I bite my lip.
“Naaah, we’re just kidding,” Ben says after a beat. “The lifeboat had supplies in it. Blankets and hand warmers. Stuff like that.” He grins as Trey sits back down. “But I did get to see his junk.”
“Easy there, sailor,” Sawyer says. “Don’t spoil the surprise for the ladies.”
Rowan laughs and then pouts. “I never get to see junk. Not fair.”
“Fake boyfriend,” I cough into my hand.
“Shut it,” Rowan says. She turns to Ben. “So was there a flare gun or whatever? How did you get to shore?”
“Well, the helicopter was long gone by the time we got into the lifeboat. So we rested for a while first, and then we went into supersleuth mode and decided that we were out of immediate danger, and that life in general would go much smoother for Sawyer if his parents didn’t ever find out he was on a ferry wreck on a school day. And my parents are out of the country, so I wasn’t too worried about any news getting back to them very quickly.”
Sawyer looks at me. “And I figured the last thing you’d do would be to go to my parents to tell them I’m missing, and that you’d go to Kate first to see what she thought, and she’d most likely want to wait to say anything until we knew for sure what was happening, because of the way my father tends to overreact.”
“You know us pretty well,” I say. “Though I’ll bet Kate was on the verge of telling them when you guys landed on the doorstep.”
Sawyer nods. “Yeah, I wouldn’t blame her. Anyway, we decided the best plan would be to paddle to a pier or a jetty, put our wet suits back on, ditch the lifeboat, and walk to the beach like we were out just having fun.”
“By then the rain had stopped,” Ben says, “and the wind started calming down. It was just a matter of time before the lake would be easier to manage. So once we rested and got warm and ate some weird freeze-dried food and crackers we found in the lifeboat, the sun was coming up, so we could see where we were heading. We started paddling toward that bird sanctuary out there on the harbor north of Chicago. When we got close, we put our wet suits on again and I made Sawyer wear the life vest all the way into the park in case he fell headfirst into a bucket of water or something.”
“Well played,” Sawyer says, and they do some secret fist-bump handshake thing I’ve never seen them do before.
“We hailed a cab not far from the beach,” Ben says. “Sawyer used the driver’s phone to call your landline, but just got the recording that Demarco’s Pizzeria is rebuilding and will reopen this fall.”
“We didn’t hook up the residential number when we moved here since we all had cell phones,” Trey murmurs. “And those numbers aren’t listed.”
Ben nods. “I’m just glad I still had my wallet. It was a bit wet after the phone ordeal, but obviously the credit card still worked, and that’s all that matters.” He checks the clock on the wall and frowns. “The driver dropped us at my dorm and waited so we could quickly change into some clothes, and then took us straight here.” He looks at Trey and reaches for his hand. “We couldn’t wait to get here. It was so frustrating how lost we were, not having anybody’s contact information memorized. I always had it there in my phone. And now it’s at the bottom of Lake Michigan.”
I notice Ben checking the time, and reluctantly I stand up, because we need to go. “Sawyer, do you want to go to school or just go home?”
“I want to go where you go.”
Ben says, “My only class today starts in ten minutes, so I think I’m skipping one more day.” He grins. “You want me to hang out here and wait for you?” he asks Trey. What a guy.
“Um, no.” Trey looks sidelong at Rowan. “You wanna be Mom and call in sick for me?”
Rowan smirks. “How much is it worth to you?”
Fifty-Two
Trey drops Rowan, Sawyer, and me at Kate’s. Sawyer brushes his teeth and grabs his backpack, and we take his car to school. Trey takes a sick day and spends it with Ben. Mr. Polselli checks in with me and I give him a bright smile. Lunch is intimate, just Sawyer and me, and we hold hands across the table as he tells me all the places on his body that hurt so I can feel sorry for him. In sculpting, Ms. White asks me if Trey and I got the news we were hoping for.
“We did,” I say, and I can’t stop smiling. I decide to work extra hard on my vase today to thank Ms. White for being lenient. And maybe I’ll even pull off a better grade on it than Trey, which would rock.
After school, Sawyer drops Rowan and me off at our house so he can go home, rest for a bit, and catch up on his homework.
And there’s my dad, sitting in the living room with the shades drawn and the TV on at three o’clock in the afternoon.
Rowan gives me a look of doom. My stomach drops. The stretch of good times is over. Did I do this to him?
He looks up when we walk through the room on the way to our bedroom. “Girls!” he booms. “How was your day?”
I freeze. And slowly turn to look at him. “Fine,” I say.
“Good. Rowan, your mother wants you to help her in the backyard. She’s planting a garden so we can grow our own stuff for the food truck.”
Rowan’s eyes widen. “Oh. Okay.” She drops her backpack in the bedroom and escapes out of here like a sidewinder.
Dad turns the TV off and reaches back to open the blinds behind the couch. “I was just killing time waiting for you to get here.” He’s shaved and showered and nicely dressed as usual for the past few weeks. “We never finished talking yesterday.”