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He looked around at our setup. “Pretty good I think.”
I assessed the camp he had made. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you did this every day.”
I spread a blanket under the umbrella. I heard the aluminum crack when Mason popped the top on a beer. “Here.”
“So, what you said about Renee back there. What did she do exactly?” I had been waiting for a time I could bring it up.
He propped himself on his elbows after pulling his sunglasses firmly on his nose.
“You really want to hear this story?”
“Of course. I love stories.” I slid a koozie over the can.
“Half the island knows what happened, I guess you should at least know my version of the whole thing.”
A seagull landed a few feet in front of us, nibbled on a piece of dry seaweed, then flapped his wings for takeoff. I didn’t want anything to distract Mason from talking. I had attempted to bring up his past before, and every time he blocked my questions, walked away, or turned cold. I could feel this part of our relationship was different.
“Go ahead. I’m all ears.”
He sat forward and reached in the beach bag. He pulled out a bottle of sunscreen. “Why don’t you get my back?”
I took the bottle and squirted a few drops in my palm before I started to rub it into his shoulders. It seemed to relax him. I worked lower, taking my time to cover his skin.
“Ok, so I know you’ve heard part of the story. My dad had an affair when he was a much older man. That’s how Grey and I ended up being the same age. My dad is his grandfather.”
“I had heard that part.”
“But what you might not have known is that Grey had no idea I existed. The affair didn’t come out until after Dad died. Grey found out when I showed up and sued him for ownership of the Palm Palace.” My hands stopped for a second. I added another dab to my fingertips.
He continued. “It wasn’t my finest moment, I admit. Renee called me out on it.”
“What did she say to you?”
He rotated and took the bottle from my hands. “Your turn.”
I adjusted my position so he could apply the sunscreen.
“Renee knew my father. She’s not the only one. Everyone here thinks he walked on water. They loved the Palm. They loved that he charged the spring breakers fifty dollars a night when every other hotel charged two hundred. He was a regular at Pete’s. Local island legend. Real salt of the earth kind of guy.”
“What was so bad about him?” I didn’t know the history, but it didn’t take much to realize Mason’s voice changed every time his father entered the conversation.
“He raised Grey.”
I turned around. I thought the story was starting to come together. “And not you?”
He hung his head. “Not me. When Grey’s parents died, my brother and his wife, Dad had a chance to make things right. He could have told everyone then, but he didn’t. Grey and I could have grown up like brothers. Instead I was hidden in Brees, while he grew up here admiring a man I think was a complete coward.”
He dropped the bottle in the beach bag.
“I can’t imagine how that must have made you feel. How you still feel about it.”
“I took it out on Grey. There’s no doubt. I wanted to plow this place into the ocean. It was the one thing they both loved and I couldn’t stand that it was still here. So, I rolled in here like a wrecking ball, with my team of attorneys behind me and sued the hell out of him.”
My stomach rolled. I didn’t like thinking about Mason like that. Angry. Ruthless.
“But, there was Eden, Renee, even Mac.”
“They convinced you to drop the suit?”
