Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
“ T he writing was…all right today.” Mitch couldn’t pretend otherwise. Being back on the boat had unsettled him. Harper had to be picking up on his mood.
“Why just all right?” Harper asked. “Did something happen? Are you stuck on a plot point? Did you have the characters make a wrong decision somewhere?”
He shook his head. “Nothing like that. I, uh, went to check on the boat today.” He hesitated as those memories returned. He cleared his throat. “It was the first time I’d been on the boat since Jeanie passed.”
“I see,” Harper said softly. “That had to be good and bad.”
He looked up. “It was. Brought back a lot of feelings. Good memories. But it was hard. Jeanie loved that boat. It was her idea to buy it. We took a boating safety class and made sure we knew everything there was to know about it. We’d both had some experience with boats, but with Kyle on board…”
He lost himself in the memories, unaware that silence stretched out between them.
“You wanted to be extra careful,” Harper said.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. Scenes from the past, happier times, continued to play out in his head.
“I understand now why books three and four were so realistic.”
He thought a moment, then laughed as he remembered. “When Charlie was captured by pirates on the journey to Labyrinth Island.”
Harper nodded. “They’re possibly two of my most favorite books in the series. They’re so authentic and when Charlie befriends the pirates and helps them fight off the Queen’s guard, only for them to reward her with that massive emerald and their undying loyalty…it was just fantastic. You didn’t actually face down pirates, did you?”
He snorted. “No. Thankfully. Although Kyle would have probably thought that was cool. And Jeanie would have charmed them into doing her wishes.”
“Jeanie and Charlie have a lot in common, don’t they?”
He stared at Harper, an odd sensation settling over him. “I guess they do.”
“You say that like it’s new information. Don’t tell me Charlie isn’t modeled after Jeanie.”
Astonishment filled him. “You’re not going to believe this, but no, not deliberately. Now that you say it, though, she is very much like Jeanie. How did I not see that before?”
“Your subconscious must have known. Probably part of the reason it was so difficult for you to write after her passing.”
“Maybe.” The idea that his main character, Charlie Nightingale, was based on his late wife gave him a curious sense of happiness. It meant that Jeanie lived on in more than just his memories.
“Is that all right with you? Or don’t you like it?”
“I like it a lot. I can’t believe I never realized it.”
“You’re too close,” Harper said. “It’s like the saying about how you can’t see the forest for the trees. But the more you tell me about Jeanie, the more I see those qualities in Charlie. I’m sure Jeanie wasn’t a half-vampire who went around regularly kicking butt and doing mercenary work, but the way she charms those around her, her ability to remain upbeat even in the face of danger, her loyalty to her friends, her fearlessness…those all sound like Jeanie.”
He nodded, a small lump forming in his throat. “She was…just like that.” But the news still felt like a revelation. “I love that you brought this to my attention. It makes me want to write more than ever.”
Harper held her hands up. “If you’re telling me to leave, I completely respect that. I would never want to stand in the way of you getting work done.”
He let out a snort of air. “No, I’m definitely done writing for the day. But I’m already anticipating my next writing session and that hasn’t happened in a while.” Not since Harper had come into his life.
Now that anticipation was becoming a more standard thing.
“So how was the boat? If today was the first time you’d been on it in a while, what does that mean? Is it still seaworthy?”
“Don’t worry about that. It is. I’ve had Kai maintaining it. He’s the marina master. He knows more about boats than anyone else I know. The boat is in perfect condition.”
“Then the outing is still a go?”
“It is. Why? Are you getting cold feet? I know some people aren’t comfortable on the water. I should have asked, I guess.”
“No, I’m looking forward to it. We all are. Willa especially. She wants to know if it’s okay to post some pictures on social media tomorrow when we’re out on the boat. I told her you might not want that, seeing as you’re a very private person, but I said I’d ask.”
“I…” He hesitated. How did he feel about that? Truth was…he didn’t love it. But he also didn’t want to be the bad guy. “I don’t know.”
“It’s okay to say no. Setting boundaries is a good thing.”
He smiled. “Now you really sound like a therapist.”
“Sorry, wasn’t my intention.”
“No, it’s fine. And you’re right. Boundaries are good. But for the last few years I’ve been nothing but boundaries. Maybe a couple of pictures on your niece’s social media isn’t the hill I want to die on. Especially if it would make her happy.”
“It would make her love you more than she does already, which is a pretty spectacular feat. She thinks her professors would even be impressed.”
He snorted. “I don’t know about that.”
“Mitch, modesty is great and all, but you’re a household name. At least among the literate.”
“And thanks to Netflix, the not so literate, too.”
This time, she laughed. “You’re just proving my point. If you want to say no, it’s fine. Willa will understand.”
“I do want to say no, because it’s easy and safe. But there’s a big part of me that thinks I should say yes.”
Harper’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t make this decision for you. And I won’t. Whatever you do, it has to be completely your own.”
He nodded. “I get that.”
“Good. Do you want to talk about it some more?”
“No, I have some thinking to do but I’ll figure it out.” He frowned, as some of that thinking happened faster than he’d expected. “Although…”
“Yes?”
“It’s nothing.”
Harper’s gaze held obvious skepticism. “It was clearly something.”
He sighed. “I was thinking about my son. What his reaction might be if he saw I was out on the boat with people. Of course, he’d have to be checking my social media for that to happen, which is doubtful. I guess someone could show him the posts. I don’t know.”
She shifted, uncrossing her legs, then crossing them in the opposite direction. “Do you think it would upset him?”
“My guess is everything I do upsets him, otherwise we’d be on speaking terms.”
“What about it do you think would bother him?”
Mitch pondered that. “Probably that I was living my life. That I was enjoying myself and not still miserable about Jeanie. Which I am. I’ll mourn her the rest of my life. But, as cliched as it is, life goes on. Whether you want to live it or not.”
“True.” Harper rested her hands in her lap. “Do you think Kyle is still grieving for his mom?”
“From what I’ve seen of Addison’s social media, he’s not. He’s doing whatever Addison tells him to do.”
“And Addison is who?”
“Sorry. His girlfriend. She’s an Instagram influencer, I suppose you’d call it. No clue if she has a real job or if that’s it. Based on how often she posts, I’d say no real job. Kyle blocked me from his account, but I found her account early on and I don’t have a clue if she even knows I follow her with all the rest of the people that do, but it’s about the only way I can keep track of him these days.”
“You don’t like her. That’s pretty obvious.”
“No, I don’t. She treats my son like an accessory.” Mitch scowled. “Kyle deserves better.”
“There’s more to it than that, though. Isn’t there?”
Why was Harper so perceptive? How? He could only nod. “Yes. This young woman, Addison, she’s not the sort of person my wife and I ever imagined Kyle would be with. She’s fake. Right down to her eyelashes. He was raised to value the good in a person. To look at a person’s character and their actions. Not their perceived clout or the way they look. Which, in Addison’s case, is very plastic.”
Harper shrugged. “Maybe she is a good person. Maybe she does all kinds of charitable work that you don’t know about.”
He exhaled, hard. “If Addison was doing anything even remotely like that, you can be sure it would be all over her social media. She can’t have coffee without sharing it.” He shook his head. “Jeanie wouldn’t like her. She’d be kind to her, but this is not a woman she’d approve of. Especially not for Kyle.”
“Do you think that’s why Kyle’s with her? That it’s some kind of rebellion?”
Mitch didn’t see it that way. “I doubt it. He loved his mother. He was a mama’s boy, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. He adored her.”
Harper angled her head to the side. “Then maybe he’s with this young woman as a way of punishing you.”
Mitch sat in silence, letting a few seconds tick by as the truth of that statement sank in. “That might be more like it.”
“You don’t like Addison and it seems that’s something he would know. If he also knows you’re following her, then what’s happening online could be very deliberate. Although I doubt she’s tweaking everything she does in an attempt to irritate you, but then again…” Harper made a face. “People can be petty.”
“That they can be.”
“I’m sorry things with your son continue to be strained. I hope that changes for you. Soon. I know it weighs on you.”
“It does.” He made himself smile. “But the only person I can change is me. Maybe that’s really what I should be focusing on. You know what? Tell Willa she can post whatever she likes on social media. The odds of Kyle seeing it feel slim and, if he does, maybe it’ll shake him up enough to finally reach out to me.”
“You’re sure?”
He wasn’t. But things couldn’t get worse between him and Kyle. He nodded with more conviction than he felt. “Yes. I am.”