Chapter 20 #2
I chuckle. “Sure, there’s an extra stripping shovel and knee pads in the back of my truck. You need me to come down and spot you on the ladder?”
“Seriously, you understand I am offering to help your ass for free, right ?” He puts his hands on his hips, exasperated at my shit-talking.
“Calm down, I’m just fuckin’ with ya. I need to get this thing fully stripped before lunch.”
“Dude, you know I have never had a problem getting anyone fully stripped by lunchtime.” He winks while walking backward to the truck. What a cocky bastard .
We work diligently side by side for the next few hours, not saying much. Jokes aside, I know Kenny showed up today because he’s fully aware of how hard I avoid this part of the property.
It’s pretty rare to be a wealthy local around here, but with Kenny’s dad being the head hospital administrator and his mom one of the few ER doctors in Silsby, he has always been financially set.
His football scholarship doesn’t hurt either, which is to say, Kenny doesn’t need to work.
Thankfully, he somehow stayed humble, never becoming a douche athlete that would have made me want to kick his ass.
A little before one o’clock, we climb down from the roof and sit on the edge of the porch, our feet dangling off the side.
“So, when do you head out for training camp? Must be coming up soon, huh?” I ask, realizing we are already at the end of July.
“Next week.”
“Shit, man, where the hell have I been? That came quick. I feel like I have barely seen you this summer.” I immediately feel guilty for how little time I have spent with my best friend.
“Well, you’ve been a little preoccupied this summer.” He smirks.
“Yeah, I mean, if this place wasn’t such a never-ending dumpster fire…”
He laughs. “I wasn’t referring to your responsibilities at the resort, bud.” He slaps a hand on my back. “It seems that a college freshman, a richie no less, has stolen all of your attention these past few months. Look at you, breaking all your own rules. I never thought I would see the day.”
“She’s not a richie, and she’s not a guest. She works at the resort, richies don’t work.” I stare at him.
“Ah, but you didn’t deny that she’s what has been distracting you.” The smug grin on his face acknowledges that he has got me right where he wants me, and I won’t be let off the hook without some explaining. “So, it seems you may have actually caught feelings for this one?”
Kenny isn’t trying to rile me up. I know that more than anyone, he wants me to be happy.
In his mind, I’ve been torturing myself for years—and maybe I have, but trying to explain the restraints that come with a family business, a generational family business, no less, is impossible to someone who has never had to feel as if a place is part of their core identity.
When your whole life has been dependent on the survival of a physical establishment, with factors like the weather, economy, and actions of others deciding your fate, everything that happens at or within that location affects you.
It can alter who you are and the future you think you’re building.
“It’s not as easy as if I’ve caught feelings, Ken.
She’s leaving. She’s about to start her sophomore year of college, and life has barely started for her.
In the end, I’m going to be that fun summer fling she had.
The one that helped her break out of her shell, get back her confidence, and the story she tells her girlfriends at the first frat party. ”
“You don’t know that, man. I haven’t spent much time with her, but Everly seems like she doesn’t just have flings.
She’s caring as hell. Did you know she’s the only one I’ve ever seen get Rhonda to laugh?
Well, besides you, of course, and a few days ago, I heard after she finished her cleaning shift, she sat with Mrs. Miller and played cards for four hours while her husband was out fishing. ”
The Millers are long-time summer guests.
They mostly keep to themselves, but John Miller goes out fishing all day, every day, for the entire three weeks they stay with us.
His wife, Norma, sits out on their cabin’s deck playing solitaire most days.
She’s the sweetest lady, who loves to chat and show off pictures of her grandchild, but this past winter, she broke her hip, making it hard for her to get to the main house as often on her own.
The staff would gladly escort her to the lodge whenever she wanted, but Maine women are too stubborn to ask for help.
Plus, the mere idea that she might inconvenience someone by asking for help? What a horror.
I don’t respond, staring at the sandwich in my hands. “All I’m saying is there is something more to her. She seems like one of those chicks who, when they fall in love, they fall hard, dude, you know?” Kenny tries to coax me.
“Who said anything about love?” The word sparks a defensive reaction in me I wasn’t expecting.
“Really, dude, look at her, look at you? Not to mention when you walk into a room, the tension between the two of you knocks the rest of us on our asses.” It’s meant to be a joke, but when he looks directly at my face, he stops laughing.
“She’s going to leave, Ken,” I barely whisper. He can hear the emotion in my voice and looks away to give me some privacy.
We don’t talk much after that, finishing our sandwiches in silence and then heading back up on the roof. The cabin is small. In fact, structurally, it’s identical to mine, and we get the whole thing reshingled by late afternoon.
As we pick up the debris and load it into the back of my truck, Kenny asks, “Any idea when you’re going to tackle the inside? I know you were hoping to have it rentable for snowmobilers this coming season.”
I take a deep breath. Going in there is the last thing I want to do.
My dad’s been nagging me about it for a while now.
I know he’s been inside some, patching holes and making sure no wildlife has moved in.
But all of his stuff is still in there, just how he left it: ransacked, destroyed, and abandoned.
“I’m only asking because I have a few days left if you want some help. I know you’re dreading it, but if we got it done, you might finally feel a bit of relief.”
“I’ll think about it.” My tone is clipped as I shut the tailgate and remove my hat to wipe the sweat from my forehead. Relief isn’t something I am ever going to feel when it comes to Storm.
I have about forty-five minutes before my shift starts at the bar, giving me just enough time to take a quick shower and get Birch settled in for the night if I get a move on.
I whistle for him, and he emerges lazily from underneath the deck, stretching out his back legs one at a time before jumping into the truck.
I thank Kenny for his help and offer him dinner and drinks on the house tonight if he swings by the bar.
Forty-seven minutes later, I am getting out of my truck in the main lodge parking lot.
Even with the supposed rain coming, the heat is currently still insufferable.
Maybe pre-rain humidity is making the air oppressive.
I lean across my front seat, grab my black Anderson’s T-shirt and hat, and slip the shirt over my freshly washed torso.
I push my wet, overgrown hair out of my eyes and slide the baseball cap on backward.
As I slam the truck door, I curse myself for being late.
Then, I hear a familiar voice approaching behind me.
“Why hello, stranger.” Ashlee is walking across the pavement dressed in a short blue tennis skirt and matching tank top, the same color as her eyes. Sweat glistens off her exposed upper chest, and a tennis racket hangs from her right hand.
“Training for the Olympics, are we now?” I ask as I lean in to hug her.
“You know, I never planned on it, but after meeting the tennis coach you guys have staying here, I’d consider it.” She looks over her shoulder in the direction of our tennis courts, then back to me, and raises one eyebrow while biting her bottom lip.
I heard the tennis pro staying with us this year is young.
Our activities director couldn’t book him until mid-July, and I still have yet to meet him.
I’m sure it didn’t take him long to notice Ashlee.
It’s pretty much impossible not to, and it would explain why she’s been absent from a lot of the recent parties.
“How have you been?” She eyes me suspiciously. “You seem different, maybe even a little lighter?”
“Nope, still weighing in at two hundred and twenty pounds the last time I checked.” I smirk, knowing damn well that’s not what she meant. She rolls her pretty eyes at me.
“But if you were referring to my mood , I’m still pretty damn grumpy.” I pause, but she continues to stare me down, still waiting for what she wants.
I let out a dramatic sigh. “If you must know, for the first time in a while, I do feel pretty good. The reasons for that scare me to hell, but I don’t care and am going to keep on doing it against my better judgment.” I pause, turning serious.
Ashlee keeps looking up at me with that doe-y gaze.
“Look, I’m sorry I haven’t checked in, things have just been chaotic, but I haven’t meant to be a shit friend.
I am just trying to figure my stuff out.
” Now, I look her in the eyes, hoping she knows I mean it.
Ashlee has been one of my closest summer friends since we were kids.
I’ve missed confiding in her over the last few weeks, although I realize I don’t miss sleeping with her.
“No need to apologize. We always had the rule that if our hooking up started to interfere with us developing real feelings for someone else, we would be honest with each other. Since you and Everly went looking for Big Earl that night, you did just that. Honestly, I am happy it’s worked out that way.
I never thought it would happen, but there is also something about Felixthat is keeping me intrigued, so it’s good timing for us both. ”
“Felix?”
Ashlee slaps my arm. “The tennis pro, you ass. Maybe you are a crap friend.” She laughs as I open the screen door to the bar for her, gesturing for her to walk in before me, like the gentleman I am.