Four Kicks - Stephanie Brother Page 0,5

and they’ve made a big dent in our business. We carry a nicer and more extensive selection of clothing than they do, but people usually gravitate toward whatever is shiny and new.

As I refold a tableful of Four Points Island t-shirts I replay some of the events of last night in my mind. Surprisingly, I hadn’t had sex outdoors before last night, and that aspect was pretty exciting. Someone could have caught us, though I was pretty sure we’d have privacy while the bar staff was busy inside, or I wouldn’t have led us to the picnic table.

I also liked how the three of us mostly kept our clothes on, with the exception of my torn and discarded panties. The sex was hot and urgent – we couldn’t wait to drive somewhere and we couldn’t even be bothered to remove clothing. We needed each other immediately.

Can that kind of unstoppable desire coexist with a committed, long-term relationship? A couple of my friends are married. Their relationships don’t look blazing hot to me, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors.

I’ll bet Maddy feels that kind of excitement with her men. I can see it on her face when she’s with them. So I have hope, and my goal is clear: I want a man who makes me crazy with lust, I want to make babies with him, and grow old together. Now I just need to find that man.

“Hey, bean.” My mom enters the shop, her eyes on me before she scans the room, looking both for customers and for anything out of place.

“Hey, Mom.” My family’s house is on the lot right behind the store, and I live in a makeshift apartment over their garage, so on most days all four of us – my mom, dad, my sister, Bianca, and I – are in and out of the shop. Bianca and I have assigned shifts, which are flexible as needed.

“How are things going?”

“Kind of slow,” I tell her.

She shakes her head and clicks her tongue, looking disappointed but not surprised. “How was Maddy’s baby shower?”

I’m surprised to remember that the baby shower was only yesterday. After my encounter with the two guys last night, everything that took place before that somehow seems like it happened several days ago. “It was good. Maddy looked so happy. You should have come.”

“I know. I’m sorry I missed it. I had a lot of things to get ready for the festival. And, I was hoping the store would be busier and your dad would need my help.” Mom is quiet for a minute as she straightens a shelf of beach-themed glitter globes. “Oh, guess who came in yesterday?” She doesn’t wait for me to make a guess. “Mrs. Byers.”

“Is that right?”

“And guess what she told me? Or maybe you already know?”

I shake my head, my expression blank.

“Oh, wow. Did I actually get clued in to some island gossip before you did? I never thought I’d see the day.”

Mom looks way more excited than seems necessary and I’m suddenly impatient. “All right, all right. What did she tell you?”

She draws out her words for maximum drama. “David… is getting… a divorce.”

There’s a little twinge somewhere under my rib cage. David was my last real boyfriend. My only real boyfriend. It was a long time ago – seven years? – but still, there’s the little tug on my heart.

“Technically he and Rebecca are separated. Mona said they’ve been separated for three months.”

I’m silent, letting this news settle over me. David and I were together for over two years in high school, which seemed like forever back then. He graduated a year before me, and we promised to stay together when he left for college, but that didn’t work out. When he moved back to the island after college, he was engaged to Rebecca.

Mom’s still sharing details. “Mona didn’t want to tell anyone about the separation at first, hoping they’d get back together, but David told her there’s no chance of reconciliation.”

“That’s too bad,” I say, meaning it. I was incredibly hurt when David broke things off with me after a few months of gradual ghosting. I was angry, too. I cycled through a lot of different emotions, but time really does heal.

We were young. Overall, he was a nice guy, and I bear no ill will toward him. I hope he’s okay.

4

A kick

On Tuesday, Bianca relieves me at the store in the afternoon, so I head over to see Maddy at the bakery