Page 26 of Goldilocks
“When did he start up the parlour?” Sam asked.
Eric cast him a look, clearly seeing through Sam’s attempt to distract him.
Sam gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Tons of people are afraid of the ocean. Nothing to be sorry about.” Talking to a guy with a phobia of water? Sam had seen it plenty. What Sam didn’t know how to broach was Eric running away. He didn’t even know how he was meant to feel about it, let alone how he actually did.
Eric set his elbow on the bench between them and rubbed his jaw. “You’re grown up,” he said. He tilted back his head, face pointed to the sky, and his expression looked…was that anger? Sam didn’t know.
“I’m twenty,” Sam said with a shrug and a hint of guilt. Eric was clearly feeling things that Sam wasn’t. Maybe a sense that he’d missed out? And Sam couldn’t even remember him beyond a vague inkling. He wanted to ask if they used to paint together, but he didn’t know how to do that without rubbing it in Eric’s face again that he had no recollection of him.
“I’m not afraid of the ocean,” Eric said. He directed his gaze to the sea. In the fading light, the ocean was inky black and stretched to the horizon line. It had already swallowed the sun, though faint orange and pink hues remained, differentiating sky from sea. The clouds bringing the promised drizzle were bearing in from the east. “My legs just—” He breathed out hard. “I used to hate going anywhere near that boat. I guess my body remembers that clearly, even after all these years.”
Sam didn’t question Eric about why he hated it. Sam used to hate it too. Back when he was in secondary school and his classmates used to torment him. Plugging their noses as he walked by, sayingsomethingstunk of fish. Sam never did. He swore he didn’t. He would scrub himself raw to make sure not even the skin cells he’d gone out on the boat with remained. He knew now, of course, that he hadn’t ever smelled like fish, that those kids were just bullies who had figured out how to get under his skin. But at the time, Sam hated them, hated the boat, hated fishing. Hated his fisherman dad.
It was probably a safe bet to assume Eric had gone through something similar. Except where Sam had come to realise that the problem wasn’t on his end but on the bullies’ side; Eric had run away and never dealt with the issues. What age had he been again? Sixteen? Did Sam want to run away at sixteen? He’d dated Connor when he was sixteen. Certainly, he hadn’t wanted to run away while that relationship was going on. When it ended, though…he’d have happily disappeared. But his dad was getting bad by then, and if he disappeared, the only people to care for him would be family members with less patience than Sam. He shook himself from his thoughts.
“No reason you have to go near it ever again,” Sam said. “Especially if it bothers you.”
Eric had that expression again that looked like anger.
“You could tattoo Laurence,” Sam added lightly. “Adonis will sink it, and then it won’t exist anymore.”
Eric snorted. Amusement cracking through the anger. “He was a strange one.”
“Strange. Gorgeous. Alluring,” Sam listed.
Eric cast him a sidelong look, and Sam grinned.“You don’t need to like guys to appreciate that he’s beautiful.”
“Is Adonis his modelling name?”
Sam couldn’t say that Connor named him before Adonis could speak, and now Adonis would never tell them hisactualname because he liked the one Connor gave him more. “It’s his actual name.”
“It seemed to me like you found his boyfriend just as beautiful.”
Sam leaned back with a huff. HeknewEric had clocked that look earlier. “Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled. “Connor’s gorgeous too.”
“Is that why Mary doesn’t want you spending time with him?”
Sam didn’t really feel like getting into this. Even if Eric was technically family, he didn’t remember him. Didn’t feel it. “We dated a few summers ago, and it ended badly. And before you press further, you’re not getting any more details than that. I have Mary bringing it up enough.” As in, anytime she found out he’d been hanging out with Connor, which was whenever he was this side of The Tear. “We’re friends now.”
After a moment, Eric nodded. “Felt like you were part of the family. Does Adonis know you two used to date? He didn’t mind you getting cosy with Connor.”
Sam tensed. “Donotsay that to Adonis.”
Eric’s eyebrows rose.
“I genuinely think he’d drown me at sea if he knew.” And Sam really did think he would try. And if Connor stopped him, Adonis would certainly make sure Connor never sat next to him again. He’d make sure Connor didn’t put his arm on the back of Sam’s chair or have hushed conversations with him.
Ugh.
“I gotta head out,” Sam said, dragging himself into the here and now, out of those thoughts he should have stopped having the summer he had his heart torn out. It wasn’t as if Sam wanted to get back together again. He just wanted to be friends. The reasons Sam had been drawn to Connor in the first place didn’t vanish just because they’d broken up. “I have schoolwork to do. Pots to pull.” Devils to paint.
“And a boat party to get to.” Eric glanced down the pier to where Connor’s yacht was casting out to sea. “Are you free tomorrow? For…lunch? Dinner?”
“How about we do something on the weekend? Saturday for lunch?”
Eric nodded. “I’ll meet you here. Or I can pick you up from the house?”
“Here is better,” Sam said quickly.