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He rubbed my back. “I’m not done with you yet, Angel.”
“But I thought—”
“No. You didn’t think. You assumed. You know what they say about the wordassume?”
“Yeah, it makes an ass out of you and me.”
Today seemed to be one big lesson in not drawing premature conclusions.
“I told you I was taking you somewhere to relax so you would forget what’s bothering you.”
“And we did. On your patio. Remember? Your silly wave listening.”
“On a scale of one to ten, how relaxed are you?”
I didn’t have an answer for that, so I chose the safe middle ground. “Five.”
“That won’t do.” He started off again and pulled me along.
It was getting more crowded along the boardwalk. The little shops had rolled up their doors and were hawking their sunglasses, T-shirts, hats, and all manner of things.
He stopped at a skate and bike rental booth. “Can you skate?”
“It’s been a long time.”
He pulled me up to the counter. “Then it’s time again.”
They handed me roller blades and pads.
When he took off his shoes, I noticed something.
“Who was the lucky girl?” I pointed to the name tattooed on his ankle: DEB. I laughed. “Do you have Melissa hidden somewhere else?”
He didn’t join my laugh, and for a second I feared I’d overstepped a hidden boundary.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.” Another lie of sorts, but a white one.
“Deborah Ellen Benson, my cousin. She was kidnapped as a child. And…well, the kidnapper died in a shootout with the cops. We didn’t get her back, and we never even found her body… We all got these a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“We don’t talk about her. It’s too painful.” He smoothed a finger over the letters and blinked back the hint of a tear. “But she’s not forgotten.”
The sentiment was one of the sweetest things I’d heard a man say in a long time.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. Delving into the particulars seemed over the line, so I didn’t ask any of my morbid questions. I placed a hand on his knee, and for a few moments, his pain and mine were linked. We’d both suffered tragedy and loss.
“Thank you. “ He patted my hand and sniffed in a breath. “Enough of that. Today is for new memories, not reliving old ones.”
We laced up and strapped on our pads in awkward silence.
He’d given me a peek behind his shell, and I’d learned another thing about Dennis I hadn’t suspected.
He slapped on a smile. “Ready to go?”
He had me start out ahead of him, presumably so he could pick up the pieces and administer first aid when I fell.
After a few hundred yards, it all started coming back to me, and I didn’t feel like such a klutz anymore.
