Page 36 of Tell It To The Waves

Biting the inside of my cheek. “Baylee, can I ask you something?” I kept this question to myself since I came back; I didn’t want to hurt my feelings even more. Bay raises her eyebrows at me, telling me to ask.

“Did they immediately start dating after I left?” Needing to busy myself, I pick up my coffee, taking a sip.

“No. I never saw them together or even talk until he came back to town after Mr. Westmore had his stroke, and that was a little over two years ago.”

My ears perk up, learning this new information. I didn’t know Mr. Westmore got sick or, hell, that Bohdi left town. Mydad never mentioned it, but that was also around the time he himself got sick. “When did he leave town?”

“Hmm. I want to say when he was twenty-eight. He went to get his realtor's license and sell in a bigger city. But had to come back to help with the Marina. Mrs. Westmore and Kai couldn’t do it alone. Kai tried, but he himself was just starting More construction. And I’m guessing that’s when Bohdi and Molly started their thing,” she saysthinglike it’s an ugly word and I laugh.

The car grows quiet until Ironic by Alanis Morissette shuffles from my playlist. Baylee turns the volume up and we sing as loud as we can, putting on our own concert.

We’re laughing and talking as I pull up to the house that’s for sale. The street seems quiet, the yards are well-kept, and the neighborhood is pretty. But each house looks the same as the other. Tiny houses cut from the same mold. It’s sad.

I look at Baylee. “Ready.” And she gives me a small smile, feeling what I’m feeling.

Knocking on the door, a woman answers it. She takes us around the house and shows off what she thinks is the selling point. None of them are selling points for me. I thought this would be easy, but in truth, it isn’t. I don’t know if anything will ever feel like home again. And that makes me sad.

“Thank you for showing us around. I want to sit on it for a bit, but I have your business card,” I tell her, holding it up.

“That was awful.” Looking to Baylee, who is mimicking my face, I just know it.

Raising her forehead, little creases appearing, “It was.” I know she wants to say more, but she holds back.

Starting up the car, I say, “Spill it.”

Buckling her seatbelt, “Look, I know we just reunited after so long, but this isn’t you, August.” She motions to the houses surrounding us. “Nor is that sad apartment.” She shakes her head.

“I don’t know what me is anymore, Baylee.” Stopping at a stop sign, I look at her.

“Come back home.” Her voice is light. “Give it a try, a few months and if you can’t do it, put it on the market; what will it hurt?”

Me, it would hurt me. Being in the same proximity to Bohdi and Molly. Seeing what used to be mine before I threw it all away. Living in a house that is haunted by all my memories, good and bad.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

My mind has been a mess since she showed up, throwing everything off kilter. August Graft was my first love and heartbreak; the reason I am the man I am today. Well, not maybe the whole reason; life had helped with that part.

She’s the girl that left eight years ago, but more grown. I’d still recognize her in a crowded room.

Seeing August in Pirate’s Hideaway roared something inside me that was slowly bubbling with her arrival to Driftwood Bay. Watching her flirt with the bartender, throwing her long black hair over her shoulder, I couldn’t take it. Especially watching her close the gap between them. Because in the grand scheme of things, she left me; she broke me. So, seeing her all up on that bar didn’t sit well with me. Who was she to come back to town and act like that?

But I let my emotions and hunger for her come to the surface, which I shouldn’t have. It took everything in me to not do what I wanted to do on that pier, and that was to lift her sundress and ram into her, make her pay for the way she broke me, but also thrive in the way her pussy would form around me, welcoming me home.

I’d never admit it to anyone, but I watched her that night in the cottage, playing with herself. I stood there and jacked myself off while watching her come undone on that sofa. I felt so dirty once I was done, but I’m drawn to her like a moth to a flame. These last eight years, it’s all been pushed down to the depths of my brain. Never letting it out, but now it’s out and free, terrorizing me. Because there is nothing I can do. I’ve already made my bed; now I have to lie in it.

Everyone thinks I’ve become cold and distant, and I have, but they don’t know why. I’m living one big lie, and I have too much at stake to let my heart lead me astray. My family doesn’t think I care for them, but they’re so wrong. I care way more for them than they could ever imagine, and at the cost of my own happiness. If they only knew how far I’d go for them.

“Bo? You out here?” I hear Molly’s voice coming down the rocks, toward the shore, where I’m sitting on the sand, letting the water lick my feet. I needed time away from her and her parents. That entire house is heavy. As soon as I walk into it, I feel like a thousand pounds are on my shoulders, but maybe it just isn’t the house, because I truly do have that weight on me…for them.

I don’t answer her because I don’t want her to come down here, but I can hear her flip-flops descending the staircase to the sand.

Their house sits atop a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. I smile thinking about the time we all broke in before they came for Summer, used their pool, and got drunk. Teenager days.

“I’ve been calling you.” Her voice holds hostility.

I turn my head to look at her; her blonde hair shines in the sun's descending rays. “I needed time alone.” I look back at the ocean.

She sits down beside me, grabbing my hand, interlocking our fingers through one another. “I have something funny to tell you.”