Page 23 of Wait for Me

“Mommy!” Still clinging to his dad’s head, Jonas pointed. “My new friend Abdul. See him?”

Well, Marie might be a few inches shorter than Logan, but Jonas’s head cleared both of theirs. She faced the direction where Jonas had pointed, but saw no hijab, no entourage, no Abdul. Still, she nodded, giving her son the benefit of doubt.

After a snack of smoked wild Alaskan salmon on crackers—delicious!—they made their way to the top deck to find somewhere to sit. Jonas was too excited for words, and Marie was only too happy to let Logan deal with him. It was past Jonas’s nap time, and that second wind was wearing down Marie.

It didn’t even faze Logan. He was calm and collected, and let Jonas bounce all over him.

Oddly enough, he hadn’t used his phone once on the trip out on the catamaran, and neither had he returned the phone charger to her.

With Jonas between them making noise, there had been no opportunity for Marie and Logan to talk.

Just as well.

Some things could never be the same again.

All they had between them was Jonas.

Someday, Jonas would be eighteen, go to college, and then that was the end of it.

Marie closed her eyes, and nearly fell asleep, except for the fidgety Jonas next to her. He was yakking away about whales and whatever.

Over the intercom, the announcement came about their arrival somewhere.

For some reason, Marie didn’t feel like leaving her seat. “I’ll stay right here and take a nap.”

Jonas looked like he was about to cry.

“What?” Marie wrinkled her eyebrow. Clearly she had missed all theinstructionsJonas had been trying to give her.

“You’re coming with us. Now, Mommy.”

The crowd around them moved outside.

“I want to be in front,” Jonas said.

Marie sighed. She didn’t want to spoil the party.

She was surprised when Logan reached out and pulled her to her feet, like an invitation to a dance…

Chapter Twelve

The humpback whale calls were difficult to imitate, but Logan and Jonas made a go at it and tried their best as they watched the whales breach the water surface and then splash back into their comfort zone.

In unison, father and son made a mess of the whale song. Logan knew they were laughable, but it had made Jonas happy that Dad had sung along.

“You two sound like some pathetic frogs trapped in a sewer,” Marie said, almost nonchalantly.

Logan glanced at Jonas.

“I’m a whale, not a frog!” Jonas spread his arms wide.

Now he looked like a stampeding elephant in the crowd of tourists on the catamaran, but Logan wasn’t about to say anything. He waited for Marie to do the honors.

This time, Marie didn’t say a word.

Jonas tried his whale song again, alone. Somewhere in the crowd someone laughed. It was probably about something else, but somehow it affected Jonas. His face sagged. He began to cry.

Logan swept him up into his arms and pointed toward the swimming whales, now squirting water into the air. “Look at that, Jonas!”

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