I run a hand over my sun-fried face, which prickles and aches. Mom doesn’t know every detail leading up to what happened this spring, but she knows the important stuff.
“It’s my fault as much as it’s hers,” I say.
“It’s not anyone’s fault, honey. It just is.”
“I wish it’d go away. I wish I could forget that any of it ever happened.” I sound bitter, though I’m not sure I have a right to the emotion.
“It’s part of who you are now. Grow from it. Don’t let it drag you down.”
I sit with that for a minute, hoping that one day her advice will tunnel from my head to my heart. “I’ll try. Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome. Now, tell me how your dad is.”
“He’s good. Same as always.”
“How’s the sports bar?”
“Really cool, actually.” I don’t mention Dad’s request that I call him Davis or his suggestion that I have a beer with him. Mom mixes the occasional Seven and Seven after a tough shift, but she’d drown in the stuff before she offered it to me.
“What’s his apartment like?”
“It’s okay,” I say, downplaying how nice the Towers are. Mom’s never cared much about lavishness, and we’ve never been able to afford it anyway. I’m not gonna make her feel less than by describing Dad’s leather sofa and state-of-the-art home theater system. “He fixed up the spare room for me. Bought a quilt and a dresser and everything.”
“Does that mean you’re never coming back?” she asks, her tone teasing.
“No way.” Dad’s place is great, and running into Piper lastnight didn’t suck, but Spokane’s home. “He’s trying hard,” I tell Mom. “Like, too hard.”
“That’s his way. He can be a pain in the neck, but his heart’s in the right place. Give him a chance, okay? He loves you.”
“I know,” I admit, though I had my doubts on the golf course. Seemed like the kind of torture you’d inflict on your worst enemy.
“I’ve got to get back to work, Henry. But I miss you. You’re my whole heart.”
She tells me that a lot.
I know it’s the truth.
Piper
I don’t see Tati before work on Wednesday morning, but she texts me a list of chores before my lunch break. It’s like she’s thewicked not-stepsister and I’m Cinderella. Except I don’t have birds or mice to bolster my mood.
After my shift at the park, I walk back to the Towers, hoping Tati’s still in her lobby office with a stack of complaints or applications or invoices—whatever she does on the day-to-day. I’m in luck; our apartment’s empty. I blow off my sister’s to-do list and make a quick change into a black bikini she callsnot nearly modest enough, topping it with a light sundress that does double duty as a cover-up. Then I go to the beach, where I spend what’s left of the afternoon with my worn-out copy ofDelphina of the Starlit Sea, the first story in a blockbuster fantasy trilogy about a mermaid princess fighting for her rightful crown. It’s my favorite series of all time. I reread it every year; this time around it’s bringing me even more comfort than usual, because this summer blows.
Freshman year, Gabi and I spent a lot of time on this stretch of sand, camped out on the padded loungers, sipping seltzer, listening to new pop and old country, and trading books. We adore fantasy, and we bothloveDelphina. She’s into true crime as well, and I haven’t met a frothy romance I don’t like, so we never had a shortage of stories to read. We’d take turns keeping watch for Tati, and when we’d spot her marching onto the hot sand, heels in hand, mouth pulled into a perpetual frown, Gabi and I would jet into the surf, pretending not to hear her shouts. Around five, we’d retreat to our respective homes, shower off the salt, and grace our families with our presence at dinner, then sneak out again after dark.
That’s around the time that Hudson and Jayden started to join us. Sometimes Hudson’s cousin Anna and her best friend, Michaela, came too, because they’re in our grade and Hudson’s too nice to leave anyone out. We had innocent fun: night swims and games of Thirty-One, betting quarters and laughing a lot.
Mitchel Damon moved to Sugar Bay at the beginning of sophomore year. He joined the wrestling team and became fast friends with the guys. The following summer, he started coming to our nighttime get-togethers. That was when gambling with spare change became a thing of the past. Damon advocated for skinny-dipping in the Gulf, games of I Never, and generously spiked drinks. Jayden’s brother was twenty-four and didn’t have a problem with providing alcohol to minors, so the guys began showing up with wine coolers, Malibu, cheap beer, and Fireball. Our exclusive gatherings became parties, but as far as Gabi and Iwere concerned, everyone else was part of the backdrop.
It had been her and me since we were nine, when she moved to Sugar Bay with her parents and younger brother, Tyson. I was as much of a loner back then as I am now, happy watching movies with my mom, snorkeling with my dad, or paging through the ocean-centric library my parents proudly curated for me. Back then, I thought Tati was the sun and the moon, but she had moved to Boston, and I cherished having our parents’ undivided attention.
The kids in my class didn’t get me. I was mature for my age (though Tati refuses to believe that was ever the case) and quiet until I started blathering about subjects I cared about, like marine biology and the Delphina trilogy. I wasn’t bullied, probably because I’d socked Jason Elliot in third grade. He’d called me a tramp, a word he couldn’t define but took great pleasure in tossing around when our teacher wasn’t listening. After that, no one gave me shit.
Gabi Moore joined us in November of fourth grade and was assigned the only empty seat in the classroom, which was next to me. After she’d loaded her supplies into the cubby under her desk, she noticed the paperback peeking out of mine—the first book in The Spiderwick Chronicles. “I liked that one a lot,” she said. “Have you read the others?”
“Not yet, but I’m going to. Have you readDelphina of the Starlit Sea?”
She grinned. “I have—I love it!Delphina and the Coral Crownis my favorite.”
