Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“I’ll find him,” I told her.
I jumped back into the water and hauled ass towards where the boat had been. The breeze started to clear the smoke and, for the first time, I got a proper look at the wreck.
My stomach knotted. The upper part of the boat was just gone: all that was left was a burning, hollowed-out hull. I circled round, pushing slowly through hunks of wood and shreds of sail.
I found Russ facedown in the water. I turned him, just to check, then quickly looked away, cursing. He’d taken the full force of the explosion.
I swam back to shore. Lorna met me as I climbed up onto the dock, her eyes huge and scared. “Is he—”
I didn’t have to say anything. She could see it in my face. I watched her buckle and she fell forward against me, burying her face in my soaked shirt.
I wrapped my arms protectively around her and hugged her close. I was in shock, too. I was just talking to the guy!
This was going to destroy her. I’d seen how close she was to her dad and I knew what it was like to lose someone so suddenly. I glared at the world over her shoulder. She was a single mom, she had enough to deal with…Oh God, Cody! The poor kid was already growing up without a dad and now he’d lost his grandfather, too.
She was shaking. My denim jacket was lying on the dock: I must have dropped it along with the cooler when the explosion hit us. I grabbed it and wrapped it around her to keep her warm, then pulled her close again.
I didn’t let go of her when the paramedics showed up.
I didn’t let go of her at the hospital.
I didn’t let go until the doctors had checked her out and she was standing next to Paige’s car in the parking lot, ready to go home. I gave her one last goodbye hug that turned into a full-body embrace, her sobbing against me and me with my arms locked tight around her.
“I needed him,” she told me, her voice fractured. “I needed my dad. I can’t do this without him.”
I closed my eyes and pressed the side of my head against hers. “I know,” I told her softly. “I know.” My voice firmed. “But you can go on. You will. I’ve seen how strong you are.”
I crushed her to me. And then finally, reluctantly…I let her go.
10
LORNA
“You want a sandwich?” asked Paige. “Or soup? I made soup.” I shook my head and she sighed. “Lorna, you need to eat.”
As usual, Paige had been a godsend. I wouldn’t have made it through the last few days without her and I knew she was trying to help. But my dad was gone and I didn’t want to eat or drink or go for a walk.
I just wanted him back.
A gas explosion. That’s what had taken him from us. Gas had built up on board the boat and my dad had ignited it with a spark when he turned on a light. The cops and FBI said there was no sign of foul play. Most likely, they told me, it was a leaky hose, a ten-dollar spare part.
I slunk down the hallway. I’d never realized how much I heard my dad around the apartment: his heavy footsteps in the kitchen as he fixed himself a drink, the sound of his voice as he sang to himself while he tied his tie. This was his penthouse, his building: he’d designed the whole thing. Without him, it felt gray and hollow.
I kept thinking of all the things I’d never said to him and now never would. Did he know I loved him? I tried to remember the last time I’d said it and worried it was too long ago. There were arguments I wanted to undo, things I wanted to unsay. And things I needed to know, however selfish it was. Was he proud of me?
I passed the door to Cody’s room. He was inconsolable and had barely come out since it happened. It wasn’t just that he’d lost a grandfather: since my ex left and we’d moved into the penthouse of the McBride Building, my dad had been the closest thing to a father Cody had. Cody and I had cried together, I’d held him and we’d done our you and me thing…but, for once, I wasn’t sure it was going to be enough.
In my bedroom, I closed the door and walked over to the window, looking down at the streets fifty floors below but not really seeing them. I had no idea how we were going to carry on. My dad had always been the immovable center around which we’d all revolved. I was drifting, now, and I knew Cody and Miles felt the same. Who was I going to go to for advice? How could he be gone?