Last Resort (The Grayton Series Book 1) by Jill Sanders Page B

trying to figure her out.  
    She shrugged her shoulders. “Bobby is a good kid.”
    He waited and when she didn’t finish, he asked, “And why do you have such an interest in whether he’s at school or not?”
    She laughed. “Because he’s a handful, and he’s one of my brother’s kids.”
    His eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t know you had a nephew.” He turned to watch the kid walk down the boardwalk.
    “ No,” she chuckled. “I don’t. My brother runs a halfway house of sorts. Kind of like my parents did, but on a larger scale.” She nibbled on the last bite of her roll. He had finished his already and was trying not to order another one. Instead, he sipped his coffee and dreamed about another roll.  
    “ Which brother?”  
    “ Roman. He bought an old house in downtown Spring Haven, right off the bay. Marcus, Cole, and he rebuilt the place shortly after high school. Then”—she shrugged her shoulders—“he started taking kids in.”  
    He shook his head. “Isn’t there a lot to that kind of thing?”
    She laughed. “You have no idea what he had to go through the first two years. Ready?” She stood up and waved bye to her friends.
    “ Sure.” He took out his wallet to pay, but she shook her head.  
    “ Not around here.” She smiled and nodded. “Alfred and Marvin will be upset if you pay for anything.”  
    “ Alfred and Marvin?”  
    “ The owners. It’s a standing rule on the boardwalk between us owners.”  
    “ Seriously?” He stopped walking just outside the door and looked down at her. “You don’t charge anyone and they don’t charge you?”  
    She smiled and nodded. “We’re a family. You don’t charge family.”
    She took his hand as they started walking up the boardwalk. When they reached the railing, she leaned against it and closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
    “ I love it here.” She spun around, resting her back against the railing as she looked at him. “There is always something to do, people to watch.” She nodded to an old couple passing them. They were dressed in matching bright red shirts and shorts. Cassey smiled and waved to them. “So, what do you want to do?”  
    He looked down at her and smiled. When she saw the look in his eyes, she chuckled. “We can do that again later. I mean what do you want to see along the boardwalk first?”
    “ It’s your neighborhood. What do you want to show me?”  
    She grabbed his arm and started pulling him down the walk, a smile playing on the edge of her lips. “I know where we’ll go first. You’ll love it.” He followed her willingly down the walk. She entered a large blue building with a sign that said “Boardwalk Arcade” in neon above the door.
    He stopped her just inside the doors and smiled down at her. “Really? An arcade?”
    She laughed. “It’s much more than just an arcade. Come on.” She tugged his arm again.
    Three hours later, he was not only exhausted, but starving again. She’d run him through the laser tag arena three times, each time kicking his butt until finally he’d caved and asked if they could try the go-carts outside. He was proud when he’d lapped her small red go-cart, and he’d finally beat her at something. He’d convinced her to run another round, this time on the slick track where he annihilated her once again.
    They played a round of miniature golf and tied, then went inside to order a slice of pizza and a Coke. They ate at a large picnic table outside under an awning, and he couldn’t remember ever having this much fun on a first date.
    They laughed and joked with each other over the pizza, and then she pulled him into the arcade again. They won enough tickets between them to get a large stuffed dog, which she carried down the boardwalk proudly.
    By the time they walked through the doors of her place, his mind was made up. He was going to tell his father next time he saw him that his new scheme wouldn’t work and, more important, he would have nothing to