On the Morning Tide

Mya's POV

That same night Leland decided he wanted to have a party at his house. "A party?" I asked, making my disapproving motherly face. "Why not." he says back to me. "Because most of us are almost thirty or in our thirties. And I have a child." I say over the phone. "Please...Mya, come on..." he begs. "I guess I can find a babysitter for a few hours, maybe the neighbor's daughter will watch her." I say before hanging up the phone.

Around 10:00 that night his little get together was in full swing. Women were everywhere, but there seemed to be a short supply of men. For some reason the older I got the less I found my self wanting to be part of a big crowd. I really liked the life I was living. It was simple, it was me, Kai and Leland (most of the time). So I never had a lot of people hanging around us. But now that he had another woman, I'm sure that will change things.

I looked around, making sure that Leland didn't see me and made my way outside, pulling my phone out of my pocket, it was 10:45. I sat down on the steps that lead down to the beach, propping my elbows on my knees and sighed. "Need some fresh air?" A voice says from the corner of the porch. I jump, looking around as Duane Lee comes into the light. "Something like that." I tell him as he sits down next to me.

"What about you?" I ask, turning toward him. I took a moment to really look at him for the first time. "What? Is there something on my face?" he asks. "Oh..No. I was just thinking how different you and Leland were." I explain. "I didn't meant to stare. I'm sorry."

"Its alright. I hear it all the time." He tells me. "I'm tall, he's short. Ive got blue eyes, he has brown. He's so hot, I'm not... blah blah blah." He says laughing. "People actually tell you that your brother is hot.. thats kinda odd. And rude." I say looking up at him.

"You'd be surprised what people will tell you. They think because you live this life that you're...immune to the same things that hurt other people. Like the rude comments or saying you brother is hot..things like that."

"A little bitter, are we?" I ask him, pushing the sand on the steps around with my big toe. We sit in a uncomfortable silence until he blurts out, "I'm not bitter." He stands up and walks down the last two steps and onto the sand.

"So tell me what you are. If you're not bitter...I mean, if you hate him, why move in with him?" I ask, jogging a few feet to catch up to him. "I don't hate my brother. I want to be like him, I guess. He makes it look so easy." He confesses.

I come to stand in front of him. arms crossed "I know this isn't about Leland. You cant possible be upset that he might have one more fan than you have. So what if women like him." I say, thinking back to that day in the airport. I guess that I hadn't really ever thought about Leland's love life. I never met his girlfriends, he didn't bring them around me. I often wondered if it was because he knew I wouldn't approve of them...

"Duane, the women that he dates don't want men like you." I say. He makes a sad face, and lowers his head. "No.. I don't mean it like that. Those girls in that house... With their little bikini's and boob jobs." I say, pausing to point to Leland's house. "They want the here and now. To me, you don't come off as a here and now kinda guy. They want to be able to say they f**ked Leland Chapman. And thats the only way they see him. Like his name is in quotes or something. "Leland Chapman the Bounty Hunter from that TV show." I say, making the air quotes.

"But what happens when that show ends and he's just plain ole Leland Chapman? Do you think they'll want anything to do with him then? He snores and works late and leaves clothes in the floor" I say with a small laugh.

"I don't really know you. But I'm going to venture a guess and say you're not like that. I think you're more of a forever and always kinda guy, rather than a here and now, I think you want more than big boobs."

"I guess you're right." He says quietly, kicking some sand around. "Can I walk you home?" he asks me.

Mya's POV

"Thanks for walking me home. You wanna come in for a little while?" I ask as we come to a stop at my back door. He glances back at Leland's house, "Sounds good to me." He says. I open the door and see Jennifer, our neighbors daughter watching TV. "Hey Jenny. I'm back, thanks for watching Kai for me." I tell her, walking her to the door. I pay her and she's on her way home.

"Would you like a glass of wine?" I ask Duane Lee, seeing him standing in my kitchen, looking at my wine rack. He turns to me and smiles. "You read my mind." He says with a smirk. I open the drawer and pull out the wine opener and hand it to him. "Why don't you find us a bottle, while I check on Kai."

Minutes later I walk back into the kitchen as he's pouring the second glass of wine. "I didn't have you pegged as a wine drinker." I say sipping my drink. "Theres a lot you don't know about me." He says, blue eyes looking at me over the rim of the wineglass. I raise and eyebrow and smile back at him. "Hmmm..." I say, walking off and leaving him standing in the kitchen.

He follows me through the house and into my bedroom. "Its quieter in here...dont have to listen to Leland's party." I say, opening the doors that lead to the balcony in my bed room. "Have a seat." I tell him, motioning to one of the chairs that I put in my little seating area of the bedroom.

"Hows motherhood?" He asks, looking my way. "It has its ups and downs. I get a lot of help from Leland and my dad. So, Ive been lucky in that aspect of it. And Kai's a good girl most of the time." I tell him.

"Thats good." He says quietly. "I wanted to come over with my dad to see her after she was born, but .... I had some things going on."

I sipped my wine and looked over at him. He was quiet and clouded in a mystery. Something told me to ask questions, but I wanted him to tell me, if he wanted me to know. "You mean, your not going to ask me about it?" He says, suddenly.

"If you want me to know, you'll tell me." I say, simply. He finishes off his drink and sits the glass down. The clink of the glass, hitting the table was the only sound in the room. "Thank you for that." He says. "Most women feel like they have the right to know everything about you the first day they meet you."

I shrugged my shoulders at that. "Well, Id hate to have to tell you everything about me the first day I met you, so..." I say, my thoughts wandering off, thinking of my past, the mistakes and choices I had made that led me here. I looked over at him as he drank a second glass and thought it might be nice to have someone who only knew what I told them about me. Someone who wouldn't hold my past against me.

He refills my wineglass, then his. Before long the bottle was empty and the sun was coming up. "I cant believe we've been sitting here all night talking." He says, looking over at me.

"I cant tell you the last time that Ive felt so relaxed. It was nice to just sit and talk, have a conversation with someone over the age of three!." I say laughing. He gives me a genuine smile "Yeah, Leland's not much for conversation." He says laughing, I join him, laughing at his brothers expense.

"I cant be too mean toward Leland. There's been days when I didn't think I would make it without him." I tell him. "Well...now you've got me too." he says grabbing my hand and holding it briefly. I smile and thank him. "I better head home, my brother might start to worry." he says standing up.

"Yeah, Ive got to wake Kai up and get her dressed, she's spending the day with grandpa, thankfully. And I can go to bed!." I say clapping my hands together. I walk him to the door and we say our goodbyes. Two hours later my dad picks Kai up and I head off to bed.

Leland's POV

I woke up around 11:30 the next morning. My head pounding as I sat on the side of the bed. Why had I decided to have a party, I should have listened to Mya. She was right, I was too old for this. But, there were times when you just want to take your mind off things. We had been working so hard lately and had been so stressed, I thought this might be fun. I thought Mya would enprettyy being around someone other than me but I noticed she and Duane Lee disappeared not long after the party started. And he wasn't home when I went to bed. I needed to get dressed and find out what happened.

I took a shower, got dressed and walked over to Mya's. I unlocked the door and walked in, I didn't know if she was asleep or still up. I walked up the stairs to her room and quietly pushed the door open. She was laying on her side, her back facing me. I walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down next to her. She looked so peaceful as she slept. I moved a strand of her hair from her forehead; she stirred and rolled onto her back.

I took the opportunity to lay down beside her and waited for her to wake up. I nudged her lightly with my elbow and she slowly opens her eyes, blinking a few times. "Leland?" she asks in that raspy morning voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I slept here, Don't you remember?" I ask, rolling on to my side, and propping my head on my elbow, throwing an arm over her waist.

"I hope you didnt forget last night...That thing you did with your tongue..." I whisper in her ear. I could see her cheeks turning a bright shade of pink as she blushed and bit her bottom lip.

"I promise I'll never forget it" I say, curling my hand tighter around her waist. My fingertips grazed the skin just under her tank top, carrying my silly game a little farther than I had intended. "Bullshit. I haven't been asleep long." she finally says smiling, the pink of her cheeks fading as she rolls onto her side to face me.

"So...really, where were you last night? You disappeared not long after the party got started." She looks up and at me and smiles, pulling the covers over her face. "Don't play coy with me little girl. I know something happened and I know Duane Lee wasn't home when I went to sleep... so tell me Myana... what happened?" I ask again, as I stick my head under the cover with her, pinning her down to the bed.

"Did you f**k my brother?" I ask, leaning over her, my face only a fraction of an inch from hers. "No...We stayed up all night drinking wine and talking until the sun came up.." She tells me.

"Drinking wine and talking? How...boring. That doesn't sound like him at all." I blurt out before I can stop myself. "Why is it boring? I had a great time and I think he did too. It was nice to just have a conversation with someone and them not expect more than that." she says, pulling the cover off of our heads.

"We have conversations all the time and they don't include wine and sunrises." I tell her, suddenly feeling like Duane Lee might have gotten to know some part of Mya that I didn't know.

"Leland. our conversations usually involve three year olds and criminals. But it was different with him. He...wanted to know about me...I don't know, its hard to explain." she says with a sigh. I looked away, feeling a little jealous.

I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I flipped it open and answered. "I'm over at Mya's. You can come on over if you want. We're upstairs." I say flipping it closed. "Who was that?" she asks. "My brother. He was wondering where I was." I tell her. "I look awful, tell him he cant come..." she says blushing.

A few minutes later I hear my brother walking up the stairs. "Whats going on in here?" he says very seriously, seeing the two of us laying in bed together. "Didn't I tell you, this is our usual routine." I say, looking down at Mya, who's smiling, face hidden under the covers. "If one of us is up before the other, we just barge into their house and wake the other one up, if we're not already spending the night together" I tell him.

"It works out most of the time." Mya says coming out from her hiding place. "That is, until you catch him in bed with a woman. Then its a little awkward" she says with a smirk on her face. Duane Lee rolls his eyes, still standing beside the bed. "You two are something else." he says crossing his arms.

"We're just f**king with you brah." I tell him. Mya and I had been friends for years. Maybe he found it odd to find me laying in bed with her, I guess to the two of us, it was normal. She was the only friend I really had, and I made the most of it.

"You can sit down, She wont bite too hard. She does like to nibble though." I tell him, patting the spot beside her as Mya laughs at my last comment. He looks at me and then down at the bed and sits down. She stretches her arms out and puts them behind her head and sighs. "Do you know how many women would kill to be in this position right now?"

"Maybe you shouldn't say position..." I whisper in her ear making her giggle
Mya's POV

The three of us eventually made it downstairs and I convinced Leland to make a late breakfast. We're laughing and talking and my doorbell rings. "Who could that be?" I said looking at he two of them. They shrug their shoulders as I make my way to the door. I open the door and see my twenty five year old stepsister, Libby standing there.

"Libby...what are you doing here?" I ask surprised, letting her into the house. "Um...your mom told me where I could find you." she says walking past me and into the house. "That still doesn't answer my question." I say following behind her. She walks into my kitchen, Leland and Duane Lee stand there wide eyed. I could see the question on their faces.

"I just needed to get away okay. I got in a fight with Jeff and we broke up... it was a lot of drama. So I thought I would move in here with you." she says. "What?!" I almost scream. "You cant just come barging into my house and say your moving in." I didn't know who she thought she was, but she wasn't staying here. As long as my mother had been married to her father, our lives had been this way. Dramatic. She loved any drama she could get into, and I wasn't going to be sucked into it.

"Oh hey... I know who yall are." She says pointing at Leland and Duane Lee. "Yall are on that show. I didn't know yall knew Mya." They nod, still confused. "Look Mya, I'm tired, I had a long flight out here. Can I go take a shower?" she asks. "Whatever." I say, walking off, leaving her standing there. I hear Duane Lee tell her where he thinks the shower is and Leland follows after me.

"Mya. Wait." He yells as I walk out onto the sand. "Just let me go." I yell as I storm off down the beach. He doesn't give up and continues running after me. He grabs me by the arm and turns me around. "Just tell me whats going on." he says slightly out of breath.

"Her.. Libby...thats whats going on. She always does this. She's needy and clingy and selfish. She's just a brat and I cant deal with her." I say wiping the tears from my cheeks. "Don't cry." he says throwing his arms around me and holding me close.

"I'm just pissed off." I tell him. "I cant take the drama. Its too stressful. Where ever she goes it follows her. I cant have that in my life and she is NOT living with me Leland." I say.

"Why don't you send her packing. Tell her to get a hotel room." he says pulling away and looking at me. "Because I doubt she has any money. I'm really not sure how she got here in the first place." I tell him. Leland shakes his head. "I don't know baby. Just let her stay the weekend and maybe she'll leave on her own."

"She wont leave Leland. She's pulled this shit before." I tell him, walking back toward my house. "I was living with this guy I was dating in college, way before I met JJ, and she did the same thing then. But instead of her leaving, I left, because they were sleeping together! I just cant deal with her and a three year old."

We walk up the last couple of steps to my house and Leland stops me, "You and Kai are whats most important.You just worry about your daughter and I'll get rid of her." he tells me. I nod my head and walk back into the house.

Leland's POV

The weekend passed and I didn't know what I was going to do to get rid of "the wicked stepsister." She didn't look like she was leaving anytime soon and I knew I had to keep the peace at Mya's house, mostly for my own sanity.

I pushed open the door to my office and Mya was already there, working. "Good morning." I said walking around my desk. She looks up and smiles, "Hey." and goes back to work. "Hey pretty girl." I say to Kai as she's running toward me. "Uncle Leland." she says as I pick her up and sit her on my knee. She sits with me as I go through some paperwork.

"What are you doing?" she asks me as I open a file and pull out a picture. "I'm going to pick up someone today. He's a bad guy. You're never gonna be bad are you?" I say leaning back in my chair as she studies the picture. "No." she says giggling. "I wanna go." she says turning around in my lap. "You cant go Kai." her mother says, not even looking up. I laugh and stick my tongue out at Mya making Kai laugh.

"Your mommy is a little grumpy today Kai." I whisper in her ear. She giggles again. I hear the front door open and Duane Lee walks in. Today would be his first day at work with us. "Morning." he says to us, and comes to sit in the chair in front of my desk. "Hey Kai." he says smiling at her. She pouts and turns around toward me, hiding her face in the crook of my neck. I laugh and roll my eyes. "Give her time brah."

That afternoon Duane Lee and I walk back into the office. We had been gone all morning, looking for this guy. Mya looks up as we walk in. "Oh my God, what happened to you?" she asks running toward Duane Lee. "Oh that son of a bitch hit me with his elbow as I was taking him down." he says laughing and touching his swollen eye.

"Lets put some ice on it. Come in here." she says, ushering him into the small kitchen in our office. "What about me?" I yell from my desk. "You're fine." she says back.

"Fine, don't need you anyway" I mumble to myself. I never got babied when I came back all bloody and bruised up. Why should he? Maybe it was a mistake letting him move here...

I sat down heavily in my chair, crossing my arms and pouting. Kai walks out of the kitchen where she was watching her mother and over to my desk. "Do you have a boo-boo Uncle Leland. I'll fix it." she says standing beside my desk.

Those big brown eyes would break hearts one day, I thought as I picked her up. "I'm okay baby girl. But you know what I need?" I ask her. She looks up, questioning me.

"Ice cream." It was music to a three year olds ears. Ice cream had become our tradition, once a week I would take Kai out to give Mya some down time. I loved having her around, because I didn't get to see my boys as often as I would like. "Can we go right now?" she asks grabbing my hand and trying to pull me out of the chair. I looked into the kitchen, Mya was till playing nurse and Duane Lee was eating it up. I look back to Kai, stand up and say. "We sure can."

I didn't know what had come over me and why I was suddenly feeling so envious of my brother. I was use to getting all the attention around here, I hated to share my spotlight. I picked Kai up, threw her over my shoulder as she laughed and walked out the door.