Page 31 of Your Two Lips
“Good year for crabbing,” I said.
“It is. Rhys and I’ve been coming out mornings before the bar opens. The water feels like home.”
“Emily said ReeAnn asked her to crew for you this week. ReeAnn crews with you a lot?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He smiled. “Distracting as hell though.”
I felt the same way about biking and Emily. God, that ass. “Still no dates?”
“Not yet.”
“And nothing in high school? You were inseparable.”
Jake shook his head.
“There were a couple of guys who wanted to ask her out but didn’t want to fight you.”
He squinted an eye toward the sun. “Yeah, I think I knew about that. I was too chicken shit. She asked me out once, and I said no.”
“What?”
“She was out of my league. Beautiful and smelled sweet, like baby powder and vanilla. She took honors English and math. We had one class together our senior year, civics. I can’t tell you anything about civics. I sat in the seat right behind her and spent the entire hour staring at the curve of her jaw and the slope of her neck. She used to wear her hair in those tiny braids, and the edge of her shirt was always falling over her shoulder, giving me a glimpse of her lacy bra strap. I had a hard-on every damn day of that semester.”
I chuckled.
“She was important to me, and I didn’t want to screw that up. Right before each race I’d look at her. She was my calm, and all the noise on the edges quieted. Without her in high school, I wouldn’t be the sailor I am. She even had her dad talk to me senior year about next steps.”
“Ha. How’d that go?” ReeAnn’s dad was no joke. A retired navy pilot, he saw bullshit coming from a mile away. I was not the only one intimidated by him.
“I’m still here.” He grinned. “He probably knew about my feelings for his daughter and didn’t like the idea much. We talked about jobs on the water, fishing, and the navy. He was the one who encouraged me to apply to yacht clubs along the coast to be closer to America’s Cup-level sailors. He even put in a good word with a friend. That’s how I got that first job in San Diego.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah, I think he wanted me to concentrate on something other than his daughter.” He laughed. “I can’t blame him. I was rough. The son of a working-class fisherman and a bookkeeper. They had money. You could fit two of my parents’ house inside theirs. If I’d taken her to the prom, held her, it would have been too hard to leave. And I needed to go, to take my sailing as far as I could.”
I groaned. “Tell me prom was not the date she asked you for.”
Jake squinted and nodded.
“Dude. No wonder she’s still mad at you. Lana told everyone you had sex that night.”
“We did not have sex that night or any other. And what do you mean no wonder ReeAnn is still mad at me? High school was a hundred years ago.”
I held up my hands. “Tess told me about prom from a girl’s perspective. That rejection may have had more impact than you intended.”
“Really?”
“ReeAnn went alone if I remember,” I said.
“Yes, and Ray Hernandez sidelined his date half the night to comfort her. I hated that dick, all-star soccer player, or not.”
I would hate him too if he had been comforting the girl I wanted. Ray wasn’t a bad guy.
“So now, you’re a successful sailor and bar owner. She’s not out of your league anymore.”
“No, she is. I still have to try.” He paused. “I quit sailing competitively when I came back to buy the bar.”
“I remember.”
