Page 26 of Coastal Rewind

eleven

Mason

I softly closed MJ’s door behind me after putting him to bed. I walked over to the wet bar and pulled a glass off the open shelf. Popping the cork off a bottle of whiskey, I poured two fingers.

This was my nightly ritual, a few minutes alone after MJ went to bed where I could sit in silence and decompress. It wasn’t always booze, but tonight I needed to take the edge off and relax. Life had been so complicated lately—so out of control. I liked control.

I was about to head to my room when movement caught my eye through the back door. Ryleigh was perched on a lounge chair with a book in her hands. Making the decision to join her, I grabbed a second glass from the shelf.

The sound of the sliding door made her head pop up in surprise.

“I’m sorry, I’ll leave you alone,” she said quickly, snapping her book shut and moving to stand.

“Stay,” I said firmly, holding out the second glass of whiskey I poured.

Her smile was small but it was there as she sank back down onto the chair and took the glass from my hand.

“Thanks,” she whispered.

I walked around to sit in the chair on the opposite side. I let my head fall back on the headrest as I brought the glass to my lips and took a sip.

“It’s really beautiful out here,” she said, looking out over the city lights.

“It was probably the thing that made me buy the property,” I said, following her gaze to take in the view.

When I moved to Los Angeles as a single dad with a one-year-old, I had no idea where we should live. People told me that my tax bracket afforded me a certain lifestyle, but my savings were a drop in the bucket to what the elite rich could afford in this area.

I found this house on a whim. It needed a total gut job and was the smallest house on the hill, but all I saw was the potential. The bathroom had carpets and there was spray paint on the walls from vandalism due to it being vacant for so long. But once I saw this view I was completely sold.

We moved in and I renovated over time until it became the comfy, charming home that it was now. To this day I wasn’t sure how no one else had bought the property to flip it, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

At the time, it was all I could afford in this area. The organization helped with a housing advance and I had some savings, but it still would’ve been a stretch to afford a bigger home on this street.

It seemed like fate.

“Did you grow up around here?” Ryleigh asked, shaking me from my thoughts.

I shook my head. “I grew up near Fresno about four hours away, then went to college in Louisiana.”

“Wow, lucky you got so close to home in the end.” Her face morphed into an expression I couldn’t pin down. It wasn’t sadness, but it also wasn’t peace.

“Yeah, well, out of college I signed with a team in Atlanta for a few years until I was up for free agency. The Sparrows were a new expansion team and the offer was lower than what I should have gotten, but it was close to home so I took it.”

“To be near family?”

I nodded. “I needed the support.”

She sat up and crossed her legs under her. She was spinning the rocks glass in her hands as she whispered, “I get that feeling.” She cleared her throat and tilted her chin up to the sky. “I never lived here with my family, not really. I have such great memories with them here from when we were kids. My mom used to take us to the pier in Santa Monica. We would pig out on funnel cake and hotdogs and go on rides until we were dizzy.” She had the subtlest smile on her face as she added, “MJ is lucky to grow up near his family, and you’re a good person for giving that to him.”

I wanted so badly to reach out and ask about her life. Ask her what support she needed and how I could help. But I didn’t. It was her story to tell when she was comfortable.

“So…” I started, in an attempt to change the subject. “What’s your favorite place you have visited in all your travels?”

Ryleigh blew out a breath. “A little town in Michigan right on the Northern coast called Port Sutton. It’s this absolutely charming little town that feels like it froze in time. All the businesses are family owned and the town was quirky. They have this weird thing about goats that felt a little culty. I loved it there.”

The way her eyes lit up when she talked about this little town made me want to beg her to keep talking. She had a way of telling a story that drew you in like a drug.

“Why didn’t you stay?”