Michael (Wild Men #8)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Michael

Lucky Queen was my dad’s boat, the one that sank somewhere in the Atlantic. Never fully recovered, but pieces of it were found, enough to know the tragic result.

Only those who were on deck that night owned Lucky Queen pin logos. Some, like my father, always left the pins behind when they set sail.

I keep his pin with me at all times now. Seeing the same pin among Emery’s purse contents unnerved me to the point that I shut her out.

“Michael?” Emery’s tone is filled with concern. “You’ve gone pale. Is everything all right?”

“Where did you get the Lucky Queen pin?” My words come out harsher than I plan for them to.

“Ohh. The pin that fell out of my purse,” she says like it explains something.

I nod. “Did someone give it to you?”

“My godmother,” she says softly. “Her husband was a fisherman.”

“Where?” I demand. “Not in Montana. ”

“No. In Maine.”

I feel like I’m completely unmoored. I’m caught in a wave where nothing makes sense.

“Maine?” I can’t stop myself from repeating it.

She bites her lip. “I felt like telling you that my godfather drowned was really personal. I was worried I’d get emotional because…” She chokes up. “I always do when I think about him.”

“I get it.” I reach for her hand and squeeze it before letting it go.

“My godparents lived in Lucky Bay for years.” Emery smiles, unaware she’s completely taken my legs out from under me. “I love that name.”

“And your godmother lives there?”

“My godmother lives in Montana now.”

Lynn.

It can’t be.

And yet, nothing else makes sense…

“Is your godmother also your aunt?” I ask.

“Yes.”

Holy. Shit.

Emery blinks. “Wait. How’d you know that? Crazy guess?”

“Sort of.”

Heat fills my body.

I hate talking about Dad’s death. Everyone who says time makes the pain lessen has never lost a parent.

My father wasn’t just my hero. He was my everything. He was the man I wanted to be when I grew up. Until one day, he was gone, and suddenly the dream of being just like him didn’t feel so good.

Emery’s staring at me like I’ve seen a ghost.

Under any other circumstances, I would end this conversation and peace out. No harm, no foul. Because I’m drowning in my past, and I don’t know how to get beyond that. I’ve never figured out how to, and explaining that to a near stranger feels impossible.

But this woman…she hits different. That’s what I’ve been feeling since I met her, and I’m faced with another crossroads.

The decision to stay is surprisingly easy for me.

I can’t walk away without a fight.

I’ve got to tell her the truth.

If things implode, at least, I can say I tried.

So…I choose to try.

“Here’s the thing—I’m a fisherman too,” I say.

“Really?”

“Yep. I live in Lucky Bay.”

She gasps. “It’s such a small town! I mean, what are the odds…”

“Slim to none. And another thing…”

I reach into my pocket and pull out my wallet. I slide out my dad’s pin and hand it to Emery.

Emery stares at the pin in her open palm before looking up at me. “I don’t understand…”

I force out the next six words. “ Lucky Queen was my dad’s boat.”

“Oh.” Her eyes widen, and she puts her hand to her mouth. “Ohh. Wow.”

I swallow. “Yeah.”

We stare at each other in silence.

Finally, Emery says in nearly a whisper, “Your dad drowned nearly twenty years ago?”

I choke down the waves of emotion hitting me.

“I’m so sorry, Michael.”

Emery’s voice is like an echo next to me.

I never let my dad’s drowning affect me in front of others. I barely allow myself to feel the grief when I’m alone, and always only on the boat. But right now, I’m honest-to-God about to lose it. It feels like my present is colliding with my past in a way I never could have anticipated.

I take a breath and try to keep my voice even. “That’s why I do what I do for a job. The sea is the only place I can still feel my dad’s presence. And Tony, your godfather—and uncle—was my father’s best friend,” I say, my voice way too raw—and way too vulnerable. “I just gave Lynn a photo of them the other night.”

Emery gasps. “She showed me that photo. It was beautiful.”

“I wanted her to have a copy.”

Emery stares at me. “Wait. So you were at the coffee shop to see Lynn the other night? She was talking about how Tony’s best friend’s son was on his way to meet her, but she calls you Mikey. I never put two and two together…”

“She still thinks of me as a kid,” I say wryly. “She calls you Mimi.”

“That was my family’s childhood nickname for me, and it stuck. My close friends call me that too.” She blinks. “I get it now. Tony was my dad’s brother. Lynn never mentioned my actual name to you, so you wouldn’t have made the connection.”

“It all makes sense,” I say. “But it’s pretty incredible that we met all on our own. And that we…”

I trail off, but a current passes between us, a connection so intense I don’t know how to make sense of it. I just know that I’ve never felt a bond like this with anyone. I wanted to get to know Emery before I found out about who her godfather was. But now, I want to learn everything about her.

Because she gets me.

Somehow, I already know that.

We’re still staring at each other when she stands up and crosses over to sit on the same couch as me.