Hard Beat

His was the same motive my sister’s had with every phone call she’s made in the two weeks since I’ve been back from Kansas: to see how I’m doing or try to get me out of the house. To make sure I’m not wallowing in whatever it is I’m supposedly wallowing in.

Oh yeah, heartbreak. That’s what it’s called.

“Lay what on you? Your brother-in-law can’t invite you to go surfing without a reason?” he asks, and earns a long, disbelieving laugh from me.

“Look, any excuse to get out in the water is a good one, especially here of all places,” I say as I look toward the renowned Southern California beach before looking back to him. “But remember, I grew up with my sister. I know from experience how well she can assert her will to get you to do what she wants.”

Colton throws his head back and laughs and doesn’t need to say a single word to tell me that I’m right. “Ah, God, she’s a trip, but I love her to death,” he says, making me smile because I feel the same way. And it’s good to know that he does.

I debate how to play this, wondering if he’s really going to go to that place men don’t go, to talking, and yet it feels good to be out of the house and hanging with someone I like since everyone else I know is still on assignment somewhere. “You don’t have to do this, Colton. I appreciate you inviting me to meet up, but if Ry wants to fish and see how I’m doing, she doesn’t need you to do her dirty work for her.”

“I know,” he says, and ruffles a hand through his hair to shake the water from it. “Look, it’s none of my business, but what the fuck, man? You’re a good judge of character… Didn’t you see crazy coming from a mile away?” he asks incredulously with a half laugh.

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” I shake my head, still at a loss over everything but slowly moving on.

“Dude, we are talking about women, right?” he jokes, and garners an amen from me. “When it comes to women, what you believe gets thrown out the window and whirls around in a little eddy I call the estrogen vortex. It sucks you into their crazy and spits you out completely dazed, confused, and questioning why you ever stepped close enough to begin with… well besides the tits and ass and curves…”

“You can say that again.”

“It’s the mythical blooming onion.”

“The what?” I question.

“You know… She’s got all kinds of layers you can’t wait to taste, but then once you peel them away, your gut feels like shit and you’re left with a bad taste in your mouth.”

I snort and roll my eyes while we fall into a comfortable silence as the set of swells on the horizon dies down some.

“Bad taste is right. Shit, I didn’t see any of it coming, Colton, not at all. I feel like a fucking chump. No idea she was married. Didn’t realize the sneaking away in the middle of the night to take pictures was a cover because she was calling her husband. Not the text she sent me where I tracked her to Kansas, thinking she was leaving me a goddamn clue to come and save her. Not the sex we had when I found her that she used as a final good-bye before filing a fucking restraining order against me…” My voice trails off, incredulity in my tone and frustration reflected in my posture.

“That’s cold, man,” Colton says with a shake of his head. “I had a woman do that to me once. Have sex as her way of saying good-bye.”

“What did you do to get over her?” I’ll admit I’m surprised the infamous ladies’ man Colton Donavan was played like I was. Makes me feel a little better.

“I married her,” he deadpans, causing my head to whip over to meet his eyes as he throws his head back in a laugh.

“Rylee did that shit to you?” I ask, completely surprised by the ballsy move on my sister’s part. “You probably deserved it, though.”

“Yes, I did.” He smirks at a memory, but the way his face softens tells me that it was a good one and that he wouldn’t want it any other way because he got the girl in the end.

“For some reason, though, I think the restraining order tells me that I won’t have the same ending.” I laugh at myself because there’s not much else I can do.

“Would you really want one, though? Legal action is kind of an extreme move to play in the game of hard to get.”

“True,” I murmur.

“What’s her deal? I’m assuming you dug into her background.”

“Couldn’t find anything. Not even mortgage records for the house, nothing. So either they have a friend on the force who buried their information, or I’m getting rusty. I’ve got to be careful, though. Don’t want to get caught snooping between losing my job at Worldwide and the restraining order… so who knows…”

“You should have checked the asylums.” His comment earns a snort from me in response. “I mean the only advice I can give you is the next time you fall in love, make sure that you’re the crazy one.”

My laugh comes out long and deep. Such a typical comment from the former playboy himself. “Well some say love is a serious mental disease,” I say with a shrug. “Guess that proves something I’ve spent a lifetime trying to prove.”

“What’s that?” he asks.

“That my sister is crazy,” I state matter of factly.

He laughs and shakes his head before staring out to the ocean around us. “Look, man, I know how hard it is… but everyone’s life is like a story. Maybe that chapter of your book is closed…,” he says, his voice fading off. “Then again, maybe you need to open the damn book back up and rewrite the shit you didn’t like. Don’t accept it, Tanner. Some people say you can’t change your fate. I’m living proof that you can. If you don’t like the ending, change it,” he finishes with a shrug before duck-diving under a wave as I’m pushed toward shore, my mind toying with the truth in his words.