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Anna grinned. “See, husband? He gets it.” Glancing at me, she added, “Dilini çok güzel buluyorum ama çok kolay degil.”
My eyebrows rose. A few mistakes but not bad. “Wow, Anna, you’re getting very good. It’s almost like I’m back home.”
She laughed under her breath. “I’ve been practicing that one line for a while. I still have a long way to go.”
“Next time, leave out the second çok and it’s perfect.”
“What did you say?” Jack asked.
I answered for her. “She said she finds Turkish beautiful but not easy.”
“Seems I better learn too.” Jack sniffed. “Otherwise, I’ll be left out of the conversation if Neri keeps practicing too.”
My heart skipped annoyingly at Neri’s name; I took another drink. “She’s too busy with schoolwork to progress quickly. We won’t leave you out just yet, Jack.”
He huffed with a roll of his eyes. “Well, if my daughter is anything like my wife, she’ll learn it on the sly and then start using it to confound me.”
“I do nothing of the sort.” Anna threw me a smirk. “How do I say, ‘but it’s fun to annoy him’, Aslan?”
I chuckled. “Ama onu kizdirmak eglenceli.”
Anna laughed. “What he said, Jack. But don’t worry, wo ài ni.”
“What was that now?” Jack scowled, his eyes dancing as he studied his intelligent wife. “Swahili?”
“Chinese.” Anna blew him a kiss. “It means, I love you.”
My mind soaked up those three little words. It was far simpler than the way my homeland said it but not as romantic as the French. Tonight, if I couldn’t sleep, I’d learn how to say I love you in every language I could. Purely in the name of science, of course, not because I had anyone to whisper it to.
An image of Neri ghosted through my mind before I forcibly shut her out.
Space between us was good.
At least out here, she couldn’t creep into my bedroom and break my resolve night after night.
“Aslan, how do I say, ‘I adore you’?” Jack asked.
I stiffened as a wave of jealousy crashed through me. Jealousy for what he and Anna had. Jealousy at love and family and togetherness. I would always be so grateful to them for giving me a home, but...no matter how welcome I felt or how deeply I grew to care for them, they weren’t mine. And the one I wanted to be mine could never be.
Finishing my drink, I murmured, “Sana bayiliyorum.”
Jack blew Anna a kiss. “Sana bayiliyorum.” Throwing back his drink in one go, Jack burped, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then looked toward the horizon. “And on that note, I have a sudden hankering for a huge plate of ribs.”
Anna broke into giggles. “You ate not long ago. You said those chicken sandwiches filled a gap.”
“They did.” Jack winked. “But that gap is back, and I want to fill it with ribs.”
The fact that I’d literally just been thinking about crabs crawling through my mother’s ribcage made me shudder.
Jack caught my gaze. “Not a rib fan?”
I schooled my face and swirling nausea. “I don’t eat pork.”
“Are you serious? How have I never noticed that? Jesus, just how unobservant am I?” Jack squeezed the back of his neck. “You don’t have to stay so secretive all the time, you know. It’s been years and we still don’t know who you truly are.”
I shrugged. “Not much to tell.”
“Now that I don’t believe.” Giving me a smile, he added, “But stay cagey if you want. For now, you don’t have to eat ribs, but you are coming to dinner with us. There’s a place in Airlie Beach that does amazing food.” Marching toward the captain’s cabin, Jack tossed his empty drink can in the rubbish bin strapped to the wall. “Pack up, my love. We’re finishing early tonight.”
“It’s only four o’clock,” Anna grumbled, hastily packing away the box of fragile glass slides and screwing on lids of water samples.
“Clock off time.” Jack grinned. “Besides, we’re almost done anyway. One more morning and then we can hit the road for the long drive back home.”
“Fine.” Anna huffed but her eyes glittered with eagerness. “I could probably have my arm twisted into enjoying a cosmo or two.”
“And just like that, it’s a party.” Jack laughed, starting the engine. “Let’s go get tipsy and forget that we have a daughter and responsibilities.”
“Poor Neri.” Anna giggled.
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” Jack shouted from the cabin. “Unless our little spy Aslan tattles on us.”
I shook my head with a grin. “Whatever you get up to is your secret to tell, not mine.”
“That’s my boy.” Jack paused with a raised eyebrow as I stood in the doorway of the cabin. “She’s been behaving herself though, right? Each time I message her, she says she’s doing her homework, staying out of the pool, and getting into bed by ten. Is she telling you the same thing or is she outright lying to her dear ‘ole dad?”
