by Blair Young
It made me far more open to the people I trusted in my life than Abby. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact her father was in prison for the money laundering scheme he’d been part of for years.
The rest of the day dragged by, and I spent another two hours at school finishing up homework before heading outside. I could be doing it at home, but the fact of the matter was that I didn’t want to see Dean. I didn’t want to catch him in the house alone again, and I really didn’t want to see him and Susan making out in the kitchen like they usually were.
So, I put off going back home as long as possible after school, and now I thought stopping by the board shop to see how Damon was doing sounded better than anything.
Dean owned the board shop, and Damon had managed to convince him to give him a job there after school during the week and occasionally on the weekends. At the time he got the job, Dean and Susan had been broken up, and it was really the only way Dean got to spend any time with Damon.
Susan hadn’t been thrilled with the idea at first, but she hated the fact that Damon engaged in underground street fighting in his spare time, and she hoped that the money and time spent at the board shop would break him of that hobby.
But, he still fought, though he had told me recently he was nearly done with it for good. He never told me why he did it in the first place, or what was going on that meant he was going to get out of it permanently, but I knew he was looking forward to being done.
Not only would it mean he didn’t have a constant fight with Susan at home, but he would have more time to do what he wanted since he wasn’t going to be spending all his time at school, work, or training for the fights. It would be a nice break for him, that was for sure.
I walked through the door to find Damon sweeping the floor.
“Closing up shop already?” I asked.
“No one’s been in for the past hour, and Dean said he thought it was going to be a slow night so if no one was coming in to go ahead and close up early,” he said. “I don’t really feel like standing here and staring at the clock for hours, so I’m just going to call it and head out.”
“You heading home afterward?” I asked.
“Probably. I didn’t have any errands or anything to do, why?” Damon looked at me with raised eyebrows, and I shrugged. He knew how I felt about Dean, and it was hard with him thinking Dean was the greatest thing that ever happened to the family.
He was close to the man, but I got the creeps every time I was around him. I didn’t like the way he looked at me as though he was looking through me, and I hated the fact that I had caught him going through Susan’s office without her being home.
Damon thought of Dean as a father, and he didn’t question a single thing Dean did. But, I hadn’t known Dean before moving to Secret Bay, and I hated that he had been allowed to move into our house only weeks after he and Susan had started dating again.
It didn’t matter to me that they had been together for years before breaking up. In my mind, there was a reason they had broken up, and there was a reason Susan had kicked him out of the house when they did. That was pretty intense, considering how long they had been together.
But, Damon had only harbored resentment toward Susan after the breakup, and he more than supported Dean moving back in when the two got back together.
He might know Dean, and Susan might know Dean, but to me, Dean was a stranger, and there was something about him I just didn’t like. Damon often told me to give him a chance and I might be surprised at the kind of guy he really was, but I didn’t believe it.
There was something I felt was menacing about the man, and that alone made me not want to have anything to do with him. Susan was blinded by love, and though I really wanted to know what prompted her to break up with him in the first place, I knew there was no way she’d answer that question.
She kept most things to herself, even when I did ask her for the truth. Nothing made me think she would consider telling me why she broke up with the man she so easily moved back into the house just weeks after they started getting along again.
But, I often reminded myself that it was only months until graduation, and I would turn eighteen and be able to get out of here. I would leave Secret Bay and so much of this behind. I just hoped there was a way I’d be able to keep Damon in my life when it all happened.
I wanted to be with him, and though I had pulled back when Susan told us to break up, I knew he not only stayed in my heart, but he had managed to get me to open up to him all over again. I opened up to the idea of dating him behind Susan’s back, and there was a large part of me that was ready to go for it.
Though I hated Dean, I had to be careful not to push Damon away at the same time.
“I was thinking I’d go for a walk on the beach,” I said. “Do you want to join?”
“Sure,” Damon said, glad that I wanted to spend time with him. “I’ve got to put the money bags in the office, and I’ll be ready to go.”
“Great,” I wandered around the shop as I waited for him, thinking about Abby as I did. I wondered what she was doing, and I hoped her current moodiness was just a result of things not going well with Peter.
“Ready?” Damon asked. He slipped his hand into mine with a smile.
“I’m ready,” I said. “But I have something I need to ask you.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Do you think there’s something going on with Peter and Abby again? She’s been acting so weird lately, and it’s all I can think,” I said suddenly.
Damon shrugged. “You know how those two are. Maybe, maybe it’s got something to do with her dad.”
“I thought about that, too,” I said with a sigh. “It just seems so weird to me how she’s been acting lately, and she’s dodging all the questions I throw at her about it.”
“Maybe she just doesn’t want to talk about it,” Damon said as though that were the simplest solution to the problem. I wanted to sigh again, but I held it back. I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it, and that was part of the problem, really. I wanted to talk, I wanted to find out what was going on with her and whether there was something I could do to help.
I didn’t want to just brush it off as something that was her problem. She had been there for me through so much, it was the least I could do to be there for her, too.
“I know you care about her,” Damon said, turning to me as we reached the beach. There were times I thought he could actually read my thoughts, and I smiled as I looked down. He brushed my cheek gently with his finger before lifting my chin to look into my eyes. “Just give her some time. I’m sure she’ll come around when she’s ready.”
“Do you think so?” I asked.
“I know so. She always does,” he said with a gentle smile. I closed my eyes as he leaned forward, letting him kiss me tenderly. I kissed him back, savoring the taste of his lips as the sun warmed our skin against the cool breeze of the bay.
When I was with Damon, everything felt okay. Though the thought of the note or Dean being at the house filled me with anxiety, Damon just made those feelings disappear. No one else on the planet could do that, and I yearned to have more with him again.
It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t going to get any easier in the near future, either. But, I didn’t care. I knew I loved this guy, and I wanted to be with him. It was a feeling I thought I should deny at times, but there was no truly ignoring it. The love I felt for him was stronger than anything else I had to deal with in life.
And though it would continue to be a struggle against the rest of the world, I was happy. At that moment, I was really, truly happy.
And no one could take that from me.
Chapter 2
Sutton
Damon and I spent a couple of hours hanging out at the beach, and I still didn’t want to go home when it was time for us to head back. I knew Dean would be there, and the thought of sitting through dinner watching him and Susan flirt with each other over their plates already
robbed me of my appetite.
But, Damon wasn’t thinking about anything even remotely close to that, and he was ready to go when it was time. He rose from the sand where we’d been sitting side by side watching the ocean, then he brushed off his board shorts.
“Those new?” I asked, nodding toward the bottoms.
“Yeah. Dean said they’d been in the shop long enough and no one was buying them, so I might as well take them, what do you think?” he asked as he struck an exaggerated pose. I laughed.
“Looking good,” I said. “I’m surprised no one else snatched those up as soon as they could.”
“He said we really don’t sell as much clothing as he would like, and he might actually stop selling apparel because of it,” Damon replied. “I mean, the people who come in the shop are regulars more often than not, and they’re all looking to have their boards serviced if they aren’t in the market for a new one altogether.”
“That makes sense,” I said with a nod. “I would think that the tourists would be enough to keep up with the apparel side of things, though.”
“You would think, but with the prices Dean charges because of the locality and authenticity of the brand he isn’t selling as much. The other tourist shops are way more competitive with each other so their prices are a lot lower. That’s what tourists are after when they come through,” Damon said with a shrug.
“I guess that makes sense, too,” I said with a laugh. “Oh well, at least you got to benefit from the fact no one wants to line Dean’s wallet with their hard earned money.”
I was brushing the sand off my own jeans as I spoke, and the two of us walked side by side up the boardwalk heading for the parking lot.
Damon took my hand laughed. He knew I was only half-joking with my jab, but he didn’t mind. He understood how I felt about Dean, and if I wasn’t saying anything against him, Damon could catch onto the joke pretty well. It was one of the things I respected about him, and I had a feeling he felt the same way toward me and Susan.
Susan and I might not be close by any stretch of the imagination, but between her and Dean, I definitely liked her better. I would be far more comfortable going to her about anything in my life than to involve Dean at all, and Damon knew it.
He didn’t dislike Susan, but he had made it clear he preferred to hang out with Dean, and I had a feeling he would go to Dean first and foremost not matter what. Susan was the only one who was our legal guardian, but Dean was still that figure in Damon’s life, and nothing was going to change that.
No matter how much I wished my influence could bring him to his senses at least a little bit. But, to be fair, I did have to acknowledge I hadn’t told Damon about Dean in Susan’s office. I didn’t know if I should, or if it would just cause drama.
I didn’t want there to be any tension in the house, any more than there was. And I didn’t want things to be even more strained between me and Dean, either. It didn’t seem like it would take much for that to happen, and I really didn’t want to find out which side Damon would choose if he was pressed to pick.
I wanted to believe that he would take my side no matter what, but if I was perfectly honest with myself, I had to admit there was no way for me to know for sure. He might have feelings for me, but the fact that he had been all but raised by Dean might make a difference if push were to come to shove in that way.
“Earth to Sutton, come in, Sutton!” Damon teased. I looked at him quickly, then relaxed.
“Sorry, I guess I was just lost in thought,” I said. “Did you say something.”
“I’ve been talking for like five minutes, but you weren’t paying any attention,” he said with a laugh. “I might have just told you all my deep dark secrets that you’ve been so interested in learning about all this time, but you were so busy thinking about God only knows what to even pay any attention to me.”
“Sorry,” I said again. “I was just thinking about Abby and Peter.”
“Oh, let it go already,” he rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you just ask Abby about it?”
“Like I said, you know Abby. She isn’t really one to open up about the drama that’s going on in her life. Not to mention, they haven’t been back together that long, maybe she’s too embarrassed to admit to me that something happened between them again,” I said with a shake of my head.
“Well, I’ve not heard anything about a breakup, and you know how the halls are at school. If anyone so much as blinks wrong the entire class knows about it before the end of the day. I don’t think they would be able to keep that a secret,” Damon shrugged.
“Peter hasn’t said anything that would make you think there’s more problems?” I asked.
He sighed. “I don’t really talk to him, you know that. Ever since things fell apart with Chad we really keep our distance. I mean, the last time I really talked to the guy was at his house a while back, that was it.”
I fell silent once more, trying to think about the situation objectively. The last time they broke up, Abby had been really open about the fact that they had. She was a wreck, in fact. I didn’t see how she could keep up the fake smile and act like everything was just fine if that was the real problem.
On the other hand, I still could see Abby being embarrassed that it didn’t work out, and she might not want to share that with the rest of the world. Of course, I wasn’t the rest of the world, but Abby knew that drama surrounded everything I said and did, and she might not want to risk the entire school finding out.
Damon was right. If I was going to learn the truth about what was going on with her, then I was going to have to just get it out of her. But, that wasn’t going to be easy, or very pleasant, either.
I could confront Molly a lot easier than I could my own best friend. I knew that for a fact. I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt Abby or make her feel uncomfortable, and the last thing I wanted was to say or do anything that would make her put a wall up between us.
On the other hand, she was never shy about coming to me about things that were on her mind, and I wanted to have that same confidence toward her. I wanted to be as free around everyone in my life as they felt they could be with me, and that was really all there was to it.
Damon and I took our time getting home, and I knew he was doing that because I was dragging my feet. It shouldn’t have taken us more than twenty minutes to get back to the house if we were really making an effort to get there, but at the leisurely pace we were moving, it took twice that long.
I was glad. When we walked through the door Dean and Susan were in the kitchen, mooning over each other as they made something for dinner. They both said hello as we walked past them toward the bottom of the steps, but I only gave them both a passing greeting as I dashed up the stairs.
Damon stayed to talk to them longer, but that was up to him. I had no interest in hearing how either of their day went before we talked at the dinner table, and I didn’t plan on sharing how my day went, either. I could hear the hum of the conversation behind me as I closed the door, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything.
I was glad Damon kept them up to date on the things that were going on at school. It meant I didn’t have to do it myself, and that made me happy. I really didn’t care if they were in the loop over the drama I was going through in life or not.
In fact, I would rather Dean knew as little about me or the things I went through as possible. Of course, I was sure Susan would have filled him in on a lot of the details about my life, and it infuriated me to think that he might know more about my past than even I did.
But, he could learn about all that from her and Damon for all I cared. I wasn’t going to make any effort to bring him into my life, and if he tried on his own, I would make sure he knew without a doubt where I stood on the matter. He could just stay over there for all I cared.
If I had to live with him, that was where the line got drawn in my book.
I fell on my bed and stared up at the ceiling, going through the normal thoug
hts that ran through my mind once more. I tried to figure out once again where that missing file could have gone, and more than that, who might have written me the note.
Part of me wanted to share it with Damon and hear what he had to say about it, but I knew it was likely to make him mad. Then again, I worried if I didn’t show him the note sooner rather than later, he would get even madder when he finally did find out about it.
No, it was better just to keep it to myself for now. When the time was right I would show him, if it ever mattered at all. For all I knew, it might have been some ploy that was meant to scare me off trying to find my real parents – and the person who killed my adopted ones.
I closed my eyes, resting for a few minutes before being called down to dinner. I felt bolder when I was alone in my room. I felt like I could really take on the world and all the challenges that were put before me. But, I knew I had to be smart about this.
I couldn’t be caught off guard or do anything that could give this person – or these people – the upper hand. They thought they’d gotten away with murder, but if I could contact them, I’d make them a promise.
They didn’t get away with a darn thing.
All morning I’d thought long and hard about what Damon said. I had to talk to Abby. It was really the only way I would get real answers and not be driven crazy with speculation. I knew she didn’t want to talk to me, and it was hard for her to open up about anything, but I also knew that I cared about her, and I wanted her to know I would be there for her no matter what.
I wasn’t going to laugh at her or judge her if she did break up with Peter again. I would be there for her to get her through it, just like I had been the first time. And, if there was anything I could do to help her, I would do that, too. But, I knew the first step was getting her to talk to me.