Moored Heart (Catalina Dreams Book 1)

by I. M. Flippy

  Charlie swallowed, jealous of a seashell.

  “Anyway,” Jason said. “Yeah your friend, Andy.”

  “Oh?” Charlie patted his front pocket, reflexively feeling for his phone. If Andy had run into Jason, he would have texted about it. Which meant it must have just happened. Jason seemed rattled as he spoke too. Maybe even buzzed. Charlie squinted at him. “What’d Andy have to say?”

  “Oh...nothing important. But boy, he likes to mess with a guy.”

  “Ha! Yeah, he does.” Charlie licked his lips. He straightened the stack of bike tour brochures, desperate to do something with his hands. Jason was watching him, and he nabbed a pamphlet, his fingers brushing Charlie’s.

  It was too strange that he could feel so much tension between them on his end, all the time knowing that Jason didn’t feel any such tension at all.

  Tragic really.

  Charlie switched his gaze over to the live feed of Gus’s side door. A bird was poking around in the grass along the pink wood siding of the stately Victorian, but otherwise there was nothing to see.

  I should talk, Charlie thought.

  Only, he could think of nothing to say.

  “You try that boba yet?”

  “I thought I was supposed to experience it with you?” Jason said, and when Charlie’s eyebrows shot up he seemed to realize what he sounded like and ducked his head. “No, just uh—”

  “Sure,” Charlie said. “I’ll take you out for boba. Honestly, dude. You need a guide. Especially if you’re going to be straight in Catalina. First, you’re wandering into the Flamingo, God knows where you’ll end up next.”

  Jason barked a laugh at that. “Yeah, okay,” Jason said. He looked down at his bike tour brochure. “I could do with some boba sometime. Whatever the hell it is. What about this bike tour stuff?”

  “This?” Charlie said. He waved a brochure around. “Oh, ya know. We take tourists around the usual island routes, although our tour veers off a little differently from the ones you can book down on the dock. We go farther from the beach. Cliffside. Up to Wrigley Gardens. The views are beautiful. Plus, there’s the bison. You see em’ on the highest ridge of the mountain bike excursion. Everybody wants to see the bison.”

  “Oh yeah,” Jason said, nodding. “They’re here because of a movie?”

  “Yeah,” Charlie said, sighing a little. It was a subject he’d talked about with a million tourists at this point. It was tiresome. “They shot a western here back in the 20s. The Vanishing American? Bought some bison here.” Charlie shrugged. “Now there are like a thousand of the things.”

  “The tourists must love that stuff,” Jason said. “Must get annoying.”

  “Exactly!” Charlie threw up his hands and Jason laughed again with that rich, warm sound that made Charlie want to get Jason to laugh over and over.

  Don’t get a crush on the straight guy, don’t get a crush on the straight guy…

  “I wouldn’t mind doing that,” Jason said, browsing the brochure. “I need to explore the island more. Except it would all have to be pretty flat. No big mountain bike excursion for me.” He gestured down to his left leg, a dismissive wave of the hand. “Gotta bum leg and all.”

  “Oh, that’s okay,” Charlie said brightly. He leaned over the counter and into Jason’s space, ignoring the faint whiff of some cologne that was definitely there and not overpowering, but awfully sexy. There was a list of the seven routes that Porpoise Pot Bike Tours offered. Charlie pointed to the bottom two routes asterisked with a notation that they were for “casual riders.” “These two routes are short and reasonably flat. We get a lot of seniors who just want to tool around on beach cruisers.”

  “Ugh. I ride with seniors now,” Jason said sighing. “Well, I guess that’s better than not riding at all.”

  “It definitely is!” Charlie bounced on his toes, realized he was doing it, and stopped short. He waited with bated breath for Jason’s final verdict.

  “All right, well it’s an excellent start,” Jason said, nodding firmly. “Hell, maybe I just need to work it out more regularly. Okay, so what do I owe you for this?”

  “Oh!” Charlie snorted. “Nah, it’s on the house.”

  Jason reached for his wallet and something about that made Charlie slightly melancholy. His voice sounded different when he said, “No, really. It’s my pleasure.”

  Jason looked up and, seeing Charlie’s forlorn expression, put his wallet away. “If you say so. Happy to take advantage of Catalina hospitality. Lemme have your number…?”

  “That’s the spirit.” Charlie’s skin was hot. He ducked his head, forgetting what he was supposed to do with his hands as he gave Jason his number and his phone buzzed with a fresh text. “So, is tomorrow good? Around two?”

  “Perfect.” Jason nodded and thumped the counter with his fist as if to put an exclamation on the plan. “All right... I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He backed away, looking slightly lost. Charlie only nodded a goodbye, watching him half stumble out the door as the wind chimes sang softly and a mist of ocean air blew in on a cool breeze. He had a strong feeling that something very important had just happened. But whether it was a good or a bad thing, he had no idea.

  5

  Jason

  Jason walked home from Porpoise Pot, smiling.

  He was still a little buzzed. Otherwise, he wasn’t sure he would have agreed to go on a bike tour with Charlie who was quickly staking a claim to fascination in his head.

  His dinghy ride wasn’t the soberest, and he chuckled at how ridiculous he probably looked zigzagging and making odd turns into the water until he finally, safely, made it back to his boat. It was stupid of him and he knew better, but at least it was only a dinghy ride.

  Back on the yacht, he tied up his dinghy, and stumbled on deck, irritated at his own clumsiness.

  In his cozy little kitchenette with the old wood paneling and the cramped cabinets, he made himself a pot of coffee and twenty minutes later he was sitting in front of his laptop again, sobering up and realizing that he had gone ashore that day intending to get laid and instead ended up with a date for a bike tour with Charlie.

  A date…

  “Not a date, date,” he said under his breath. He belched and thumped his chest. “Obviously.”

  But he was as giddy about it as he would be if it were a date. He chuckled at his own ridiculous mood before he began typing with no particular thought except the notes he’d written for his first chapter. For once, words flowed like they hadn’t since he’d taken on the book. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t his best writing. But words were coming.

  He wrote three whole pages before he stopped and sat back. He blinked at the work he’d just produced, feeling an immense sense of accomplishment.

  He wondered if he’d ever be able to do it again.

  That evening, Jason stayed in. He made himself chicken and rice for dinner and watched Dog Day Afternoon on cable. But his thoughts kept straying to that bike tour with Charlie the next day and he smiled to himself.

  He worked out with his weights and did some light cardio. He had a keen desire to not seem too much like a worn-out old guy in front of Charlie. Maybe gay guys kept fluttering their lashes at him and calling him “daddy,” but he still wasn’t entirely convinced that was a compliment.

  He was sitting out on his deck with a lemonade, listening to music, and looking out on the water when his phone rang.

  Alyssa’s face popped up on his phone and he nearly dropped his cup of lemonade, jerking in his chair.

  “Shit, shit…”

  “Alyssa,” Jason said, answering the phone and putting his ex on speaker. “Hey. Hey, how are you? What’s going on? How’s Sutter?”

  “Hey!” Alyssa said. She drawled the word. Alyssa always said hello to him like she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to call or not. “I just wanted to say hi. Check in. I spoke to Cal—”

  “Oh!” Jason shrugged even though she couldn’t see him. “Yeah…”

  “I was
worried about you to tell you the truth,” Alyssa said. “I don’t want you just isolating yourself on that boat not talking to anybody, Jay.”

  “I’m not isolating!” His voice pitched up high. His Defensive Voice, as Alyssa had always called it. He cleared his throat. “I’m not isolating at all. In fact, if you talked to Cal you should know that I am picking up new friends left and right, okay?”

  “Are you dating anyone?” Alyssa asked, her tone resolutely neutral. “Because... I am. No one serious yet. I know it’s really stupid, but it would make me feel better if you were too. I don’t know why. Not that you have to. I don’t mean—”

  “I have a date tomorrow,” Jason said in a rush.

  The notion that he might not be lying made all the blood rush right to his head.

  Alyssa talked, and Jason did not understand what she was saying. His head was swimming.

  “Jay? Jay?”

  “Sorry,” Jason finally mumbled. “Uh... spaced out.”

  “Jesus, you freaked me out for a minute there!”

  “Sorry, Al. Nah, I’m fine. Just ah... sorry.”

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  Jason sat back in his office chair. A picture of him and Alyssa and Cal back when they had fewer wrinkles hung on the wall right next to a huge group shot of his entire precinct. “Aly, I’m okay. Thanks for calling,” Jason said. “I mean it. Sometimes it irritates me when you mother me, but I can’t totally hate it.”

  “I’m well aware that it irritates you,” Alyssa said. “It’s not going to stop me any time soon. Just like I know you’d be pestering me if I was going through something.”

  Going through something…?

  He scrunched up his nose and grabbed a retractable pen, clicking it over and over and then idly pushing at the tip with his thumb to see if it would crack.

  “I know,” he said, because it was simpler than arguing. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said, sounding much more cheerful. He pictured her rosy cheeks that got all blushy when she was a little proud of herself because someone had praised her. “I’ll let you get back to writing. I just wanted to check in. Have fun on your date, though. I don’t know if we’re in a place to talk about that stuff…”

  “Best not to,” Jason said, chuckling. “Let’s work up to that.”

  “Great idea. Take care of yourself. I’ll talk to ya soon.”

  “Okay. Later, Aly.”

  Jason hung up the phone and dropped it on his desk. He clapped his hands together and cracked his knuckles outward.

  A date.

  He’d called hanging out with Charlie a date.

  The thought made his heart race with both terror and exhilaration.

  6

  Charlie

  Jason had the kind of warm smile that said a lot about him as a person, Charlie decided.

  He was thinking about Jason as he unpacked some fresh boxes of T-shirts in the shop that night.

  The moon shined on the water outside, making all of Crescent Avenue feel like a fairy tale land. His mother had told him he should close up and leave before going off to her wine and book club. But he’d wanted the time alone. It was a perfect place for thinking, in his opinion.

  My gaydar sucks, he thought to himself. But I can read people.

  He refolded the fresh T-shirts and laid them on a shelf by the window.

  There were certain people on the island who Charlie avoided like the plague. There was Harvey who ran the gas station and had too mean of a look in his eye. Charlie didn’t like the way he yelled at his little brother, Donnie. Whenever Charlie saw Donnie, he was extra nice. Donnie was only seventeen and quiet and if he had to live with Harvey, Charlie figured he needed everyone else to be especially nice to him. There was Patricia who worked on the mainland but hung out at some of Charlie’s favorite places. She gave Charlie the creeps. There was something about the artificial way she agreed with everything a person said and pretended everyone was her best friend that gave Charlie the feeling she wasn’t anybody’s best friend. There were a whole bunch of people who weren’t malicious but who Charlie found annoying. It was harder to avoid people like that when you lived on a tiny island.

  Jason was the opposite. Everything about him said kind and warm. Which meant that even if he wasn’t into men, he wasn’t going to hurt Charlie either.

  At least that’s what Charlie told himself.

  That night he locked up the shop and walked home, whistling, and hoping he wasn’t wrong.

  The next day he came to work like usual and locked the front gate just as his mother came around the corner of the squat little building they shared with a new age supply store. She was wearing her shades and frowning, a boba in her hand. She always left the house an hour earlier than he did to start her morning with meditation on the beach.

  “Charlie, what’re you doing?” She looked at him as if he’d committed some grave sin.

  Charlie was already in his bike shorts and a T-shirt and wearing his good sneakers. He’d fussed over his outfit. Bike shorts were not cool, but he also hated biking in anything else. After turning around in front of his bedroom mirror and seeing what his ass looked like, however, he changed his mind. He’d never noticed before. It put him in a good mood through his bagel and morning coffee.

  I have a great ass, he’d thought happily.

  “I’m opening the store, man,” Charlie said, shrugging. “What the hell do you think I’m doing?”

  “You have the bike tour today!” She was carrying one of the many journals she wrote in after meditating and she thwacked his shoulder with it. “I told you to take the day off!”

  “It’s not till two and you did not!”

  “Well, I meant to!” she said. “Anything else booked that needs you today?”

  “I have to show some people how to use the boats at ten and eleven—”

  “I’ll do that,” his mother said, waving a hand. “Go, have a day off. You’re always here. Barely take the days you do have.”

  “I mean okay.” Charlie shrugged and grinned fondly at his mother. “Thanks, mom.”

  “Thanks, nothing.” She grabbed the keys out of his hand and went about unlocking the shuttered front door. “I need to find you a husband. I want to turn the garage into a pottery studio and your room will finally be a proper sewing room instead of the dining room which is a whole mess.”

  “Ah, I see how it is,” Charlie said. “Trying to get rid of me. Oh, that’s fine.”

  “Oh, shut up.”

  He laughed and leaned down to kiss his mother on the cheek. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”

  “Even if he is straight, I bet you can turn him,” she said.

  He helped her pull up the shutter and dusted off his hands. “It really doesn’t work that way.”

  “Oh, sure it does. Everyone’s a little gay. I’ve always had a thing for Laura Dern—”

  “What?” Charlie clapped his hands to his head. “What is happening right now?”

  “Don’t be dramatic.” She raised her light brown eyebrows at him. She had a little wattle under her neck she referred to as “her little turkey” (which he thought did not entirely make sense) but it made her face seem softer even when she tried to be snarky. Her eyes were dewy. “Go take your day off. Go, go! Off with you!”

  “Okay.” He backed away down the sidewalk, checking his pockets for his phone and wallet just in case. “I’m gonna go to Big Boba then. I’ll be back at two for the bikes!”

  “Bye!” she said insistently.

  He chuckled, spinning on his heel, feeling good about his day and feeling lucky, as usual, that fate had blessed him with exactly the right mother. His father wasn’t bad. He was only distant, having left them years ago. It was something Charlie sometimes thought he should be angry about, but he simply couldn’t stir up the emotion. He’d never felt he’d needed a dad around and his mom was a handful enough and twice as loving. It had never seemed necessary.

  A
t Big Boba, Charlie found an empty chair on the upper patio that adjoined the art gallery. It had a pretty view of the ocean and the breeze came in just right.

  He was hoping he might run into Jason at Big Boba, even knowing he’d see him later. He also wanted to believe that Jason would not try boba without Charlie around. It was silly and exactly the kind of thing you thought about a crush.

  But sadly, Jason did not come by for coffee. So, Charlie treated himself to a purple taro boba and a lemon bar and messed around on his phone until Andy happened to come by. They gossiped and discussed Charlie’s impending almost-a-date with the newest hottie in town and Charlie’s nerves worked him up into a frenzy. Andy went back to pedi-cabbing and Jason went to Gus’s Books and read graphic novels by the window until lunch. He ate a Greek salad at the cafe around the corner from Gus’s, and before he knew it, it was a quarter to two and time to make his way back to Porpoise Pot.

  Fifteen minutes was about thirteen minutes more than Charlie needed to walk back to the store, yet when he got there, he found Jason already waiting there, leaning against a lamppost and watching the people go by, with a soft smile on his face.

  Jason was wearing wrinkled khaki shorts that fell to mid-thigh and a blue T-shirt sporting a graphic in support of some police-related jog-a-thon. He nodded hello at Charlie from behind a pair of Aviators.

  Charlie thought he was so sexy it might have been criminal.

  “How’s it goin’?” Jason said. “Have you got my, eh, walker ready or whatever it is I’m riding up the bunny slope?”

  Charlie cackled at that and rolled his eyes, motioning for Jason to follow him around the back of the store to the garage where they rented out equipment. There was a line of bikes all locked into a rack and Jason waited there while Charlie slipped inside and borrowed the key from the register, fending off ten questions from his mother who already wanted to know just how things were going.