Page 82 of No One Aboard
He propped his head up on his hand. “Thinking. Not that you’d know much about that.”
“Ha ha.” She snuggled up beside him, watching his face for a reaction. “Want to talk about what’s on your mind?”
Nico shifted away from her ever so slightly.
Her face grew hot. She got the message and sat up. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m the one who should be sorry. Really.” He summoned a smile and placed a hand over hers. “Let’s talk tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure.” Tia pulled back and went to the door. “Till tomorrow, Siren.”
“Aye aye.”
She crept back into the hall and stood suspended by indecision. She sure as hell wasn’t tired; she’d been waiting up for hours. Not that she would be able to sleep if she tried. Nico’s rejection, no matter how slight, had stung, and she despised the feeling. She made her way up on deck, as was tradition when she couldn’t sleep. The hot, pent-up air belowdecks was too much to stand—at least, that was what she told herself.
Tia wasn’t exactly in the mood to have a heart-to-heart with Alejandro, who was at the helm (he’d just tell Francis anything she said anyway, and she’d decided not to confront her father about running away so he wouldn’t suspectSOS), but she figured watching the dark waves for a while would soothe her. There was no point stressing over Nico anyway. They’d talk tomorrow.
Tomorrow... It was just past midnight now. That meant tomorrow was officially her and Rylan’s eighteenth birthday. They should have been home in Florida days ago, wrapping presents and reclining in the sunroom. Instead they were here, imprisoned on their own boat as they headed to some island.
Tia stopped midships and craned her neck to take in thestars, which never got old to her, especially this far out at sea. The milky way spilled across the sky, flanked by studded lights in every direction. A brilliant red one seized Tia’s attention. It was huge and bright, floating just aboveThe Old Eileen’s bowsprit.
Tia screwed her eyes shut and reopened them. It wasn’t a star at all. It was Lila Logan Cameron standing at the frontmost part of the ship, a lit cigarette balanced between her fingers. What was she doing out of bed?
Tia made her way over to her mother and leaned on the rail beside her. Lila didn’t give any indication that she was surprised by her daughter’s appearance.
“Isn’t that a maritime violation, Mom?”Didn’t you quit smoking two years ago?
Lila exhaled a ring of pearly smoke. “Who’s going to turn me in, lovey?”
Fair point.
“Can I try?”
Lila twirled the cigarette in her fingers, then handed it over without a fight.
Tia pretended she was a movie star like her mother as she took a drag. Smoking with Lila felt very different than smoking with her classmates on Friday nights behind her dormitory. The smoke spread smooth and silklike through her.
“I’m surprised you’re up here,” Tia commented. It wasn’t like her mother to gaze admiringly at the sea. She was dressed in a silk-thin robe with swaths of purple flowers blooming on the shoulders and hem. It clung to her body almost unnaturally, and Tia could follow the glass-shard line of her collarbones beneath the tissue-paper fabric.
Tia put the cigarette to her lips again. It stuck to her mouth, glued with remnants of her mother’s designer lipstick. Smoke blew through her, and she handed it back to Lila.
“This boat is a fragile thing,” Lila mused without warning or context, reclaiming the cigarette. “Fragile like a family.”
Tia frowned around atThe Old Eileen. She felt it was the opposite, the only sturdy thing in the vicinity. It was quite literally the thing that was keeping their family together. Even if it was by force.
“How do you mean, Mom?”
Lila’s hair swayed in tandem with the curling smoke. “It takes so much effort just to keep it afloat. I think without us here it might simply dissolve.”
“Uh-huh...” Tia plucked the cigarette from Lila’s hand and dangled it from between her own teeth as she thought. Lila was wrong. If the world came to an end,The Old Eileenmight sit on top of it forever. The ship didn’t need the Camerons. Maybe nothing did.
“What was it like with me gone?” Tia asked, passing the cigarette.
“Hmm.” Lila tapped it on the railing, and ash drifted like snow. “Rather... tranquil.”
Tia grunted. “The three of you got weirdly close. Like, it’s dysfunctional. But close. Like you could all finally connect when I was gone.” Tia wanted her mother to shake her head and sayThat’s preposterous, lovey! We could never be a family without you.
Lila held in a breath for a long time before blowing out a lopsided ring. “My family was supposed to have four, you know. Two parents. Two children.”
