Page 100 of For the Plot

“Maybe it’s time.”

We fall into silence again, but this one is different. Easier. Less sharp around the edges. And that’s when he asks, voice quiet, “Why didn’t you ever date again after Mom?”

I sit with the question for a moment. The answer’s always lived just under the surface, but this is the first time Archer’s actually asked me.

“I couldn’t,” I say finally. “Not for a long time.” Archer watches me, quiet. “Losing her…” I pause, my throat thick. “It gutted me. There was the grief, yeah. But also the guilt. She was everything… smart, driven, kind in this wild, fucked-up world. And she loved me like I hung the moon.”

I glance down at the wheel, my hands still resting there even though the boat’s adrift.

“I didn’t know how to let someone else in after that. It felt wrong. Like I’d be betraying her. Like if I moved on, I was letting her go and that meant losing the last piece of her I still had.”

Archer’s face softens. He doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he’s listening. Really listening.

“I buried myself in work,” I go on. “Told myself I was doing it for you. For the future. But truth is, I was hiding. From everyone. Including you.” He nods, just once. “I thought I was protecting both of us by staying empty,” I admit. “But that kind of numbness… it doesn’t protect anyone. It just isolates.”

Archer looks out at the lake, then back at me. “Then what changed?”

I don’t have to think about it. “Skye. She didn’t try to fix me,” I say. “She didn’t ask for anything but honesty. And the more I gave her, the more I realized I wantedtogive. I wanted to show up.”

He’s quiet for a long time. The water slaps gently at the hull, steady as a heartbeat.

Then, finally, he replies, “It’s still fucked up.”

“I know.”

“You’re my dad,” he says, his voice tight with emotion. “She was mine first.”

“I know that too.”

He takes a breath, shaking his head. “And I was an asshole to her. I hurt her. Then I see her with you, and you’re treating her like—like gold. Like something I never even knew how to hold.”

“She is gold,” I say quietly.

He exhales, dragging his fingers through his hair. “It’s hard to watch.”

“I don’t expect you to be okay with it. Not right away.”

Archer nods. His mouth presses into a thin line. “But I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” I say. “I won’t let that happen.”

His eyes meet mine. They’re full of things he’s not saying. Pain. Confusion. Some bruised part of him that still hasn’t healed. But beneath all that, there’s love too. It’s quiet. Tense. But it’s there.

He nods slowly. “I’ll try.”

That’s all I need. I look out at the water again. Let the wind move across my skin. And for the first time since this whole thing began, I feel something that almost resembles peace. It’s not fixed. It’s sure as shit not perfect. But it’s a start.

Chapter 23

Skye

Idon’t cry on the drive. I don’t listen to music either. Just the hum of the highway and the occasional creak of the old Civic’s suspension as it groans through every curve like it’s protesting the trip as much as I am.

Three hours outside the city and the air already feels different. Softer. Slower. Like time doesn’t race out here, it strolls. My mom’s house appears on the hill like it always has, modest and weatherworn. Like it’s been waiting for me.

She opens the front door before I even knock. “Baby,” she says, pulling me into a hug so tight I feel my ribs groan.

“Hi, Mom.”