Page 72 of Adrift

“Is it time for the beach bonfire yet?”

I laugh with surprise, shaking my head as I turn to my dad. We’ll have to wait another hour or two, until the sun begins its lazy descent toward the mountains, and the sky fades into the first streaks of orange and pink.

“No, not yet,” I tell him. “It’s the first one of the season, so it’ll be a biggie. Are you guys sticking around?”

“You know… we might,” Dad says, noncommittally rubbing a hand over his hair. “Your mom’s having a blast. I don’t even know where your brother and sister are. Probably partying with the rest of you kids.”

“Or playing their Nintendos,” I laugh, my mind going back to all those summers where I tried to convince them about how cool the island was.

Who knew it would finally work?

Dad chuckles, too. “And it turns out I’ve got a lot of people to catch up with. More than I thought.”

The look of bewilderment on his face makes me grin. “Yeah. Sunrise is like that. Not so bad after all, is it?”

“It’s not for everyone,” Dad admits, shoving his hands in his pockets. “But… I guess I’m seeing that it’s not against us, either. Pretty far from it. And I’m amazed what you’ve done here in the last few weeks.”

“Really?” I light up, grinning with pride as I stand about ten feet taller.

Dad looks out over the harbour. “Your grandma would be proud. And your great-grandparents, too.”

My throat goes tight. I clap his arm, and he pats my hand. Then, we both stand there for a minute, silently watching the birds soaring high in the clear blue sky until Dad clears his throat.

“When you said you wanted to come back here, I thought you were trying to… I dunno, be a kid again.” He shakes his head.“But you’re not. Something’s different. And I think it’s Sunrise that did it.”

“Mmm,” I murmur, my eyes landing on Kieran again. He’s telling some outrageous story while Mom—in her most hippie, tie-dyed, probably original ‘70s beach dress—laughs so hard she almost falls over.

Mom always did want to spend more time here.

“Hey, Dad…” I’ve never tried talking to him about this before, but it’s about time. “With you and Mom… when did you realise she was the one?”

When I look over at him, he’s watching Mom confer in whispers with Kieran, like she’s telling him my most embarrassing childhood stories. “I wish I had a better answer for that, kiddo,” he admits at last and shrugs at me. “But I think it’s when my face looked a little like yours does right now.”

I… what?I open my mouth and close it wordlessly, a bit like a gasping fish.It’s that obvious?

“Don’t catch flies,” Dad says, quickly chucking me under the chin before I can shove him away with a laugh. “But when you know… you know.”

“Yeah,” I murmur thoughtfully as Berty shrugs off his yellow apron and excuses himself, looking around like he’s trying to find me. “I know.”

Dad clears his throat as Berty catches sight of me, waves hard, and marches our way. “I gotta go… be over there,” he excuses himself.

I snort with laughter. “Hey, but don’t go too far. You and Mom will want a good view.”

Then I check my shirt collar and smooth down the buttons, making sure I look presentable before Berty arrives.

“Hey, kid. You ready to get that tree planting done so I can break open the beer?”

“You bet,” I tell him with a grin. As we head up to the title gap in the trees overlooking the ocean, Kieran excuses himself to come join us before I can even wave to him.

“Do we have the tree?” Kieran asks as he trots up to me. He’s so busy beaming up at me that he almost trips over the bucket of water it’s sitting in, but I grab him by the waist and lift him a few feet to the side just in time. “Oh! Oh, we do.”

Those nearby chuckle as Berty taps the megaphone and starts to call everyone’s attention to us.

As soon as the cameras come out, I tense up—it’s a reflex, and I know by now that I just can’t help it.

But Kieran leans in. “It’s not really a spotlight,” he whispers. “Not when there’s so many of your friends and family.”

Itdoeskind of help to think about it that way. “Thank you for lying to me. I’ll try to believe it,” I tell him, my lips twitching.

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