Seb’s Summer by K.C. Wells

 

Chapter Two

 

June 14

Driving along tree-lined Main Street confirmed Seb’s worst fears. Cape Porpoise was picturesque and quiet—way too quiet. He recalled his childhood visits here, when he’d whined to his mom that there was ‘nothing to do.’

Little appeared to have changed.

So far, he’d passed Bradbury’s Market, which looked big enough to provide whatever he needed in the way of food and other necessaries. Apart from that, there were houses, set back from the road, with well-cared-for front yards and neat flower beds, and that was it. As Main Street became Pier Road, he spied boats in the harbor to his right through the trees, the sun glinting on the calm water.

I suppose if I were here just to chill out, it’d be perfect.

It wasn’t as if Seb was going to get much time to himself to do any chilling.

He followed Pier Road as it snaked around a bend. He slowed at its closest point to the water’s edge, took a left, and pulled onto the narrow dirt road that led to Gary’s place. He smiled when he saw the dilapidated truck out front. It was the same one he remembered from his childhood.

Come to think of it, the house looks so much smaller, and it wasn’t big to begin with. Seb parked beside Gary’s truck, noting another car at the side of the house. That had to belong to Annie. He got out of the car, and climbed the four steps up to the front door. Before he could knock, the door opened, and there was Annie, her gray hair cropped close to her head, her glasses perched on the end of her nose, just like he remembered.

“Hey stranger. How’s the teaching going? Strangled any kids yet?”

Seb smirked. She and Gary were alike in one aspect—neither of them had a filter. “Good to see you too, Annie.”

She peered at him with a frown. “Where’s your stuff?”

“In the car. It can stay there a while.” He grinned. “Gonna let me in?”

“Sure, but keep the noise down. He’s dozing on the couch.” She stood aside to let him enter, and Seb crossed the threshold into the compact interior. They were in the main room of the house, where the kitchen was separated from the living room by a low wall.

Good God, what a mess. There was clutter everywhere, except once he looked past that, he could see there was dirt too. When did he clean last? His uncle lay on the couch, supported by pillows, with a throw over him. The couch was big enough to serve as a bed and it was the only seating in the room. A long low coffee table sat in front of it, and there were more tables and bookcases against every wall.

Seb couldn’t see one clear surface.

Annie beckoned him with her finger, and they crept past the couch and through the door into Gary’s bedroom. She closed the door quietly.

“I thought we’d talk in here.” She kept her voice low. “He didn’t have a good night and I wanted him to get some rest before I made the trip home.” Annie grimaced. “He’s going to be in the car for four hours, and that’ll be as uncomfortable as hell.” She sat on the end of the bed and gestured for him to join her. “You still teaching at Wells Jr High?” He nodded, and she huffed. “Rather you than me. Kids are so different nowadays.”

Seb chuckled. “I bet every generation says that. When I was in college, one of my professors read us this account, someone’s comment about the youth of the day. It was the usual stuff: kids loving luxury, having bad manners, disrespecting their elders, not standing up when said elders came into the room, contradicting their parents…”

Annie nodded vehemently. “My point exactly.”

“He asked us if it sounded familiar, and someone said, ‘yeah, sounds like something my granddad says.’ The professor nodded and told us it was written by Socrates, and not to let anyone tell us kids are different.” He glanced around the room, doing his best to disguise his feelings.

Jesus. This place needs a clean. Then he noticed the beige fur-covered cat tree. “Gary’s got a cat?”

Annie snorted. “He had a cat. Flea-bitten bastard died five years ago, and he still hasn’t gotten around to throwing that thing out.” She patted Seb’s knee. “See if you can do something about the mess once we’re gone,” she said in a low voice. “I’d like him to come home and find it in a better state than he’s leaving it.”

Seb bit his lip. “That won’t be difficult.”

“You got some fella in there?” Gary’s voice shattered the quiet. “Not that I mind, but keep the noise down. Don’t want the neighbors complainin’.”

Annie’s eyes twinkled. “It’s awake.” She opened the door, and they went back into the living room. Gary didn’t move, but his eyes followed Seb as he approached.

“You got here then.” He winced, and Annie didn’t hesitate. She picked up the bottle on the coffee table, tipped a couple of pills into her hand, and handed them to Gary, along with a glass of water. He didn’t argue, so Seb guessed the pain was pretty bad. Gary squinted at Annie. “How about you make some coffee? Me an’ Seb need to talk.”

Annie arched her eyebrows. “Fine.”

“I’d love some coffee,” Seb told her. He waited till she’d walked into the kitchen, then he perched at the end of the couch where there was space, and shrugged off his jacket, laying it over the end of the coffee table. “Do you need anything?” he asked Gary.

He shook his head slightly, wincing again. “About tomorrow. If you follow Pier Road right to the end, that’s where Tim will pick you up in the boat. Make sure you’re there by four-thirty.”

Seb blinked. “I guess I’m having an early night.” It wasn’t really a surprise. Nor was Gary coming straight to the point. He never was one for small talk.

“He’ll take the boat out, and work out where to put the traps.” Gary focused his eyes. “You remember how to prep bait?”

Seb snorted. “You had me sliding redfish and porgies onto bait needles when I was just a kid, remember? And you had me plunging buoys into a barrel of hot water to boil away all the gunk and algae.”

Gary sighed. “I know you hated it, but you were the best of the bunch. You were also the best at bitchin’ about it.” There was a hint of a twinkle in his eyes. “Is that a gay thing?”

“Excuse me?” Annie said loudly from the kitchen. “You can’t say things like that.”

“Oh hush. My house, I can say what the hell I like. And in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve toned down the cussin’, seein’ as you made such a song-and-dance about it.” He glanced at Seb and rolled his eyes. Seb did his best not to laugh.

“I had noticed,” Annie fired back. “I wasn’t going to mention it, in case you decided you’d been civil long enough.”

Gary’s comment told Seb one thing for certain—his mom had been talking about him. “Back to your question. Not necessarily. I know a few gay guys who wouldn’t know how to bitch to save their lives.”

Gary made a noncommittal noise. “Tim’ll take you through measurin’ the catch and decidin’ which ones to throw back.” He cleared his throat. “I’m gonna say this now. You need to keep in mind you’ve gotta catch one hundred fifty pounds of lobster at least, just to cover gas and bait. So no slackin’ off.”

“One hundred fifty pounds doesn’t sound like a lot.” Seb cocked his head. “Is it getting tougher out there?”

Gary pushed out another sigh. “When you were here last, soft-shell lobster sold for three to four dollars per pound on the wharf. Now? Two dollars seventy-five.”

“I guess fuel prices have gone up too.”

Gary’s face tightened. “S’not just the fuel. Bait prices too. That summer you were here, I reckon a drum of bait was thirty-five dollars. Today it’ll cost you a hundred and eighty.”

“Can you make up for the low price by catching more lobster?”

Gary gave a slight shake of his head. “Can’t handle a higher number of traps. Maine law. Eight hundred is the limit, and we set and haul a portion of that figure every day.”

Seb gazed at him with renewed admiration. “But you’re still here.”

Gary’s eyes gleamed. “I’ll be doin’ this till I can’t do it no more. I love it.”

“That’s because you’re too stubborn to know any better,” Annie said as she brought them coffee. She patted Seb on the shoulder. “I’ll be in the bedroom, packing up the last of his clothes.” Then she gave Gary a mock glare. “I don’t want to hear you cussing, just because you think I can’t hear you. Because I can.”

Gary pointed to a drawer in the coffee table. “You’ll find earplugs in there then.” Annie rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, pushing the door to but not closing it.

Gary studied Seb for a moment. “They let you teach with hair like that?”

Seb could give as good as he got. “Fuck you,” he said good-naturedly, knowing it would tickle Gary.

Sure enough, Gary chuckled. “Damn, it’s good to see you.” His brow furrowed. “You okay?”

“You mean, apart from being here?” No sooner had the words left his lips then Seb regretted them.

Gary waved his hand. “It’s all my fault. I was going way too fast.” A look of horror flickered across his face. “You weren’t goin’ on vacation, were ya? Your mom didn’t mention that.”

“Relax. The farthest I was gonna get was Ogunquit Beach.” Except Seb didn’t want to think about that.

Gary’s lips twitched. “I guess I know how you were gonna spend your summer then.”

Seb didn’t hold back. “You knew that anyway. You’ve been talking to Mom.”

Gary gestured to the pillow near Seb. “Pass me that, will ya?” Seb did so, and when Gary tried to shove it under his head, Seb helped. He sat back down, and Gary regarded him thoughtfully. “I have two brothers and three sisters, and you had to get saddled with the only one of us who don’t like gays. Sucks to be you, I guess.”

Seb’s chest tightened. “We just don’t talk about it.” It was better that way.

“You wanna laugh?” Gary grinned. “When you told your mom you were gonna be a teacher, she called me and said you’d finally seen the light. She figured you couldn’t be a teacher and be gay.”

Seb stared at him in frank amazement. “Seriously? Where the fuck did she get that from?”

Gary cackled. “I gave up tryin’ to figure out how your mom’s mind works long ago. I asked her if you were seein’ anybody.”

Seb snorted again. “Bet that went down well.”

“Like a lead balloon.” Gary’s gaze flickered toward the bedroom door. He lowered his voice. “Gonna tell you something now, but you gotta promise not to tell your mom I shared this with you, all right?”

What the fuck? “Okay.”

There was a moment of silence before Gary spoke again. “When you were sixteen, your mom was tryin’ to find a place to send you.”

Ice crawled over Seb skin. “What kind of place?” As if he couldn’t guess.

“Oh, somewhere with people who were gonna put you back onto the path of righteousness, and make you straight again. She’d found a couple of places too.”

Holy fuck. “Tell me this is a joke.”

Gary shook his head. “I was the one who told her to pull her head out of her ass, and leave you be. I told her this wasn’t a choice, it was just how you were. She didn’t much like that answer. So I told her, what she was suggestin’ amounted to brainwashin’, and it might damage you. That slowed her down a tad.”

Seb sucked in a breath. “I guess I owe you.” His head was reeling.

Gary waved his hand. “That’s okay. The way I see it, you’re payin’ me back.”

And then some. Seb pushed aside his frustration. He knew the heart of his anger was directed at his mom, not because of what she was asking of him, but because it was her doing the asking. And yeah, he hated the fishing part of it with a passion, but in the light of what he’d just learned?

He owed Gary, big time.

I guess it’s time to put on my big boy pants, suck it up, and just get on with it. What’s one summer, compared to what I could have lost if Mom had gotten her way?

The door opened and Annie came out, a suitcase in each hand. “That’s all your clothes. And the first thing I’m going to do when I get you home is the laundry.”

Gary rolled his eyes. “Judas Priest, woman. Don’t you ever quit naggin’?” His gaze met Seb’s. “I’m startin’ to think this is not such a great idea.”

“Well, that makes two of us,” Annie retorted.

Seb held up his hands. “Do I have to be the grown-up here? You’re gonna be sharing the same house for two months or more. It might be a good idea to try to get along.” He gave Gary a pointed stare. “So you might need to cut back on the cussing for a little.” He glanced at Annie. “And you need to cut him some slack.”

Annie blinked, her mouth opening and closing. Finally she coughed. “I’ll just take these cases out to the car.” She walked out of the front door, shutting it behind her.

Gary’s eyes twinkled. “Well look at you. All growed up.” He sighed. “I know I said it last night, but it needs sayin’ again. Thank you for this.”

Seb bit back a smile. “I think I’m gonna be having an easier time of it than you are.”

Annie came back into the house. She stood at the end of the couch, her hands on her hips. “I think between us, we can get him into the car.”

Gary glared at her. “Jesus, I’m right here. And I still got legs, case you haven’t noticed.”

Annie glanced at Seb. “See what I mean? Stubborn ol’ mule.”

Seb didn’t think there was all that much to choose between them.

 

 

Three hours after Annie and Gary had driven away, Seb was exhausted. He’d taken all the bed linen and put it in the washer. Then he’d started cleaning. Five large black garbage bags sat outside, ready to be collected, along with the forlorn-looking cat tree. He’d removed all the clutter, intending to clean every surface.

Then he ran into a problem. There wasn’t a single cleaning product in the house. What the fuck, Gary?

Seb glanced at Gary’s notice board. Among the receipts for bait, fuel, and catches that were pinned to it—which seemed to be Gary’s only filing system—there was a leaflet for the Bradbury Brothers Market. They closed at seven on Sundays, and the store had to be less than five minutes away on foot.

I need some air anyway.

Besides, what were the chances of him running into a sexy hot guy, also doing a little shopping? Seb laughed.

Pretty fucking thin.