Beautifully Wrong - Rafe Cameron

IV

Rafe Cameron's Monday started early. It had been almost three days since the hurricane, and for him, everything was finally back to normal.

For Indiana Wheeler, though, things had been far from normal.

After biking home in the pouring rain, she'd caught the flu. Despite feeling like death, she spent all of Saturday and Sunday helping her brother fix the damage Agatha had done to the Cut.

On Monday, she woke up with a high fever and asked Percy to tell her manager she wouldn't be coming in that day.

---

Rafe paid for his single bottle of beer, then headed to the booth to rent a golf cart.

"Hey," he leaned on the desk, eyeing the name on the attendant's badge. "Wheeler."

"That's me," Percy answered, barely glancing up as he typed on the keyboard.

"Are you related to that waitress?" Rafe squinted.

"You're gonna have to be more specific than that, man," Percy chuckled, keeping his focus on the screen.

"the one with the blonde hair, an attitude." Rafe clarified.

Percy paused, finally looking up. "Yeah, she's my sister."

Rafe's eyes glazed over as he noted their similar features. "Figures," he muttered.

"Anything I can help you with?" Percy asked, clearly uninterested in whatever Rafe was implying.

"Yeah, I want cart 17," Rafe pointed at the keys on the wall.

"That'll be $55," Percy grabbed the keys.

"Put it on Ward Cameron's account," Rafe said, twiddling the keys in his hand. "By the way, why didn't she show up today?"

"My sister?" Percy asked, his brow furrowing as Rafe nodded. "She's sick. Probably from the hurricane."

"Right," Rafe nodded, a thoughtful expression briefly passing over his face.

Percy hesitated before asking, "You two hooking up or something?"

Rafe's laugh was sharp, mocking. "What? No way, dude. I'm not into scrapping the bottom of the barrel."

Percy's suspicion deepened, but he didn't push further. "Alright then."

"See you around, Pogue," Rafe added with a sneer as he walked off.

Percy narrowed his eyes, watching Rafe leave. Something didn't sit right with him about the whole interaction.

---

Indiana rummaged through the kitchen cabinets, searching for some analgesic.

Finding none, she begrudgingly grabbed her blood-red bike, but before she could hop on, Percy rode into the garage on his motorcycle.

"Hey," he greeted, taking off his helmet.

"Hi," she replied, clearly still in a foul mood.

"Where you going? Thought you were sick?"

"The fever cooled down. I'm just grabbing some meds at the drug store."

"Analgesics?"

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes, annoyed by his questioning.

"A Cameron asked about you today," Percy said as he searched for the house key among his set.

"What?" Indiana's interest piqued.

"Ward Cameron's son, I think. He put the cart on Ward's account. Didn't catch his name, but he seemed like a regular. Big history on that account."

"If you're talking about Rafe, then yeah. Kid practically lives there," she rolled her eyes again. "But what did he say?"