He almost broke open right there. “I am.”
She stepped into him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek to his chest. “I’m sorry.”
He held her tight, breathing her in, anchoring himself. “It’s not your job to fix this.”
“I know.” Her voice sounded tiny. “Did you ask her to come with us?”
“I did. But she can’t, Kels.”
“I know.” He cocked his head at her assured declaration. “Rowan could never leave here. I know she wants to be with us, but she needs to be by the ocean and her dad and Lea and surfing.”
“You knew that, huh?”
Kelsey blinked. “Didn’t you?”
The words made him jerk back in surprise.
Kelsey pulled back and wiped her face. “Can I say something?” Everett nodded. “When you’re here ... you’re different.” She shrugged, as if the words were too simple to hold the weight behind them. “Happier. Less tired and ... mad at yourself. It feels like we’re a real family here. Like we fit.”
Something cracked behind his ribs. A slow, painful widening. “And when we go back to New York?” he asked quietly.
She hesitated, then looked at her feet. “It’s harder. I know you want this new job, and I think it’s going to be okay, even if you’ll work even more and travel. And I’ll have to go to another school and start all over and it will suck, but I think that will be okay, too.” Her blue eyes fastened on his face with hope. “But here, we’re better than okay. We don’t have family back in New York, and we don’t talk, or surf, or get off our phones. Does that make sense?”
He studied his daughter’s face and smiled. “Yeah, it does.”
“I want tolivehere, Dad. I know you think I’m just a kid who believes it’ll be just like vacation. And I’m supposed to go to these fancy schools so I can get a great job. It sounds like it doesn’t make sense, but it does to me! I want to go to school here, and what if you can get a job here? If Rowan can’t leave, maybe we can stay. I think we should try—even if it’s just for a little while.”
He didn’t know how to respond. The way she spoke was more than a child begging to extend a summer. It was as if she’d been trying to tellhim something true for months, but he’d been too wrapped up in his own world to see it.
Her face fell. “Never mind. I know I don’t get a say.” She patted his arm. “I’m still really proud of you, Dad. Everyone really loved you last night.”
Then Kelsey snapped on her headphones and went inside to make cereal.
Everett went to take a shower, head ringing with the words of two women he loved more than life.
What the hell was he going to do?
Chapter Thirty-Three
The shell bell over the surf shop door gave its soft, familiar jingle, the one Tino refused to upgrade because he said it carried “good mana.” Rowan glanced up from restocking wax bars behind the counter, expecting a tourist or one of the dawn-patrol regulars hiding from the afternoon heat.
Instead, Kelsey stood in the doorway.
They hadn’t scheduled a lesson today. Dressed in her bathing suit and cover-up, beach bag slung over her shoulder, she was no longer the girl she’d been when Rowan first saw her. The designer stuff was gone, along with the fancy makeup. Her skin glowed and the acne on her forehead had cleared. Her hair was pulled back in a simple ponytail.
But today, those shoulders slumped like the weight of something too big for thirteen had settled between her shoulder blades. Rowan’s heart tugged so sharply she had to grip the counter. “Kels?” she asked gently. “Hey. What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
Kelsey didn’t answer right away. Pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head, she gazed at her with bright eyes. “I talked to my dad,” she blurted, voice too fast. “About ... you know. About New York. And school. And going home.”
Rowan wiped her hands on her shorts and stepped out from behind the counter. “Okay. That’s good. Talking is good.”
“I know he’s trying. He’s working on getting me into this other school that may be better, but this morning, he looked sad. He told me he asked you to move with us.”
Ah. So Everett had told her. Of course he had.
Last night had been brutal. Waking up to find him gone this morning had been the confirmation she’d won. He’d let her go because there was no other choice. It might have been the right decision, but it still shattered her insides and made her want to lock herself back up and not come out.
But he’d taught her lessons this summer, also. And she refused to forget them.
