AllFreeNovel
Share Us
BeLew look at each other and Beau shrugs, blushing with my question.
“What is it?” Sam repeats, stepping toward them and reaching for the bottle. Lewis yanks it back and looks to the floor, not meeting his eyes. “Is it something dangerous? Something your family needs to know.”
“Sam!” Luke groans. “It’s a message in a fucking bottle. Not everything is the other shoe about to drop, man.”
“Language!” Morgan yells.
She’s a better mother at eleven than I am in my forties. Luke hit the nail on the head, though. Sam’s still edgy about our happy home being ripped apart. He’s had it happen too many times in his past, but I have seen nothing of the sort, and I remind him daily.
“Boys,” I say. “What have you seen? Just tell us.”
They shuffle on their feet a bit, Lewis scratching the back of his neck and Beau grinning like a fool. They almost look embarrassed, and I think about that, wondering what that message reads.
“What?!” Sam says, growing impatient.
“It’s… it’s from a ship. One of the island jumpers out there. That’s all,” Lewis explains.
“Just a silly message in a bottle,” Beau adds.
“It’s from a girl,” Morgan grins.
We all shoot our heads to her, our jaws dropping at the words. She rarely sees visions. Her senses are more attuned to the world around her and the feelings she follows because of them. She knows where to fish, and when there’s danger. If someone’s sick or angry, she feels what they project.
Sam whips the bottle from Lewis’s grasp while we’re all distracted, and they squabble over the glass. Sam’s still strong and broad, making me blush with his toned body, but he’s twice their age.
The boys are stronger, and he ends up crouched over it, holding it against his stomach while they roll around on the ground.
“Enough!” I yell over their arguing, stabbing the knife into the cutting board. They pause and rise, BeLew eyeing the bottle in Sam’s hand.
“It’s your birthday present, so go on, take it to your room,” I say. “But promise me if there is anything dangerous in there or in your heads…” I pause, waiting for them to meet my eyes. They nod, and I continue. “You tell us right away. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” they say in unison.
They snatch the bottle and rush off. Sam raises his hands to his hips and shakes his head. “You still have a hard time saying no to them.”
I shrug and continue chopping. “Have some lunch. Listen to what your daughter can tell us about this… girl.”
“I don’t know a lot,” Morgan says. She takes a bite of her sandwich and sits back, leaning on the wall. “I just know it’s a girl, and they’re excited about it.”
“Both of them?” I ask.
“I don’t know, mom.”
“Okay, okay,” Lori comes in, a basket of fish hooked around her arm. Nothing scatters a room faster, Hank announcing he’s late and Morgan saying she needs to work on her gift for BeLew. They don’t want to wash and scale, because fish table duty is still the worst chore of all.
“That’s what I thought,” she mocks, slapping the basket in the sink and giving Luke a kiss. “Milo and his… whatever she is, are coming over for dinner.”
“Jesus, it’s been years and they aren’t official,” I groan.
“Fuck, I don’t know,” Lori answers. She pours the fish into the sink, handing Luke a knife in a subtle hint that he’s helping even though he didn’t offer. “You know that man only says ten words a day, and I prefer it to be about work.”
“What about Gemma?” I frown. I haven’t seen her in weeks, and I know she’s getting up there in years, but it kills me to see her walking slower and struggling to do things. “Is she well enough to come? It’s a few miles. Should we go there?”
“She’s staying with Mary and Alex,” Sam answers. “Just down the road. I’ll go check on her, but I doubt she’ll come.”
My heart leaps in my chest. “The baby’s that close?”
“Yep,” Sam says. “And uh - Morgan’s asked to help with that.”
