“You know about that?”
He nodded. “Rachel and Hannah are invited, too. Said we could come along.”
“Bailey will be there,” I warned him.
“I know. So does Colin. I think that’s why he’s going.” He sighed again. “Let me give you a ride, at least?”
I bit my lip a second, considering this. Blake wasn’t inherently a bad guy. As he’d said,hehad showed up for Club Prom.
“Okay,” I said, and he grinned so quickly I was immediately angry at myself for making yet another thing simple for him. “A ride. But if Colin’s along, I’m out.”
“He won’t be,” he promised. “He’s covering the last couple of hours of a valet shift as a favor to someone. I’ll text you when I get off work?”
I nodded, just as my dad and Tracy stepped back onto the dock, now carrying the basket. “Okay.”
“Great,” he said. “And have fun out there. Just remember the first rule of sailing: duck when they tell you to.”
“Sounds like good advice for life in general,” I cracked.
“You’re funny,” he told me, as if he’d forgotten this. He turned to Tracy, holding out a hand. “Ready to board?”
She climbed on, stepping down by the rudder, and I followed without an assist. My dad handed over the basket, which Tracy took and put in the small covered cargo area while he jumped on as well.
“Feels so small after weeks onArtemis,” he said, gathering up the mainsheet as I found a seat on one of the flat cushioned areas. To me he added, “That was the boat we hadin Athens. Forty-two-footer, slept six.”
“This is nice, too, though,” Tracy said, as if the boat might be offended. “Shall I go raise the front sail?”
“Yep,” my dad replied, busy futzing with the rudder. “I’ll get this one.”
With that, they were in motion, her jumping up to walk down the boat’s deck to the bow while he pulled the mainsail the rest of the way up. All around me, things were luffing, lines clanking, the side of the boat thumping against the dock with the waves. Even worse, over it all, I could hear my dad muttering, something he always did while sailing. I pulled my legs to my chest, trying to get small and out of the way, and looked out on the water.
“About ready?” Blake, up on the dock, asked.
“One second,” my dad said from the center of the sunken part of the deck, right in front of me. “I’m having trouble with this centerboard.”
“You just pull straight up and push down.”
“I’m doing that,” my dad replied. “But it won’t—”
“Let me try,” Tracy suggested, jumping down from the upper deck to where he was. “I think you just—”
“I’ve got it,” he said, but she reached in anyway, and then he was grumbling again, both their hands on it, before it fell into the slot with a bang. “See? I had it. You have to let me do things if I say I am doing them.”
“I would have,” Tracy replied cheerfully, “but it seemed like you needed another pair of hands.”
My dad grumbled again. Then to Blake he said, “Okay,push us off. We’re ready.”
“Yes sir,” Blake said, handing the line to Tracy, who shot me a smile. At least one of us was having fun. “Enjoy the lake!”
And with that, we were drifting toward the swimming area, the sails still ruffling, as my dad got himself by the rudder. Blake, on the dock, gave us an enthusiastic wave.
“All right,” my dad said as we came close to bumping a float shaped like a huge toucan. He grabbed the mainsheet, pulling it tight, pushing the rudder over at the same time. “Ready about, hard a lee!”
Tracy bent her head down. I did not until the boom came swinging right for my face. We were now moving away from the shore at a fast clip, the sails suddenly full and creaking.
“Oh, yeah,” my dad said, nodding up at the mast. “Feel that speed?”
“Watch out for the buoys,” Tracy called out. “There’s one right up here to starboard.”
