Shady Bay by Casey L. Bond, Anna G. Coy

first time I went down, I was scared. I’m not even going to lie.” I picked at a string hanging off my shorts. “The elevators aren’t like those in buildings. They’re industrial and loud. It doesn’t descend far before all light fades away and you just drop down into darkness, into the belly of the earth.”
    “That sounds so scary. Are there any lights? I mean, I saw the thing you wore on your head, but is it pitch black everywhere else?”
    “No. There are these power centers set up every so often. There’s always light around those. I expected it to be black as the coal we were mining, but it wasn’t. The walls were kind of a ghostly white.”
    Her brows rumpled. “White?”
    “Sort of. To prevent fires, they coat everything—the walls, the floors, ceilings, everything—in rock dust. It’s white, so it coats the black. It didn’t take me long to get used to going down there. The guys I worked with were great. Some were young like me and so there was a comradery there, but the ones who’d worked in coal for years took us under their wings, so to speak. They looked out for us, showed us how to do everything safely. It’s a bond that will last forever.”
    She nodded. “That’s really neat, Jax.”
    “I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me that.”
    “About the mines?”
    “Yeah. I mean, my family has. Brody has. No girl has ever asked me that question. I don’t think any of them have ever really cared enough to.”
    “That’s so sad.”
    “Yeah. My fault, though.”
    “Tell me about her.”
    “Starla? The woman who ripped out my heart. Where to start that story...” I blew out a harsh breath. She turned to face me, her eyes never leaving mine. It looked like she was searching for something there. “I met her at my brother’s bar. She was visiting family and decided to go out that night. Starla was beautiful, I mean, really beautiful. She was older and confident. She didn’t giggle or throw herself at me like most of the young girls back home. She just smiled, almost like she knew I would be begging at her feet in no time. And did I ever. I followed her to Florida. Moved in with her and we went out every night. That lasted for a while. Then I found a job and started working.”
    Mercy never said anything, just waited patiently for me to continue. “That’s when things started to go bad . I worked at a bar. Long hours at night. She apparently got lonely. You know what’s crazy?”
    “What?”
    “I thought I loved her. I really did. But it was all a lie. She said she loved me a hundred times a day, and didn’t mean it once. Not a damn thing about what we had was real. And she just about broke me when she told me it had been fun, but it was over.” Mercy sat silent, staring out at the waves.
    “Jax?”
    “Yeah.”
    “She may have lied, but your love was real. You loved her. That wasn’t a lie.”
    “Our relationship was.”
    “But your love wasn’t.” She looked back toward the sea and then said, “I think she’s crazy for not loving you back.”
    “You do?”
    “Yeah. She sounds like a complete idiot.” She giggled. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that out loud.”
    “No. I needed to hear that.”
    “It’s her loss, Jax. You’re a great guy. And you’re going to ma ke some girl very happy someday—”
    I couldn’t let her finish. I’d waited this long and...I grabbed the sides of her face and smashed my lips onto hers. Her lips were soft and inviting. They started moving against mine, perfectly in sync before she opened them to let me in. And I was immediately in heaven. Grabbing her waist, I moved her over to straddle my lap. She settled in and I realized what was happening. This was Mercy. I couldn’t treat her like the others. Fighting every instinct in my body, I slammed the brakes on.
    “Mercy. Stop. We need to stop.” I wasn’t above taking her right there on the beach, but she deserved more. She deserved more than me. I was still a mess, a walking