Jake flipped his phone shut, calculating how much it would cost to make good on the summer crewing job he’d just lobbed to Keenan. If he kept making gut decisions like this, he’d never turn much of a profit.
But he had to smile. Keenan sounded like he’d just made varsity center at the offer. Jake couldn’t make up for the kid’s absent dad, but he’d make a difference. Gramps would be proud.
He glanced at the ship’s clock. Guests would board in twenty minutes.
If Rachel insisted on quitting, he could use Keenan’s crewing as a bargaining chip to get her to stay until school let out. Five extra months to convince her she belonged on the Queen. With him. If Rachel didn’t quit, they still had plenty of work to keep Keenan busy all summer.
His brother’s crazy idea of taking Rachel home for Christmas could turn out to be genius. His family’s brand of dysfunction—keeping a close eye on Mom’s moods—had a plus. He and Ned especially remembered the years she grieved for Dad. If Rachel connected with his family and lost her wariness about him—so much the better.
Rachel clung to the lifeline, staring at her mother in the distance.
Jake exited the companionway. His forehead crinkled. “You look funny. Sick. What’s wrong?”
Jake stepped over the coaming and guided her to the cockpit bench. She melted onto the seat.
“Mom.” She chinned toward the dock. “Oh God, she’s coming this way.”
Mama padded up the finger pier, an enormous shoulder bag thumping against her hip.
Thick Neck barreled toward the parking lot.
Mama shot them a strained smile. “Hey, kids. Got room for one more this week?”
Jake crossed the gangplank and took her tote. “You bet, Mrs. M.”
Rachel’s eyes jumped to Jake’s. They had fully booked the cruise.
His eyes telegraphed, I’ve-got-it-under-control.
“What are you doing here, Mom?”
Mama sighed. “Long story. I’ll tell you later.”
Jake vaulted through the companionway onto the first step. “Follow me, and I’ll show you to your bunk. Sorry we don’t have any staterooms left.”
Rachel watched Jake give away his bunk.
Rachel ran ragged the rest of the day until after dinner, stuffing all her questions back inside. Sunset streaked orange fingers across purple sky by the time she dropped down beside Mama on the transom.
Mama dangled her feet over the stern, staring at the Queen’s wake.
Rachel rubbed her back. “Why are you here?”
Mama startled. “Sorry, honey, I was thinking.”
Jake brought the Queen about and started on a new tack.
Rachel sat beside Mama. “I recognized that guy on the dock. You held hands with him behind the refrigerator door when I was ten.”
“You remembered a man’s face and a two-second touch all these years?”
Rachel stared at her mirror image waiting for an explanation.
Mama sighed. “Skye said his marriages failed because he’s always been in love with me. I had to at least talk to him. But your father told me not to come back if I walked out of the house.”
“Probably because last time you met Skye you didn’t come home for eleven days.”
Mamma’s face drained of color. She stared at her knees. “I should have known that if you remembered the touch, you would have figured out the rest.”
“Are you leaving Dad?” Rachel grabbed her stomach. Over, just like that? Had Thanksgiving been their last holiday as a family? “Are you and Skye….” She couldn’t even get the words out.
“After the huge fight Dad and I had, I couldn’t go home, so I came to the Queen to sort out my thoughts. Even furious with your father, I’m not going anywhere with Skye.” She cupped Rachel’s cheek. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea you knew about Skye.”
Rachel’s teeth clenched. She jerked her chin out of her mother’s grasp. She hated the weakness for affairs they shared. Rachel stood, the old pain slicing into her. “I need to get back to work.”
Mama grabbed her fingers. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Of course, it has to do with me. I love you.” Don’t leave Dad. She turned her palm and gripped Mama’s hand.
“I don’t want to lose you.” Her chest constricted and she knew tears were close behind. She released Mama’s hand and beelined toward the engine room.
The terror of losing Mama had stalked her since Hall’s birth. At least her fear of abandonment had a cause. Maybe Cat was right; she needed therapy.
The engine room door snapped shut behind her, secreting her in the Queen’s dim bowels. Sobs broke loose from her chest. Mama said she wouldn’t run away with Skye. But Rachel knew better. She’d sworn to quit seeing Bret a dozen times, and saw him anyway.
She ached for the comfort she’d found throwing herself into Daddy’s arms to cry as a little girl. But this was something he couldn’t fix. Or could he?
She sucked in a deep breath of grease and fuel-laden air and released it, palming the tears from her face. She pulled her phone from her pocket, checked for cell coverage, and punched in Daddy’s speed dial number.
Rachel finished scrubbing the aft head and stepped into the cabin to strip the bunks.
Mom’s taut voice drifted through the open hatch. “I thought you said if I left on Monday, we were done.”
Rachel recognized the sound of Daddy clearing his throat. So, he’d come down to the boat after all.
“I want to know what you decided,” Daddy said. “Call me a masochist, but at least you owe me that.”
“Obviously, I didn’t go with Skye.”
“Yet.”
“I’ve been with you twenty-six years. Give me credit for not leaving on a whim.”
“Twenty-six years, minus a week and a half fourteen years ago and this week.”
“I didn’t have an affair with him. I had coffee.”
“This time.” Daddy spat the words low and harsh, a tone Rachel had never heard.
“Just because there’s a permanent bond deep down, doesn’t mean I have to feed it. Do you think I wanted this… curse? I’ve prayed God would take it away. I want to love you with my whole heart.”
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Cindy. Is it even possible after all this time? I can’t live like this anymore.”
Rachel inched up the aft cabin steps straining to hear her father’s soft words. She shouldn’t listen, but she couldn’t help herself.
The gangplank creaked and she pictured Mama crossing to the finger pier where Daddy stood. “I’ve lived without Skye for a quarter of a century. Sometimes he doesn’t cross my mind for months. I don’t like Skye. He’s not half the man you are. I’ve realized this week that God rescued me from a life with him. It’s… you I can’t live without.”
“You were ready to live without me five days ago.”
“I was angry, Stuart. Try to understand. Then, I got on Rachel’s boat to get my head together. And I have. I want you. Forever. I don’t care how many more marriages Skye goes through. There won’t be coffee again.”
Rachel strained to hear something in the silence.
Finally, her father spoke. “I can’t do this.” Sadness, defeat as deep as the ocean, hung in his words.
Rachel sank onto Jake’s old bunk, numb, and stared at the bulkhead as minutes ticked by.
Leaf’s voice floated down to her. “Whoo wee, there’s a commercial against marriage.”
She heard Jake’s footfalls move along the deck toward the aft cabin. “Those are Rachel’s folks. Watch it.”
“I’m just sayin’ maybe they shoulda taken a lesson from me and my old lady and never gotten married. Does wonders for a relationship.”
“You can’t tell me there weren’t times you wished you’d married your… old lady,” Jake said.
What did you call Leaf’s seventy-something partner and mother of his child? Girlfriend? A snicker popped out of Rachel in spite of her mood.
Jake ducked his head through the aft hatch. “You okay?”
“Doing a little better thanks to the comic relief,” Rachel said.
A smile flitted across Jake’s mouth. He lifted a hand to Leaf and swung into the cabin. “I heard the whole thing.”
She’d held back till now, but tears squeezed out of her eyes.
Jake sat on the bunk beside her. His hand covered hers. “I’m sorry.”
She sucked in a shaky breath, damming up the tears. “I’ve had nightmares about losing my mom all my life, for the past decade about her running away with the guy they argued about.”
“Wow. Your family seems so happy. Healthy…. Do you think they’ll pull it back together?”
She shook her head helplessly. “I… I need them to. I called Daddy and told him Mama was with us and when we would dock. What more can I do? It all seems so hopeless.”
Jake nudged her chin up with his knuckles. “You’re a praying girl, right?”
Jake’s touch and words catapulted her from despair and she grinned.
“What?”
“You just helped me believe God will step in.” She leaned over and hugged his neck.
Jake thrust out a hand to catch himself from toppling over. “Gotta love that positive reinforcement.”