Her mother scoffed. “You just forgot everything that came before that—like the part where we actually lived together as a family.”
Scout’s anger flared again. She grabbed her mother’s left hand, holding it too tightly. “That’s why you never took off your ring, isn’t it? You were never divorced.”
Scout dropped her mother’s hand and stood, shaking her head as she walked toward her father, taking his hand in hers. His wedding band glinted in the dim light. She lifted her eyes to Naki, who stood silently by the door. “I think you’re right,” she said, voice tight. “They’re still in love with each other.”
Her mother’s face twisted in disbelief. “That’s absurd.” She scowled at Naki. “Mr. Walamaki, I will thank you to stay out of this little family drama.”
Naki looked like a trapped animal. Scout’s heart went out to him. “Naki, you definitely need stitches. We’re going to MDI Hospital.” At the door, she paused, looking over her shoulder. “And you two had better figure things out before I get back.”
“We have nothing to figure out,” her mother said.
Her father, though, was calm, almost amused. “Oh, sure we do, Lucille,” he said, reaching for another cookie in the plastic container. “We’re just getting started.”
Scout’s frustration boiled over, and she couldn’t hold it in any longer. “You are like two peas in a pod! When you both want to do somethin’, look out, world. But whatever you don’t want to deal with, you ignore.” She put her hands on her hips.“So either you patch things up or you get divorced. Those are your only choices. And if you don’t make a decision one way or another by the time I return, then you’re both out of my life until you do.”
She stormed out the door, Naki following her. Once they were in the car, he cast a sideways glance at her. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I. Sorry you had to see that.” He just got a real-life, deep-inside glance into her family. It was too much for her. How could it not be too much for him? Blood pounded in her temples. She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the weight of it all, the frustration, the anger. All the missed moments with her dad.
“That was quite an ultimatum you gave.”
She blew out a puff of air. Itwasrather dramatic. “I wouldn’t actually cut them out of my life ... if nothing changed.” And odds were, nothing would. Her parents were as stubborn as two mules in a snowstorm.
He met her gaze without hesitation. “I know you wouldn’t.”
She wanted to, though. Or at least, shewantedto want to. But they were all the family she had. As furious as she was with her mother, she could understand her too. It had always been the two of them, no matter what. Dad was more appealing, but she counted on her mother. She leaned back, eyes drifting to Naki. He sat silently, his bandaged hand resting on his knee, staring into the distance as if the conversation didn’t touch him.
Maybe it didn’t. Maybe his family was easier, steadier, free from the fractures and disappointments that defined hers.
She started the jeep’s engine and backed out of the driveway. A minute or two up the road, she said, “Families shouldn’t be like this.”
Naki took his time answering, his gaze still far off. “Families offer plenty of practice in one of God’s most basic life lessons.”
She arched a brow. “Which is?”
“The chance to take the high road.”
And just like that, Naki had dropped a wisdom bomb—something Elizabeth would say. Uncomfortable. Unsettling. But impossible to ignore. So many bombs were dropping on Scout, she could barely keep up.
The road bottlenecked into one lane because of a construction project. They sat in silence behind a row of cars, brake lights glowing like a trail of fireflies, watching the oncoming traffic creep past.
Naki shifted in the seat. “So how did your parents meet?”
Maybe he was really asking, how in the world did they fall in love and get married? “Mother was visitin’ a cousin in Charleston and ended up on one of those historic harbor tours. You know, the kind where they talk about pirates and Civil War blockades. Except this one had my dad at the helm, and that meant it turned into a lecture on Spanish galleons and shipwrecks off the coast.”
Naki huffed a quiet laugh.
“She said she’d never seen someone talk about anything with that much passion. He wasn’t just some tour guide rattlin’ off facts—he believed in what he was sayin’. Got all worked up about lost history and the things the ocean still had to give up.” Scout shook her head. “She was swept away before she even knew what hit her.”
Naki didn’t interrupt, just listened.
“She took another tour the next day. Same boat. Same guide. Dad had noticed her the day before, so he was feeling pretty pleased with himself.” She rolled her eyes. “And you know how Dad is—never met a story he didn’t want to tell. So, he started talkin’ to her after the tour. Told her he was about to head down to the Keys to search for a wreck. A merchant ship from the 1600s, lost in a storm, rumored to be carrying gold.”
They hadn’t budged in over ten minutes. At this rate, they’d get to MDI Hospital by sunrise. Scout drummed her fingers onthe steering wheel. “Mother always says she should’ve gone back to Atlanta right then. But instead, she kept listenin’. And when he asked if she wanted to see what a real underwater excavation looked like, she said yes.”
Naki raised an eyebrow. “She went diving with him?”
Scout snorted. “No. She sat on the deck of his research boat in a sundress and big sunglasses, sippin’ sweet tea while he and his crew pulled up old timbers and ballast stones. But she swore it was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her.” She rolled her eyes. “They married a month later. Mother was convinced he’d eventually grow tired of chasing shipwrecks and settle into a ‘proper’ life in Atlanta. Dad was just as convinced she’d learn to love the sea. Neither of them was right.” She let out a long sigh. “They never should’ve married.”
