KT looks at me and says, “What would you do if you had no fear?”
“Oh my God,” Chloe says. “That’s so cheating.”
KT drops a brow. “As long as she gets there, what does it matter how?”
Chloe sighs and crosses her arms. “Oversimplifying to, like, the millionth degree, but whatever.”
I can’t help but laugh. I love these women so much, it hurts.
“All right, back to fear,” KT says. “Fear of failing, fear of succeeding, fear of disappointing your parents, fear of disappointing yourself, fear of what others will think, fear of doing it wrong—”
“Whoa,” I put out a hand. “I don’t do wrong.”
“Of course you do, but let’s s
ave that for another time.”
I roll my eyes.
“So, if you had no fear,” she says, “what would you do?”
I’d crawl into Levi’s bed and spend a week showing him how much I’ve grown up.
“I’d fix this place.” As soon as I say it, my heart settles and ease slides into my body. I can’t remember the last time something felt so right…except for maybe the way Levi looked at me in the grocery store when he was touching the scar on my temple. Or the way he was willing to stand up for me against Dunphy.
I drag my mind back to the idea of renovation. “But this is a big fix. I’d need to be here to oversee everything. Even with a general contractor on the job, this is just too big and specialized of a project to think I could do it in my spare time, which I don’t have.”
“What about taking a sabbatical or leave of absence from work?”
I suck air through my teeth. The prospect of telling my parents not only that I want to leave the company, but that the purpose would be to tend to Grandpa’s land would be like a double hit. “I’d be on my parents’ shit list.”
“Then you must be doing something right. All kids are on their parents’ shit list at one time or another.” KT yawns. “It’s about time you joined them.”
“Oh my God.” Chloe yawns too. “KT you started it.”
“Sorry.” She lets herself fall sideways on the futon and starts to pretend snore.
“I get the message.” I stand and put the empty wine bottle and glasses in the sink. “You two get some sleep.”
We hug and disburse to the sleeping quarters we arranged—KT out on a foam mattress they pulled off another boat, situated in the screened porch, Chloe on the futon in the living room, and me on the twin in the only real bedroom on the boat. It was truly equally distributed discomfort in my opinion.
But it’s early for me, and my mind continues spinning long after the others have fallen asleep. I pick up my phone and step out onto the dock, then call my parents.
“Hi, honey,” my mom says. “How’s your getaway with the girls?” Then she yells to my dad. “Honey, it’s Laiyla.”
My parents don’t know where I met these girls. They still have no idea how close I came to dying in that cyclone. And I don’t need any more told-you-sos than I already get on a regular basis, so that trip will forever stay my secret.
My dad picks up another line. “Hey, sweetie.”
With all three of us on the line, I’m slammed back in time, to the way they always spoke to me when I was away from home as a kid.
“Hey,” I say. “I need to talk to you guys about the lake.”
“Didn’t I tell you?” From the tone of my mom’s voice, I can tell she’s talking to my father, not me.
My dad chuckles. “I owe you breakfast in bed, my love.”
I roll my eyes. Before I can speak, my mother says, “The answer is yes, honey. We would never expect you to shoulder that burden on your own. You just have fun with your friends and come home. We’ll handle everything.”