignore it after that and kicked his ass out. Though to be honest, I think it was his drugging that got him kicked out more than anything.”

Three sets of eyes on me, I didn’t know what was making me say any of this. Like everything else, I didn’t generally talk about it but you know me! All in, as always.

“I stuck with the martial arts even after they split, my friend never made it and my instructor, he had a soft spot for me I guess. He let me keep coming. When I graduated high school, my mom was in real bad shape and died, I had Faith and Charity who were like ten and seven, my grades… hell, no money for college,” I sighed. “I had to support them somehow so I enlisted, the Army took what I already had and built on it. They found I had an aptitude for teaching and the rest is history.” I shrugged and for a long minute the only sound was the boat cutting through the water.

Reaver cleared his throat, “Damn. That’s fucked up.”

I shrugged, “Worse has happened, I think I turned out pretty okay all things considered.”

“Reave, man, need you to get that line,” Cutter said and his tone was dark, ominous even as he tried to get a handle on whatever he had going on inside.

Man, wasn’t I just one giant freaking ray of sunshine today? I turned to Hayden and scoffed a laugh, “Ever wish the day had some kind of reset button like some video game console?”

“I think we all do, but yeah, I’ve had some doozies.”

The boys dropped the sails and tucked them away, Cutter lashed the canvas down and dropped anchor so we wouldn’t drift. I looked around. The coast was off in one direction. Pretty close, actually. The lights from beachfront houses glimmered and though we couldn’t see anyone moving around in them, we could see the blue glow of a television here or the warm lights on the ground floor there. People were probably having their dinner.

“C’mere, Sweetheart.” Cutter held a hand down to me where I sat and I took it and got to my feet, he led me to the side of the boat, closer to the shore and brought out his phone. It started ringing on speaker.

“Hello?”

“Hey Marlin, how’s our girl?”

“Sleeping, she’s rough. I think she’ll get through it. She’s strong like her sister, just in different ways.”

“Thanks,” I said sardonically. I didn’t feel strong. Not in the slightest.

“Hey man, come to the window and give the signal,” Cutter looked down at me and I looked up, a light winked in one of the upstairs windows of an otherwise dark house. I blinked.

“Is that...? Are we?”

“Thanks, Marlin,” Cutter said.

“That you bobbing out there, Cap?”

“Yep.”

“Oh, cool. Night then.”

“Night,” he hung up and pulled me back against his chest, “You’re just a five minute swim away, Baby. Now you both get your wish. She gets her privacy and you get to be close anyways.”

“You seriously just sailed us to my sister’s back door,” I sounded incredulous. Iwasincredulous.

“Technically it’smyback door. I mean it is my house…” I slapped him hard in the chest with my uninjured hand and he said “Owe!” and put up his hands to guard himself, though he was laughing, eyes smiling again.

“Why would you do that?” I asked and I was dead serious, I needed to know why.

“Oh hey,” he pulled me into his arms, “I love you, that’s why. Now when you gonna figure out that I’m in this? I want you in my life, to see what the hell can happen when this shit storm dies down. I love your feisty, that you can keep me on my toes. I love that you’re messed up, that no matter how screwed up it gets that you can hold your own,” I snorted and he paused.

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