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I laughed. He was such a weather nerd. “Yes.”
I even caught my dad trying not to smile. “It’s a pulse compression radar,” Dad said.
Jeremiah brightened. “Oh? What’s the pulse repetition frequency?”
Dad beamed. “Up to five thousand nine hundred hertz.”
Jeremiah was impressed, and honestly, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Then Mum appeared on the back deck of the boat. “Morning, boys.”
“Hey, Mum.”
“Hello, Mrs Larson,” Jeremiah said with a smile.
“We’ve stocked your food for you,” she said. “And Jeremiah, darling, I’ve told you to call me Brielle.”
Jeremiah looked pained. It made me smile at him.
“And the tank’s full,” Dad added.
“You really didn’t have to do that,” Jeremiah tried.
Dad held his hand for Mum as she stepped off the gangplank, like he did every time. “Yes, we did,” she said, giving Jeremiah’s arm a squeeze. She understood that Jeremiah struggled with having a family that did things for each other and how it made him feel inadequate. He struggled with dealing with my large family most of the time, but he was trying to get past it. It just wasn’t easy for him. Being alone, even with his father, it was so ingrained in him to be self-sufficient.
Many things were ingrained in him. Like his fierce independence and how showing any affection in front of others made him freeze. Whereas I came from a loving family that regularly hugged and told each other we loved them. He did not.
God forbid I ever bestowed the L-word on Jeremiah in front of my family.
He was okay when I told him I loved him now, when it was just us, of course. But no one else. Not even in front of Ellis.
I was still working on that.
Ellis came back over the gangplank and pretended to almost drop my car keys into the water below. He thought he was hilarious. “Very funny, nut sac,” I said. “You break any part of my car, you pay for it.”
“I won’t break it,” he said with a grin. “But I will drive through every red-light camera in town.”
I put him in a headlock and tried to give him a noogie while Jeremiah talked to my parents. Ellis almost managed to junk-punch me so I let him go just in time to hear Jeremiah say, “I do appreciate it. When Tully told me you’d organised food for us, I worried we’d inconvenienced you.”
Mum put her hand to his face. “Oh, you’re such a sweetheart.”
Oh no. She touched his armandhis face...
Jeremiah almost took an embarrassed step backwards off the dock. I shoved Ellis off me and went to Jeremiah, sliding my arm around his waist, making sure he didn’t fall. “And that’s enough scaring him for today, thanks, Mum.”
Jesus. He adored my mother, and she had a real soft spot for him, but a complimentanda physical touch and a trip in a boat. He was going to need sedating.
He picked up his bag, pretending his face wasn’t nuclear red and that he wasn’t mortified, and he gave a worried glance at the boat and then to me. “And you assure me you can actually drive this boat. I’m not a fan of boats, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned. Several times.”
“You’ll be fine. And yes, I can drive a boat. Just like I drive the Jeep through Kakadu.”
Jeremiah paled a little. “Oh joy.”
Dad laughed. “Relax. I taught him everything he knows. He’s very sensible. There’s a satellite phone if you need, and there’s also a flare gun. So if he drives irresponsibly or does anything stupid, shoot him with it.”
Jeremiah looked at him, aghast.
“He’s joking,” Mum said, giving Dad a poke.
