Shark Bite

by K L Montgomery

  I plop down on the loveseat and pull him down to sit next to me. His back stiffens as I put my hand on his thigh. “Hey…whatever it is, it’s okay…”

  He nods and closes his eyes for a moment, just long enough for me to know there’s a war being waged inside him about what to tell me.

  “How did it go with Walt?” is all he says, his voice sounding like the distant rumble of thunder.

  13

  I didn’t mean to say that.

  As soon as I saw her sitting there at Meric and Lindy’s table, my mind started racing with thoughts of her and Walt together. I had to work tonight and missed practice; otherwise, I assume he would have shared how the date went at some point while we were there. So I didn’t find out tonight, and he didn’t text me. Not that we have that kind of friendship anyway, not really. And what am I going to do, text him and ask him if he knocked the boots with my childhood best friend? Yeah, I don’t think so.

  I came over here to tell Meric what my stepmom said. And to ask his advice. Meric’s the smartest person I know, and I trust his opinion. I don’t normally talk about my problems, but I also don’t normally have problems this big. At least I haven’t since I used to fight all the time with my stepbrother.

  I feel that abandonment all over again. My dad left me all those years ago. And now he’s going again. Screw that guy, I want to scream. How could he do this again? Not to mention let go of the only family legacy I have—my great grandparents’ carriage company.

  But instead of bringing it up to Megan, I ask her how her date with Walt went? What is wrong with me?

  Her nose scrunches up as if my question came out of left field. “It went alright, why?”

  I don’t say anything, just search her face for hints of what may or may not have happened between them. It’s burning me up that I even care. Voices are screaming inside me: She doesn’t belong to you, you asshole. You’re as big of a loser as your dad, you know that? Just let her be.

  “No reason. I was only curious,” I brush off my question with a small head shake. Now I would have to tell her about the family thing, if nothing else just to change the damn subject.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I can see the copper in her eyes heating up as she stares at me.

  “My dad and brother are leaving and want to sell my dad’s property, the property that’s been in my family for well over a hundred years. They weren’t even going to tell me,” I explain. “My stepmom is pissed. She wants me to buy them out and help her run the place.”

  “Oh my god, how could they do that to you?” She shakes her head as she stares at me, and there’s something on her face I never wanted to see: pity.

  I can’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. She doesn’t know how it was. She doesn’t know what happened after I left this place, why I came back, why my whole life is dictated by what happened between my parents. Why, because of them, I will never be able to be a relationship guy.

  “It’s fine. I’ll get over it.” I want to add, “I always do,” but stop myself before the words can spring off my tongue.

  “It’s not fine.”

  She squeezes my knee, and I remember her hand has been there all this time. I’m so numb, I stopped feeling it. My whole body is numb from this news, and I’ve just worked all day with it festering inside me like a virus. I want to feel something…anything but this soul-crushing paralysis and defeat that’s squeezing the air out of my lungs.

  “You asked me what I would think if my parents sold their pharmacy and decided to move away without even telling me first—well, I’d be heartbroken, Shark.” She huffs out a sigh, and there’s a tremor in her voice like she’s about to cry. Great, the last thing I need is her crying on me. “I would be absolutely devastated.”

  “It’s not that big of a deal,” I assure her. “My father abandoned me when I was eight. So you’d think, nearly thirty years later, I’d be used to it by now.”

  “Abandoned you?”

  Yeah, that kind of slipped out. I’m having a real problem keeping my words inside tonight.

  “What do you mean?” she presses.

  She’s not exactly the type of person to back down, which is one of the things I really admire about her. But when she’s bearing down on me, I’m not the biggest fan. She’s going to keep drilling down till she mines the info she wants. That’s just the way Megan is. That’s how she forced out of me two years ago that I’m not a relationship guy.

  I look at her, her eyes locked onto mine, unblinking and demanding an explanation. “Remember when we moved all those years ago?”

  She nods, and her hand on my leg doesn’t move. I’ve never told anyone this before, not what really happened. No one. I don’t know if I can do it. I swallow down my pride and all the jagged memories stabbing me as they float back to the surface from the pit where I’ve pushed them deeper and deeper through the years.

  “My dad kicked my mom out, and he didn’t want me, so he sent me with her,” I confess. “That’s why we left so abruptly. My mom came in, packed up my stuff, and carried me out to the minivan. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my dad or brother. Then she drove over to your house and told your parents we were leaving.”

  Megan shakes her head as she processes this information, lining it up with what’s stored in her memory bank, and I almost see the memory of waving goodbye to me from her porch wash over her. “What? Why would your dad do that?”

  “She was cheating on him. With the man she eventually married—who was an even bigger asshole than my father, by the way.”

  “But why? It sounds like he blamed you for having an affair.”

  “He did.”

  She’s still shaking her head. Shaking it so hard, she’s going to end up dizzy by the time this story is over, because there’s a lot wrong with this whole scenario.

  “The guy she cheated on him with was my martial arts instructor.”

  “So what? You were like eight years old. How is that your fault?” she scoffs.

  Nothing to do here but shrug. It’s a question I’ve asked myself a million times over the past almost thirty years.

  I have much, much more baggage than that, but as incensed as she is about this, there’s no way she can handle the rest. And, besides, it’s not stuff anyone needs to know anyway. I did my time. I dealt with it as best I could under the circumstances, and now those little facts are just that, facts, buried alongside the rest of the history that is Shannon Aric Kelly.

  She squeezes my thigh. “What are you going to do?”

  “Nothing,” I tell her. “I can’t afford to buy him out, and I suck at running a business anyway…”

  “Oh, yeah, didn’t you own a bicycle shop when I first met you?” She giggles. “I mean, met you for the first time as an adult?”

  Adult. Yeah, I like to think of myself, the adult, as a different person than Shay, the kid. That’s kind of how I’m able to reconcile all this shit. It’s no wonder it hit me so hard when she pulled out those pictures of us as kids a couple weeks ago. It shattered that enormous glass wall I’d built between the two versions of me.

  I purse my lips. “I’m much better suited to the medical field.”

  She leans down closer to me, and my heart immediately responds by speeding up, a trot becomes a gallop as she lays her head on my shoulder. No clue what she’s doing.

  “I used to do this when we were kids,” she answers the question I didn’t even ask. “Do you remember?”

  I’m silent for a moment, but she doesn’t call me out on it. And then I admit, because her touch is like a truth serum, “Honestly, I’ve blocked out a lot of that time…”

  “I guess I understand why now,” her whisper tickles my ear like a feather. Goosebumps prickle on the back on my neck with her touch, and I hate that my body is responding this way. “I wish it wasn’t painful for you…” She sighs, and though I can’t see it, I know there’s a tear glistening in those green and copper eyes right now. “Those are my fav
orite childhood memories, you know. The memories of us as kids. I wish they didn’t hurt you…”

  “I’m not hurt,” I tell her. “Just numb.”

  “Numb because it hurts too bad.”

  Damn it. It’s that pity tone again. I can’t handle it.

  She strokes her hand up my thigh. “I wish I could help you. Make it not hurt anymore.”

  That statement nearly comes out in a purr. And it hits me right in the core, the desire slamming into me hard like a tackle I wasn’t expecting.

  I reach down and lift her chin with my finger. “How do you propose to do that?”

  She straightens her spine ever so slightly, and her voice is so soft it’s like a silk scarf wrapping around me. “I know it’s been over two years now, but I’ve never been able to get our night together out of my head…”

  I let out a combination of a grunt and a chuckle—a gruckle?—which makes her lips spread into a broad grin as if she’s equally amused. “Well, that’s not going to solve my problems…”

  “It’s not meant to,” she says matter-of-factly as she sits up and finally takes her hand off my leg. The spot where it was lying suddenly feels ice cold.

  “Then what is it meant to do?”

  She purses her lips and stares at me. “Distractions are always welcome, aren’t they?”

  I shake my head, even though that desire is straining, demanding my attention. I’m all for distractions, but… “You deserve to be more than a distraction…”

  And before she can respond, Meric peeks his head around the corner. “You guys okay? Need anything?”

  Megan stands up. If I thought that spot on my leg turned cold when she pulled her hand away, then her body leaving mine is like the beginning of a blizzard. A chill wraps around me, forcing me to my feet.

  “Shark’s dad is selling his family business and moving away,” she tells Meric, who is soon joined by Lindy. “And he didn’t even tell him.”

  Meric doesn’t say anything, but Lindy gasps, her hands rising to her mouth. I think her face shows what everyone is feeling—and it’s that damn pity that Megan expressed earlier. I don’t know how to convince them I don’t need their pity.

  “How did you find out?” Meric asks, still leaning in the doorframe. Lindy wraps her arm around his waist and leans against him.

  “My stepmom called me out there for brunch the other day—and I thought everyone would be there: me, my dad, my brother, my step-siblings, but she blindsided me. Just her and I. She wants me to buy out his share and help her run the place.”

  “Wow,” is all my friend says. Lindy glances at Megan, and they exchange a look I can’t read. Megan nods. I wish I knew what that was about.

  “Yeah. I mean, I don’t have the money, and I have no business running a business.” A humorless laugh puffs out of my mouth as I look from face to face. It was a mistake coming over here. I should have just kept all this to myself as usual. I never imagined I’d be spilling my guts to all three of them.

  Especially to Megan.

  And yet I wish we were still sitting on the sofa with her head on my shoulder. Did she offer herself to me as a distraction?

  More unbelievably: did I say no?

  “Can you get a loan?” Meric questions. “Like a small business loan? I can help you with the paperwork and application process if you want. I got one when I first moved down here to get on my feet when I was starting my own LLC. I’d been with a firm when I lived up in Wilmington, so I was venturing out on my own for the first time.”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. I haven’t really had a chance to think about it that much.” I scrub my hand down my face. “It’s the middle of rugby season, and we have this carnival going on. And I have this kid I’m supposed to be mentoring. And work has been insane. I don’t know how I’m supposed to do anything else right now.”

  “Well, don’t worry about the carnival,” Megan pipes up. “I have that one hundred percent under control. Just focus on work, rugby, and this. I can even help you with the mentoring if you want.”

  I look over, and she’s wearing a sincere smile. “I don’t know, guys. I should go home. I interrupted your dinner and took over your whole evening. I haven’t been home since six AM. I should go.”

  Lindy’s eyes dart around the room like she wants to say something but doesn’t know what it would be. Meric nods in understanding. “I’ll text you tomorrow. Just let me know if you have any questions about the loan process. Happy to help walk you through it.”

  “Thanks, bro.” I clasp his outstretched hand in mine, but he pulls me in for a man hug. He smells like Chinese food. Weird because Megan doesn’t smell like Chinese food. She smells like lime and coconuts, her normal summer scent—one that makes memories from two years ago crash down on me like a tidal wave.

  I give Megan and Lindy a nod and start to head for the door. Lindy pats me on the back as I pass her. When I reach the door, I realize Megan is behind me.

  “Hey, I meant what I said earlier,” she says when I turn around and look at her.

  “Which thing?”

  She smiles. “All the things.”

  There is nothing I’d rather do right now than take her home with me. To explore her body and see if it’s as lush and responsive as it was two years ago. To see if she tastes as sweet. But she’s dating Walt now. And she deserves a guy like him. A good guy.

  But an idea does spark with its proverbial lightbulb. “Well, there is something you could help me with.”

  “Anything.” She reaches for my hand and takes it into hers, squeezing it. Her hand is small and soft, and makes mine feel so big and rough. And just this little bit of contact makes it even harder to resist caving in to my earlier devious thoughts about letting her be a distraction.

  Swallowing hard, I dig down deep to reach the strength I need to keep myself from taking her into my arms right now. “We have an away game this weekend, and I promised Matt we’d take a few of the Beach Buddies kids with us. I would really feel better if they had some adult supervision during the game, you know? It’s just—”

  “Say no more. Just text me the details. Happy to help.” She squeezes my hand again for emphasis.

  “Thank you.” I take a deep breath, letting out some of the tension from earlier. Maybe Meric is right. Maybe I can look into a loan. Maybe I can do this, carry on my family’s legacy.

  When Megan’s eyes lock on mine again, there’s something there, a flash of hope, maybe? Maybe her hope is as unrealistic as mine. Maybe she’s hoping I could somehow be the man she deserves.

  14

  I hear Andrea’s heels click-clacking on the floor before I see her appear at my cubby. “Hey you,” she says, peeking her blonde head inside. “Can we chat?”

  “Oh, yeah, of course,” I answer as calmly as possible, but as usual, when the boss seeks me out, my heart starts fluttering. I never had this problem working for my parents, but ever since I got this job, I’ve been paranoid about getting into trouble. When you have a mouth as big as mine, it’s always a distinct possibility.

  Andrea takes a seat on the plastic chair next to my desk. “Everything going okay?”

  “Yeah, of course.” I offer her my brightest and most competent smile. Behind that, I’m running through the last three thousand interactions I had with clients, wondering if I screwed up or made someone mad inadvertently. As I said, I’m well aware of my mouth’s propensity for getting me into trouble.

  “Soooo, I’m getting ready to talk to my friend in the permits office—”

  She still hasn’t done that? Ack, she’s really cutting it close. I asked her about that last week.

  “—and I really need a favor from you.”

  “Sure, of course. Anything!” I flash an eager grin at her as I fold my hands in my lap and lean toward her, keeping my body language open and agreeable.

  “I was supposed to go to this fundraiser golf tournament tomorrow afternoon, but something came up. Would you be able to go in my place?” She pins
her eyes on me expectantly, like it’s a foregone conclusion I’ll agree.

  “Oh…” Tomorrow is the rugby game in Pennsylvania I agreed to help Shark out with. “…I’m so sorry, but I have plans tomorrow already.”

  “Well, can you cancel them? I’m kind of in a bind here.” The smile on her face fades, and what’s left in its place is very nearly a scowl.

  I’m scrambling to think of what I could tell Shark when her face brightens, “Actually, there’s something else that would help me even more.”

  “Oh?” My eyebrows lift in surprise—Andrea never acquiesces, especially not this easily. I fully expected her to bully me into going tomorrow in her stead, to hold her favor for the carnival permit hostage until I agreed to help her.

  “Yeah, the same charity is having a big shindig tonight—maybe you could go to that for me instead, and I can get Natalie to do the golf thing for me tomorrow.” Now her expectant smile is back as she awaits my response.

  I have a date with Walt tonight. He told me he wouldn’t be able to stay out too late because of the rugby game out of state tomorrow, but I said that was fine since I have to go too. After dinner, he wanted to take me on a sunset cruise of the bay, which, I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty damn romantic to me.

  “I have two tickets. You can take a date if you want,” she tells me, like that will sweeten the deal.

  I hate to miss out on the sunset cruise, but maybe Walt would humor me? He seems like a pretty agreeable guy, and he probably owns something nice enough to wear to a swanky charity soiree.

  “Okay,” I concede. “I can do that.”

  For some reason, it’s much easier for me to swallow letting Walt down than Shark. And with Shark, there are kids involved. Yeah, that must be why…

  “Great, in that case, I’m off to the county permits office! I’ll forward you the emails with all the info for tonight. Wear something nice! And don’t forget you’re representing Buzz PR.”