Sunny was my best friend in grade school, my sidekick in junior high, and now so much more. It happened naturally, without fanfare or thought. People were used to seeing us together. I knew they talked, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was her. I walked her home one night after a school function, knowing she didn’t like the dark. We stopped at the park, and she sat down on a swing.
“Push me!”
I settled my hands on her hips and shoved her forward, stepping back to let her go as high as she wanted. She laughed in the darkness, soaring up and back, slowly letting the momentum die and returning to the sand where I waited. I reached out and gripped the metal chains, halting her movements.
“Fun?” I teased.
She grinned, her eyes shining in the moonlight. Suddenly, I noticed things I had never seen before. The swell of her tits, the way her hair tumbled over them. How soft her skin looked. How much I wanted to touch it. Our eyes met and held, and before I knew what I was doing, I leaned down and kissed her. Fumbling, awkward, and perfect. When I pulled back, she smiled.
“Be my girl.”
She wrapped her hand around my neck. “I already am, Linc. I already am.”
Sunny Jenson became my own personal ray of sunlight. I was her protector, her best friend, and the boy head over heels for her.
She was a five-foot-nothing dynamo with eyes like melted chocolate. Tiny and delicate, she looked as if a strong wind could blow her over. But my girl was as tough as nails. Smart, funny, and sweet.
I had been looking forward to being at the shelter, which was just around the corner from the diner where she usually worked all summer, in addition to her shifts at the grocery store.
My father detested her—anyone like her. Anything good and right, he looked at with derision and loathing, and with his announcement, he had just stolen that bit of happiness.
I wanted to talk to her, to call her and vent my frustrations. Hearing her gentle voice would help calm me down, but I couldn’t do that.
Sunny came from the wrong side of the small town we lived in. Her mother worked as a maid at the large hotel on the edge of the city limits. Owned, of course, by my father. A lot of the care of her two younger sisters fell on Sunny, and she adored them. Between school, her two jobs, caring for her sisters, and her volunteering at the shelter, it was hard for us to find time together, but we managed. Money was tight for her, and Sunny didn’t come with the trappings that other girls her age did. There was no expensive clothing. She didn’t wear makeup. She rode her bike, took the bus, or walked everywhere she went, and she didn’t own a cell phone. Every penny she made went toward saving for university tuition and helping her mother.
I wanted to get her a cell phone, but my father tracked all my bills, and I couldn’t risk him finding out about her. He would end it and make life hell for her mother. I wouldn’t do that to her or her family. Sunny wasn’t someone he would ever approve of. She wasn’t the “right” kind of people.
I remembered the day he walked into my room, without knocking or caring he was interrupting me. He tossed a box of condoms onto my dresser.
“You’re fifteen. I’m sure you know how to use your dick. Wrap it. I don’t want any other mistakes ruining my life.” He paused in the doorway. “Dip your wick wherever you want, but don’t bring them here and don’t get attached. I have plans, and you’re going to fucking carry them out.”
I looked at him, struck silent in shock.
“I saw you walking with that girl. The waitress. She isn’t part of your future, Lincoln. Fuck her and forget her. I don’t want to find out you’ve been seeing her. If I do, you know the consequences.”
Then he walked out. Typical of my father. He told me how to live every day. What to think, who I should like. How I should act. He never let me forget how my mother’s pregnancy changed his life. I was the reason for everything that went wrong. How I robbed him of her attention and time. How her shifting focus angered him. How if I hadn’t come along, she might have been a good wife instead of his finding her constantly lacking. He even found a reason to blame me for the aneurysm that took her from me.
It inconvenienced him.
My mother’s family had been well-off, but her parents’ will, and then hers, made it impossible for my father to get his hands on the money. Another reason he hated me.
I wished, more than once, I could get access to the trust fund to help out Sunny and get away from my father. But it wasn’t available to me until I was nineteen.
Two more years.
Two years and I would walk away from this town and the man who made my life miserable. He thought I would work for him. Do his dirty work. But I had other plans that I kept to myself.
Once I had that trust fund, I was gone. Wherever Sunny wanted to go, I would take her. Her mother and sisters as well. Whereas my father thought of people like the Jensons as trash, they were nothing but kind to me. Sunny’s mom always welcomed me to their small house with a hug and kiss on the cheek, clucked about me being too thin and that I needed to eat. Her fussing warmed something long dormant in my chest. I tried to help out in small ways—repair broken things or carry out the garbage. Sunny’s two sisters, Kim and Lori, treated me like a big brother. They loved hugs and cuddles and smiled in delight at the chocolate bars or cookies I would bring. I loved spending time there. The house was run-down, small, sparse, and on the wrong side of town, but it was a home. Unlike the huge, vacant rooms of my house, their place was filled with love. I could be myself there, and it was okay. They expected nothing and asked for nothing but for me to be Linc. And I accepted them.
Sunny’s dad had caused a scandal by walking out on them when she was nine. He lived openly with a hairdresser in town until a month later when they were killed in a head-on collision with a semi on the highway. With no life insurance and no money, Sunny’s mom went to work cleaning offices, leaving Sunny to look after her sisters. They moved in with her grandmother to help with expenses. The scandal passed, but Sunny’s mom never got over it. She stop
ped cleaning offices and went to work at the hotel when it opened. She kept her head down and raised her kids, ignoring the whispers and stares, proving herself to be above them all. I thought she was fucking amazing.
Once I had that money, we’d all start a life together that didn’t include Mission Cove, my father, or the gossips.
One where I didn’t have to hide or pretend. Where Sunny, her mom, and sisters could start fresh.
I stood and looked down at my reflection in the water, deciding to go into town. I felt like some ice cream.