When they reached the dock, Andi jolted, surprised to see Zeke appear on deck and lift his hand in a greeting. He was dry under the deck canopy.
“What’s going on?” Brooke asked.
“Well, this is Drifting Dreamer, our new home. Only for the summer.” Andi stepped aboard, looked behind her and pointed to the deck. “Just take one step and you’ll be aboard.” She nodded to Zeke. “I hear you’ve already met Zeke. He and his dad own the marine supply store and this dock, and now he owns this boat, too. I’m going to help him fix her up.”
Greeting her with a big smile, Zeke said, “Nice to see you again, Brooke. I met you at a party at the yacht club.”
Brooke stared at him, frowning.
Andi turned to Zeke and, keeping her voice low, asked, “Did something happen?”
“When the rain started in the night I got to thinking that I’d seen a couple of signs of leaking, so I came to check it out.”
Andi looked inside. Rolled-up towels were catching water landing on the counter. The source of the steady drip was a row of portholes on the port side. Buckets were catching water coming through cracks in the cabin roof and housing.
“Oh, no,” Andi muttered under her breath.
“I don’t want to live on a leaky old boat,” Brooke said with a quick shrug.
Andi laughed nervously. “I know it doesn’t look so good now, but it will. You’ll see.”
“We can get these leaks taken care of in no time. Before the boat was brought up here, she was covered up with a canvas tarp,” Zeke said with his focus on Brooke. “She’s been out of the water a long time. When that happens, the wood dries out and even the hull takes in water through the seams. But we’ll seal up everything. The place where you’re going to sleep is dry.”
“This isn’t the surprise I had in mind, Brooke.” Andi put her coffee and the bag on the deck table. “But, like Zeke says, the leaks can be fixed right away.” Desperate to sound bright and optimistic, she added, “I didn’t get to tell you the rest of the plan. This summer, I’m going to strip off all this old yellow varnish and sand the wood and make it gleam again. I can do this while we live here. We’ll even eat outside on the deck all the time. Like a picnic every day.”
Zeke nodded, his expression encouraging.
Brooke looked at the milk carton still in her hand. “I don’t care. I don’t want to eat outside. This isn’t a house.”
The rollout of her big surprise had gone so wrong, but Andi struggled to keep her voice steady, even firm, when she spoke. “That’s true, Brooke, but lots of people live on boats just like this. It’s a special kind of adventure. Some people live on motor yachts and sailboats and move from port to port, always exploring something new.”
“You have everything you need here,” Zeke said. “Even a shower and plenty of hot water. And your room has two bunks and a closet.”
“You can have a friend here to spend the night,” Andi said, flashing a grateful look to Zeke. She needed all the help she could get and was quickly running out of ideas. “Let’s go see the inside.”
“My friends are in Green Bay. Remember? We moved.” Her mouth tight, Brooke pivoted halfway around and stared off the stern into the distance. “There’s no one to invite.”
“There’s that little girl, Carrie.” Andi cast a hopeless look at Zeke, immediately regretting her suggestion. It had come to mind only because Carrie’s dad, Jerrod, ran diving trips, and Brooke knew the girl through Lark and her friends.
“Carrie’s six, Mom.”
“I know, I know. But you’ve mentioned her a few times. How nice she is. That’s all.” She turned to watch Zeke, who had gone inside the cabin and was making a show of checking the towels and buckets.
They’d reached an impasse. “We can talk this out later, Brooke. Come over to the table and have your snack.”
“Okay.” Brooke sat in the chair at the table. She yanked at her rain jacket and the snaps let go.
Good idea, Andi thought, as she slipped out of her jacket. They were dry under the canopy and the rain had tapered off to a drizzle, but humidity hung heavy in the air.
“You can take me to Dad’s,” Brooke said, lifting her chin a notch. “I’ll stay with him this summer.”
Her stomach dropped as she nearly shouted words of protest. But she held back her first negative response and closed her eyes. She would not overreact. She wouldn’t yell. But no way would Brooke spend her entire summer with her dad. Given Miles’s schedule, it was impossible, anyway.
She slid into a chair across from Brooke. “You know your dad has to go out of town to give his speeches and work with his clients, honey. He said he was flying out later today, in fact. His schedule isn’t going to change. Besides, your dad and I have always had our own time with you. Now that we’re living close by, it’s going to be even easier to make sure you see him when he’s in town.”
With her jaw set, Brooke said, “Lark won’t mind if I stay there all the time.”
“But I’ll mind, Brooke,” she blurted. She paused to let that sink in. She’d hold her ground. For herself, but also to head off problems with Brooke’s stepmom. Brooke had it wrong. Lark would mind. She had a son and a writing business to run. “This is a new experience for us, sweetie, just like your riding camp will be different and exciting. You need to give the boat a chance. I have a feeling you’ll like it.”
Brooke shook her head. “No, I won’t.” She took a big bite of her muffin and refused to meet Andi’s gaze.
Andi saw no choice but to ignore Brooke’s response. “Well, then, you finish up your muffin. I’ll show you the rest of the boat.” Andi picked up her coffee and muffin.
Going below, Zeke flashed a sympathetic look, prompting Andi to mouth the words, It will be okay.
“I hung around because I wanted to explain a few things about the leaks,” Zeke said, his voice conversational. “Fortunately, the staterooms are okay. It’s here in the galley and main saloon where the water’s coming in.”
Andi noted Zeke’s raised voice and his emphasis on saloon wasn’t lost on Brooke, whose face had taken on a look of curiosity.
Andi suppressed a smile. It would take a little more work to coax a question out of Brooke.
Keeping her voice casual, Andi led Zeke into Brooke’s stateroom and patted the shelf. “I was thinking the horse collection could go here.”
“Good place for it,” Zeke said agreeably.
“I plan to start the exterior work on good weather days, the cooler the better,” Andi said. “The rails can wait, but I can fill the cracks in the cabin house and start bringing that wood back. Both inside and out, I’ll take the doors off the lockers and work on them away from the boat. Easier that way.”
“Sounds good. There’s plenty of room in our workshop, which doubles as a storage shed, but I’ll get that cleaned out. We can store your supplies and tools there, too,” Zeke said. “You can start whenever you want.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brooke staring into the cabin, the unopened carton of milk still in her hand. Andi opened a heavy wooden door, exposing the empty shelves of the counter-size refrigerator. “If you don’t want your milk now, you can put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.”
“That’s a refrigerator?” Brooke asked.
Andi nodded.