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I’ve never heard my mama laugh so loud, and I join her.
Silas and Redix exchange confused glances before laughing, too. And finally, Dad looks up and says, “Either of y’all break her heart, don’t worry about me. She’ll kill you herself.”
And that’s his blessing.
I knew my parents would be okay with this. They have bigger fish to fry. Mama tries hiding it with brightly colored tracksuits and cute hats, but she’s losing weight fast. And her hair has no luster, and her skin doesn’t glow. All the life in her is in her big mouth, huge heart, and whip-smart mind.
We all know what’s coming. We just don’t know when.
“Well, y’all need to answer the damn question.” Mama won’t relent. “Because I’m as lost as last year’s Easter egg, and I need this riddle solved.”
“You wanna know about my balls, Mama G?” Redix smiles back at her. He is the son they never had. “I keep ‘em smooth and firm like a peach.” He’s loving this, too. He and my mama can riff for days. “But no, they don’t tighten up. They just deliver a big sloppy grin for your daughter.”
She asked for that image, and now my stomach hurts from laughing.
“What about you, Silas?” Mama has no patience. Yep, apple and tree right here. “You’re family now, too, so tell us.”
“You wanna know about my family jewels?” He’s diving right in.
“They’re worth ten billion.” Dad’s in on it, too. “That’s about what? At ten bucks a sperm times a hundred million. Hell, that’s a billion bucks every time you blow a wad.”
Redix yanks the throttle back because he can’t steer and dies from laughter at the same time. None of us can.
God, it’s gonna be a perfect day, and damn, I’m so lucky.
“I did raise my daughter to have expensive taste.” Mama toasts Silas with her bottle of water. “Pun intended.”
“Mama!” Why I protest, I don’t know. What won’t we laugh about now?
“Me and my balls are very happy.” Silas pulls me into a hug. “But no, they don’t tighten when I come. They just stroke a big, creamy check.”
And then it happens.
It’s not like we forget ourselves; it’s just that the moment is too pure. There’s too much life, love, and happiness on this lavish vessel in the water. Redix leans over and kisses Silas. Not a hot one. A sweet one. Then he does the same to me, and we three look at my parents because what else is there left to say?
“You have our blessing,” my dad says. “And you have her”—he wraps his arm around Mama’s thin shoulders—“full of more questions, so gird your loins, boys.”
More banter travels between us while we head out into the sound. I put out a fruit platter with Mama’s favorite cream cheese dip while Redix steers and Silas points the way to go.
The mood turns quiet as the water narrows into one of the many rivers that lead inland. And serious.
“There’s no telling what’s on some of these islands,” Dad tells me as we lean over the map. “Some are hundreds of acres with dense trees and brush. You sure as hell can’t see nothing from the water.”
“I’m working on a drone,” I tell him. “But if he’s smart, which unfortunately he is, he’s got something well hidden.”
“But no matter where he’s going,” Silas chimes in, considering the map of where the Atlantic meets the coast of the states of Georgia and South Carolina. “All these barrier islands, you gotta have a place to dock a boat.”
“But wouldn’t that make it obvious?” Redix pulls the throttle back to neutral while we slosh in front of one of the largest islands, Daufuskie. It’s public with hundreds of residents, Silas included. It’s not suspect, but there are islands around it that are private property.
“What if he knows you’ll look for a dock and just to be the sneaky fuck he is,” Redix says, “he times his approach with the tide and runs a small boat ashore? You don’t need a dock for that, just rubber boots.”
It sinks to the pit of my stomach. All of them are right. And while I’ll put a drone up in the air and scour over the top of every private island across the Lowcountry, the tree canopy is thick, even in the winter.
“Your best bet is the money trail with Gentry,” Mama advises. “When you got as much as he does, it’s gonna fall out along the way and lead a trail right to him. Just stay on it and don’t give up.”
“His wife found statements for a bank account she didn’t know about,” I update her.
“There you go,” she says. “See—men and their money. They’ll stick their dick in the breeze for sex, but they sure will squirrel their money away to hide their own nut.”
