"Oh, hey, Leyton! I was hoping you'd call. How's everything going up there, cuz?"
"Good. We're getting close to making our quota for the entire season a couple of days early. Best season ever," he told his younger cousin.
"I knew you'd do a great job. You should have had your own boat a long time ago."
"That's very kind of you, Meghan, but I wasn't ready until this year. Thanks for the vote of confidence, but there's so much to learn and know about running a crab boat, it still scares the hell out of me."
"Well, I had no doubt! You're probably the smartest guy I know. And the cutest, too!"
He let the comment, one in a long and growing string of such comments, pass and said politely, "Hey, is your mom around by any chance?"
He heard his 18-year old cousin sigh then say dejectedly, "Yes. She's here. Hold on."
A second later he heard her holler, "Mom! It's Leyton. He wants to talk to you!"
"She'll pick up in a sec. So...when will you be home?"
"In about five days if all goes well. A week if not. We're pretty close to full and this string we're hauling right now is solid gold. We'll pull the last pot in about 32 more hours then head in and offload the crab. We've got some maintenance to take care of and we're completely out of supplies so we'll need a couple of days in port. But yeah, no more than a week no matter what."
"Cool! Well, good luck and I can't wait to see you!" she said just as they both heard a click.
"Leyton?" he heard as Meghan signed off.
"Yes! Hi," he said almost too enthusiastically.
"How are you?" she asked. It sounded perfunctory, but they both knew it had a deeper meaning.
"I'm okay. The better question is, 'How are you doing'?"
There was a lengthy pause and he could tell she was having trouble speaking.
"It's okay. You don't have to talk about it," he assured her.
"No. I'm fine," she said as she did her best to pull it together. "Or at least I will be."
"I wish I had something to positive to say," he told her sincerely.
"There's really nothing to say, Leyton," she told him. "He's gone. It's over."
"I swear to God I don't get it," he replied. "You're the nicest, most beautiful woman I know and he just walked out on you? I mean, what the f...hell, is wrong with him?"
There was another long pause and the unmistakable sounds of a woman trying not to cry.
"I guess I should let you go," he said not knowing what else to say.
"No. Please don't hang up, Ley. Please?" she said her voice still thick and heavy with sadness. "Now that your mom is gone, you're the closest thing I have to a best friend. So please, don't hang up. And...and we need to talk."
He wanted to mention that she had a daughter, but he knew Meghan was a typical 18-year old girl who was both flighty and boy crazy. His cousin had even brashly let him know she found him—her first cousin—very attractive. Like her mother, Meghan was gorgeous, no doubt about it, but just the thought of it gave him the creeps. Whoever first glibly said, "Incest is best," must have been a pervert or had a few loose screws. Leyton found the idea utterly disgusting. At least with his cousin anyway.
But his Aunt Laurel was a different story. Well, kind of. He found it strange that his own mother, a nice-looking woman herself, looked nothing like her sister. They'd joked about one of them being adopted or switched at birth many times, but their mother, his grandmother, told them until the day she died they were her baby girls.
She'd always give them 'the look', squint her eyes, and say, "Both of you!"
Leyton smiled as he thought back on how many years he'd had the worst kind of crush on his Aunt Laurel. His mom's younger sister had always been, and even now at 38, was still what he called 'a total babe'; a cougar who seemed to have no idea how hot she was; a sexy MILF in the most unsuspecting way. And although he'd sworn to never, ever tell her, let alone act on his feelings, he'd had the worst kind of crush on her for her for as long as he could remember. Even so, he'd come very close to saying something just before he left for his first King crab season as the skipper of a boat he'd be paying on for many years to come. Even worse, he'd actually done something he feared he might never live down.
Laurel was hurting so badly from the breakup that it hurt him, too. Deep down, he knew something else...no, he knew exactly what else...was bothering her too, and that's what she meant by 'needing to talk.'
Her husband of 19 years, his Uncle Denny, short for Dennis Granger, had come home one day from work and out of the blue told her he was leaving. There'd been no warning, no hints, and nothing to make his beautiful wife suspicious. He just announced that turning 40 made him feel like his life was over. He felt trapped, he'd told her. He 'needed space' and worst of all, he needed to be with other people.
Laurel was still in shock as he went upstairs and packed. She was too stunned to even ask questions as he nodded to her without saying a word before leaving.
Evidently, it hadn't taken long for ol' Uncle Denny to be with 'other people' as Meghan saw him with a girl who'd graduated from high school three years before her within a week of her father walking out on them.
At first, she couldn't make sense of what she was seeing. It looked just like her dad's car parked a little ways down a side road, and the guy sitting in the back seat looked a whole lot like him. But that guy was kissing someone who looked exactly like Amanda Cooper, who was just 21-years old, and well, that just couldn't be.
It made no sense to the point she drove right on passed the car and kept on going as her brain tried to find an alternative explanation. Finding none, she made a reckless U-turn in the middle of the busy highway and went back to see for herself.
This time, there was no absolutely no doubt. She saw the sticker on the his front windshield that allowed him to park in the faculty area of the university where he was a professor of English literature. He was indeed the man in the backseat and he was very deeply engaged a full-fledged lip lock with Miss Cooper.
