Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

MICAH

“Wilder?” I gave his shoulder a small shake, trying to get his attention. “You okay?” I tried to look around my dad, but he was blocking my view. I tried to think about what he could have possibly seen. Like most bars, there was a mirror behind the bottles of liquor. I glanced behind me to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. I couldn’t find anything, but then again, he could have seen someone he knew from the past. What else was over there? A shelf with pictures and memorabilia. What could have possibly grabbed his attention like that? “Wilder?”

“Hey, who are the two kids in the picture?” His voice sounded tight and unsure, and some of the color had washed out of his face.

“Me and a kid I was friends with in Guam,” I explained as my dad grabbed the picture and handed it to him. And that’s when I noticed it. The eyes, the smile…that kid was Wilder. I barely remembered our time together and wasn’t completely sure why my dad insisted on keeping that picture, but he had, and somehow it had ended up displayed it in his bar. It was a happier time when my parents were still in love with each other, and I’d been having fun in the sun. I hadn’t remembered the kid’s name. It was something I blocked out when he moved right before we packed up ourselves. Guam had been simpler, better. After that, my parents argued more, and eventually, they decided they were better apart. Funny, after they got divorced, my anxiety and stress had decreased significantly. I imagined it was even more so for them.

More than twenty years had passed since the camera had captured that one moment in time. If I remembered correctly, someone tripped and landed on the castle right before a wave washed it away. “It was you,” I said softly.

It was a wonder that he’d heard me. “Yeah. You weren’t the person I expected to find here.”

I smirked. “Who did you expect?”

Snorting, he shook his head. “I’m not exactly sure.”

Was this a good or a bad thing? Sure, it had been twenty years, but he had been my best friend. We’d played together every day, given each other chicken pox, and flung mud at each other more than once when the rain refused to let up. The days we had to stay inside were torture…at least, they were to a five year old.

Okay, so I didn’t recognize him or remember his name or much else of anything. First, he’d changed a hell of a lot in twenty years. Second, even if I did recall his name or anything about him, there are other people named Wilder out there. It’s not like I really knew his last name when we lived in Guam, so when he contacted me about a house, nothing clicked. I barely remembered anyone except teachers prior to fourth grade.

And this was when my brain remembered he hadn’t remembered me either.

He didn’t say anything, just sat there sipping his beer, staring at the picture he now held in his hand. What was going through his mind?

Tonight had taken a turn. My client turned out to be funny and sexy and someone from my past.