I turn up The Fray on my phone and try to tune out my thoughts since Laurel seems to slip into them almost all the time now if I’m not careful. I don’t get what she sees in Mike, that’s for sure. If I were him and someone like Laurel wanted me around, I sure as hell wouldn’t risk fucking it up by sneaking around with another girl. But I do like the fact she’s not sleeping with him.
I have to catch myself. I’m thinking about her again.
As I approach the entrance to Orient Beach Park, I slow my pace. Up ahead, over by the entrance sign, Laurel is sitting on the curb, her bike lying next to her. She’s rubbing her ankle.
I case the area for any sign of Mike, but it looks like she’s here alone.
“Laurel!” I call when I am closer.
“What are you doing here?” She squints up at me, then immediately says, “Where’s Carolyn?”
“With my mom. They’re napping at my place.”
“Oh.” She continues rubbing her ankle.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
“My wheel caught on some sand. I fell.”
“Where’s Mike?” I ask, looking around.
She’s slow to answer. When she finally does, she says almost inaudibly, “He stayed home.”
That can’t be good. I kneel down in front of her and take her ankle in my hands. It’s red but not swollen yet. “It’s probably only a sprain. You might need to ice it.”
“Where can I get that from?”
“There’s a first aid station in the park office. There should be someone there. Can you walk on it?”
“I can try.”
I pull her up and put my arm around her waist. She grabs mine. “Don’t put too much weight on it,” I tell her.
We hobble towards the cedar shake park station.
“Mike not into bike rides?” I ask casually, like I’m trying to make small talk as Laurel limps.
“I needed some time to myself,” she says quietly.
I don’t ask any more questions.
When we get to the office, I help her sit on a bench outside the building and then knock on a rickety door. I see there’s one guy inside, playing on his phone, and when I tell him what happened, he takes out a key and unlocks a first aid cabinet.
Handing me an ice pack, he asks, “You need a ride back into town?”
“That’d be great.”
“My shift is up in a couple minutes. So not a problem.”
“Thanks.”
When we’re back at my house, my mom and Carolyn are in the kitchen.
“What happened?” she asks me, not Laurel, when she sees her limping.
I help her onto my couch and put a pillow on the coffee table.
“You should elevate it,” I say, then to my mom, “She fell off her bike out in Orient.”
“You think it’s broken?” My mother still avoids Laurel’s eyes.
“Probably just a sprain. If it blows up overnight, you should get an x-ray though.”
She nods, a fixed expression on her face. “Can I use your phone to call Mike? Mine is dead.”
I hand it to her and sit with my mom in the kitchen, trying to ignore their conversation.
“What’s happening with the house?” I ask for distraction.
“It should be ready to go on Tuesday. I thought I told you.” I feel her studying my face and I blink a couple times and grab Carolyn’s food-covered hand.
When Laurel finishes the call, she asks, “Dan, can you give me a ride to the ferry? Mike can meet me on the other side with the car.”
“What about your bike?”
“Do you mind if I leave it here?”
“No, that’s fine. I can drop it at your dad’s next time I’m over there.”
“Thanks.”
I help her into my car and onto the boat. She has a pained look on her face and I can’t tell if it’s her ankle or something else.
“Is everything alright, Laurel?”
She looks up at me and nods. “Yeah. It’s fine. I’m sorry I kept you from spending time with Carolyn today.”
“My mom was chomping at the bit to have a day with her granddaughter, so it’s okay. And based on how badly she sleeps when she’s here, we’ll have plenty of bonding time in the middle of the night.”
“Next time I’ll get here earlier on Friday. Mike had morning classes.”
“It’s okay. What time are you leaving tomorrow?”
“Can I call in the morning after I see how my foot feels?”
“Sure.”
We study each other, unwavering, until the captain announces the ferry is shoving off. I hop off the boat just as they lock the gates.
Chapter 30
Laurel texts me that she and Mike will be over to pick up Carolyn around eleven. I take advantage of the extra hours to take her for a run. Instead of the long one to Orient, though, we run through the village streets, then west on the main road until finally turning up near a horse farm. Four horses are out grazing and I pull Carolyn out of her stroller, propping her onto the fence to watch them. I tear some tall grass from the ground and make a clicking sound with my mouth and one of the horses lumbers over to where we are standing.
I offer him the grass, and while he chews, his mouth so close to Carolyn, she watches the large creature, wide-eyed and captivated. She reaches her small hand onto his snout, and when she does, he nudges into her and she laughs. I love these moments.
We get back to my apartment just as Laurel and Mike are pulling up. Mike climbs out of the car first and produces a set of crutches and then helps Laurel out of the passenger seat, her foot now in a walking boot.
“Did you break it?” I ask when she is on the ground.
“A bad sprain. We went to the emergency room early this morning. It was throbbing all night.”
“Yeah. It’s looking pretty nasty. It’s gotten black and blue,” Mike adds. Then he shakes his head. “You had to go for a bike ride.”
“Are you going to say it again?” Laurel snaps and reaches for the crutches. “Just so I can prepare myself with the seven-hour car ride we have in front of us.” Slap.
Mike’s face reddens.
“You guys want something to eat?” I ask, turning away from them because I am unable to contain the smile that is forming on my lips.
So once again, the three of us end up having breakfast together. I’ve got to say, it’s not becoming one of my favorite past times.
“Why couldn’t you have stayed on Shelter Island with me? This never would have happened,” Mike says to her, his mouth full.
“I like the ride to Orient Point.”
“And Danny likes going there, too.” There is sarcasm in his inflection. “You’re lucky he was there to help.” He doesn’t sound genuine.
Laurel’s eyes brush past mine, but she doesn’t say anything.
Time for a subject change. I shift Carolyn to my knee. “Good thing it’s your left foot. At least you can drive your car,” I say while Carolyn grabs at my plate of scrambled eggs. “How long do you need to wear the boot?”
“A week or two.”
“How are you going to do it with Carolyn at that house all by yourself?”
Laurel doesn’t look up from her plate. “I’ll figure it out.”
“I told you, you should live closer to campus. It’s too isolated over there,” Mike says. This guy won’t stop leaning into her. I’m guessing it’s because he still hasn’t gotten laid and I have to force myself not to smirk with satisfaction at that fact.
“What if you fall while you’re carrying her? Who’s going to help you?” he goes on.
“You sound like my father!” Laurel snaps. “There’s always someone working on the farm this time of year. I have a cell phone. I’ll be fine.”
“What about at night? I can’t stay with you until this heals. I’ve got to be on campus to study for midterms.”
“I know.” She pushes away from the table and hobbles into the living room.
Mike shrugs his shoulder
s at me. “I can’t study over there. I’ve tried it. Carolyn is too distracting. I need to be at the library.”
Too distracting? It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask can’t or won’t? But instead I follow Laurel into the living room. I don’t need any bonding time with Mike.
He does have a point, though. How is Laurel going to walk up and down stairs, holding an infant with that thing on her foot?
I hand Laurel the baby and sit down next to her, so close our thighs touch. She doesn’t move her leg.
Mike stays seated at the kitchen table, drinking his coffee with a pout on his face, and I’m aware that he’s watching how close we’re sitting. When he’s had enough, he stands and says, “We should get going. I’ve got a paper to write.”
After the car is packed and they’re gone, I call Carl and ask him what our charter schedule looks like for the next couple weeks. Right now, so deep into the middle of fall, there is usually little if any activity. If he doesn’t need me for charters, I could handle the books remotely. And with my classes all online, I could feasibly go and help Laurel if her a-hole of a boyfriend isn’t willing to. Plus I’m due for some time off anyhow.
“We’ve got two on the calendar between now and the end of the month. Why?”
“Laurel sprained her foot and she needs some help Upstate.”
“Oh. Well, I can see if Charlie could run them. He’s been asking now that the shop has slowed down.”
I don’t want to lose any business to Charlie. He manages the bait and tackle shop at the marina and has been trying to convince Carl to let him join our venture. He has his captain’s license and his own fishing boat. And although it’s not as big as mine, it is only ten years old and has all the bells and whistles fishermen want these days.
Problem is, most times we don’t have enough work to keep me busy, let alone taking on another boat and captain. But in this situation I don’t have a choice.
“Alright.”
Chapter 31
I arrive at Laurel’s house just before dusk. The clouds hang low over the lake like a bowl of cotton as the sun sets off in the west. It feels about fifteen degrees colder up here than it did on Long Island, with the blustery wind blowing across the water. I pull my fleece closer to my neck, sling my duffle bag over my shoulder, packed with a weeks’ worth of clothes, and head inside.
I knock and Laurel calls, “It’s open.”
She’s sitting on the couch, which is covered with a sheet and blanket, and she has her foot propped on a pillow. Carolyn is in her pack and play, trying to put rings onto a plastic holder.
“Did you sleep down here last night?” I ask, putting my bag in the foyer.
“If you can call it that,” Laurel says, gesturing to the baby. “Carolyn slept horribly in that thing.”
“Couldn’t Mike bring her up to her crib?”
Laurel crosses her arms. “He didn’t stay.”
I’m not in the mood to discuss Laurel and Mike’s relationship troubles, but I am curious what happened. They had the opportunity to be alone in an amazing house without a baby interrupting them for an entire weekend, yet they’ve been nothing but nasty to each other.
“Having some trouble in paradise?”
She shakes her head. “You could say that.”
I sit down in the old, tattered recliner across from the couch and the cushion sinks so low, I wonder if I’m going to be able to get out. “It’s not my business, but if you want to talk about it.”
She crosses her arms and stares at the boot on her foot. After a good five minutes and when I’m just about to stand again, she speaks up. “I think he thought I would be – ready – to sleep with him this weekend.”
I sink back in my chair. “And you weren’t?” I am suddenly more interested. “He had a problem with that?”
“Well, considering how patient he’s been with me, I can’t really blame him.” She doesn’t look up, too focused on the empty space in front of her.
“What about how patient you’ve been with him, Laurel?”
That gets her attention.
“What do you mean?”
“The guy is using prescription drugs to get high, he’s taken a girl out right under your nose while lying to you about it, yet somehow you’re the one with the problem?”
“I think maybe if I’d be more willing to, you know, put out, it would lift a lot of the tension between us.”
“It’s only been a couple months, Laurel. If you aren’t ready…”
“It’s more than a couple months. We were close last year. We liked each other. Then he found out I was pregnant and that created a huge obstacle for there being anything more between us.” She sighs. “When I got back here in August, we jumped right into a relationship and I just don’t know that I was ready for it. I don’t think he was either. A relationship with me comes with a baby. He’s the oldest of seven kids and all he’s done his whole life is take care of babies. He deserves a break.”
“You sound like you’re making excuses for him.”
“Would you want to be in a relationship with a girl who has a baby?”
I don’t answer right away because the truth is, if it were Laurel, then yes. “Depends who the girl is,” comes out of my mouth.
Her eyes brighten for a second.
I hoist myself out of the black hole that is the recliner and say, “So Mike’s doing drugs. He’s impatient with you because you aren’t ready to sleep with him, and he refuses to help you out with your baby, even when you have a sprained ankle. He sounds like a winner.”
“He isn’t a bad guy,” she protests. “He’s just…a little immature. Maybe more than I realized.”
“You might be right.” I pick up Carolyn, who’s starting to fuss. “But don’t make the mistake my mother did with my dad.”
“What’s that?”
“The guy is going to be who he’s going to be. You can apologize for his behavior all you want, but it isn’t going to change it.”
She swallows hard, nodding her head.
I decide to change the subject. “I stopped and got food. Want anything?”
“After this talk, sure.” Laurel sighs.
I hand her the baby and go out to unload the trunk of my car. A wave of relief rushes over me and I can’t help feeling I’m one step closer to winning her over.
Chapter 32
In the morning I come down to find Laurel wobbling around the kitchen in nothing but a T-shirt and tiny pajama shorts that barely cover her ass. I watch as she puts coffee into a filter and stay silent until she’s got the machine turned on.
“Morning,” I finally say and she startles.
“Sorry.” I open the fridge and pull out a carton of orange juice and grab a glass. “Want some?”
“Um, sure.” She sits at the table that has a couple textbooks spread out on it and picks up a highlighter.
I put the OJ in front of her.
“I’ve got a test on Thursday and I haven’t even started studying for it,” she says to me, biting on her highlighter.
“I have a lot of work to do, too.”
She looks up from her book. “You don’t have to worry about taking care of Carolyn. She goes to the babysitter today. Tomorrow and Thursday, too.”
“I forgot you had that babysitter.”
“Well, I don’t send her when you come up so you can spend time with her. But when you aren’t here, yeah, it’d be kind of hard to bring her to class with me.”
“What’s the test on?”
“Natural product biosynthesis.”
I don’t know what she just said, it may as well be something in Greek, so I get up to pour a cup of coffee. “Have fun with that!”
She laughs. “So tell me about this homeland security program you’re in. You never have to go to campus?”
“Rarely.” I slide a cup of fresh brew in front of her and sit again.
“You don’t have to wait on me, you know. But thanks.”
“I do if I don’t wa
nt to hear you clomping around like Frankenstein all the time with that boot on.”
“I don’t walk like Frankenstein!”
“Maybe more like a zombie.”
“Stop!” She laughs and picks up her mug, then changes the subject back. “So what are you studying, exactly?”
“Domestic terrorism, homeland security management, cyber security, border and transportation control, waterway protection…”
“That’s really exciting. It sounds so intriguing. Like you’re training to become a spy or something.”
I shrug.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“I’m pretty open as long as I can be out on the water, at least some of the time. I don’t want to be behind a desk the rest of my life.”
“Very cool.” She pulls herself up from the table, coffee in hand, and I can’t help staring at her bare legs. “I’m going to zombie clomp to sneak a shower in before Carolyn wakes up.”
***
Once I’ve helped her get Carolyn into the car seat and her crutches in the back of her car, I ask, “Where are you meeting your friend?”
“In the big parking lot near the library. My first class is right near there. Liz said she’d carry my books.”
“What happens after that?”
“Another friend, Bryn, is going to help get me to my lab.”
“And how about after that?”
She rolls her eyes. “I have my lunch break with Liz. She and I are in the same afternoon seminar near the parking lot, so she can carry my books back to the car. Any more questions, Mr. Homeland Security?”
I don’t bother asking her where Mike is in this picture and she’s not volunteering any information. “No. I think you’re in good shape.”
“Glad I have your approval. See you around four?”
I nod.
She salutes and drives off.
I’m not ready to open my laptop just yet, so I pop upstairs, rifle through my duffle bag and pull out my running shoes. What starts as a jog turns into more of a hike as I head down a dirt path to Laurel’s dock and then follow an old set of railroad tracks that hug the lake and head south.
Yours and Mine (Freshman Forty Book 2) Page 12
