She smiles at me, her eyes bloodshot and still wet with tears. “Thank you, Evan.” Then she reaches for my hand, and I take it, sitting on the stool at her side, while Sherri stabilizes the swollen, angry-looking ankle. She winces when the nurse maneuvers her calf a little to accommodate the wrapping.
“So, you and Dad were out at our beach last night?” she asks, squeezing my hand.
My eyebrows bunch at the question.
“Oh come on, don’t look at me like that,” she chuckles, before sucking in a sharp breath. “I’m not looking fordetails; I’m just trying to take my mind off—ow!”
“Sorry,” Sherri mutters, “almost done.”
“It’s okay.” Morgan puffs out a breath, then turns back to me. “It’s just that only Dad and I know about his special spot. He must really like you if he let you go there. It’s where we spread some of my mom’s ashes…”
“Oh…” is all I can think of for a reply, because what the hell do I say to that?
Her lips turn up in the corner, then she chuckles. “Colty-doodle was right, you really don’t talk a lot. S’okay, Dad says I do enoughtalking for two people sometimes. Anyway, I just want to say that I really—ow, ow, ow!”
“Shoot, sorry,” Sherri murmurs again, gripping the tape between her teeth and tearing it off. “Damn tape wouldn’t cut.”
Morgan bites her lip, sucking back tears. Her eyes flick back up to me, a grim, almost hardened, look on her face. “I really hope your intentions are good with my dad, Evan. I’d really hate to bust my knuckles on your face, if you hurt him in any way. Colton’s my friend, but I won’t hesitate to knock a bitch out if you mess with my old man.”
“I’m sorry,what?” I gape at her. Is shereallygiving me the opposite of the ‘don’t mess with my little girl’ speech?
She holds the stern look on me for a couple moments longer, before Sherri starts to giggle. Morgan loses her stone-faced expression. She bursts into a fit of laughter.
“I wish I had an Uno reverse card I could toss at you right now,” she squeaks between giggles. “I’m sorry, Evan, but if you and my dad are in it for the long haul, you’ve got a lot to learn about me. I really hope youarein it for the long haul though, because Dad’s as happy as I’ve ever seen him in a long time—probably until he starts freaking out about my hospital bill.”
Not if I have anything to say about it. Someone’s gonna foot the bill, and that someone’s name is going to be Kai Hale. I glare out the front door and see Brooks and Kai in the middle of another heated argument.
I start to rise off my stool. “Please, don’t go,” Morgan begs me. “Things have been tense between Dad and Uncle Kai for a while. Dad never fights back. It sucks to see, but I really think my Dad needs to speak his mind to him. Let him. I only stopped you guys before, because I know Uncle Kai would definitely press charges if you hit him.”
I turn my attention back to her. “You sure you're sixteen?”
She manages a slight grin. “Last time I checked. Just taking a page from the book of life lessons handed to me from my dad.” She’s starting to slur her words together now. Perhaps the painkillers are kicking in. I urge her to lay back, tucking some of her stray hair behind her ear.
Morgan truly is an amazing young lady. I’m glad she appears to have given me her blessing to be with her dad. Ryann too, apparently, though the ‘reunited with an old friend’ part of Miranda’s message to me does have me a little stymied.
Colton comes barging back in at the same time as Sherri wraps an ice pack on the mound of bandages and splints she has holding Morgan’s ankle in place. Together, the three of us help Morgan shift so we can help her get some clothes on over her bathing suit. The pills are making her feel too weak to do it independently.
“Eh, not runway ready, but it’ll do,” Morgan teases, her speech even more drawn out.
I scoop her up in my arms, Colton holding her injured foot from bobbing around, as I start to carry her out of the cabin.
“Listen, I’ve got to go, but we are not done with this conversation,” Brooks shouts at Kai, glaring daggers at him. He jogs to follow me up the hill, towards my truck.
“Wearedone with this conversation. I’m fucking out. I’m done with you and this fucking stupid camp. Consider this bank drawn from and dried up!”
Once I get Morgan settled in—laying across my extended cab, with her ankle elevated slightly on Brooks’ lap—I stomp down the hill and jab Kai in the chest with my pointer finger. Brooks is right, he does reek of alcohol. I’m too pissed to unpack that at the moment, because I just need him out of here, for the safety of the campers here.
He’s becoming unhinged, and I won’t have that here.
“You can be done with this camp all you want. In fact, get the fuck out,” I growl, with a voice low enough for only him to hear, minding the little ears around us. “But right now, there’s a lawn full of kids sitting here watching you talk shit about Brooks and this camp, and this isn’t the time or the place for it, do you hear me?”
He scoffs, making a move to brush past me, muttering to himself, “Finally lands a man and, suddenly, he grows a pair. Brooks never would have spoken to me like that if it weren’t forhisbig, dumb ass.”
I fling him back around. “Fuck’d you just say? Are you jealous of Brooks and I; is that what I’m gathering from this big tantrum you’re having?”
“Of course I am! Brooks is mine! He’s always been mine, up until you came along! I came this summer hoping to get back together with him! I need him…”
My molars grind. “Think you’re a little too late, now.”
