Page 83 of Stony Point Summer
“Theywere.”
“Were. So what’s going on with them?”
“You know, the same old. Kyle’s in the union, working different shipbuilding contracts. Has a part-time gig at The Dockside, too, washing dishes. Doing some cooking. And Lauren’s got a job at the bookstore. She paints some artwork on the side. Coastal things she sells at craft fairs.”
“That’s decent.” Shane leans forward and props his elbows on the table. “They live together?”
“No. Lauren’s either at home with her parents or stays at her grandparents’ cottage at the beach. And Kyle? He’s got an apartment above a law office. Over in Westcreek.”
“Okay. Question of the hour,” Shane says as a waitress delivers their food. So he pauses and looks up at her. She’s dressed in a black tee and black jeans. Her eyes are heavily lined; her brown hair is gathered in a big clip.
“Here you go, fellas.” She sets down plates loaded with club sandwiches and baked potato wedges. “Meatloaf for you,” she says, putting a sandwich thick with meatloaf slabs and cheese and horseradish in front of Neil. “And double grilled cheese with tomato for you, tough guy.” As she sets down the sandwich oozing with cheese and fresh-sliced tomato, she throws a wink Shane’s way before breezing back to the bar.
Shane watches her go, then picks right back up with Neil. “As I was saying. Question of the hour, my friend.” He dips a crispy potato wedge in ketchup. “How the hell’d you get involved with Lauren?” Putting the potato in his mouth, Shane keeps going. “Jesus, Neil,” he says around the food.
For the next five minutes, Neil tells him. It’s like some floodgate opened and he can finally let all this out. He explains how he and Lauren crossed paths on the beach one morning, when Lauren had her painting easel set up. They talked. Then again, the next day. And the next, until it became routine and theylookedfor each other. They sometimes walk to Little Beach and find driftwood pieces for her to paint. Sometimes he stops in where she works at The Book Buoy.
“I pretend like I don’t even know her and ask the store manager some random questions. So she sends Lauren over to point out whatever obscure book I’m seeking and off we go, into a hidden corner of the store. Steal a few minutes together, unseen.”
“And because she’s the forbidden fruit, it’s even sweeter?”
Neil lifts a half of his meatloaf club and holds it aloft. “Any alone time with her is sweet. In the dusty shadows of that old bookshop. When we break into Foley’s back room.”
“And where’s her fiancé when all this is going down?”
“Kyle? Working. Lumping steel. Climbing scaffolding. Welding. Building boats.”
“Oh, man. You’re on a crash course with trouble.”
Neil takes a double-bite into that dripping meatloaf sandwich. “Feels it sometimes.”
“Shit. My brother’s going tocrushyou. Hell, you’re having anaffairwith his girl?”
“It’snotan affair,” Neil says, still chewing. “Because she’snotmarried. Lauren and Kyle got together so young—”
“Does Kyle know?” Shane cuts right in, as if he doesn’t want to hear the bullshit.
“I don’t know. He might suspect something’s up. We used to fish on the rocks, Fridays here and there. Been avoiding him for a while.”
Shane leans back in his chair, hands clasped behind his neck. “Jesus Christ, Neil, you look like you’re about to be sick. Just like the greenhorns on the boat with no sea legs, man.”
“It fucking sucks. I actually hate it. Hate sneaking around. It messes with me.” Neil picks up the beer pitcher and refills his glass. “I can’t even think straight lately. I mean, Lauren? Shetoldme she’s ending it with Kyle. Then yesterday? They went to some lame cake-tasting for their September wedding.”
Shane glances at the TV mounted over the bar. A news anchor rambles on with the day’s headlines. “Wedding’s in September, you say?” He looks back to Neil. “That’s really close. Maybe Lauren doesn’twantto break up with my brother.”
“My thought, too.” Which apparently bothers Neil. He stops eating. He drags a hunk of his toasted sandwich, of the meatloaf covered in melted cheddar and fried onions, through a swirl of ketchup. And just holds the sandwich piece over his plate.
“So what are you going to do?” Shane asks.
“That’s why I called you. Right now, I need a break from Stony Point.”
Shane finishes his beer with a long swig. “What about your work?”
“Yep. Then there’s that. Jason and I started flipping a cottage. A tiny shack on that dead-end street past the trestle. And he’s at me,constantly.”
“About Lauren?”
Neil nods and sets down his uneaten slab of sandwich.
