make it across the Atlantic in record time was all I should have been thinking about. Proving the yachts were ready to transport whatever the Kyōdaina wanted was necessary. Years of planning had gone into making this exact moment a reality.
Demario had pulled his boat into the slip next to the Ada Mae overnight. He and Angelica were going through the same last-minute steps. While Dax and I had chosen sleek, almost stealth-like colors for our yacht, Demario had chosen the colors of the Italian flag for his. It looked like a Christmas wreath, but who was I to complain.
Between Demario and Enzo buying their yachts from us, they’d almost paid for our boat completely. Three for the price of two. Plus, the shipyard was all too happy to back the rest of it. They wanted their name tied to these earth-shattering designs.
If Enzo’s mother hadn’t passed away, he would have been at the dock, setting up just like us. It would have been three equally made boats, racing to land in Tarifa, the skill of the pilots being the only difference.
As the sky began to turn from gray to orange, a crowd appeared on the pier. The news outlets had been alerted by Jada, Dax, and the yacht club shouting it out all over their social media accounts. Demario’s family was there. Dax’s family had wanted to be, but the timing had been off with his mom on set in Bali. My family was not, but, as if he could hear my thoughts, Truck texted me.
TRUCK: Be safe. Have fun. Bring the fucking cup home.
ME: That’s the plan. Wish me luck.
TRUCK: Luck!
It was an exchange we’d used since we were kids. A way of acknowledging we had someone not only cheering us on, but also waiting for us to come back when there were very few people in our lives who were. I swallowed back the emotions I felt whenever we used the words these days. There’d been years when we hadn’t said them at all. When I’d lost myself in pity and despair, and he’d been angry at the world for a failing grade he hadn’t earned that had cost him a year of his life.
“We’ve come to wish you well,” Jada’s voice said, and the noise of her feet clambering onto the deck had me whipping my head around.
Violet was with her. She was in the blue jacket she’d been wearing the night I’d found her on the kitchen floor. The one she’d had nothing but a bra on underneath. Today, I could see a thick sweater sticking out from beneath the collar.
Better covered in multiple layers of clothes than in the barely-there dress she’d had on the night before. The one I’d longed to take off of her slowly and steadily but had, instead, sent her away with a drunk Jada.
Her eyes journeyed to my lips as she approached, just like when we’d said goodnight the previous evening.
“Vi,” I said, a deep grunt that had everyone around us smirking.
I wanted to roll my eyes at myself. Smack the back of my head in the way Truck used to. Kick my rear out of the images and distraction of her.
“Dawson,” she said, lips twitching, hand smoothing the ends of her braid.
Behind them, a darker form emerged. All in black. The long wool overcoat he had on made him look like someone from a video game. Ken’Ichi.
“Here’s to everything―everyone―making it safely,” Ken’Ichi said.
Jada stiffened as his hand landed on her shoulder just as I stiffened at the innuendo he’d dropped. His eyes went from Jada to Violet to me, and my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. Bringing Vi to New York had been exactly the mistake I’d worried it would be. Before, he’d only seen her as Jada’s friend. Now, he saw her as mine.
A foghorn sounded. Time to cast off.
Jada hugged Dax and then turned to me. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered, “Stay safe,” into her hair. “Keep both of you safe.”
“You’ll be back before you know it,” she said and pulled away.
Violet repeated the motions, and I couldn’t help squeezing her tighter than I had our friend. “Look after each other. I’ll be back in five or six days.”
The problem was, we both knew, from experience, that life could change dramatically in a much shorter time than that.
They left the boat, Dax threw off the ropes, and we pushed away. As we headed toward the buoy that would be our