Chapter 27 – Claire
TWENTY-SEVEN
CLAIRE
“So,” Miles starts, seemingly nervous even though he’s literally been inside me more times than I can count in the past week. It’s like we’re both making up for years of lost time, and if I’m being honest, that debt is still not paid. My body craves his every waking moment. “One car?”
I stare at him for a silent moment before I burst into laughter. He stares at me, unentertained, while I continue laughing before I finally settle down.
Today is the annual summer celebration, but my first time attending. According to Miles, the crew has done this for as long as he can remember, with everyone meeting up at the bay beach behind the Seabreeze and enjoying a delayed celebration, since almost every local in Seaside Point works on the actual fourth.
It’s also our first outing as a couple .
“Yeah, Miles. One car should do the trick,” I say with a smile, pressing a kiss to his lips before we make our way to his truck.
“Finally,” Deck says, the first to spot us when we walk to the cove hand in hand, a sigh of relief leaving his lips. I look up at Miles, whose brows are furrowed in confusion, then start laughing again, loud.
“What did I miss?” he asks me low, and I smile, shifting to my tiptoes and pressing a kiss to his cheek.
That makes Deck hoot louder, and Lainey and June join in too. Grant just shakes his head with a smile. I look over to where Miles’s mom is sitting at a picnic table with Helen, both of whom give me a thumbs up. Benny sits in a lawn chair, so tan by now I worry his skin might crack, a faded trucker hat on and that ever-present pipe between his teeth.
“It happened,” Lainey says, cheering.
Although they know since I’ve texted both of them a million details, I’ve been so busy with work, so I haven’t actually seen them since Miles and I got together. When I look at Miles, he somehow looks even more nervous and anxious. It takes everything in me not to laugh at him again. The poor man is so confused.
“You guys finally got together!” Lainey adds, and it clicks for him, a deep blush burning over his cheeks.
“Does everyone know we…” he starts.
“Yup,” Deck says, coming over to us and slapping a hand on Miles’s shoulder. “Everyone knows you banged your brother’s ex.”
Miles pushes him away, though it’s half-hearted, and Deck stumbles away.
“Ew, Deck, do you have to be so…gross?” June asks with a cringe.
“Is that not what happened? You were just cheering for it,” he says, confused.
“We’re cheering because they’re together, not because they fucked,” Lainey says.
“His mother is here,” June adds, though Mrs. Miller doesn’t seem put off at all. If anything, she seems more excited than Deck does.
“Whatever. I’m just glad we don't have to see Miles moping around, pretending he’s not crazy for Claire anymore,” Grant says.
“Same,” Deck says, sitting down at a table.
“Oh, for sure,” Lainey says.
“You can say that again,” June adds.
“So, everyone knew I was into her?” Miles asks, embarrassed, running a hand over his head.
“Yeah, honey,” I say gently, patting his shoulder.
“God, I fucking hate small towns,” he grumbles, then lets go of my hand and moves toward the cooler sitting in the shade. “You want anything?”
I shake my head, but June and Lainey are at my side before I speak.
“We have a lot to talk about,” June says, grabbing my hand and tugging me toward the other side of the small beach for a much-needed gossip session. I hesitate, but when I look over my shoulder, Miles is cracking open a beer and cheers-ing with Grant. He winks at me, then waves me off, so I allow myself to be dragged away to spill everything to my friends.
* * *
“Hey, Blondie, you ever fished before?” Deck asks two hours later.
It’s long past my filling Lainey and June in, which included many muffled squeals and laughs, and past when Miles’s mom, who insisted I start calling her Sarah, forced me to eat the biggest plate filled with picnic food known to man.
Now I’m sitting on a fold-out beach chair next to Benny, previously watching Miles and Grant toss a football back and forth, though now we’re all accumulating on the dock, arguing over who knows what.
I smile wide and shake my head. “No, my dad and brother do, but normally, I’d much rather catch a tan than deal with gross worms and stinky bait.”
He puts a hand out, and I grab it, letting him tug me up as he puts an arm around my shoulders, moving me toward the fishing gear on the dock.
“Come on, you’ve gotta do it. It’s tradition. We all compete to see who can catch the biggest fish. This place is our secret hideaway. Fishing’s always great here because the tourists don’t know about it.” He tips his chin to my boyfriend, who watches with a simmering hint of jealousy I love. “Miles is our reigning champ, beats all of us every year. I think he cheats, if you ask me.”
Miles throws a piece of bait at Deck’s head, which luckily misses me as I duck out from under his arm.
“I don’t fucking cheat, you just suck. I just got skills, my man. Sorry you don’t,” Miles says as Deck guides me onto the dock and toward a collection of fishing poles.
“Skills, huh?” I ask, picking up the fishing pole and looking at it. “How much skill could you need to use this thing?” I move it like I’ve seen my brother and dad do a million times before Miles grabs the end of it, glaring at me.
“Well, for one, you’ve gotta make sure no one is nearby when you’re casting, so you don’t hook anyone.” I roll my eyes, then look around, noticing that, besides Miles, no one is nearby. I wonder if they all ran the second I grabbed a pole. “And second, it goes this way.” He shifts the pole, twisting it so the reel is on the other side and the line isn’t twisted.
Okay, that’s a fair point.
I smile wide at him. “I think you’re just scared I’m going to kick your ass.”
He rolls his eyes, and I look at Deck.
“What happens if you win?”
His smile goes wide. “You get Miles’s spot.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot he won that,” I say with a smile. “So only people here today have the chance to park there? Don’t people get pissy that they won’t get a shot?”
Deck shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe?”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s how we do things here,” Benny says from his chair, watching the interaction with entertainment.
“Huh,” I say, thinking about Evergreen Park and how, even though it’s a relatively small town, compared to Seaside Point, it feels like a city. A system like this would never fly there.
“The town is small, but it’s even smaller come fall. Locals know the local rules. That’s why Miles got all pissy at you when you parked in his spot,” Grant explains, sliding bait onto his hook with ease.
I fight the grimace at the look of it and instead smile and shake my head. “No, he got pissy because he’s obsessed with me, and before, that made him mad.”
“And now?” Grant asks.
My grin widens.
“Now he’s come to terms with it. He doesn’t really have a choice, you know? I’m pretty stubborn, and if I decide I want something, I’m persistent,” I inform him matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, that was what won me over,” Miles says, “Your persistence. Definitely not your ass.”
My eyes go wide and my mouth drops with shock, and I push him jokingly. “You know what? I can’t be mad. I do have a great ass.”
Deck’s eyes move to try and look at said ass, but Miles pushes him in the shoulder, and he just barely saves himself from falling into the water.
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” Miles says.
June lifts a hand and waves it at her face. “Oh my god, I never thought I’d be into possessiveness, but my god, that was hot,” she says, and I smile at her, agreeing.
Grant, in contrast, grimaces. “That’s my best friend, June,” he says. “He’s known you since you were a baby.”
June shrugs. “Doesn’t make it less hot.”
“Totally,” Lainey says in an equally dazed voice.
“It really doesn’t matter about the spot, though, because I’m obviously going to win again,” Miles says, a hand going to my waist and tucking me in close before I push him away.
“So cocky, aren’t you?”
I prop a hand against my hips, the other holding my pole awkwardly.
“Always.”
“Well, I think I’m going to kick your ass. Then the only way you’ll get to park there is if you ask me really, really nicely.”
Miles rolls his eyes and shakes his head.
“Someone bait me up,” I say, looking at Grant and Deck.
“No, no, no. Gotta do it yourself if you’re gonna compete,” Miles says, and I cringe at the bucket of moving worms, knowing there’s no universe where I can do that.
Parking spot be damned.
“That’s not in the rules, Miller, you don’t get to make ’em,” Benny says with a fatherly chide. “Grant, son, bait up Claire’s line.”
“I can do it,” Miles grumbles.
“I don’t trust you not to fuck it up so you win,” I say, sticking my tongue out at him and handing the pole to Grant.
“You’re not going to win, Claire, no matter who baits you up.”
“We’ll see,” I say with a wink.
“Ahh!” I shout a half hour later when there’s a tug on my line.
It’s been an increasingly boring half hour, and honestly, if Miles hadn’t already caught a fish and deemed it “the winner,” I probably would have given up. But since then, Helen, Sarah, Lainey, and June have all deemed this effort to be a girls versus boys type thing. I can’t back down now.
My pole is bending, and my heart races as I try to figure out what’s next.
“Okay, now take it slow,” Deck says. He’s also team Claire, telling me he would love nothing more than to see Miles losing. He verbally guides me through reeling in the fish, each circle getting harder and harder before it comes out of the water, flapping like wild.
I jump excitedly. “I got a fish!”
“I think it’s bigger than Miles’s,” Lainey says.
“No way, let me see,” Deck says, helping me bring it onto the deck.
“Ahh,” I shout as it flops, almost touching me. “Oh my god, stop, it's going to touch me!”
“Jesus, she catches the biggest fish, and she doesn’t even want to touch it,” Miles says with a laugh, stepping in to help.
“I’m just a girl, Miles,” I shout, averting my eyes back to my prize. “Oh, no, do you think it’s mad at me?”
He lifts it by the fishing line and looks at me confused, the poor thing flopping around.
“I mean, he’s not happy,” June says with a laugh.
“Put him back then,” I shout, hopping from flip-flopped foot to flip-flopped foot.
“We gotta measure him, Blondie,” Benny says, grabbing a measuring tape.
“I hate this. He’s drowning.”
“How is a fish drowning?” Miles asks, walking the fish toward Benny's measuring tape.
“Because he’s in the air! He needs water.” I look at him with pleading eyes. “Miles, he’s air drowning . He needs to go back to his home.”
My eyes start to water at the idea of this cruelty, and he hands off the fish to Grant before pulling me into his arms.
“It’s fine, Claire. Once Benny measures it, we’ll put it back.”
“Oh my god, the girl did it,” Benny says with a laugh. “She beat the record.”
“Oh my god,” June shouts, jumping and clapping.
“Picture,” Lainey shouts, and then they hand me the line. I stand with everyone, holding my fish with what I can only imagine is a look of panic before Benny takes the fish and quickly unhooks it. He finally tosses it into the water again where he swims away happily. I let out a sigh of relief.
“That’s my sweet Claire,” Miles says, pulling me in tight. “Would key your car, but couldn’t bear to watch a hook taken out of a fish.”
I look at him and smile.
“Does this mean I won?” I ask, coming back to myself now that I don’t feel like a fish serial killer, and Miles smiles wide. Benny laughs and nods. “I won! I get the spot!”
June and Lainey come over to grab my hands, and we jump, laughing and excitedly celebrating.
When I come down from my high, Miles is sitting at the picnic table with Helen, and I make my way over there.
“Happy to concede to you, baby,” he says, pulling me onto the bench next to him and pressing a chaste kiss to my lips.
“I keep meaning to talk to you about the block party in three weeks, but you’re always bopping from post to post, and I never quite know where to find you,” Helen says.
“You give the assignments, Helen,” I say with a laugh.
“You go above and beyond, filling in wherever you’re needed, and you know it.”
I blush a bit at the praise from my boss.
“You have my number,” I add and she shakes her head.
“No, no, I like to ask favors to people’s faces, get their honest reaction so I can know if they actually mind helping out.”
“I never mind helping you out, Helen. What can I do for you?” I ask, leaning forward onto the table, Miles’s hand resting on my lower back comfortably.
“The block party is in three weeks, and I just can’t handle it all anymore. So much to keep track of and people to contact. Any chance you’d be willing to take on some of the planning? You’d be paid, of course.”
I shake my head.
“No, no, I don’t need the money! But I’d love to, however I can help. I can get a group of the kids, have them ask around and see if they want some volunteer hours. What about donations? Are we covered there? I can go around to local businesses and see what I can get? I know you mentioned a sandcastle contest, do we have prizes lined up?” I ask, my mind reeling and excited.
Helen lets out a loud, belting laugh. “Goodness, I didn’t think you’d be this fired up. But yes, all of that would be great. We can talk details tomorrow, cut your shift short and head to my office an hour early,”
I nod, though I don’t plan to do this on the clock.
“I told you. My mom was the PTO president when I was a kid, so I helped with many events. How about I come in early tomorrow, and we can make a plan? Then in the afternoon I can start making my rounds after my shift and see what businesses might be interested.”
“Paid,” Helen says, glaring at me. “I insist on it being on the clock.”
I shake my head but smile. “We can argue about that tomorrow, yeah? Today is family day.”
The smile she gives me fills me with warmth, and I realize the truth in that statement.
Because that’s what this is.
My little shore family that I never expected to have but am finding I would do anything for.