Cora’s feet and calves.
I covered my eyes, mortified.
“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry.” Dad dug several crumpled napkins out of his back pocket. His cheeks were bright red as he knelt to raise the napkins toward her legs.
“Father,” I hissed. Beside me, Ethan quaked with silent laughter.
Dad froze, still crouched. He glanced at me, then glanced at Cora, who stood just as frozen, before immediately shooting to his feet. “Here.” He offered her the napkins, before looking down and realizing they were covered in food. “I’ll be right back, let me get more.”
He dashed off and I hunched my upper body down.“Ugh.”
Ethan rubbed my shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
“It will never be okay.”
“It’s fine,” Cora said, and when I looked at her she was laughing.
Suffice to say, Dad did not invite her on the boat trip that night.
***
I was undeterred.
On Monday, I had Dad pick me up at five o’clock and insisted he come in. He knocked on the doorframe to get our attention. When he had it, he lifted his hand and waved like he was auditioning to be the next Mr. Rogers. “Hello, there.”
I muffled a groan but couldn’t stifle a full-body wince. Why did my father havezero game? Why did I haveany?
Cora swiveled in her chair. “Oh, hi. Picking Jordan up?” Unlike Dad, she sounded light and casual.
“Yeah. Yup.”
We were doomed.
“Okay,” I said slowly. “Let me grab my stuff.” I gathered my bag and fussed around on my desk as though I had notes to throw in.
“My friend Gary’s trip,” Dad said. “It’s, uh, there’s a bunch of extra cabins. Empty cabins. He’s inviting people he knows on Nantucket to come along, it’s for three nights. This coming Thursday through Sunday. Anyway, if you’re interested, you’d be welcome to join us.”
I held my breath.
“You’re inviting me on the trip?” Cora’s voice gave nothing away, not whether she considered this good or bad, if she was thrilled or baffled or utterly uninterested.
Dad swallowed. “Jordan mentioned you might like it. And you—since you’re interested in astronomy. Zero light pollution.”
Those sentences hadn’t been entirely logical, but they hadn’t been the worst. And he’d only thrown me under the bus a little bit.
“Hm.” Cora said. “I wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience.”
“You wouldn’t be, not all. The more the merrier. Gary—the guy running it—loves having new people around.”
They stared at each other.
“Yeah, okay,” she said. “I’ll think about it.”
But she smiled, and I knewI’ll think about itmeant yes.
Sixteen
The night before the trip, Grace sent me the next batch of Andrea Darrel’s diary entries.I think we’ll need one more trip to finish this off,she wrote.Planning for next week so Sierra and I can have a normal dating rhythm lol unless you desperately need diaries earlier.
