“She cares about you, Grady.”
“I don’t want her to. She needs to move on and stop trying to fix me.”
Easier said than done, Graham thought. “You can tell her,” Graham said. “I don’t want to have anything to do with that conversation.”
Grady laughed. “She’s persistent, and I love her as a friend, but she’s the past, and I don’t want to keep living in the past.”
Grady’s words gave Graham pause. Was that what he was doing with Rennie? Living in the past? Trying to rekindle what they had because it was good then? He hadn’t thought about it, but it made sense. He knew nothing of her life now other than she lived and worked in Seattle and that her boyfriend of over a year was married. Everything about Rennie and Graham came from the past.
Graham didn’t want to think about his relationship with Rennie, at least not right now. “Have you given any thought to what you want to do when you leave here?”
“Assuming I’m not going to jail?” Grady asked his brother, who nodded. “I’ll have to talk to Brooklyn, but I think I’d like to get the company up and running again.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’d need her permission because she’s the majority owner. Well, Brystol is, but she’s underage, so I have to go through Brooklyn. I wouldn’t be able to have a big crew or anything until I had some capital.” He shrugged. “Maybe she’ll give me a loan to start with.”
“You sure you can go out to sea?” Graham was concerned about PTSD. As far as he knew, his brother hadn’t been on a boat since the night of the accident.
“I’m working through some things here. I have to try, at least.”
Graham agreed, and he liked Grady’s idea a lot. “Let me know when you want to talk to Brooklyn. I’ll go with you. And if you need a couple guys to go out on the boat, I can help. Fishing really wasn’t my thing, but I can do it.”
“You sure?”
He was. Graham wanted to support his brother in any way he could, and if that meant putting on a pair of hip waders and getting up when normal people were sound asleep, he would do it. He had done it today to visit Grady.
Graham spent the better part of the morning hanging out with his brother. He left around lunchtime and made the trek back to Cape Harbor with a lot on his mind. His thoughts focused mostly on Rennie. He loved her, there was no doubt about that, but he couldn’t reason if his feelings were new or residual from the life they had before things changed for them and their friends. It made sense that he wanted to be with her. She made him laugh, and she had been his best friend, but there was a time when he chose someone else over her, which had to mean something. He just didn’t know what. They had spent an amazing weekend together, although, under the circumstances, their feelings could be vastly different because of the situation they found themselves in. It could be Graham and Rennie were destined to be friends with the occasionally added benefit of sex, except Graham wanted more, and he needed to figure out if Rennie would be the one to move forward with in his life plan or not.
When Graham arrived back at the bar, there was a nice crowd. Per usual, Bowie’s crew was there playing darts, and some locals had started up a pool game. Krista was busy behind the bar, and Brystol was there, waiting tables. He’d placed an ad in the paper and online, looking for two people to start right away. He owed it to Krista to find help and planned to promote her to assistant manager. She had earned it.
For a brief moment, Graham stood there and looked out over his establishment and smiled. The winter months were hard for any business in a tourist town, but the people of Cape Harbor and its surrounding communities always rallied to support local businesses. Graham was very appreciative of his neighbors.
He took his spot behind the bar but deferred to Krista. In the past months she had been a stellar employee, and the last thing he wanted to do was step on her toes and mess up the system she had in place. He would follow her lead and do as she told him until Krista passed the bar over to him for the night. When Brystol needed an adult’s help, he was there by her side to take the drink orders. He bussed tables, did some dishes, and filled in where they needed him. And he felt good about it. Because of Grady and the help he’d received, Graham’s outlook on life had changed vastly. He wanted to see things in a positive light, and in an odd way, Grady’s stint in rehab was helping Graham as well.
Graham went to take a case of bottles to the back, and Krista stopped him. “There’s a guy at the bar, wasted. He came in about thirty minutes ago, asking for you.” Krista nodded toward the man at the bar, whose head was down, and his hand held a tumbler of light-colored liquid.
Graham knew who it was instantly. “What’s he drinking?”
“Water, with a touch of scotch. I wasn’t going to add to his level of intoxication.”
“I’ll talk to him, but we don’t let him leave unless he has a ride.” Graham already had what could be a costly lawsuit dangling in front of him because someone had accused him of not watching his patrons—he didn’t want another one, and he definitely didn’t want one from Rennie’s ex.
Graham went over to the bar, picked up a dishrag, and cleaned the counter in front of Theo. “Can I get you something to eat?” he asked the man.
Theo’s head rose slowly, his red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes barely open. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week, which Graham understood. When he and Monica broke up, he cried the entire way back to Cape Harbor and then vowed to let it go.
“How about I put an order in for a cheeseburger and some fries? Would you like that?” Graham didn’t wait around for a response. He went to his kiosk and placed the order. He then filled a large glass with ice water and added coffee grounds to a filter to brew a pot of coffee. It was late, and no one would drink it except Theo.
“I don’t like you,” Theo said when Graham slid the glass of water toward him.
“It’s okay; I can’t stand you, so I guess we’re even.” Graham walked away. He wasn’t going to get into a tit for tat with a drunk guy, let alone Rennie’s ex. He had nothing to gain by engaging in conversation with the man. Because the bar was busy, he found things to do. He refilled Krista’s orders, collected her tips for her, and filled drink requests.
When Theo’s burger and fries were ready, Krista handed them to him and then stood next to Graham. “Who is he?”
“Rennie’s ex.”
“Damn, he’s taking it hard.”
“Hey,” Theo shouted over the crowd. Graham turned and smiled.
“What can I get for ya?”
“You can tell Renee to take me back,” Theo said. “She’ll listen to you. You’re the only one she seems to listen to.”
While Graham would love to think the same, it wasn’t true. “Rennie”—Graham drew her name out, knowing how much it bothered her that Theo called her Renee—“is a very independent woman. You should know this after spending the last year and however many months you’ve been together. She makes her own decisions.”
“I love her, and she won’t see me. I can’t call her, because she changed her number.”
“Sorry, man. I can’t help you.” Graham turned to walk away, but Theo grabbed his arm and held him in place.