Ex’s and Oh’s by Sandra Steffen Read Free Book Online Page B

surprise. “Did Andy stay in last night?”
    “What do you think?”
    “The entire night?” she asked.
    “I took him out for a burger.”
    “Our kid spent Saturday night having a burger with his father? What I wouldn’t give to have to worry he was out raising hell, ya know?”
    Yes, Shane knew.
    The marina hadn’t quieted down until after two in the morning. He could have used another hour or two of shuteye. When was the last time he’d gotten what he needed? These days he just tried to stay afloat with what he had.
    Andy had turned fifteen last month. He lived with Vickie during the week and spent most weekends with Shane. Although Shane kept a house on Elm Street, every summer Shane moved onto his twenty-foot boat, a boardwalkaway from work. He liked sleeping on the water. It beat sleeping in that house by himself.
    “Did you suggest he call one of his friends from school?” she asked.
    “What good would it have done?”
    “You have to keep trying,” she sputtered. “He’s depressed. And your passiveness isn’t helping. He needs us.”
    Us? “Maybe you should have thought of that before throwing in the towel on our marriage.”
    “Not that again. It’s been four years,” she said.
    As if he hadn’t been keeping track.
    “Eleven-and-a-half years is a long time to stay in a loveless marriage, Shane.”
    Not eleven years. Eleven and a half. She made being married to him sound like Chinese water torture. Shane clenched his jaw harder.
    Church bells rang in the distance, welcoming the Catholics to early Mass up on the hill. When Andy was little, they’d all attended services at the First Church of God across town. It had been another of Vickie’s self-improvement projects. It wasn’t that Shane had anything against the inside of a church. He enjoyed the organ music and he didn’t mind passing the collection plate. He’d just always had better luck talking to God out here. He tried to remember the last time God had listened.
    Andy hadn’t wanted to go to church after Brian’s accident. Vickie insisted it was because it brought back too many painful memories of the funeral.
    “I’ve made an appointment with Dr. Avery.”
    “What are you having done now?” he asked automatically.
    “The appointment is for Andy. Dr. Avery is a psychiatrist specializing in teen depression.”
    Shane nearly bit through his cheek. “You’ve decided that, have you?”
    “I—we have to do something. Do you have a better idea? Because I’m open to suggestions here.”
    That was just it. He didn’t, but he didn’t see how a bona fide shrink would be more effective than the grief counselor they’d all seen after Brian drowned. “For starters,” Shane said, “You could stop grilling him about cute girls in skimpy bikinis.”
    “He told you about that?”
    Shane swore under his breath. Of course Andy hadn’t told him. “I just know you, that’s all.”
    He watched a flock of seagulls fighting over something dead floating in the water. He shuddered, because that was how they’d found Brian.
    Andy and Brian had been inseparable from the moment they’d met in kindergarten. Back then, the Kerrigans had lived down the street from the Gradys. Brian had three sisters,and Andy was an only child. The two boys were closer than brothers. There wasn’t a photograph of either of them without the other. Until one day when two boys had gone sailing and only one had returned.
    Afterward, Shane had felt guilty for dropping to his knees, heartsick yet thankful that he still had his son. Now he wondered which was more difficult, losing a child suddenly or the way he was losing Andy, one silent day at a time.
    He could feel the futility and utter helplessness building. He needed to fight the current and the waves and find the perfect spot to drop anchor, to gaze around him and see nothing and no one except miles of open water. Sometimes life made sense in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sun and sky and sea. In the midst