Better Than the Best

by Amabel Daniels

  “His mom?”

  “His mom’s Delores Downs.”

  Kelly squinted in surprise and faced Randy. “The former governor’s wife? How?”

  “She was engaged to Dennis Parker, Will’s dad. After he was born, she left. Didn’t want to be married to a drunk. Then she married Bruce Downs.”

  “So she took Will?”

  Randy shook his head. Kelly was speechless. What kind of a woman leaves an infant with a drunk? “So Will never lived with his mom?” she said.

  “She never acknowledged Will after she left,” Clay said. “Be smart to never mention her name around him.”

  “Wait, wait.” Kelly crouched to wipe at the tip of another kayak. “I know this is a small town, but this kind of stuff doesn’t happen. Children’s Services, school, cops. Someone had to have taken care of him if the drunk dad didn’t.”

  Clay flipped a coin. “You know the old ice cream dude, Jared? His sister was something like Churchston’s first whore. She stayed with Dennis a bit since people in town hated her. I’ve always figured she was the one who made sure he ate some meals and give him Tylenol when he was sick.” He pocketed the coin and walked off with a nod to Randy. “See ya’ll later. Hey man, I gotta finish a car across the street.”

  Silence spanned before curiosity got the better of her again. “So, like father, like son? The drinking, I mean?” Since she’d been in town, Kelly had witnessed Will going into Elmer’s, his bike in the parking lot frequently. But when he ran, he moved like a determined, powerful animal, not a weak, sloppy drunk. He seemed too strong and independent of a man to surrender to something like alcoholism.

  Randy cleared his throat. “He’s given up on life. There are rumors about him trying to commit suicide, but I never believed it.” He waved good-bye and followed Clay across the street.

  Kelly shook her head. She could understand life sucked, but Will had an awful lot of strikes. “So people really think he’s the big bad wolf and that’s that?”

  “What, he isn’t mean enough for you?” Allison laughed.

  “He saved the fat guy choking on the beach and people practically spat on him. I don’t get why the whole town would collectively hate him. Drunks aren’t exactly monumental sinners.”

  Allison shrugged. “Because he killed Matt.”

  “Allison!” Junior threw the ball at her. “You know that’s not true.”

  “Well, it’s what they say.” She glared at Junior as she fixed her hair.

  “He did what?” Kelly said.

  Junior walked closer. “Everyone thinks he killed Matt. In the war. Delores hated how they were friends. Hated how Matt wanted to be a carpenter. Hated that Matt wanted to go in the Marines. She blamed it on Will, said he was a bad influence on her son.”

  “But Will is her son!”

  Allison shook her head. “Not according to her.”

  “Delores convinced people it was Will’s idea to go in the Marines. He pressured Matt to enlist. Then when Will came home and Matt didn’t….” Junior frowned. “She got everyone to believe Will deliberately set him up to die overseas.”

  Kelly crossed her arms. “Right. And everyone’s gullible enough to buy such bull. Will was in the war too. He was injured in the same bomb.”

  “It’s not too far-fetched. Will and Matt were always one-upping each other,” Allison said.

  Junior shook his head. “They were both punks. But they were best friends.”

  Kelly studied Junior. “How come you never believed it?”

  “I’m not the only one. I was at the diner the day Matt bugged Will to enlist. It was his idea to go, not Will’s. Matt wanted a way to escape Delores. He’d bought the townhouse land and she tried to take it from him. Something about having it re-zoned. It wasn’t fit for him.”

  Allison tossed the ball back to Junior, seeming bored with the old news. “And she’s wacko. Only the old farts in town believe her. When she found out about Matt’s death she set up a contractor to bulldoze the property. Clay was living in his apartment when the workers showed up.”

  “She’s crazy…” Kelly said.

  “Fred had to arrest her,” Junior said. “She started attacking Clay, demanding he get off the property. Fred patrolled the stone house when Will came back in town, worried she was going to hurt him. My turn or yours?” Junior nodded at the customers approaching the hut.

  “Yours,” she told him and after he left, she absorbed the drama.

  Later, she sprayed the boats in comfortable silence as Junior and Allison played ball in the sand next to her. Every time she stood to prop another boat against the wall, she caught Allison’s cold glares.

  It was no hidden mystery her younger coworker had an innocent crush. Junior’s adoration had tapered off to the point it didn’t bother Kelly anymore, but his outspoken girlfriend clearly didn’t trust her.

  Honey, relax, he’s too young for me.

  “So you’re a lesbian.” Allison broke the silence of their game with a stab of immature smugness.

  “I am?” Kelly wiped the grit from a seat and sprayed more disinfectant.

  “Allison!” Junior hushed back with a blush.

  “Well, that’s what Jaycee said. Your husband left you because you prefer women.” Allison grimaced as Eddie tried to lick her hand.

  Kelly had yet to understand how everyone she met in town relied on assumption and gossip. Why was everyone’s business everyone else’s business? At moments like this, Kelly missed a more civilized home.

  “Funny Jaycee could know I’m a lesbian when I didn’t even know. I’ll have to thank her for clearing it up.” Kelly patted her thigh for Eddie to leave Allison alone. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

  Allison rolled her eyes. “Well, you don’t like guys.”

  “I don’t?”

  In defense of his new friend, Junior threw the ball at Allison’s forehead, likely to shut her up.

  She gasped at Junior. “You only hang out with Clay and Randy.” She hurled the ball back at his balls.

  A couple of college beach boys whistled as Kelly bent over to pick up the roll of paper towels at her feet. “Yeah, so? They don’t talk about makeup and hair and losing weight.”

  “And you never even talk to them.” Allison nodded to the lifeguard stand.

  “Because they talk about makeup and hair and losing weight.”

  “You don’t have a boyfriend. You don’t even like it when guys hit on you.”

  “Allison!” Junior tried to hush her again.

  Kelly raised her brows but didn’t really mind the girl’s nosiness. At least Allison was young enough to be blunt and tell it to her face rather than talk behind her back. In a small way, it was more amusing than annoying. Kelly had no motivation to give a damn what Allison thought. They were all trivial matters of the teenage mind.

  “I don’t have a boyfriend because I’m freshly divorced. Call it heartbreak. And I don’t care if they hit on me because all they want is a piece of ass. Call it wise judgment.”

  The answers seemed to shut Allison up and the teens tossed the ball some more while Kelly worked. Her boredom must have been obvious.

  Allison’s nosiness hadn’t been exhausted. “Are you ever happy?”

  Kelly cast her gaze skyward. “All the time. Every single moment of the day.”

  “Dad only washes the bottoms of the boats, Kelly,” Junior said, tossing the ball from hand to hand.

  “Uh huh.”

  “I’m just saying, you don’t need to wash the seats. They’re plastic. We only hose them down sometimes.”

  “Do you realize HPV is transmissible on solid surfaces for up to twenty four hours?”

  Allison snorted. “You sound like a nerdy freak when you say stuff like that. That’s why your husband left you.”

  Kelly paused her trigger finger on the bottle, slightly irritated at the teen’s judgment. What the hell would a juvie know about married life? She quirked a brow behind her sunglasses. Did anyone e
ver stop to consider sanitation on the plastic surfaces which hundreds of barely-there bathing suits sat on? Really, did they?

  Kelly was mature enough to know her pedantic, medically accurate speech wasn’t her being snotty. Or patronizing. Or freakish. It was her being Kelly. It didn’t matter if she was in Atlanta, Churchston, the North Pole, or the pits of hell. She was sarcastic and blunt no matter where she was or who was around. And if she wanted to consider the ethical ramifications of spreading possible diseases, she damn well would.

  But the stab still stung. Is that why John had left me? Do I really sound like a walking Dorland’s Dictionary?

  She worked her mouth a couple times, in hunt for a proper comeback, but lost the enthusiasm.

  Junior must have been aware of the awkwardness. He suggested they head home and Kelly relished the solitude they left behind. After she finished housekeeping on the boats, she took shelter in the hut for the remainder of the afternoon.

  Chapter 9

  A couple strolled down to the dock where their kayaks were waiting and Kelly harbored a glimmer of jealousy at the young pair. So in love. She didn’t know why she believed in it anymore.

  “Oh give me a break,” she muttered to herself as the young couple tickled each other in the kayak. The ring of her cell phone saved her from her sad envy.

  “Hello.”

  “What’s with you?” Heather said.

  “Eh, depressed.” Kelly forced a smile and stood up to the register as a couple men came to the booth to sign up for a kayak.

  “What else is new?”

  “Ha. I’m not depressed. Depressing maybe, but not depressed.” Kelly took the cash from the guys and pointed to the dock. “Number thirty-four. Yep. Thanks. Have fun.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  She threw the ball out in the sand for Eddie to fetch. “Saw a couple who made me wonder why I’m fooling myself to think I’ll ever be in love again.”

  “Again? I doubt you ever even loved John.”

  Kelly winced. “Come on, you tell me. Why should I believe in it anymore?”

  Heather sighed. “Because despite the fact you’re jaded, you’re a romantic.” Heather sighed. “It’s who you are. You’ll find someone someday.”

  Kelly took a sip of her iced tea, then stepped into the sunlight in front of the booth to stretch. Uniform consisted of her bikini, and whatever clothes she wore on top that she didn’t mind getting wet when she got the kayaks out of the river. Sometimes, she barely got wet. On warm days, she wanted to dip in. In a Burns’ tank top and her bottoms, she stretched her hamstrings and watched the pedestrian traffic on Main. Promiscuous, no. But it sure as hell beat wearing scrubs.

  “Why bother?” She didn’t really mean it. Eddie plopped down to gut the ball and she resorted to people watching. On the sidewalk in front of the garage, Clay talked to Randy. Two perfect specimens. Her gaze roved over the skin and muscles of the men on the beach. Fine eye-candy. But her heart wouldn’t let her body lie to her mind. Kelly wanted more.

  “Because,” Heather said.

  Kelly grimaced at the phone.

  “What? You’re getting horny and want some casual sex? Go for it.”

  “I’m not shallow,” Kelly said.

  “Never said you were.”

  “I was cheated out of love before. I want one good shot at it.”

  “You’ll get it.”

  “It does exist, right?”

  “Of course. It’s been a while for you. Go hook up with the stud muffin next door. It’s not going to hurt you.”

  “Clay? I don’t think they make condoms heavy-duty enough to protect against his kind of popularity.”

  “I have good news!” Heather exclaimed with an abrupt change of topic.

  “Yeah?”

  “John broke up with Sasha!”

  Kelly frowned in the sunlight and returned to the hut to close the shutters. “Okay…”

  “That’s it. He broke up with her.”

  “Damn.” Kelly put equal lack of emotion into twisting the lock on the shutter.

  “You don’t care?”

  “Why would I care? We got divorced. Too bad for him.”

  “Too bad for him?”

  Kelly held the phone on her shoulder as she stepped out into the setting sunlight and yanked the hut door closed. “Yeah.”

  “You’re not supposed to not care. He cheated on you!”

  “Yeah, I do remember that bit. Am I supposed to be a spiteful bitch and never want him to be happy? I don’t care who he’s with. All I know is he and I never made each other happy.”

  “You’re like a generous saint or something.”

  “What? You think I’d want him back?”

  “I don’t know. He was such a dickhead. And now since we hate him it’d be hard to play nice if you got back together.”

  “I don’t hate him. I hate what he did but I don’t hate him.”

  “Oh.” Heather stalled.

  “All I want to know is why he cheated. Why wasn’t I good enough for him?”

  “Let me get this straight. He’s never made you happy and that’s a write-off for you. But you want to know why you didn’t make him happy? He cheated. Why should you care?”

  “Well, why did he cheat? Was I not good enough for—?”

  “Kel, why are you even asking? He wasn’t good enough for you, why do you care if you were good enough for him?”

  Kelly frowned, unable to explain how his infidelity had hurt. “Never mind. How’d you hear this, anyways?”

  “What? They broke up? Jean’s niece works at the bank and she saw them fighting, like a couple months ago. Then the night LPN said she saw he’d been living at the condos where her brother lives. Without Sasha.”

  Kelly couldn’t put herself into the gossipy spirit. “Well, shit happens.”

  “Yeah. I guess he quit the office, too. Maybe he’s doing some kind of midlife crisis deal like you are.”

  “I’m not having a midlife crisis. I needed a break from nursing. And a change of scenery.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I know. I just miss my best friend—”

  “Hey, I miss you, too. Wait, what? He quit his job?” Resignation seemed too impulsive for a conservative planner like John.

  “Sounds like it.” Heather’s brother was an assistant to the HR department at John’s office. Small world, indeed. “He emailed them about suffering from stress. With the divorce and whatever. Said he was going to take a job at some company in Denver.”

  “Stress? Bull. He wanted the divorce. Asked for it. He wanted to propose to his little stripper.”

  “It’s what I heard.”

  Kelly scratched her hair. “Denver?”

  “Yeah.”

  Denver? The Mile High City? John hated high elevations. He killed the mood on their honeymoon in the Smoky Mountains, whining he was too dizzy to even leave their cabin. Denver was the last place she thought he’d go.

  Since Heather needed to head to work, they hung up. Kelly walked across the street to see if Clay wanted to split funds for some meat to cook out at home. Men’s voices sounded from the garage as she neared.

  “So you’re really not interested in her?” Randy asked as he watched Clay work on a car.

  “When did I say such nonsense? First time I saw her…that ass. Those tits. Like a walking wet dream.” Clay reached in to tighten a bolt.

  “She seems so sad all the time.”

  “Yeah, why don’t you go after her, then?”

  Randy rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s, uh… She’s not really my type.”

  Clay chuckled. “Mine neither. She’s too fucking smart.”

  “Kind of seems she’d be perfect for…”

  Clay scoffed. “Yeah, what I thought, too. But he’s too much of an asshole to even notice her.”

  She walked over to the hood and leaned in, the guys too close to the metal to notice her arrival.

  “Hand me a wrench,” Clay said and held his hand out. Randy str
aightened and froze at the sight of Kelly with her forearms leaning overhead on the hood as she watched Clay work. He swallowed and blushed. It was almost adorable. He was the mama’s boy, alright. All manners and polite etiquette. Randy would never understand Kelly was used to the guy talk. It still was annoying and sexist, but she had four brothers. What else could she expect? She had always been one of the guys.

  She picked up the tool and handed it to him.

  “Come on, man. I’ve got some sweet pussy to catch tonight. Can’t stall with this piece of crap all day.”

  Randy elbowed Clay sharply.

  “Ah shit.” Clay wiped at his jaw.

  Damn, if he wasn’t such a playing idiot. She admired how gorgeous he was, then crinkled her nose. There was not even the slightest primal feeling of wanting him.

  “You were there the whole time, weren’t you?” Clay stood to face her and leaned his hip against the car.

  “Certainly was.” She pretended to study the engine.

  “Why didn’t you say something, moron?” Clay directed his whine to Randy. He wiped his hands and slid closer to Kelly.

  “If you had a brain you wouldn’t talk so filthy all the time.” Randy tended to his ringing phone.

  “Baby, you can’t sneak up on a man like that,” Clay said.

  Kelly no longer had any question as to why he was such a successful player. The smooth husky crooning of his voice was panty-wetting.

  “Dirty, dirty mind.” She shook her head. “Dirt. Not Clay. You’re Dirt.”

  “Being around you makes me so dirty, baby.” He wedged himself closer and snaked his arms around her waist to hug her to his body.

  “Is this how the infamous player scores? Lamest line I’ve ever heard.”

  “What kinda lines you like, baby?”

  Kelly met his bedroom eyes and gave him a wry smile. “Are you talking about seduction?”

  “Yeah.” He tried to lean closer and she let her arms rest on his shoulders.

  She traced his jaw softly. “Touching is enough.”

  “Don’t tease.” Clay lowered his voice. “Don’t you get lonely being next door?”

  “Lonely indeed, but not for you.”