Page 99 of Endless Depths

“Thanks.” He braces his hands on the armrests and pushes to his feet with another pained hiss. “Fuck.”

I hoist him the rest of the way up and take his seat, keeping my eyes on the waves. At Cole’s soft gasp, I risk a glance over my shoulder in time to catch his eyes gnashing shut in anguish as he lowers onto the bench and rolls onto his side.

“I meant rest in bed.”

“I know, but I want to be with you.”

“Be careful, okay? I don’t think the raised lip on that bench can compete with thirty-foot waves, and your face is too pretty to break. I don’t know how you made it this long without breaking your nose. Let’s keep it that way.”

He laughs. “If this is you flirting, you’re out ofpractice.”

I scoff. “If I was flirting, I’d tell you that I’ll love you no matter how crooked your nose is, which is true.”

“Nice save.”

“God, I missed you.”

A pause. “Me too.”

We fall into a comfortable silence, the kind I took for granted before I lost it, the peace of sharing space with my husband.

The waves rock theBriarlike a cradle, and provide the perfect white noise to whisk Cole off to sleep. I’m torn between letting him drift into painlessness, or keeping him awake with conversation. I don’t want him to break a single bone in his body ever again.

Cole’s cellphone rings from where he left it beside the throttle, making the decision for me.

“That’s probably Finn.” He hops down from the bench and lands with a grunt. “We video chat every day after school.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. Hurry and answer it before it goes to voicemail.”

Finn appears, forehead wrinkled. “Uncle Mor? Where’s Uncle Cole?”

“Hey, Finn,” I say. “Funny meeting you here.”

“Huh?”

“Uncle Mor is making a joke that only old people would understand,” Cole says. “I’m going to take you with me. Uncle Mor needs to focus on driving.”

I rub his lower back as he reaches past me to take his phone.

“The waves are super big. Want to see?” Cole walks toward the co-captain’s chair on the far side of the wheelhouse.

“Yeah!”

The hull groans as we crash down on another wave.

“Woah,” Finn says. “It’s like a roller coaster.”

“Right?” Cole carefully lowers into the co-captain’s seat and perches his feet on the console. “How was your day?”

My heart swells as Finn tells Cole about what he had for lunchand the song he learned at pre-K, sounding happier than I’ve heard in months.

Forget what I said about keeping my guard up. I know Cole as well as I know myself, and I trust him. Rebuilding a relationship with Finn proves how committed he is. Cole is starting to heal, finally coming out of the fog of his grief after months of self-destruction like he did when Dan died.

I wish it hadn’t taken this long to get to where we are. I still can’t believe it, but I’m so grateful. If we hadn’t gone on this trip together, I don’t know how we would have worked things out, if at all.

Cole finishes his call and brings Finn over to say goodbye. Before Cole can return to the couch, I pull him onto my lap, facing outward. He rests back on my chest.