Page 115 of Drawing Home
“You sailors and your superstitions. Isn’t Sean around?” Why did she have to give him such a hard time? She was delighted to be asked. Would she ever stop being so defensive? One day she was going to push him too hard and he’d never come back.
“Sean is home with Alexis. But aside from that, a woman is supposed to do the honors.”
Was that true? More important, did she care?
She slipped her sneakers on and fell into step beside him as they went down the stone path past the grassy patch to the gravelly sand. The ground was still wet from rain the night before, and her feet sank into it. When they reached the dock, she stopped for a minute to shake the sand out of her sneakers. Kyle turned on a flashlight.
“It’s okay. I can see,” she said. The moon was nearly full and the reflection bounced off the water like the bay was lit from below. Still, he held out his hand and helped her aboard. It was peaceful and quiet, the only sound the water lapping gently against the sides of the boat.
In the moonlight, she could see the gleam of the refinished floor. “I guess I can understand how you’d fall asleep here,” she said. “Though I don’t think I’d ever be able to.” Her words came out in a rush, and she realized she felt oddly nervous.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, and he retreated into the galley. When he came back, he handed her a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée. She recognized the vintage from Jack Blake’s collection.
“This is an expensive bottle of champagne to spill over a boat.”
“It’s a momentous occasion,” he said. “Come on—we need to stand in the right spot.” Again, he took her hand, and this time he led her to the bow. The boat just barely swayed underneath their feet. “So you’re going to have to lean over this edge and swing down with the bottle to hit the bow. No pressure, but it’s really bad luck if the bottle doesn’t break.”
“I told you I don’t believe in superstition.”
“They didn’t christen theTitanic. I’m just saying…”
“Okay, okay—I got it. Make sure it breaks.” She raised the bottle.
“Wait! You have to say something first.”
“I’m really trying to be a good sport here but this feels ridiculous.”
“We have to appease Neptune.”
“Neptune? I thought the god of the sea was Poseidon.”
“Neptune is the Roman name. Same god. Okay, I’ll make it simple for you. Just say, ‘I, Emma Mapson, christen thee’—then say the boat’s name.”
“Fine. It’s your party. What’s the boat’s name?”
“Lucky Penny.”
Had she heard him right? “You’re naming the boatLucky Penny?”
“Yes.”
“As in Penny, my daughter’s name?” She put the bottle down by her feet. “Kyle, that strikes me as a pretty large gesture.”
“There is such a thing as a lucky penny, you know. And as we’ve established, I’ve never met a superstition I didn’t completely buy into. But I do think that Penny—your Penny—is lucky for me. If it weren’t for her and the house she inherited, you and I would never have met.”
She smiled, a warm feeling filling her chest. Kyle bent down, picked up the bottle, and handed it to her. His fingers grazed hers, and she felt the floor beneath her move, though she was certain the boat was completely still.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Penny couldn’t get used to how freaky her leg looked now that it was out of the cast. It was shriveled and scaly and, most upsetting, covered in dark hair.
“Your skin is very sensitive right now. Wait a few days before you shave it,” her mother told her.
Now she was out by the pool, hoping that getting some sun would help the situation. Ugh!
The weird thing was that she wasn’t as happy about having the cast off as she’d thought she would be. The cast had been like an anchor, keeping her still and protecting her from all her worst impulses. She was able to really focus on bossing back her OCD and working every day onQueen Bea. She loved creating the drawings so much that she didn’t want to finish it, but the final page rested in her lap.
Her phone pinged with a text. Her friends seemed to be back in their old routines. Everyone’s punishment was over. Bruises and broken bones had healed. It was like the night of the party had never happened. Except Penny didn’t find Mindy and Mateo and the rest of them all that interesting anymore.
