Page 85 of No One Aboard

“Rylan, darling,” Lila said, “why don’t you go get one of your animal books? We can try to identify the kind of shark your sister and I saw.”

To her relief, Rylan got up right away to do just that.

Francis sawed at his toast. “Did Alejandro see the shark? He was on watch at that time, wasn’t he?”

Lila smiled breezily. She had hoped that the lovely moment she and Francis had with Rylan in the dark little hatch would have rectified her husband’s coldness toward her. Tia was planning to abandon her, abandon them all. There was nothing like having a common enemy to smooth over cracks in a family foundation.

“Alejandro was in the cockpit steering, dear. Tia and I saw the shark more toward the front of the boat.”

“The bow,” Francis corrected.

“Naturally.”

Rylan came back in with a marine biology book clutched to his chest. He pushed aside his untouched breakfast and opened it to the sharks and rays section. Lila peered at the photographs of the dinosaur-like monsters. The dark shape in the water from last night could have been any of them, for all she knew. She hoped secretly that it had been a dolphin or a small whale. A shark following their ship was nausea-inducing. What if someone went overboard?

“A reef shark maybe. Or even a tiger!” Tia pointed at several pictures in excitement.

Lila expected Rylan to look terrified by the possibility of a tiger shark trailing after their family boat, but he instead seemed enthralled.

Guess we aren’t as similar as I thought.

“I want to go see if I can spot it,” Rylan said, and he bolted from the room, bringing the shark book with him.

Tia, probably loath to be left alone at the table with her parents, retreated out of sight down the hall to her cabin. It was strange that they hadn’t gone together. Lila decided to take it as a good sign that Rylan was finding his own footing.

Francis dabbed at a stain on his shirt collar, then folded his napkin and replaced it in his lap. Lila drained her glass of iced lemonade.

“You weren’t in bed for a while after I got off watch,” he said, picking up his fork again.

Lila nodded, nibbled at the toast.

“You know, Lil, if you can’t sleep, you can wake me up. I can help.”

Lila stood and rifled through the refrigerator to get cream cheese. “I know, Francis. You’ve just been so exhausted since... this week.”

“That’s the price of being captain. Even if there were no unfortunate incidents, I wouldn’t get good sleep.”

Lila sat back down and spread the cheese over the fish. “You see? It isn’t fair to wake you.”

Francis considered this. “What kept you up?”

Lila took a bite. The cheese added a creaminess to the meal that was sorely needed. Delicious. She should tell Alejandro to add this for next time. Perhaps with a hint of lemon zest as well?

“You know I worry, Francis. About you. The twins.”

“What about the twins?”

Lila scoured her brain and settled on something simpleand true. “College, if you must know. With everything so up in the air, with Tia so... volatile... I’m just agonizing over their education.” She knew this was a sore spot for Francis.

Francis sat back in his chair. Then he laughed, long and belly deep with a full smile. Lila relaxed.

“Oh, Lil... Is that all? Lila, love, look around us. Look at me, look at you. Neither of us went anywhere near college.” He opened his arms as if their multimillion-dollar boat was evidence enough that they hadn’t needed college. Where had this laissez-faire attitude toward higher education been when he made Rylan cry over picking a lesser school?

Men are fickle.

“You’re right,” she responded.

He leaned across the table and squeezed her hand, none the wiser to what truly plagued her mind. Then his gentle squeeze turned into a vise grip.