Callum nodded. Then Leonor leaned in slightly, voice lower. “Don’t you feel... dirty?”
He winced. “Extremely. Like I’m getting something I don’t deserve. It’s not mine.”
“Why do you think he never wanted to meet us? I mean, we’re not exactly awful people.”
Callum shook his head. “I’d rather not try to explain the unexplainable. He’s not here to answer. Dwelling on it won’t help. We have that personal letter to check out… Nervous about it?”
Leonor pressed her lips together. “Yeah. A bit. I really want to continue hating him. I don’t want to feel differently, not now that we don’t have the chance to talk to him.”
Callum nodded. “Yes, I feel the same, sister.”
Leonor smiled widely. “Yes, brother.”
It was weirdly comforting how easily the words fell into place between them. How two accidental children of a ghosted past could end up halfway decent adults.
Alejandra joined them an hour later, smiling brightly as she leaned in to kiss Callum and hugged Leonor.
“So, how did it go?”
“Apparently, he left us everything. Malibu house, London one, and a surf ranch in Arizona,” Callum said.
“Oooh, the surf ranch,” Alejandra grinned, then turned to Leonor. “You still surf?”
“Do we ever stop?”
Alejandra seemed to process that for a moment. A deep question, disguised as casual. “No. I think it’s impossible. Think it’d be fun to go check it out?”
“We were talking about it. Depends on your recovery schedule.”
He watched her closely. Whatever storm was in her head, she was steering through it now. She belonged to the ocean. She knew it, and so did he.
“We could go, have fun with the waves. And then, I think I’d like to get back into training. Slowly. Since you are on a sabbatical now … maybe we should try Portugal? Morocco? Or just… around the world?”
Callum smiled. “I knew you weren’t going to quit.”
Alejandra beamed. “I’m still recovering, still scared… but a very wise therapist told me courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s doing the thing despite it.”
He wrapped his arm around her as they turned to Leonor, who had been quietly observing them.
“Were you thinking of not surfing anymore?”
“We had a hard time, me and the ocean.”
Leonor nodded slowly. “If you ever want to talk, I’ve had my fair share of jump scares in the water.”
“And yet,” Alejandra said softly, “we always go back. Competition or not. We always answer the call.”
Leonor smiled. Then shrugged. “I think people who are tied to the ocean… they always find their way back.”
Alejandra smiled back, then suddenly perked up. “Wait, did I just realize I have a sister-in-law as cool asLeonor Moreira?”
“Yes,” Callum grinned.
Leonor rolled her eyes. “I’m more of a lone wolf.”
Alejandra let out that very SpanishAaahsound, paired with a dismissive flick of her hand. “Nobody’s a lone wolf with the right people around them.”
64
