Page 33 of The Words We Lost

“First of all, there’s no such thing as too many times. That movie’s a classic.” Cece heaved the three queen-size comforters into the belly of the canvas opening one at a time. “And second of all, it’s not like my mom’s dated anyone since my dad left us, either. It only takes the right person to...”

She stopped speaking as soon as she saw the distressed expression on Ingrid’s face, one she’d never been privy to before.

“Ingrid, you okay?” The instant she crouched beside her friend, understanding punched her through the heart. “Oh ... gosh. It’s your mom, isn’t it?” Cece cringed at her own careless insensitivity. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—I wasn’t thinking. I know it must be different for you than it is for me. My dad chose to walk away from us, but your mom didn’t have a choice. I know if she did, she would have stayed with you and your dad forever.” Cece gripped Ingrid’s hand and squeezed. “Let’s forget I said anything about all that, okay? It’s just that you’re my best friend, and I never want that to change.”

Ingrid’s shaky smile strengthened when she squeezed back. “You’re mine, too, the best friend I always hoped I’d find.”

“So that would make me what, then? Just the dude who drives the getaway car for Cece’s elaborate schemes?” Joel stood in the doorway, his hands anchored to his hips and his gaze anchored on Ingrid. He gave her a wink before swiping a hand through his shower-damp hair. Another new development when it came to Cece’s cousin—no longer did he simply shed his nametag, tie, and staff vest to meet up with them in whatever rumpled state he was in. Nope, now he was into long showers and spritzes of cologne. And Cece rarely missed an opportunity to tease him about it, though she’d let it slide today.

“At least you’re not in denial about your rightful place, Joel,” Cece sassed, relieved to see a genuine smile return to Ingrid’s face.

Her cousin assessed the clean pile of pillows and bedding in the cart attheir backs. “And how exactly are my services required tonight?” He reached down to help Cece to her feet, and she observed as he did the same for Ingrid that their hands stayed connected three seconds longer than necessary. She also didn’t miss the way her cousin stroked Ingrid’s knuckles with his thumb just before he released his hold on her.

“Glad you asked.” Cece beamed at the two of them, finally ready to reveal her plan for her next scene. “Because tonight, Ember and Merrick will learn to dance aboard a sleepy ship under the moon’s magnanimous glow.”

The jaws of her muses slacked open, which caused Cece’s enthusiasm to skyrocket. “Which means we should probably head to the marina now because I have a lot to write before my breakfast shift starts tomorrow at six.”

The three of them made quick work of loading Joel’s trunk, arriving at the marina just after ten that evening. And just like Cece predicted, Joel’s obvious displeasure regarding the unspecified terms surrounding their sleepover wasn’t enough to keep him from rolling with Cece’s plan. The two girls had told their parents they’d be staying together at the hotel, and Joel hadn’t bothered to say much of anything to Uncle Stephen and Aunt Patti. He said it was because he was only a couple of weeks shy of eighteen, but Cece knew the real reason was because Joel had never given his folks reason to doubt he’d be anywhere other than where he was supposed to be.

Cece set her bag inside the cabin on the cozy chair next to the galley kitchen, complete with a sink, microwave, and stove. Her uncle hadn’t shortchanged himself on this purchase whatsoever. She’d heard many a hotel guest say it was the nicest charter in Port Townsend.

She met Ingrid on the open deck at the stern, curious about something she’d meant to ask her earlier today. “Is this cruiser set up like your houseboat, Ingrid?” She’d wondered if Ingrid’s bedroom was as private as the captain’s bunk room downstairs.

“Not really.” Ingrid’s breath made tiny cloud-like puffs in the night air as she layered herself in warmth, tugging on an extra pair of socks and then a knit stocking cap like the one Cece had seen Captain Hal wear. Ingrid rubbed her bare hands together, cupping them to her mouth to heat them with her breath. The two girls had walked the length of the dock in search of Ingrid’s lost gloves to no avail.

After Joel dropped the rest of their overnight supplies inside the cabin, his concerned eyes found Ingrid immediately. “Here, take mine.” He ripped his gloves from his hands. “You’ll need these more than I do if we’re going to stay out here for as long as Cece intends.”

“I’m sure mine will turn up somewhere.”

“Well, until they do, you can wear these. I’ve already warmed them for you, see?” He slipped each one over Ingrid’s frozen hands, and Cece quickly reached for the notebook tucked safely inside her tote bag. She couldn’t afford to miss a single moment of character inspiration. Apparently, these two weren’t waiting for the dance floor.

For the next several minutes, Cece set the scene on paper, opening a valve in her mind and dumping words onto a clean page, all while she observed her subjects—how they moved, touched, and spoke to each other in soft tones. Two pages in, Cece directed them to cinch in close, giving instructions on where they should place their hands and which way she needed them to sway and move even though there was no music to keep time. After a single rotation, Joel went inside for a spare blanket and curled it around Ingrid’s shoulders like a cape, tucking the ends beneath the collar of her coat and whispering something in her ear Cece couldn’t quite hear. She was too busy transcribing the soundtrack of lapping water against the boat and the rustle of lowered sails around the marina.

When Joel’s hands settled securely around Ingrid’s lower back, Cece made sure to note the way her heroine studied her hero—as if his eyes held the answer to a thousand unwished hopes.

Even sitting cross-legged underneath two hotel quilts, she was chilled, but not enough to break for the heated space inside quite yet. Cece scrawled her thoughts on paper as fast as her frozen fingers would move. She lost all sense of time, place, and reality. She was deep into the Kingdom of Cardithia. Deep into the minds and hearts of her characters.

She didn’t know when Joel and Ingrid had stopped dancing, but when she finally glanced up, long after midnight, the two were snuggled together under quilts on the stern, so close their noses were practically touching. Ingrid must have been teasing Joel about something—as Joel only made that expression when he was the brunt of one of her jokes.

Ingrid tipped her head back with a muted laugh and then immediately startled when she found Cece observing them.

“Oh, sorry,” she said apologetically, pulling the blanket higher. “We were trying not to interrupt your focus. Did you finish?”

“Not quite, but almost,” Cece said, though in truth, she’d been struggling with how to wrap this chapter up for a while now, crossing out paragraph after paragraph, looking for the right emotional hook to close out the scene.

“Then would you mind if we all went inside?” Ingrid’s teeth chattered as she spoke. “My toes went numb a while ago.”

“Sure,” Cece agreed, smiling. “Let’s go get warm.”

Together, they moved into the main cabin and Cece pointed to the chair. “I’ll take that spot so I can finish up while you two get situated for the night.”

Joel immediately began preparing beds for the three of them on the floor of the cruiser’s main cabin, dragging the bunkbed mattresses up the short stairway into the living area and shoving them together. Next were a few layers of the hotel’s down comforters.

Cece took her seat across from them, enjoying the thaw of her frozen body as she reopened her notebook and plugged in her headphones to listen to some theme music fromPirates of the Caribbean. She chuckled as Ingrid, who looked like a walking burrito, dropped to the makeshift bed in one swift collapse before snuggling her head into a king-size pillow. Joel laughed, too, and then mimicked her less-than-graceful landing. He propped his head on his elbow and stared unabashedly at Ingrid.

With stealth-like skills, Cece slipped out one of her wired earbuds, hiding the cord in the hood of her sweatshirt as she peered through the dim light at the two people she cared for most in the world outside of her mother.

“You warm enough?” Joel asked Ingrid, his voice a notch above a whisper. “I can grab another blanket from my car if not.”

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