Chapter 11: The Galley

I found Theo in the Gull Rock's galley at four o'clock, scrubbing the coffee urn with a steel brush.

He looked up and grinned.

"How did it go? Did the chair talk back?"

"It went fine." I put the manila folder on the counter between us. "I found this in your sea chest."

The grin went out of his face.

He put the brush down very slowly.

"Dee."

"A lease in Portland," I said. "Signed. Dated the week after my sister's text."

"Let me explain."

"My brother says my father knows about it. He says to ask you why you were in Portland."

"Your father knows because I told him." Theo wiped his hands on a rag.

"I went to his study that Sunday. I showed him that paper."

"Why?"

"Because I was done."

I stared at him.

He leaned both hands on the counter and said it to the folder, not to me.

"I'd waited four years, Dee.

"That was the week your sister sent that text, with a heart on it.

"I drove to Portland and signed for a place with two bedrooms and a view of the water.

"I thought, I'll show it to her. I'll ask her to come with me. Just us."

"You never showed it to me."

"I showed it to your father first."

He took a breath.

"I told him that if one more Pruitt said that word, I'd take you to Portland and none of you would see us again."

"What did he say?"

"He laughed." Theo's mouth twisted. "He said you'd never go. He said you couldn't leave your mother."

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