Three days into my stay at the Boardwalk, and honestly? I’d settled in better than I expected to.
The mornings had fallen into a rhythm almost on their own. I’d find Maribel early and spend a few hours with her, walking the different parts of the Boardwalk as she showed what kept this place running, the maintenance work, the supply rotations, the hundred small unglamorous jobs that kept a community from quietly falling apart. She’d hand sothing useful to do and I’d do it. I’d like to think I pulled my weight. At least nobody complained out loud.
The afternoons were a different story.
The afternoons were Marlon.
I don’t know if ’training’ is really the right word for what he was doing to . Getting beaten into the ground on a schedule, maybe. My body had been carrying a rotating collection of aches and bruises for three days straight and I was beginning to think that was just my life now.
Long days. Very long days.
Today was different though. This afternoon we were heading out, a small group of us, making the trip over to the Whitesun Hotel. Our territory, technically, but it still felt like an occasion. The group that had co together for the walk was Marlon, Molly, Maribel, Carn, Shannon and Sumr.
It had started with Shannon, really. She’d wanted to see the others and I’d brought it up with Margaret, not really knowing how she’d take it. I should’ve known better by now. She’d agreed imdiately, no hesitation, said she trusted whoever I trusted.
I still wasn’t entirely sure what I’d done to earn that kind of trust. I was grateful for it, genuinely but it sat a little heavy sotis.
"I still can’t believe you’re this close to us," Maribel said as the Whitesun ca into view ahead, her eyes moving between the two points like she was asuring the distance in her head.
It would’ve been even shorter if we’d taken the route Sumr knew, the less traveled one but this way felt more civilized. Fewer things to explain.
"Well, look at it this way," Sumr said, a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth. "If Callighan’s n ever co at us from that direction, they have to go through Ryan first."
"Let’s hope that never happens," I said.
I ant it. After everything Margaret’s people had already lost, the last thing they needed was to be soone else’s front line.
"Sumr, are you trying to use them as a atshield?" Molly asked, sounding more amused than horrified.
"Well, she isn’t wrong. Their position is just what it is," Maribel said practically. "Geography doesn’t care about feelings."
My cheek twitched slightly at that.
"Funny you ntion Callighan," I said. "He wants Marlon’s head more than just about anything right now. Offered to give i back in exchange for it."
The mood in the group shifted. Not dramatically, nobody stopped walking but the air changed a little.
Marlon looked at sideways, his expression flat and sharp at the sa ti. "And you’re considering it, boy?"
I thought about yesterday. About the very thorough lesson he’d given my ribs.
"The longer this goes on," I said, "the more tempting the offer gets, honestly."
"Yes! Just hand him over!" Shannon lit up imdiately, throwing a hand in the air like she was voting on sothing.
"You idiot." Carn grabbed Shannon’s ear in one smooth motion and pulled, cutting whatever else was coming out of her mouth off at the source.
Molly laughed, and didn’t bother hiding it.
"He won’t do it," Sumr said, still smiling, easy and certain. "He’s a monster, sure. But he’s got more morals than you’d expect from one."
I looked at her. "And you’d know that how?"
"Because of what you didn’t do," she said simply, glancing at with a slight raise of her brow. "From what I heard, you had the chance to hand back a woman from Callighan’s side to get i back. Clean exchange, straightforward. And you didn’t take it. So, there was a reason for that, right?"
I didn’t answer right away.
There was a reason. There was always a reason, and it hadn’t stopped being the right call just because it had cost sothing. Taking one innocent life to buy back another, that wasn’t a trade, that was just moving the weight of it onto soone who didn’t deserve to carry it. i would have known that too. I was almost certain she’d have hated it if I had.
Didn’t make the not knowing easier. Didn’t stop from running through it at odd hours, turning it over, looking for the angle where I’d made the wrong choice and finding the sa answer every ti.
I blad myself for it anyway. So part of probably always would.
But it was still the right call I believed.
Only ti would give that answer. It was all I had for now.
"Ryan is a good boy," Carn said, nodding. "I could see it. Right from the mont I first looked at him." She smiled gently as she said it, warmly.
I felt the heat creeping up the back of my neck.
Now it felt embarrassing.
"Ryan is my hero!" Shannon said giggling. "He saved ! He’s basically my hero!"
Alright, that was enough of that.
Maribel, thankfully, had no interest in adding to the choir.
"A hero," she said, with the particular dry tone she reserved for things she found faintly ridiculous, "who cannot hold a fishing line."
There it was. I’d been waiting for that one since this morning, honestly. She’d spent the better part of an hour trying to teach and what followed was, by any fair asure, a complete disaster. I had managed to tangle the line twice, nearly hook myself once, and catch absolutely nothing. The fish had been perfectly safe the entire ti.
"Funny," Sumr said, tilting her head slightly with a little smirk pulling at her mouth, "because I heard you were calling him a superhero right after he saved you. Does that ring any bells, Maribel?"
"I never said it like that!" Maribel said imdiately, her voice climbing. "I said he was like a, I said it was like seeing a monster, I didn’t use that word!"
"You didn’t say the other thing either," I added.
"I already thanked you! Can we please move on?!" She turned a glare on that could’ve stripped paint.
She really, wanted this conversation buried. Carn pressed her lips together trying not to smile and failed.
"It’s not every day that Maribel is the one getting saved," she said lightly, the giggle slipping out anyway.
"Right?" Molly grinned. "She’s embarrassed. Just let her have it."
Maribel was indeed very much embarrassed right now. It was visible even through the tan, the color rising in her face whether she wanted it to or not. She stared straight ahead and said nothing further, which was basically a confession on its own.
I let it go. We all did, eventually.
A couple of minutes later, the barricade ca into view and we made our way up to it. Malcolm was on post, sa as usual, and his face broke into a grin the mont he spotted us.
"Yo, Ryan." He raised a hand in a easy wave, then swept a glance across the group assembled behind . "Man. Surrounded by pretty won as always. I’m genuinely jealous."
"Do I look like a woman to you?" Marlon asked. His voice was perfectly calm. His sheer physical presence, the height, the build, the way he took up space without trying, did the rest of the sentence for him.
Malcolm opened his mouth and thought better of whatever was in it.
"You don’t count, old man," Shannon inford Marlon cheerfully.
Sumr laughed out loud at that. Marlon’s expression didn’t change but sothing around his eyes shifted in a way that suggested he was filing that one away for later.
Malcolm was already laughing as he moved to open the barrier. They’d been told we were coming, so there was no scramble, no tension, everyone should be ready already to welco strangers.
"Welco, ladies and gentlen," he said, stepping aside with a slight, theatrical gesture.
We filed through.
Margaret was waiting just inside, standing with Martin, and the smile she had for us was the kind that reached her eyes without any effort. Warm and real as always..
"Welco," she said.
Marlon stepped forward first, imdiately spotting them. "You must be Margaret. Ryan has told quite a lot about you. A trustworthy woman. Kind. Thoughtful. Soone worth following."
Margaret’s smile softened at the edges, a little self-conscious. "That may be sowhat generous. I only hope that is how people see . Though in that regard, Ryan sets a bar I’m not sure I can match." Her eyes drifted briefly to , gently.
"Don’t exaggerate," I said, moving up to join them.
"I am Marlon," he continued, then turned and put his hand lightly on Sumr’s shoulder, steering her gently forward. He gave the top of her head a fond pat. "And this is my daughter. Sumr."
Sumr’s face went red so fast it was almost impressive. She smiled, kept the smile, held it together, but I could see the effort it was taking not to step sideways out from under his hand. She was resisting for the sake of appearances and it was costing her sothing.
"Good afternoon," Carn said, stepping up next with Shannon in tow. "I’m Carn. And this is my daughter, Shannon."
"Hi, granny!" Shannon waved imdiately, bright and completely unfiltered, grin going from ear to ear.
As always she was bubbling of good vibes.
"Shannon!" Carn scolded at her.
But Margaret laughed, delighted and waved a hand.
"No, no. Please, keep calling that. I rather like it," she said, and she clearly ant it.
"I’m Molly," Molly offered next with a smile.
"Maribel," Maribel followed, her eyes already moving around the space, taking in the layout.
Martin stepped up beside Molly then, straightening slightly. "Martin. Ryan’s spoken well of you." He glanced around the assembled group and gestured toward the interior of the community. "Would you like a proper look around? I’d be glad to show you."
Marlon gave a short, agreeable nod.
I stepped back and let them go. Margaret and Martin were exactly the right people for this, the ones who knew every corner of this place, who could speak to what it ant and what it had taken to keep it standing. I’d only get in the way of that.
Besides in the future I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be staying here so I wasn’t the right person to show around and speak with Marlon and the others.
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