Good for You: A Novel (78)

He slowly lifted his hand to wipe away her tears. And this time, Aly didn’t flinch.

“What do we do now?” she whispered.

“When I’m not sure what to do, I ask myself: What would Luke do now?”

She widened her eyes in surprise. “I do that, too.”

“Great minds.” He leaned to kiss her tenderly, then said, “I think Luke would want us to take his boat out.”

“Yeah, about that,” she said, glancing over at it.

“I’ve been working on restoring it for months—I wanted to surprise you, and to honor Luke’s memory. I wasn’t trying to hide that I was working on the boat at the children’s center, but I didn’t want you to come by before I was finished. That’s why I didn’t tell you I was there,” he explained.

“I know we should, but . . .” She made a mental note to tell him about what had happened the other day, when her mother had pulled her out of the lake. “You know I’m afraid of boats. I don’t think going out on the open water will be good for me.”

“Should we try the bathtub, then?” said Wyatt, and she pretended to swat him. “Look at that,” he said, gesturing out to the lake, which was not placid, but not choppy, either. “Conditions are perfect. We’ll just go a little way from shore.”

Aly looked back down at the letter and considered what Luke had said about living while he had the chance. She owed it to him to do the same.

She owed it to herself, too.

“Or,” she said to Wyatt as they waded toward the boat, “we could just go where the wind takes us.”

“And then can we go home?” said Wyatt, looking toward the house.

Aly laughed. “Then we can go home.”

Wyatt helped Aly climb into the boat, then hoisted himself inside. He handed her a life preserver. “Just in case. I can’t believe I haven’t asked you this before, but can you swim?”

She nodded. Luke had taught her at a friend’s pool. “Swim, Aly! Swim!” he’d said, a few fingers below her torso as she kicked furiously and windmilled her arms the way he’d shown her. He’d cheered her on the entire way. “You’re swimming! You’re doing it!”

She hoped Luke knew that she was still doing it. Her inner shark may have slowed considerably, but she was swimming all the same.

Wyatt lifted the anchor, and the boat began to drift away from shore. “Before we set sail, I thought we’d take a moment,” he said, sitting beside her. “You okay?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Better than okay,” she said, gazing up at him. She smiled and kissed him again, then looked back out at the lake. It was a wonder—so vast a person could easily mistake it for an ocean. The sunset painted the water in pastel shades, and she couldn’t help but wish Luke were there to see it.

Maybe he was the sun, warming her skin. Maybe he was the wind at her back, or the tiny glittering star she saw in the distance.

But as she closed her eyes and remembered, Aly knew exactly where Luke was.

With her—just as he’d always been.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


First and foremost, thank you to my readers, including you—you are the reason I continue to write.

Maria Gomez, working with you has been an absolute dream, and I’m ecstatic to call you my editor. My deep gratitude to the rest of the Lake Union and Amazon Publishing team, including Danielle Marshall, Mikyla Bruder, and Gabriella Dumpit. Jodi Warshaw, it was a joy to work with you in a new capacity; thank you for helping strengthen this story as well as my writing. Elisabeth Weed, thank you for your friendship and guidance, and for representing me all these years. Michelle Weiner and the entire team at CAA, thank you for continuing to champion my work.

Kathleen Carter, Paige Hazzan, Suzy Leopold, and Lucy Silag, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your spreading the word about my novels. Likewise, a big shout-out to the entire #bookstagram community, especially my early readers. You make launching and publishing so much more enjoyable.

To my fellow authors—especially Chris Bailey, Anne Bogel, Lisa Barr, Katherine Chen, Katie Rose Guest Pryal, Kelly Harms, Sarah Jio, Kyunghee Kim, Kerry Lonsdale, Barbara O’Neal, Zibby Owens, Lori Nelson Spielman, Jane Stinson, Laura Vanderkam, and Rochelle Weinstein—your friendship and support means the world to me.

Thank you to Laurel Lambert, Shannon Callahan, Darci Swisher, Jacob Lambert, Joe Lambert, Janette Sunadhar, Suman Sunadhar, Stefanie Galban, Michelle Stone, Nicole Perrin, Jennifer Lamb, Stevany Peters, Craig Galban, Mike Stone, Tim Peters, Jeff Lamb, Matt Sampson, Jamie Berman, Sara Reistad-Long, Lauren Bauser, and Pam Sullivan for always having my back.

And above all, thank you to JP, Indira, and Xavi Pagán—who have given me the kind of happy family that I once believed only existed in fiction.