Girl Out of Water(18)

“She’s great!” Dad calls out. “Everything went great.” The tension immediately eases from my shoulders. “I’ll tell you guys more over dinner. Go shower like Anise said.”

They don’t protest further. They drop their gear in the garage and then head into the house. Emery gives me a lingering glance, as if she wants to ask something else, before rolling her bicycle into the garage and leaving me alone with Dad.

“Hey,” I say, walking up to him. He looks exhausted. He was up early this morning to meet Aunt Jackie at the hospital before her procedure. Suddenly I feel guilty for how annoyed I was earlier when my Google alert informed me to expect six foot waves in Santa Cruz all afternoon. I’m not the only one sacrificing this summer. I’m sure Dad would much rather be doing yoga on the beach than dealing with his sister-in-law’s surgery schedule. “Is she really great?” I ask. “And how are you?”

“She’s good,” Dad says. “Recovering, but the surgery went as well as it could. She’ll be up to seeing the kids tomorrow, and the doctor said she’s still on schedule to come home in a few weeks. And I’m good too. Just tired and…”

“And what?”

“It’s just…being in this house, her house—” He isn’t talking about Aunt Jackie. Dad shakes his head, then smiles. “It’s nothing.” He pats the stoop. “C’mon. Hang with me for a bit. I’ve barely seen you since we got here.”

I settle down next to him. These aren’t the wooden chairs on our back deck, but it feels good to sit out here next to Dad.

“Thank you again for taking care of your cousins,” Dad says. “I know three kids can be a handful. God, I know one kid can be a handful.”

“Hey.” I nudge him in the shoulder. “Don’t insult your legacy to this world. And it’s okay. The park was actually kind of cool.” I think of Lincoln, or more precisely Lincoln’s dimple and self-assured smile. “And it seemed to wear out the boys.”

“Anything that wears out those guys is cool in my book.” Dad takes another drag of his cigarette and then blows out the artificial smoke in one quick burst. “This thing is shit,” he says.

I fake gasp. “Cursing? Aren’t you supposed to be setting a good example?”

“Eh, your cousins are inside, and I already fucked that one up with you.” He grins at me, and I laugh.

We relax into comfortable silence for a few minutes until the front door opens behind us. Parker and Nash stand there, hair wet, towels wrapped around their waists. “We’re hungry,” they say together.

I groan and stand up from the stoop, surprised to find my muscles protesting, like they’ve already begun to atrophy from three days without exercise. Maybe I should lift weights or run to maintain some strength this summer. “Come on,” I say. “I’ll cook you guys dinner. Uncle Cole’s going to hang out here a bit longer.”

And by cook I mean PB&Js or maybe mac and cheese, if there’s any left. Too bad Dad didn’t pass on his culinary skills to me. Maybe he would have if I ever stayed inside the kitchen long enough to learn.

“Oh, no cooking,” Dad says. “Tonight’s pizza night. Your mom told me if I feed you guys anything else for dinner she’ll ground me.”

Instead of laughing, Parker and Nash stare at Dad. “That doesn’t make sense,” Parker says. “Mom can’t ground you. You’re an adult.”

“Yeah, Uncle Cole. Grown-ups can’t be grounded.”

I snicker and join in. “Yeah, Dad. Grown-ups can’t be grounded.”

“You’re right.” Dad stands. “But grown-ups can pick the pizza toppings.”

“Wait!” my cousins wail, shadowing Dad as we all follow him into the house.

? ? ?

Later that night, I’m in my room and about to FaceTime Cassie. She texted earlier that she got her info packet for boot camp, and I told her I want to hear all about it. But as I’m about to call her, someone knocks on my door. “Come in!”

Emery opens the door and takes a hesitant step into the room. “What’s up?” I ask. She shrugs her shoulders. I pat the open space next to me. “Come join me.”

“What are you doing?” she asks as she settles on the bed, grabbing one of the extra pillows and holding it in her lap.

“Well, I was going to talk with my friend, but—”

“Oh, I can leave.”

“No!” I control my voice and close my laptop. “I mean, stay. Let’s hang out. It’ll be nice to have some alone time without those brothers of yours.” I’m dying to talk to Cassie, or any of my friends for that matter. Every time I see a picture of them laughing at the Shak or they tag me in a post about legendary swells, my heart sinks a little more. Today, they’re still tagging me, but what about a week from now? A month?

I push the fear away because I know Emery needs someone right now, and since Aunt Jackie’s at the hospital, I guess I’m that someone. And besides, as much as I want to talk to Cassie, I’m also worried catching up on everything will only make me miss home more. I send Cassie a quick text saying I have to reschedule and then turn my full attention to Emery.

I want to ask about the incident with her friends and how she’s doing with Aunt Jackie in the hospital, but I’m sure she doesn’t want to talk about either subject. So instead I go with the one topic, besides surfing, I never get sick of.