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friend. Just don’t forget about me and stay gone all day. It gets lonely around here.”
    I hated it when she laid on a guilt trip. “You have a car. Go somewhere and do something.”
    She gave a melodramatic sigh. “I do need to go get a pedicure, since I can’t see my toes anymore.
    I shook my head. “No, something where no money is required. Like go for a walk down the beach.”
    She rolled her eyes this time, and I went inside. I made a beeline for the stashed money I’d saved for bills and hid it somewhere else. I didn’t need to come home and find she’d spent all our money. After the cash was secured, I went to get ready for my day with Marcus. I needed to wash my hair and coat myself with sun block. The sun here could be brutal. But first, I needed to find a swimsuit and something to wear. I checked the time. I had thirty minutes until he would arrive to pick me up. I needed to be ready so Jessica didn’t answer the door and find some way to embarrass me.
    “Good morning,” Marcus said when I opened the door.
    “Good morning to you too! Hold on just a sec and I'll grab my purse.” I turned, went back into the living room, and picked up the purse I’d left on the coffee table.
    “I’m gone. Get out and go do something,” I said to my mom before I walked back to the door.
    “What, you’re not bringing him in?” She was still dressed in her black nightgown, which stretched over her stomach.
    “No, Mom, not with you dressed in your nightgown.”
    She laughed, and I rushed back to the door.
    “You ready to see this place from a local's eyes?” he asked grinning.
    I nodded, excited. “Yes, I am.”
    He opened the truck door for me, and I climbed in. He ran around, jumped in, and slid on a pair of dark sunglasses. “Do you eat raw oysters?”
    “No way!”
    He grinned. “I should have guessed: you’re a Tennessee girl. But it’s all right, they are also grilling burgers, corn on the cob, and ribs.”
    “I love burgers, corn, and ribs.”
    “Ah, good. Well, we're going to a friend’s house. They're grilling out today, with raw oysters on the half shell as the appetizers.”
    I grimaced at the thought of raw squishy slimy blobs on a shell people were actually going to put in their mouth.
    He laughed at my face. “I guess when you grow up around here, it doesn’t seem so bad.”
    I didn’t respond because I wasn’t sure how anyone could get use to eating slime.
    “Rock has been my best friend since elementary school. You’ll like the bunch over at his house. We’re going to grill out, and then go water skiing. They have a boat and we’re going to go launch it at the marina. Ever been water skiing?”
    “I’m afraid not, but I would love to try.” It seemed to be the thing to say because a huge grin broke out on his face
    “I can teach you. You’ll be skiing before the day’s over.”
    We pulled up to a single story house on stilts, like most of the houses around here. It wasn’t fancy, and it appeared to have survived a few hurricanes. The siding had been patched up quite a few times.
    Marcus met me as I got out of the truck and slid a pair of sunglasses on my face. “You’re gonna need these. Without them, the sun will give you a headache.”
    “Do you carry around women’s sunglasses on a regular basis?” I asked teasingly.
    He laughed. “No, I have a sister.”
    I didn’t know anything about his family. I liked knowing something about him other than the obvious.
    “Please tell me you put on sun block. Even the best tanners get burnt in this sun.”
    “Yes, I'm slathered up.”
    “Come this way,” he said, pulling me behind him through some really tall grass, which grew in the sand. A simple rectangular in-ground pool stood in the center of the yard, surrounded by guys in swim trunks and girls in bikinis. They were slinging back slime from a shell, and I reminded myself not to grimace when they talked to me and ate those things. Marcus squeezed my hand and pulled me