Chapter 1 #2
She waited for the football player to make his offer.
She hoped it wouldn’t be too insulting. If her father were here, he’d make a big deal.
Remind Ryan Mathers of their seven degrees of separation and ask for an autographed photo to hang up.
Her father had over thirty famous faces hanging in their family pizza shop.
“Does five hundred sound fair?” Ryan Mathers asked.
“Ah—” She almost told him the original price but stopped herself. Thank goodness she’d removed the price tag. “That sounds more than fair. I think four would be sufficient.”
But he pulled out his wallet and dropped several one-hundred-dollar bills along the glass countertop, like it was Monopoly money, before she could finish her sentence.
“Will you need help taking it down?” he asked, already moving toward the painting.
She stood there motionless as Ryan Mathers walked behind her register, reached over her head, and took down her painting of where the Oyster Bay tidal pool met the ocean. The morning she had painted it had been one of the lowest moments of her life…until last night.
Last night—that had been her lowest.
“That’s way too much,” she said, pushing back the bills.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, looking at the painting. “It’ll go perfectly in my new place.”
“Oh?” She smiled, just to be friendly, but the comment made her curious. “Do you have a place on the island?”
The movement of real estate would be gossip enough, but a professional football player like Ryan Mathers from their own hometown team would be huge news. If he bought something on the island, the news would spread like wildfire.
“I’m in the process.” He studied her painting.
She wished she had time to retouch some of it. Now looking at it, she could see novice mistakes.
“I would be happy to talk to the artist and have her paint you something newer, more refined.” She hoped he’d say yes. She’d go back to the very spot and wait for another morning where the fog danced along the water like it had that day.
Who was she kidding? She’d never get a sunrise like that again. She’d felt it. Like the sky was bleeding with her broken heart.
Pink skies in the morning, sailor’s warning.
Boy, had that been the warning she should’ve listened to.
Instead, like an idiot, she kept taking Johnny back again and again.
She felt that broken heart right then, and the sting of realization that she was exactly back where she had been when she’d painted it took her breath and sent a lump to her throat.
“No, this is perfect.”
“Just take it,” she said, pushing the money back into his hands. “I hate that painting. I painted it a long time ago. It’s not worth that much, really.”
She didn’t believe in signs, but unless God himself hit her over the head, it was clear that the universe was telling her to let go. Johnny was a good businessman, but a poor life partner.
Mr. Mathers didn’t go for the money; instead, he held up the painting. He pulled over a stool that she used when reading at the front of the shop during slow days and sat down. “You did this?”
She didn’t expect the question or that a professional football player would take a seat in her tiny gift shop. So she changed the subject.
“Did you say you wanted a longboard?” she asked.
He looked at her, tilting his head. “Are you okay?”
“Whoa.” She didn’t know why she’d said it, and immediately regretted it by the way he flinched.
He jumped off the stool. “Whoops, I became Dr. Phil there for a second.”
She held up her hands, shaking them at him. “No, no, no, it’s fine. You’re fine.”
She fumbled with the register. “Here, let me give you change.”
She stumbled over her words and felt more and more awkward with every passing second. Worse, he didn’t move toward the money as she rang up the prices. In total, it was well below what he’d left on the counter.
“It’s just that you seem kind of…” He lifted an eyebrow as he dragged out his sentence.
“Did you want to rent a board?” she asked, hoping to pivot the conversation from her to anything else.
“Yeah, more like buy?”
She only carried the three boards she rented out. Hardly anyone surfed, and when they did, they rented the boards. No one ever bought them.
“I have three here today, but I can bring in more of a selection if you’re interested,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t, because that was a lie. She couldn’t afford that.
He nodded, still studying the painting. “I’ll take all three.”
She froze, unsure if he knew what he was talking about. “You want all three boards to rent?”
“No.” He shook his head, putting the painting under his arm. “I’ll buy the three from you, if they’re for sale.”
She didn’t know how to answer. “Um, well, I…” She looked at the wall where the three surfboards were mounted. “Yeah…I mean, yes, they’re for sale.”
What was this guy doing? Did he really need three boards?
“I plan on inviting family out for the Fourth,” he said, as though he’d read her thoughts.
“Wow,” she said, imagining a house full of family. Something she rarely experienced in her life. “Sounds nice.”
He smiled, nodding. “It’s the best.”
She thought about her own family and its weird dynamics.
Her immigrant parents had a work ethic and restaurant that trumped family time.
The only family vacation time were days that her parents had to close, like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Though, they tried to keep the restaurant open on Thanksgiving one year but didn’t have the customers.
After her sister, Crissy, had gotten married and built a big, beautiful house, all the family get-togethers had been hosted by her and her husband, Scott.
But everything had changed after he’d been arrested for fraud and a dozen other federal felonies that had landed him in prison.
Crissy had lost the house and moved in with her long-time friend, Sophia.
Ever since Crissy had moved into Sophia’s place, she hardly saw her.
Even as kids, Crissy always chose her best friend, Sophia, over her little sister.
And the realization that everyone treated Thea like second string hit her like a cold wave shooting saltwater up her nose.
Unlike the starting lineman who stood in her shop, Thea had been everyone’s backup—her parents, her sister, Johnny.
Her whole life, she had been waiting for the day she would be someone’s first pick, but she had always been placed on the bench to wait until they needed something from her.
“Do you deliver?” Ryan’s voice shook her out of her thoughts.
“Yes?” Thea just stared at him, forgetting what she was doing. “Yes, of course. Anything for New England’s favorite linebacker.”
“Ah, you recognized me,” he said.
She hoped this didn’t make him uncomfortable. “Only because of the ring.”
Did she tell him who she was, make the situation even more awkward and uncomfortable for him?
He looked down at his Super Bowl ring. She had never seen so many diamonds in her life. “Oh, right.”
She also noticed he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, either.
She needed to get her head together. “I could easily drop the surfboards off for you.”
He nodded, and for the briefest moment, stared deeply into her eyes, and she wondered if Johnny had ever looked at her like that. “That’s really decent. Thanks.”
He leaned over the counter and pulled a sticky note off its pad and started writing something down.
“Here’s the address,” he said. “If I’m not home when you come by you can leave the boards right on the porch.”
“No one will be home?” she asked, not liking the idea of going on Ryan Mathers’s front porch with no one there. “Would you rather have me drop them off at a specific time?”
“Nah, just drop it off whenever,” he said. “My family will be around.”
“They won’t think I’m some crazy fan?” she asked, worried about secret bodyguards hidden behind bushes or something.
This only made him laugh. “No, I don’t have many of those. Most people don’t even recognize me.”
She doubted that. The lineman had been popular enough to get a coffee commercial for New England’s favorite brand.