Page 25 of Liam

My shoulders tighten, but I don’t face her. “What?”

“Thank you.”

For over an hour, we float out in the lake while Katie and Adelaide talk, and I listen.

There are a total of zero bites, but Katie doesn’t seem to care.

At one point, she asks Addie to braid her hair “like you, Addie,” and so Adelaide gives in to her request, removing the hair tie and ribbon from her own hair to do so.

One would think, going by Adelaide’s responses, that Katie is telling her the most fascinating details of the most interesting topics, but no. Katie’s talking aboutcheese. And I don’t know if Adelaide’s being like this with her out of the kindness of her heart—if she even has one of those—or if she’s just playing along like I am.

But, being out here for as long as we have, with nothing but fresh air, Katie’s voice, and the lake water surrounding us, I’ve realized something.

I don’t know Adelaide Baker at all.

“Daddy!” Katie squeals out of nowhere, and I glance at the shore, toward my sister’s house, to see Cameron waving and walking toward us. He’s still in his work suit, with the tie loose, sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Katie drops her fishing rod into the boat, then throws her arms in the air, jumping up and down in her spot. “Daddy’s home!” She turns to me, her cheeks even chubbier from the force of her smile. “I swim to Daddy.”

I chuckle. “Let me get you back to the dock, then I’ll take you home.”

“No, please,” she whines, hands in prayer under her chin. “I swim to Daddy! Look!” She pats her life vest. “I swim.”

There’s no dock by my sister’s house, so I can’t get the boat close enough, and there’s no way I’m going to let her swim to shore alone, so it’s obvious I’m not getting out of this situation dry. With a heavy sigh, I rid the phone from my pocket and remove my shirt, then dive into the lake. When I come backup, Katie’s already attempting to get off the boat, while Adelaide holds her back. I lift Katie out, hold her close, then look up at Adelaide. “I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t, like, steal the boat.”

Adelaide doesn’t steal the boat.

She does, however, steal my breath.

Just for a moment.

Look.

I’m not blind, nor am I immune to the effects of physical attraction to those of the opposite sex, regardless of who they might be.

The girl’s sitting with her legs out, crossed at the ankles, her arms outstretched behind her. She’s facing the sky, angling her neck in a way that has me thinking things I shouldn’t. Her eyes are closed, shadowed by the brim of my cap, and it’s the only reason I feel it safe to even look at her.

She doesn’t even flinch when the boat comes to life, and now I have to steer it back to the dock, which means I can’tnotface her direction, and it’s distracting.

And confusing.

And annoying.

After a long moment, she finally breaks the silence. “You know… I used to watch you from afar.”

I raise my eyebrows, attempting to hide my surprise.

“Notyou,specifically,” she reiterates. “I mean your family.”

Oh.

Her arms are glistening as much as her legs, and strands of her loose hair stick to her shoulders. She continues, motioning over the hill and toward the old trailer. “You know I used to live there, right?”

I didn’t know. Not until that night when I saw her wedging herself through the fence. I don’t tell her that, though. I juststay quiet, slow the boat as we pass her old home so she can take her time saying whatever it is she needs to. “Some days I’d go through the fence. Other times, I’d just watch from the other side.” I don’t know why she’s choosing now to talk to me, especially about something so personal. Maybe she’s like me in that way—needing to talk for the sake of talking. “Then Roman—he scored this old ladder from his work, and he put it up against our house so I could sit on the roof, watch the sunset right over this lake…” She doesn’t look at me when she talks, and I wish she would. Her eyes are lighter now, much lighter than I’d ever seen them. “I always wondered what it would be like to be one of you. To have so many siblings around. To always have someone to be with, play with… share everything with. You all looked so happy, you know? I could hear all your laughter, even from there.”

I can say and think a lot of negative things, but one thing I’ll always appreciate is how lucky I am to be raised the way I was. I don’t have friends, haven’t for a long time now, but I have my family, and they’re all I need. Only with them do I feel safe enough to let my guard down and be myself. So, if she heard our laughter like she says she did, then mine was probably in the mix. Though, those may have been the only times she’s heard it.

“I watched your sister’s wedding from there…” she continues. “And I saw the lanterns you all let float into the sky afterward. You’ve done it a few times since.” She finally faces me, her cheeks a shade darker than they were only seconds ago. Eyes right on mine, she asks, “I’ve always wondered what those were about… the lanterns.”

---