Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Sail held his hands up. “Okay, I’ll go. But first, what can I do to prove I am Jack and Pearl’s son?”
“Nothing,” she told him. “You didn’t even know about the dipping sauce, Mr. I know the menu by heart.”
“Yeah, that one threw me off a bit, but in my defense, I haven’t been home in a while.”
Galvin took a step back slowly, leaving the broom between them. She started climbing the stairs backward, never taking her eyes off him. “Likely excuse,” she said when she was halfway up the stairs.
Sail stood there with his hands in his pockets, watching her. “I like what you did with the porch,” he said when she was almost to her door. “The plants are a nice touch.”
She ignored him. “I’m going to call the cops now.”
Sail looked down at the ground and moved his foot over what she assumed was a pebble. “All right, Galvin. I’ll go and tomorrow you can apologize.”
“I doubt it.”
Sail laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he told her as he turned toward the diner door.
She bolted for her door, slamming and locking it, and then scurried to all the windows and closed the curtains. At the last one, she peeked out front and saw Sail standing there. She swore he was looking at her.
sail
. . .
What was I thinking?
He hadn’t been. That was the problem. Not now and certainly not when he drank his way through half his junior year and the beginning of his senior year of college. He wasn’t an alcoholic. Sail had a problem, though; one he was working on rectifying. It was unfortunate for him that it took being booted out of school to see how fucked up his life had become. Since the day Dean Holmes told him to get his ass off campus, Sail hadn’t had a drop to drink.
Still, as soon as he saw Galvin walk out the backdoor, he had to investigate. It took him hardly any time to find out she lived in the studio above the diner. This intrigued him, and he wanted to know more. The problem was, Penny wasn’t talking, and it wasn’t like he could ask his parents. Hell, they didn’t even know he was home, let alone the reason he’d brought his sorry ass back to Seaport.
The only plausible thing to do was to put himself in her line of sight. Front and center where she couldn’t miss him. He figured, if anything, she’d come out and talk to him. Sail thought they’d had a great conversation at the diner earlier in the evening.
What could possibly go wrong?
All of it!
Never in a million years did Sail think Galvin would call the cops on him or even threaten to. He thought his charm, his devilishly handsome good looks, and his personality would be enough to get her to sit down and talk to him.
Boy was he wrong.
The entire interaction replayed in his mind as he drove to his parents’. He felt lost and out of touch with his family and the happenings in Seaport. Sure, he’d received a text from Dune about having a girlfriend, but Sail blew him off. Dune never attached himself to anyone for longer than a few weeks. Why would Sail think any differently? His brother went through women with the changing of the seasons.
Sail turned onto the driveway, and his childhood home came into view. On any other given evening—or late at night—the house would be lit with battery operated candles in each window. Most people kept the candles in their windows through the Christmas holiday, but not Pearl Carter. She liked how they made her home look all year around.
Only tonight, the entire house was lit up. It didn’t take a genius to figure out Sail’s younger brothers were having a party. Of course, the half-dressed teens running through the yard and the loud music blaring from the house were also a dead giveaway.
“Fuck my life.” Sail sighed and groaned as he parked his car near Dune’s tiny house. After shutting off his car, Sail sat there for a moment, looking at the dark wood of the lean-to shed, garage, and over all junk collector he and his dad and brothers had built years ago.
Everything in him screamed to leave, to get back on the road and just drive. He could go to California or Mexico. Find a job as a yachtsman driving rich people around on their boats.
But Sail didn’t want that.
He didn’t know what he wanted from his life, which was how he ended up in the situation he was in now. Indecisiveness and being told or encouraged to work in the family business led to his life now.
Well, most of it. He had a pretty steady hand in creating his own issues. So, the blame for his downfall wasn’t entirely on his parents.