for this, for us, for having my back with my mom. All of it.”
“Yours is my favorite back in the whole world,” she said as she ran her fingers through the sweat that had formed at the base of his spine.
“We’re getting a fucking generator.”
Chapter 23
Luke Harris held his sleepy daughter, Lily, while his wife, Sydney, said goodbye to their friends. He wondered if anyone else noticed how fragile Syd seemed lately, since the accident at the marina at the beginning of the summer. She’d inadvertently driven her car over the bulkhead into the water with Lily strapped into her car seat. Mason and Blaine had gotten them out, but not before they’d all been severely traumatized by the rising water inside the car. When he thought about what might’ve happened if it’d taken Blaine and Mason a few more minutes to get there, or if they hadn’t been able to rescue them in time…
He’d had his own nightmares about those scenarios and could only wonder if she had, too. If so, she wasn’t talking to him about it. He kept hoping she’d bounce back, but she hadn’t. Not really. She’d done a great job of pretending to be fine, but he knew her too well for her to get away with it.
She’d had a nice time at Charlie and Sarah’s party, had enjoyed a few glasses of wine with their closest friends and was as relaxed as he’d seen her since the incident.
After they got home and put Lily to bed, he was going to see if he could get her to talk it out with him. He hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake by forcing the issue, but he couldn’t bear to see her suffering in silence any longer.
As they drove home, he tried to think of how he might broach the subject with her. He was nervous about it, which was further indication that things were off between them. Talking to her was the easiest thing he’d ever done—and for someone who’d been quiet with other people his whole life that was saying something. He was never nervous or uncertain around her. The fact that he was both those things now meant this conversation was long overdue.
The accident had happened almost three months ago, but nothing had been the same since then. He’d noticed that Syd went out of her way to avoid driving herself and Lily anywhere unless it was absolutely necessary. That couldn’t continue. She had a booming business as the island’s only interior decorator, and with her biggest job yet—the redecorating of the McCarthys’ hotel coming this winter—she couldn’t be afraid to drive with their daughter in the car.
When they got home, he let their dog, Buddy, out while she gave Lily a bath.
Then they snuggled in their bed to read her a couple of stories.
At the end of a busy day, Lily was tired and fell asleep during the second story.
“Want me to put her in the crib?” Luke asked.
“Sure.”
Luke carefully lifted the sleeping child and carried her into the next room to put her down for the night. Sometimes when he looked at her, he still couldn’t believe she was real. He ran his fingers through silky hair that was the same copper color as her mother’s and gave thanks, as he had every day since that awful ten minutes at the marina, that Blaine and Mason had gotten to them in time.
They’d immediately installed a new curbstone in the spot where it had occurred, but Luke couldn’t bear to look at the area, even after all this time. He woke in a cold sweat at least once a week after having dreamed about the two of them being trapped in a sinking car and him unable to do a goddamned thing to save them.
He forced himself to breathe through the now-predictable wave of nausea that hit him every time he relived those endless moments of watching the car fill with water while his wife and daughter were trapped inside.
Syd blamed herself. She’d been on the phone when her foot slipped off the brake onto the accelerator. No matter how many times she was reminded that it’d been an accident, she couldn’t get past the fact that she’d caused it. And that was at the crux of their problem. She had to forgive herself before she could move on.
He returned to their room, where she was sitting up in bed, her ever-present iPad propped on her knees as she took care