“When you’re ready, can you tell us what happened?”
Dane looks at me.
Just a glance.
I nod.
He turns back to them. “Of course.”
As he begins, I’m pulled straight back into it. The same story. The same memories. But for the first time, I hear it through him. Through what he saw. What he carried.
Grandad leans forward. Christina goes completely still, all her attention fixed on her son.
For fourteen years, this story belonged only to us.
Every loss.
Every choice.
Every day.
Now we’re unpacking fourteen years of survival.
Chapter 22
Dane Gallagher
Age 12
Jameson stops so abruptlyI nearly walk into the back of him.
“Holy crap,” he says, staring up at the yacht. “This is Dad’s new boat?”
Ryan laughs. “That’s not a boat. It’s a floating mansion.”
Jameson just stands there with his mouth hanging open, taking it all in. “Do we get to go everywhere on it?”
“Of course, you goose.”
“This is gonna be awesome.”
He’s already moving again, hurrying down the dock.
Ryan and I follow. The boards creak beneath our shoes. Boats rock gently on either side of us, but none of them come close to this one. They never do. Dad always has to have the biggest vessel in the marina.
Ryan bumps my shoulder. “Hey.”
“What?”
He lowers his voice. “Don’t start anything while we’re away.”
I roll my eyes. “I never start anything.”
Ryan lets out a laugh. “Yeah, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You called Tara a?—”
