“If you’re pushing for grandkids, you’re barking up the wrong tree. You should be taking a walk with Beau or Graham.”
“I’m not vying for grandchildren, although I’d surely welcome them. I miss having little ones around. Brindle and Trace’s baby sure is darlin’.”
“She’s cute, but loud.”
A single deep laugh fell from his father’s lips. “Everyone’s loud, son. But some of the loudest voices are the ones only a parent can hear.” He met Zev’s gaze and said, “I guess I do have a point to this talk.”
“You usually do.”
“It’s no secret that your mother and I worry about you.”
“I know you do, and just in case I ever forget, Jilly reminds me every time we video chat.” He pushed a hand through his hair, turned toward the lake to avoid his father’s keen eyes, and said, “I’m fine, Dad.”
“Yeah, I know you are. We’re blessed that our children can handle themselves in this world. But parenting is an endless job. I’ll worry until the day you bury me six feet under.”
He glanced at his father and said, “How about we hold off on that for a while?”
“Fine by me.” He studied Zev for a moment before saying, “Remember when you made your first big discovery with Luis?”
“Best day of my life.” That wasn’t the truth, but it was the only one he could voice. He’d had many even better best days, but they all involved Carly.
“Do you remember what you said to me?” He didn’t give Zev a chance to answer. “You told me that was what you were meant to do, and I believed you, son.”
The way he said it gave Zev pause. “You have doubts now?”
“Not really. But sometimes people are meant to do more than one thing with their lives. I saw you talking with Carly at the reception, and I have to tell you, Zev. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the light that she brings out in you shining as bright from anything else, including that discovery.”
He hadn’t expected his father to bring up Carly. His chest felt too tight, and he tried to fill his lungs with the crisp evening air. It burned all the way in. “Yeah, well, we have a lot of history.”
“You have a lot of love,” his father countered.
Zev bent to pick up a rock, and threw it across the lake, wrestling with his father’s words. “Someone should have told me she lived here and that she’d be at the wedding. I was blindsided.”
“Sometimes being surprised is better than having time to try to figure out how to handle things. Your mother claims so, at least, and she’s a smart woman.”
“Yes, she is.”
“So, you and Carly? Did you tell her you’ve found the ship you two had planned on searching for?”
Zev scoffed. “No, Dad. We’ve got a lot to deal with before I throw that out there. It would feel like bragging. According to Carly, I don’t know who she is anymore.” But just like when he’d seen her in Mexico, the second their eyes had connected, he’d felt that hook she’d always had in him digging beneath his skin and reeling him in. He’d suffer a thousand hooks if she were at the other end of the line.
“There’s probably some truth to that. Tragedies change people. Life changes people.”
“I don’t know, Dad. Sometimes I think I’m the same stupid kid I was before I left home, just a whole lot richer. But other times I can’t remember who that kid was.”
“Maybe you’re not meant to figure all that out by yourself.” His father kicked at a quarter-size stone and bent to pick it up. He studied it, turning it over in his hand as he said, “You know, you can unearth treasures until the day you die, and I’ll support your every endeavor.”
He always had. When Zev had left home to travel, he’d taken a backpack full of his belongings and the money he’d saved while working through high school and his first year of college. When he’d contacted his father to get some engineering advice about an apparatus he and Luis wanted to build in order to clear away sand on the seabed, his parents had helped fund the project by giving him the money they’d saved for his college education. If it weren’t for those funds, he and Luis might never have found their way to the wreckage.
“I appreciate that, Dad.”
“This is the only time you’ll ever hear me say this.” His father’s expression turned thoughtful, and