Page 2 of Endless Depths

“Fuck off,” Morgan says.

“Hey Javi, you better call your girl,” Lawrence calls over his shoulder. “Tell her you’ll be late.”

“I don’t need to,” Javi says from the doorway to the forepeak. “If you and Morgan don’t make up on your own, we’ll lock you in the engine room until you bang it out or kill each other.”

“You guys aren’t helping,” I say as Morgan disappears inside the gear room.

“Who’s killing who?” Seb asks.

Before I can answer, tiny footsteps scuttle across the deck at a fast clip, and a bright orange blur collides with me.

“Uncle Cole!” Finn says. Or tries to say.Uncle Coleis a bit of a tongue twister for a four-year-old.

“Finn!” I parrot back with the same enthusiasm, swooping him up into a hug. “What’s with the life jacket?” I raise my brows at Seb. “You’re not planning to pole vault over the rail, are you, Finn?”

Finn frowns. “Pole what?”

“He’s still learning how to swim,” Seb says.

A life jacket for a visit to a docked ship is a little much, but being overprotective is how my brother shows his love.

“I’m scared,” Finn says behind his hand, an attempt at a whisper that’s anything but.

“Hey, that’s okay. I was afraid of the water when I was your age too.”

“You were?”

I lower him back to his feet. “Yup. I didn’t learn until your grandpa tossed me off the boat.”

Finn’s hazel eyes widen over freckled cheeks. “This boat?”

I nod gravely. “But I don’t recommend it.”

Seb’s forehead wrinkles, and a muscle in his jaw twitches. It’s the face he made whenever our dad did something particularly neglectful. Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that anecdote. The trouble with having an alcoholic for a father is that sometimes I don’t realize funny childhood stories aren’t actually funny until I tell them to someone else.

“What happened?” Finn asks.

“I sank.”

He gasps.

“Luckily, your daddy saved me. Then he taught me how to swim in the bathtub.”

“The bathtub?” Finn narrows his gaze on Seb. “Why haven’t we tried that?”

“I only told him that so he’d take a bath. Your uncle was very smelly. Never washed his hair.”

I cross my arms over my chest with feigned offense. “Yeah, because I didn’t want water to get in my ears after the whole tossed-off-a-boat scenario.”

“You never told me how you learned to swim,” Morgan says, emerging from the bulkhead door with grease smudged up to his elbows.

“That’s because you already know how to swim,Uncle Mor.” I roll my eyes at Finn, who laughs. “Maybe you should take a bath in the lake and show Finn how it’s done.”

The corner of Morgan’s mouth twitches. Almost a smile. I’ll take it.

He ruffles Finn’s hair. “You’ll learn when you’re ready. The ocean’s not going anywhere.”

Seb strokes the salt and pepper stubble on his chin. He and I share the same sandy light brown hair, but his looks full-on blond thanks to all the grays I gave him. I mean, not all of them are my fault. He’s only three years older than me, but the stress of being a captain and a childhood of unfair parentification aged him.