Page 13 of Wild Tides
“Morning, Vi.” Lucy had bundled up for the cold morning, a black cap pulled low over her equally inky hair, the tips just grazing her shoulders in her heavy black coat.
We chatted easily about the latest news from the WNFH posts, which were often kooky, but the most recent posting presented a mystery: a headstone had appeared in someone’s yard. They’d posted photos and everything. It looked too nice and too embedded for a prank. Luckily, weird was what we did best.
“I still don’t believe someone dropped a tombstone out of the sky,” Lucy said scornfully.
“It has to be a prank,” Rae agreed, casting a sideways glance at me. “Sounds like something Gran would do.”
I shook my head. “Nah. She’d only do it with an inscription. Probably something super mature likeC.R. Butt rests here.”
Lucy chuckled. “Plausible. She also loves dispensing advice. If she were going to drop a mystery headstone in your yard, what do you think it would say?”
“Here lies Gran’s last fuck,” I suggested.
Rae laughed. “Or how about, paint me green and call me a pickle, because I’m done dillin’ with you bitches.”
Lucy snickered. “My favorite piece of Gran advice still has to be, life’s like a penis. Sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down, but it won’t be hard forever.”
I was still smiling as I drew up in front of Anya and Drew’s place. Anya must have been waiting for us, because she opened her front door, locked it and slid into the seat behind me before any of us could unbuckle to fetch her.
“Morning, everyone,” Anya said smoothly. Like the others, she’d donned a pouffy coat to ward off the cold. A pink headbandprotected her ears and held her straight blond hair back from her delicate features.
“Hey, traitor,” I said easily, smiling at her in the rearview mirror when she frowned at me.
“Just because I moved in with your brother,” she grumbled.
I pulled onto the road, driving toward the trailhead. “You’re the fifth roommate to find love and move out within a year of living with me,” I said over the music playing from the car. “I’m getting a complex.”
“Is that jealousy talking, Fenwick?” Lucy asked.
“Yes.” I softened my honesty with a smile. “Though I’m convinced you got the last good man on the island, Lucy. Clay’s a keeper.” I wagged my finger at Anya and Rae. “You ended up with my brothers, so condolences might be more in order.”
Rae snorted. “Don’t make me talk about your brother’s balls again.”
I shuddered delicately. “Stop. I’m glad you’re happy with them. I don’t need details.”
Parking at American Camp, the sister park to British Camp, was easy in the winter. January and February crowds were nonexistent. We grabbed our bags, heading for the Young Hill trailhead.
Lucy’s expression turned crafty. “Speaking of details. I hear you’re shacking up with Lee. How’d that happen?”
Anya slid to a stop, turning to me. “Wait. What?”
I shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. He sprained his ankle on a call. He can’t manage the stairs at his place right now, so I’m helping out.”
“Interesting…” Anya tugged at her lip.
“Not interesting,” I corrected. “Just practical.”
I didn’t tell her I’d woken up in Lee’s arms. My brothers getting wind of anything remotely romantic between Lee and me would be a disaster. They overreacted at the best of times. Ididn’t want to contemplate how they’d handle one of their best friends hooking up with me. I was ashamed of how long it had taken me to figure it out. But I’d learned the hard way to keep any romantic entanglements on the down-low. Sharing them with my family was a recipe for disaster.
Somewhere along the way, my best friends had become entwined in my brothers’ lives, no longer just mine. While I was happy for them, absolutely thrilled that my friends and brothers found love, I couldn’t ignore the hollow feeling it left behind. The loneliness. I’d lost the last friends who were truly mine. They’d been claimed by a circle I couldn’t step into.
While Lucy wasn’t dating one of my brothers, her Clay had a big mouth. Confiding in her would be the same as handing my brothers the information.
It hurt to keep quiet about Lee. To swallow the words that pressed against my lips. I was aching to tell someone about our movie night. About waking up in his arms. In his bed. Even if his meds meant I couldn’t trust a word out of his clever mouth.
I loved my friends. But their first loyalty wasn’t to me any longer. We’d laugh and joke all morning, the easy rhythm of our friendship still intact on the surface. I’d pretend everything was the same. But beneath it, I’d be holding myself apart. Feeling the divide. Aware I wasn’t part of the couple crowd. My life was different in ways they’d already forgotten.
Maybe I was being unfair. My friends hadn’t abandoned me; they’d just… moved forward. It only felt like desertion because I was in the same place.
