“Today was supposed to be my gift to our parents. The boat trip, lunch on the beach, snorkeling...”
“And then they got sick, and now you’re stuck with me.”
I like it so much better this way, I almost say. “Bummer for me, I guess,” I say instead, to which she laughs and pokes me in the side, telling me I’m a jerk.
After we eat, she’s eager to get back in the water. “Let’s go explore that cave carved into the cliffs,” she says, pointing to the opening just off the beach. It’s much larger than the smaller cave behind us, which is barely big enough to stand in.
The water’s shallow in the ocean cave, and we stand there waist-deep, keeping still while brightly colored fish swim all around us. The water is so clear that we can see them without putting on our snorkeling masks and sticking our faces in the water.
As the waves lap at the rough coral arches around and above us, Morgan clears her throat. “Last night, when you said that Max will drop my mom in a few months, when he realizes she’s not a suitable replacement for your mom?—”
“I’m sorry,” I blurt out, bringing my hand up to run it through my hair. The fish, alarmed by my sudden movement, scurry away. “I shouldn’t have said that.” And I definitely shouldn’t have waited for her to bring it up before apologizing.But we were having a relatively nice, and less hostile, time today without our parents around. I didn’t want to bring that tension back.
“But what did you mean?” she asks, her eyes scanning the water like she’s watching the fish that are no longer there.
I reach out, tilting her chin up so she meets my gaze. “At least look at me if we’re going to talk about this.”
Her tongue darts out between her lips, wetting them, and she gives me a slight nod. “Okay. So, what did you mean?”
I let my hand drop back into the water, but take a small step closer to her. The light shining through the triangular opening of the cave illuminates the water, but our upper bodies are in the shadows and I want to see her clearly.
“Max married my mom when I was in middle school?—”
“What?!” The word is half surprise, half confusion.
“After my dad died?—”
Her gasp echoes in the cave. “Max isn’t your biological father?”
“No. He was one of my parents’ closest friends. He and my dad met in med school, around the same time my parents got engaged. They all stayed close friends. He was always around when I was a kid, basically like an uncle.”
Her voice is quiet and concern is written all over her face. “What happened with your dad?”
“He had rotator cuff surgery to repair an injury that never healed right. And then he got addicted to the opioid painkillers he was prescribed. It was...” I pause to gulp down my emotions, “. . . messy.”
“I’m sorry. That must have been so hard.” Her blue eyes are dark in the dim light as she looks up at me.
“It was.” I want to say more. I want to tell her how he was a whole different person by the end. But I don’t trust my voice not to crack with emotion, so I just nod. I’m not sure why I evenwant to open up to her about this, except that it feels like she’d understand.
“So your mom married Max, and then?”
“And then she died my freshman year of college.”
“Holy shit, Danny. That’s terrible, I’m sorry.” Her hands find my waist and give me a supportive squeeze, and all I want to do is pull her close and wrap my arms around her. But I don’t trust myself not to kiss her, and she’s made it clear that’s a line we’re not crossing again.
“Yeah. The thing that sucks the most about it is that they were so happy together. And then she was in a head-on car accident late at night. It was an elderly man driving the wrong way on the highway. She swerved to avoid him, but he clipped the back of her car and sent it spinning into the trees just off the side.” I can’t bring myself to describe the way the car flipped over as it spun.
“My god.” She breathes out the word so quietly it’s almost a whisper. “And Max has been trying to replace her, as you called it last night, ever since?”
I chew the inside of my cheek and give her a curt nod. The women he dates always look the same. Golden blonde hair with light highlights, blue eyes. Maybe he just has a type, but the resemblance is usually so close it’s hard to imagine that it isn’t intentional. I asked him about it once, which didn’t go particularly well, so we’ve never discussed it since.
“I didn’t even realize he was your stepdad. I...” She glances away, toward the pitch-black end of the cave. “I don’t even know if my mom knows. She’s always referred to you as his son.”
“Iamhis son. He adopted me after he married my mom, and the only reason I don’t call him ‘Dad’ is because he didn’t want to take that title away from my father.”
She swallows and her fingers curl into my sides. “And you’ve had to watch him marry multiple women who looked like yourmom?” Her jaw is tense, like she’s gritting her teeth against whatever I’m about to tell her.
“Yeah. And it never takes long for him to realize that they aren’t...” I trail off as she drops her hands from my hips, not sure what to say or how to say it.Good enough?“. . . her.”
