Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
FLETCHER
“Can you start unloading everything?” I call as I tape a big Sign In Here sign to one of the picnic tables beside the skate park.
Liam sighs dramatically but jogs to the parking lot without complaint. Gear is included in the cost of the camp, which means my car is one kneepad or child-sized skateboard away from exploding.
I leaf through the binder I’ve been using to keep all of the forms straight, making sure every kid is accounted for and I have all of the signatures. Since Liam and I are the only ones running this, we capped the camp at eight, the same number from the surfing classes I’ve been assisting.
It felt very…full circle to host it here, at this skate park. The same skate park where Liam and I met shortly after I’d gotten to Sweetspire. Those first few weeks I camped out here instead of going straight home after school, not sure what to make of my new parents’ enthusiasm and kindness. Not sure if I should trust it. They tried to give me my space at the beginning, but it still felt like I always had eyes on me in that house.
After seeing me here a few days in a row—with no board, and clearly no friends—Liam took me under his wing, even though I was only fourteen and he was seventeen. And knowing Liam now, that is not something he does, so I must have looked a terrible kind of pitiful back then.
Then it was only a matter of time until Leo came into the picture. He and Liam have been best friends all their lives, and with anyone else, it could’ve been a weird situation, trying to integrate myself into an already inseparable friendship. But once I came along, Leo acted as if I’d always been there. The way he welcomed me in was simple and seamless—no over-the-top trying to make me feel welcome—there was just an ease to it as if I’d known him for years. No weirdness about me being the same age as his younger sister either. It was the kind of friendship I hadn’t known I needed—hadn’t known existed .
A car door slams in the distance. I’m expecting Liam, but instead, a blur of bright pink and purple rushes toward me. I grin as Erin reaches the picnic table, a little out of breath, and her mom hurries to catch up.
“Hi, Mr. Fletcher!” She smiles, exposing a new missing tooth.
“Erin! Hey, Mrs. Clarke, how are you?” I shake her hand, then give Erin a fist bump.
“Good, good. We’re excited.” She wraps an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “She’s been talking about this since the moment your surf camp ended.”
Erin bounces on the balls of her feet and glances around the skate park, no trace left of the shy, unsure girl she’d been the first day of surf camp a few weeks ago.
“You guys are the first ones here. If you could sign in here…” I turn the binder around and flip to the first page.
“Would it…would it be all right if I stuck around…” Mrs. Clarke looks from me to Erin, her teeth sunk into her bottom lip.
“Of course. I’m sure some of the other parents will want to do the same. Feel free to hang out over here at the tables.”
“Mr. Fletcher?”
“Yes, Erin?”
She chews on her lip the same way her mom does. “Am I gonna be the only girl here?”
“Absolutely not!” Liam appears with a grin and a bag slung over each shoulder. “We’re split exactly half and half, actually.”
Erin’s eyes light up.
Liam grunts as he sets the two bags at his feet—one with the elbow and knee pads, one with the boards, which means there’s one bag left in the car.
“I’ll grab the last one,” I say and pat Liam on the back as a few more cars pull into the parking lot.
He salutes me, slides into the picnic table, and waves at the next batch of students rolling in.
I peer at the sky as I head for my car, namely, the dark storm clouds threatening. Hopefully we won’t get rained out on the first day. I heft the final bag over my shoulder, shut the trunk, and lock it. I barely make it a step away from the car before I hear someone calling my name.
“Fletcher! Fletcher!” I turn as Casey lunges in for a hug.
“Hey, Case!” I drop the bag and lean down to hug him back. “So glad you could?—”
My next words shrivel and die in my mouth as I glance up at the woman waiting behind him. Blond hair, shoes far too nice for this part of town, and blue eyes that I haven’t been able to get out of my head.
She stares at me, her expression growing more distraught by the second.
“Oh, this is my mom!” Casey pulls back, grins, and takes Christine’s hand.
Casey’s mom.
Is Christine.
Liam’s half brother’s mom.
Is Christine .
Mr. Candyman Brooks’s ex-wife and Liam’s former stepmom is…Christine.
I feel like I need to lie down.
I blink and clear my throat. “Um, go on, Case. Some of the other kids are already here. Liam’s signing everyone in at the table.”
Casey takes off at a run, but my eyes never leave Christine, not even for a moment. And hers don’t leave mine.
The moment Casey’s gone, the shock on her face hardens, and anger tightens the lines around her mouth.
“I swear, I had no idea,” I say.
“This is your camp,” she says slowly.
I nod.
“You’re Liam’s friend.”
Another nod.
She covers her eyes with her hand and turns away.
“Chris—”
She whips around, her eyes steely and her voice sharp as ice. “Don’t.” But as fast as the anger had come, it’s gone again, replaced by…I’m not sure what. Worry? Embarrassment? Her eyebrows pull together as she glances from me to Liam.
“I won’t say anything.”
Her eyes snap back to me.
“Mom!” calls Casey.
Christine takes a step in that direction. “No one can know about this,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I swear. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
Even after she’s gone, I don’t move, not for several moments.
I’ve spent more time than I care to admit in the past two weeks thinking about her, wondering if she’d use that number I gave her, hoping for it. Hoping I’d run into her again.
But this definitely isn’t what I’d been imagining.
Now it feels like every scenario I pictured is turning to ash at my feet. She’s sure as fuck never going to see me now. And God, my stomach feels so hollow at the thought.
How did I not put the pieces together before now? If she married Liam’s dad seven years ago, I would’ve been about sixteen. Liam had already graduated by then, and he was still with his ex, who made him drop off the map for a few years. We weren’t as close back then. And not running into the other Brookses has never been unusual, seeing as their circle is far above my tax bracket.
Of course I’d known Liam’s dad remarried. And I’ve spent plenty of time with Casey the past few years with how often he’s with Liam, but there’s no way I could’ve run into Christine before.
Because I would’ve remembered her .
I scrub a hand over my face, ordering myself to get it together.
By the time I make it back to the sign-in table with the helmets, it looks like everyone else is here, and the parents are helping their kids into their pads. I’m about to step around the table to help when Liam hooks his arm around my elbow and yanks me a few paces away.
“What?”
Liam cocks his head toward Chris, who is currently tightening Casey’s kneepads. Her hair looks lighter in the sun. She seems lighter now as she talks with Casey, her smiles coming easily. She certainly hadn’t given them that freely with me. But I think I liked that. How hard-won it felt when I managed to coax one out.
“You tell me. You guys were having quite the chat in the parking lot.”
I snap back to Liam and shake my head. “It was nothing. She just had a few questions about the camp.”
The words sound lame, even to me.
“Don’t bullshit me. There’s a weird vibe. Anyone can see it. What’s going on?”
I bristle under the intensity of his stare. I’ve never been good at keeping things from him, just like he can’t keep anything from me. I glance up to find Christine already looking our way, and she quickly turns back to Casey when she catches my eye.
Lowly, I say, “You have to swear not to say anything.”
Liam’s eyebrows skyrocket.
I sigh. “The day she finalized the divorce, she ended up at the High Dive. Sat there pretty much all day, was really upset. And I listened to her talk. She asked me not to say anything. I’m assuming she’s embarrassed and didn’t think she’d ever run into me again. And I didn’t put it together that she’s Casey’s mom until now.”
It’s not a lie. It’s leaving out some choice details, sure, but it’s not a lie.
Finally, the suspicion on his face eases. “Yeah, all right, I won’t say anything.”
I pat him on the shoulder and force as carefree of a smile as I can muster. “So, should we get started or what?”