My Aunt was my last living relative, the person who guided me through life, and even though it’s been so long, sometimes her death feels super fresh.
It makes me feel guilty that I miss her more than my own parents, but she was pivotal in turning my life around and beingwho I am today. I owe her everything, including my exorbitant lifestyle.
“You’re right, fuck ‘em,” I say, hearing it in her rich voice. She hated Will, and she wasn’t quiet about it, but she knew I loved him.
Part of me wonders if I should’ve listened to her, and never married him. What would my life look like then? Then another part of me feels like my life was supposed to end up this way, that I’m exactly where I need to be.
“I miss you, and don’t worry, your crape myrtles are thriving,” I tell her.
When I renovated her home, I made sure the exterior all stayed the same; it was her pride and joy. I smile down at the ground, knowing that I’m talking to the ether, but maybe…just maybe she knows I’m thinking of her.
13
ENTANGLEMENTS AND FAMILY MATTERS
We genuinely needto find a better system for our party boats as soon as possible. It’s not that I hate running them, honestly I love being on the water. But spraying sticky cocktails off a vessel and blotting rum punch off my shirt isn’t how I planned to spend my evening.
Including a string of text messages that have me concerned.
David is tying us up at the marina as I finally scroll through them all.
Gavin
No sign of her yet.
Are you still coming?
Tamara cornered me. How do I politely tell her that unless she wants to take my dick all the way back in her throat so she can’t talk, I’m not interested?
I shake my head and laugh at him until I see his last text.
I fucked up.
It’s later than I thought as I look at the time and instead of texting him back, I call him while spraying the deck.
“Hello?” he answers.
“What? Did you wind up taking Tamara back to a private room? She mouthed off so much you lost your boner?” I joke.
“Ben,” he sighs my name, and it’s then I know.
He did the same fucking thing I did, and I can’t even be mad at him.
“She showed up?”
“Yeah, she showed up, looking sad and shit, asking for me to make it all go away. What was I supposed to do?”
Part of me wants to tell him that he should’ve kept his dick in his pants or told her the truth, but that would be unfair of me. I’m the one who got us into this mess, and Gavin is the man she hooked up with at Carlson’s. I’m the one who lied, and in turn I’ve put my brother in a shitty situation.
The worst part is, I don’t regret it. I think about that night with Kate often, and I know it’s wrong, but what makes it worse is I’d probably lie again to end up in the same position.
“I think this might be the most fucked up thing we’ve ever done.”
“You’re not wrong. How much longer will you be at the marina?”
“Probably another forty-five minutes.”
“Alright, well, I think we can both agree that neither one of us can do this again. We only go to Avalon together from here on out so we can tell her the truth, okay?”
