Page 16 of Drowning in Sins
Dad and I ate here nearly every day when we weren’t out at sea. It was like a second home. Like most places around here, it hadn’t changed over the years. The paint had been touched up as needed, but the same chalkboard menus were on the walls that I grew up with. A mix of music across the decades up until the early 2000s played on the jukebox, like time had stopped at that moment.
“Kai, what can I get you?” Cody walked behind the bar to grab a glass. His dark hair fell over one eye as he poured a drink for another customer.
“The sailor’s special,” a woman spoke from behind me. “Right?”
I smiled before turning my head to see Allie. We’d gone to school together, and she’d been a waitress here since high school.
Cody chuckled. “I know, but it’s polite to ask. Besides, one day he might surprise us and do something different.”
Allie grabbed a few drinks freshly poured and walked to a nearby table to pass them out before returning to lean against the bar next to me. “Is it true you’re taking some hoity-toity people out on the ocean for gold?”
All I could do was laugh. “I mean, I don’t assume what they’re looking for.” There wasn’t much I was allowed to say about what was really going on, even if I did know.
“When are you going to take me on that little boat of yours again?” Her pink lips pulled up in a smile. Lips I was all too familiar with when the urge struck. Allie and I were friends with the occasional benefits.
She was all too familiar, but that urge wasn’t there. Only one woman was taking up space in my head, and she was up the road in her motel room, most likely resting peacefully after the storm we sailed through.
“When is that man of yours going to make a move instead of stringing you along?” It was a change of subject that would have her pull back slightly. My eyes glanced from Allie to Cody. His back was to us, but he no doubt heard.
The pair of them had been dancing around their desire for each other for years. I’m sure it had something to do with working together for so long and nothing to do with him being nearly a decade older.
Cody turned to face us, then slid a glass across the counter to me. “She’s too good for him.” He passed me a napkin. “He’s a tool.”
“Well, he’s a tool who is afraid to live,” she bit back at him before turning on her heels and walking away.
“Seriously, when are you gonna go after her?”
“When she’s done looking around her.” Cody wiped down the bar. “I know the two of you have history too.”
“Surface level, and that’s in the rearview. We’re just friends.” I hesitated before saying more.
“Okay, who is she?” He swung a rag from his shoulder and tossed it to a bucket nearby.
I eyed him curiously.
Cody chuckled. “I know y’all are just friends. That’s typically your only answer. If any woman is in the past, who has your eyes in the present?”
I waved him off. “How’s my food coming along?”
He laughed as he walked away and through the swinging door that led to the kitchen.
I’d been hoping an evening with friends would be a welcome distraction. Something to take Rosalyn off my mind.
Maybe another drink after my food, and then I’d lock myself away onMaribeth. Besides, it wasn’t like I even knew what room she was in.
Chapter Fifteen
1748
Simon
I could never admitit out loud, how I was a dreamer like my mom was. My father would’ve blamed her and the childish books she read to me growing up. It was also entirely possible it was a generational thing.
My father and mother’s marriage was arranged when they were children, which was normal then and normal now. I wanted something different—at least, I thought I did. Then I saw the woman my father intended me to marry, and there would be no other soul who could compete.
It wasn’t her pretty face, upbringing, or dowry that had me agreeing to it. I caught her in the stables, talking to one of the horses about what it meant to be in love. It reminded me of one of those childish stories, and I was hooked. The way she described love and family, I wanted that for myself.
Then I saw her face, and there was no going back. I wanted to look at that face for the rest of my life. Annetta didn’t know I was watching her then, and she didn’t know it now.
