2. Talon

"Motherfucking shit." I look up from washing my boat after a charter of night fishing. Those are few and far between, require way more planning, and include too much drinking. There aren"t enough energy drinks to deal with them on a weekly basis. The past few weeks, I've been trying my hardest to stay away from Kelsey Rae. She sure as shit makes it damn hard, seeing as she's my neighbor. Now the damn woman works where I do and the other woman in my life had a hand in making that so. My mother is a menace to society, poking her nose where she shouldn't. It's not like I could tell her to make Kelsey quit or give her less hours. I'm not that much of a dickhead.

"What's got your britches in a bunch, grandson?"

"Jesus, way to scare the piss out of me, old man," Talon Scott, better known as Grandpa Scott and who I'm named after, is walking toward me. I couldn't be a junior for obvious reasons. Mom made sure she didn't bother to put my biological dad's name on the birth certificate. I'd have done similar given the situation, seeing as my sperm donor didn't show up when Mom called to tell him she was in labor.

While Grandad kept his opinion to himself, sometimes Mom would slip up when she was at her wit"s end with everything she juggled. I look back now and realize how much shit I gave her as a teenager. It didn't matter that she put me in any sport she could; my grades never mattered to me. The only place I could sit still and let the quiet consume me was on the water. As soon as I graduated from high school, because believe you me, my mother threatened multiple times to drag me by the ear and sit in the class with me in order to get through grade school. Obviously, college wasn't on my radar, we all knew it, and I'm glad no one pushed the subject. Not that I'd have gone. Knowing myself, I'd have booked my ass out of town had they tried.

"Lucky it's me and not your mom with that foul mouth of yours." I look up to see the crooked smile plastered on his face.

"Can't imagine who I got it from." Grandad lets out a laugh, one that shakes his whole body. My chest tightens, knowing how fucking lucky I am to be in my mid-thirties and to still have him around. He's climbing up there in years and yet he's still fit as a fiddle.

"Only the best. Now, you gonna tell me what or who has you hosing off the same part of the boat while cussin' up a storm?" I've yet to dock the boat in its normal slip, instead choosing to stay far away from Kelsey. I look down at the deck, and sure enough, I've gotten nowhere. May as well turn the nozzle off and talk to my grandpa for a bit. I'm still in the boat when he hits the nail on the head. "Ah, I know that look all too well. Kelsey got your heart thumping along with something else, huh?"

"Jesus, Grandad. Don't hold back, do you?" I shake my head, hop over the side of the boat, landing on my feet and propping myself on the wood pylon.

"Calling it like I see it." He takes a seat on the wood bench we keep on the docks for customers who are waiting for their friends and family to come back from the store. We looked into building an indoor storage facility to dry dock boats. Rules and shit made it impossible from what Mom said. My version is it costs too damn much and would take years to see a return on our investment. So, for now, we've got thirty or so slips at any given time and a waiting list a mile long for the next customer at Captain T's marina and convenient store.

"Alright, I'm all ears. Tell me, old wise one." I cross my arms over my chest and settle in. You never know how short or long a conversation with Grandpa Scott will be, but truth be told, I've got all the time in the world for them.

"Let's start with this. She make your heart beat out of your chest when she's around?" I nod at his question.

"She make you lose all track of the life spinning around you in circles?"

"Yeah." There's no hesitation.

"Then go after her, my boy. There's no time like the present." Grandad makes it sound easy. Maybe he's not aware of all the fucking obstacles being roadblocks. "I can see the cogs turning in your brain. Let me tell you something. You know your grandma passed away well before her time." His green eyes take on a faraway look. There hasn't been a time in my life since she passed when I haven't seen Granddad kiss his fingers and press them to her picture when he walks out of his house. They shared a love that most could never dream about. A damn shame she left this earth ten years ago, suddenly, too.

"I know." Emotion clogs my throat.

"There was a time I was in a similar place such as yourself. Except I had more balls than you, it appears. Your grandma was nineteen when I met her, a lot younger than I was at thirty. That didn't stop me from going after her." He leaves the rest up in the air.

"No one said anything about your age difference?" I ask, wondering how I've never heard this story before.

"Oh, they said plenty, her brother, her father, my own family. My busted lip and broken ribs were a testament to how they felt. I'd have taken it ten times over to have her by my side." Grandad clears his throat. "Now you have to ask yourself if Kelsey is worth going through all the trials and tribulations in order to find everlasting love."

Grandma was it for Grandpa Scott. A few locals would ask him if he'd thought about going to the local moose clubs on single nights. He shut them down real quick, saying he'd rather roast in hell than to leave this world by tarnishing his wife's name.

"I guess you're right." I'm rewarded with a sharp look my way.

"Guess? Boy, I damn well know I am. Quit coming up with excuses. Figure your shit out and quit taking it out on the damn boat." He stands up. I do the same, pushing off the pylon already knowing what he's after. "Give me a hug, boy, then you better get to work. Your momma is on her way down here. She's looking to either chew one of us out or put us to work."

"Well, fuck, did you leave the toilet seat up in the office again?" I joke as he pulls me in for a hug. Meanwhile, Mom has her arms swinging as she walks like a woman on a mission, and whatever it is that's got her in a tizzy, we're all going to pay the price for it.

"You two knuckleheads. I see you sitting on the job," she hollers, her voice echoing over the water. We pull apart. Grandad lifts an eyebrow and I shake my head.

"Someone pissed in her Cheerios today. Get back to the boat. I'll head her off." He does me a solid.

"Thanks, Grandad. I owe you one." I'm still not sold on going after Kelsey Rae, and maybe some time working on the boat will clear my head enough to figure out what the fuck I'm gonna do.

"Damn straight, you do. I'll take it in the form of a few beers, a couple of poles in the water, and my grandson having his head on straight." Those are his parting words. He already knows I'll never tell him I can't spend a few hours with him even though I'm dog tired. As he likes to say, you can sleep when you're dead, and I'm beginning to realize he's right about a hell of a lot.

"Will do," I reply, watching as he takes his time getting to my mom before jumping back on the boat to finish cleaning it up for the next run tomorrow.