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PART II

MARK

Crisis averted. Mark had to ignore his feelings about Tanner’s childish behavior. Unlike Heather’s dad, Tanner’s dad was his mother’s client. She maintained his house when the Barretts weren’t in the Hamptons.

If he really got upset, Tanner might complain to his father and that might jeopardize her business and Tanner’s growing addiction to marijuana wasn’t something Mark wanted to deal with. Especially because his own brother was helping to fuel it.

“Hey,” the sleepy perfection of Heather’s voice sent a thrill through him.

He felt her stir from her nap, and he smiled.

Every minute with her was a dream for him.

Heather sat up and he felt the loss of her weight against his chest. She drew her legs up and tucked them at her side as she looked at him over her shoulder. “Sorry.” Her sleepy smile and the strange slant of her once-perfect ponytail made him smile. She was gorgeous all the time, but the fact that she felt comfortable enough to fall asleep against him, in his arms and lower her guard made him feel a little like the god that she’d nicknamed him after. If they were alone and not surrounded by other beach goers, he might even be tempted to beat his chest or shout to the heavens that she was his, just for the hell of it.

When he’d first met her, it was an accident. Or rather, it was just a stroke of good luck for the first time in a long time.

His job during the summertime was working at Shelter Marina. He helped maintain the boats, gassing them up when folks called ahead and keeping them clean and ready for entertaining at any time.

He’d known Tanner for years, since they were kids and Tanner tried to order him around like Tanner’s dad, Troy, did. It was one thing to take the slightly demeaning comments from the man that helped pay his wages, but Tanner just liked to copy his dad and throw his weight around.

Mark turned it into an opportunity to be friends with Tanner instead of enemies.

That still meant that Tanner liked to throw his weight around, but it was to other people. Mark ended up being involved when Tanner wanted his friends to meet the ‘guy’ he’d made friends with. Most of Tanner’s friends looked down their noses at him.

The guy who cleaned a rich man’s boat wasn’t exactly their idea of a friend. And Mark didn’t give two shits about Tanner’s friends and was on the verge of walking away.

That was until Tanner brought Heather around.

Tanner was decent when taking the boat out in the open water, but in and out of the harbor was fraught with dangers that Tanner couldn’t handle on his best day. His dad had agreed to let Tanner take the boat out if Mark was at the helm in and out of the marina.

Heather was the first one of Tanner’s friends to walk up and talk to him during one of the excursions on the boat. She’d brought him a bottle of water and sat down beside him with a bottle of her own. And they’d talked.

Well, at least until Tanner saw them in close conversation and swooped in to be their third.

Tanner was always the third wheel even though he knew that Mark and Heather were together.

Mark just chalked it up to the cost of life.

“Hey, there.”

Mark startled when something touched his nose.

He reached up a hand to swat at it but caught Heather’s hand instead.

She laughed at the sudden movement. “You’ve got great reflexes.”

“Yeah?” He laughed along with her and placed a kiss on the tip of her finger. “What was that about?”

She settled back against him, cuddled up against his chest with her cheek on his shoulder. As she spoke, her hand moved up and down his chest over his tank top. A piece of clothing that he’d wished he would’ve left at home.

“You were thinking really deep thoughts, and I was wondering what exactly was going on in your head.”

“Really? You want to know what I’m thinking about?”

She stretched and moved deeper into the circle of his arms. “I do. I really do.”

“Okay.” He struggled to fight down the erection making his board shorts really tight. “I’ll tell you what I was thinking about.”

He adjusted his hold on her, leaning her head back just enough that he could see her face and she could see his. Holding her like this, he had an idea of what it might be like years in the future when they were together, putting their kids to sleep.

“I was thinking about how lucky I am that you saw me like an equal that day on the boat.”

She frowned a little at him. “Like an equal? Mars. You know that you’re just as good as anyone else in the town. In the world,” she added on. “I may live in what people call a palace on the upper east side of Manhattan, but some of the people I see my dad with? The people that he does business with? They sometimes scare me. I don’t like being anywhere near them or my dad when he’s with them.”

“You turn eighteen in a month,” he reminded her. “At eighteen you can go anywhere you want.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, the movement was barely visible.

He saw a melancholy look settle over her features.

Before he could ask about it, she spoke.

“I think I’d like to get out of the city, you know?” She gestured at the blue sky above their heads. “I know I want to go to college, but I don’t have a single idea of what I’d do with it. My dad’s already told me that I’m accepted to his top five Ivy League schools which is crazy since I never applied to any of them.

“But I haven’t heard from the arts colleges that I applied for, so who knows what I’ll be doing.”

“I can’t see anyone turning you down for school-”

“Well the lack of even a thin envelope from any of those schools should tell you all you need to know.”

“You want to paint? Dance? Sing?”

She shook her head, her gaze darkening with something akin to sadness. “My mom used to play a few instruments. My dad never wanted me to play anything after she died, but I’d like to get into music. When I listen to music, I feel like she’s with me, you know?”

He felt his heart aching for her. “You could tour the world as a famous musician!”

“Ha ha,” she said the words but there wasn’t a joke in her voice. Her words sounded hesitant as if she was afraid to put them into the world. “I also like to listen to lyrics and feel what the writer was feeling. If playing instruments isn’t my talent, maybe I’ll learn to write some songs.”

“I think you’d be great at anything you wanted to be.”

She looked at him with such love in her eyes that he wanted to wrap her up in his embrace and fight anyone that came near her to hurt her physically or her feelings.

He heard her laugh and it made him sad to hear the bleak undertone of her voice. “My father might just keep me locked up at home, so playing anything won’t be a possibility.”

Mark was just about to tell her the truth that he’d been hiding.

He had a ring for her.

A proposal.

“Heather-”

“You know,” her words were a little rushed and too loud for her normal tone, “I don’t want to think about what’s ahead of us. I want to enjoy now, Mars. Today.”

She scrambled to her feet and when she brushed at her bare legs to send the sand falling back to the beach, he helped her, moving his hands over her thighs and calves.

It didn’t help him to control the raging erection that he had pulling on the Velcro closure of his board shorts.

“Let’s go and swim,” she took his hand and tugged him toward the water. “Let’s just have fun and forget that I’m going back to New York after the big bonfire party, okay?”

How could he refuse her? There just wasn’t a way to do it without making her feel like a total ass.

So he raced with her into the water. They stumbled in, laughing and trying to pull each other off of their feet. It wasn’t until they were floating beside each other, their eyes closed to the hot midday sun, that he knew, without a doubt, that he was going to ask her to marry him.

They might be young, but he was determined to love her forever and do whatever it took to make her happy, safe, and protected.

Later that night, when he was working on one of the boat engines at the harbor, Tanner came down to the dock and sat down with his feet dangling in the water.

It was strange enough for Tanner to come to the dock alone.

But add to it the late hour and Mark was more than curious, but he had work to do so he left it alone. If Tanner wanted to talk, he would.

Nothing stopped Tanner from talking when he wanted to.

It wasn’t until Mark had his hand covered in grease that Tanner made a noise beyond breathing.

“You love her, don’t you.”

It wasn’t said like a question.

Instead, it sounded like an accusation.

Grabbing up a towel to clean his hand, Mark looked at Tanner. With the half-moon above their heads, there was enough light for him to see the hard glint in Tanner’s usually apathetic gaze.

While Mark wasn’t sure where this was going, he had no reason not to tell the truth. “I love her. I haven’t hidden my feelings for her.”

“You mean you haven’t hidden your feelings from her, but remember, you’re still using me to see her.”

The way he said the words seemed harsh and out of character for Tanner.

“It was your idea, Tanner. You came to us with the idea when your father said he wanted you to spend more time with Heather. You didn’t really want to. It just worked out when Heather and I got… close.”

The reminder seemed to sour Tanner’s mood even more. “Yeah, well I feel like I’m not getting anything out of this whole situation .”

Mark set down his tool and turned around to look at Tanner, fixing his gaze on his friend’s face. “What’s going on, Tanner? What did you come here to say?”

He saw Tanner chewing on the inside of his cheek, his hands balling up into fists and then flexing.

For a moment, he was pretty sure that they were going to come to blows.

All he could do was wait and see.

Tanner pounded the side of his fist against the dock.

“Damnit, Mark! I don’t want to be the fake boyfriend anymore!”

Mark heard his friend’s words, but he couldn’t quite believe it.

“I don’t get it, Tanner.” The words tasted sour on his tongue.

“You don’t?” Tanner’s voice was higher than normal. Tighter. “What’s so hard to understand? She’s beautiful!”

Mark felt something tighten around his heart. “She’s more than her looks.”

“Sure,” Tanner waved off his words, “I know that, but it’s different now.”

“Because you want her.”

Tanner shrugged like his shirt was irritating against his skin. “You make it sound… bad.”

“I’m making it sound like I see it. Have you told Heather about this? Have you asked her what she wants?”

Tanner shook his head, hard. “Of course not.”

“What do you mean?”

Tanner rubbed his hands against his thighs. “I was hoping you’d tell her.”

Mark stared at Tanner, wondering when things had gotten so far off the rails. “Tell her what? How you feel?”

“I want you to tell her that she should be with me.”

Mark barely held back his laughter. “You want me to…”

“She’d listen to you, man. She’d listen. And after a while she’d understand. She’d be okay with it. With me. You understand, right? It’s just better for all of us if-”

Mark felt his knuckle split against Tanner’s tooth, but the pain felt damn good.

He was just about to get his hands around Tanner’s throat when pain exploded between his legs.

“Get off me, Mark!”

Mark lost the will to split open Tanner’s head a few seconds later and ended up with his back on the dock, one hand cupped around his junk.

Tanner got up first, leaning over him while he was on his knees.

“Give it up, Mark. You know her dad would kick your ass or kill you before he let his little girl end up with a guy that gasses up boats.” Tanner stuck his pointer finger in Mark’s face. “You know I’m right.”

Mark glared up at Tanner and rolled onto his side.

He made it back up to his feet and glared at his old friend.

“I know that I love her, Tanner. I’m going to give her a ring and ask her to marry me. There’s no way in hell that I’m going to tell her to date you.”

Tanner shook his head. “That’s going to be the worst thing to do. Her dad won’t stand for it. It’s better that you cut your losses now. Let her be happy.”

“With you?” Mark sucked in a pained breath.

Ah fuck, his dick hurt like hell.

“I can make her happy,” Tanner explained, “I can give her money. The lifestyle she’s grown up with. How are you going to give her anything on the kind of money you make scraping the bottoms of rich men’s boats?”

Mark glared at Tanner. Rich men. He meant himself.

“It’s going to be a while before you’ve got that kind of money on your own, Tanner. What are you going to do until then?”

“That’s what my dad is for. That’s what her dad is for. You? You’ll never be able to provide for her the way I can. What are you going to do when she’s working herself to the bone to help you put food on the table? It’ll be too late then for her to start over.”

Mark balled his fist up. He wanted to plant it in Tanner’s face again. He wanted to bloody that perfect nose, but he knew that with the Barrett family money, they’d just fix it again.

Instead, he shook his head and glared at Tanner.

“That’s never going to happen, Tanner. I love her and she loves me. You can tell her how you feel, but you can’t change the rest of it.”

Tanner swiped his hand across his face, coming away with blood from his mouth. He swore under his breath and cussed. “You go ahead and think that, Mark, but you’ll never understand what it’s like to have money. Once you’ve had it, you won’t want to lose it.

“Sure, Heather loves you, but she could love me too.” He took a few steps down the dock, almost tripping over the edge of the planks. Tanner spun back around and glared at him. “We’ll see who she chooses.”

When Tanner’s footsteps disappeared into the darkness, Mark collapsed back down to the dock, dragging in breath after breath of the cooler evening air while he waited for his balls to stop throbbing in pain.

“That fucker,” he hissed into the darkness, “he doesn’t know a damn thing about love.”