I talked Cabe out of driving all night. He'd been exaggerating anyway. He was at the cabin, which added a couple of hours to his drive. He slept until seven then got on the road, keeping me entertained with messages like Two hundred miles to salvation and Passed a mattress truck. Thought of you.

By the time he arrived on my doorstep, I wanted to tackle him on my pillow top, even with his helmet hair. He looked exhausted as he dropped onto my couch, but he still needed to tell me his side of the story. I deserved that much.

"You must be beat. I'll get you some water. How often do you stop when you're biking this far?"

"How often did I message you?"

"Three times."

"Um, that many."

I delivered his water as he was running his fingers through his hair. The dark circles under his eyes told me he hadn't been sleeping well. When I sat beside him, he looked at me like a lost boy.

"I'm sorry, June. I know you didn't ask for all of this. You have plans, and I want to see that nothing gets in the way of that."

"How much did you know about the bar? Did you know my mom was planning to sell it?" I asked the question because it needed to be asked, not because I wanted to know the answer.

"The timing was shit. But we didn't know about your mom's intentions. It was a property that had been on my dad's radar for years. So, when Derek's restaurant popped up, Dad sent me down here with a dual purpose."

"So, you probably saw an opportunity when my mom dropped the bar in my lap."

"No. By then I was . . . I was invested in you. I told Dad to offer the kind of advice he would give to family."

"Yet, we still went to Miami. And you still arranged for Jeffrey to give me his spiel about finding my dad."

His eyes glistened, like he was preparing to cry. But I'd learned that his eyes did all sorts of magical things. "If you had chosen anywhere else, I wouldn't have tried to talk you out of it. I was just hoping things wouldn't go sideways at that point. When you told me you'd seen the email, I thought you would never believe I wasn't trying to coerce you."

"Yeah, that was a blow I wasn't prepared for."

He reached for my hand, and I let him have it. "Hurting you was the last thing I wanted to do. I was so angry at Jeffrey. At my dad. But mostly, at myself. Regardless of whether you forgive me, I still blew it."

"I don't think that's completely true."

"I'm an idiot for letting it play out. I didn't think I would meet a woman I felt so connected to after . . ." He pursed his lips, and I gave his hand a squeeze.

"After Nikki?"

His forehead creased, then realization took over and he shook his head. "My dad told you about her. For fuck's sake. Did he give you my entire life story?"

"No. He was making a point. He said you'd been pulling away from the company for a while. That you weren't happy. I read between the lines and deduced that it had negatively impacted your relationship with Nikki."

"I don't completely blame company bullshit for the break-up. Meeting you has made me realize I was using the company as a scapegoat. The break-up needed to happen, but I didn't want to admit it."

"Why has meeting me made you realize that?"

"You don't want to know. Can we pretend I never said that?" He stared at his boots, but I was no fool. I knew why he didn't want to talk about it. And, frankly, neither did I.

"Okay. Let's table that conversation for another time. I'd also like to be done with this topic. Between you and your dad, your stories match up. And, to his credit, he apologized and admitted to being an insensitive ass."

A small smile tweaked his lips. "He's gotten better at admitting his faults. Not that he's ever tried to fix them."

"Sometimes it's our faults that make us memorable. That's something my dad says. He has a lot of faults too. But I love him in spite them."

"You're a forgiving person."

I thought about this and admitted he was probably right. I had forgiven a lot of people for doing some pretty crappy things. I stood and held out my hand. "Will you show me how much I need to forgive you?"

He pushed off the couch and immediately pulled me in for a kiss. His breath escaped him in bursts, like he'd been deprived of oxygen, and he kept at it for a long time, replenishing. Then he tugged me into the bedroom. 

I thought he would make love to me like a wild man, but it was the reverse of what I expected. He handled me like a precious thing, trailing his fingers across my body, cradling my head in his hands, taking me to my happy place in measured, sensual drives.

We held each other afterwards, our skin damp, our breathing rhythmic, and I didn't hold it against him when he fell asleep in my arms. I took the opportunity to do the same. We'd both had an emotional few days. When we woke up, I made a huge plate of nachos that we devoured together.

"Do you work tonight?" he asked.

"Yeah."

He nodded like he'd expected my answer but was still disappointed about it. "What about tomorrow?"

"I can make adjustments if necessary." I knew what he was up to, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. "I don't know if I'm ready for another trip to Miami."

"That's okay. It's just been bothering me since I saw the vlog. Did you watch it?"

"No."

"Do you want to?"

"Okay, fine." I felt obliged to humor him, and he seemed appeased as he took out his phone and queued up the video. My mom's fake online voice grated on my nerves, but I ignored that and focused on the boat in the background, although it was hard to do with Jennifer Lopez's gorgeousness commanding the frame.

After watching the sixty second clip, I convinced myself that it wasn't that significant. There was nothing familiar about the boat or the marina. Then just before the video ended, I saw something that had me gasping.

"What? Did you see something?" he asked.

"Replay the last few seconds and stop it just before the end."

He did, and we both stared at the final frame frozen on the screen. A figure had appeared inside the boat wearing a blue and white windbreaker. The same windbreaker my dad wore at Big Betty's diner. That was definitely significant.

"I think that's my dad." I pointed at the figure, trying to keep my finger steady. "It's the same jacket he was wearing when I saw him in Crystal River."

"Holy shit."

"That's the understatement of the century. What are the odds my mom didn't recognize him, or vice versa?"

"I'd say practically nil." He set the phone down and looked at me, leaving the image on the screen. His eyes shimmered with concern, but he didn't say anything. He was waiting for me.

"I can't bail on Jackson tonight, but we can leave first thing in the morning, if you're up for it."

"Hell yeah."

Sunday nights at the bar were typically low key. Most of our tourist clientele were leaving town or too hungover to think about alcohol. I served our regulars while Cabe and Jackson got to know each other. I had a feeling they would hit it off. Both seemed to use the head on their necks for thinking, not the one in their pants.

I asked Jackson if he could handle the bar tomorrow night if I put Jill on standby, and he assured me that it would be a piece of cake. With my shift managed, Cabe and I set out for Miami in my Honda crossover. I put him behind the wheel, and he happily obliged my request. I didn't need to add the stress of navigating insane traffic on top of the anxiety I was feeling about my mom's last vlog post.

It didn't help that Abeo had been texting me all weekend, and I'd felt badly about giving him excuses. I hated to admit it, but I was regretting the choices I'd made at the Embassy Suites. Then the unthinkable happened. Jeffrey called. When I didn't answer, he texted me.

'Hi, June. I hope you're doing well. I want to apologize again for how we ended things in Ocala. Call me when you see this.'

I looked at Cabe. "Does Jeffrey know we're headed to Miami?"

"No. Was that him calling?"

"Yes. Then he texted me."

"Do you want to tell me what he said?" He glanced at me quickly, knowing I preferred he keep his eyes on the road.

"Nothing incriminating. The timing just seems coincidental. I haven't heard from him since Ocala."

He drew his lips in tight. "Although I've been imagining him flayed and rotating on a spit over hot coals, maybe you should answer him. He might prove himself useful . . . considering the circumstances."

I stared at the screen of my phone, imagining all the potentially awkward topics that could come up. "I think I'll wait until we get to Miami. To be honest, I'd be perfectly happy never talking to Jeffrey Mann again."

Cabe wore a satisfied smirk for the rest of the drive, and when we arrived in Miami, thankfully alive and unmolested, we secured my car in the condo's parking garage and walked to Over Easy for lunch.

"Since neither of us know which marina the boat is docked at, we probably should break down and contact Jeffrey."

"What about Vanessa? I'm sure she's familiar with the area."

"Sure. If you'd rather do that. But she doesn't have the same intel about your case. And you may not want to drag another person into this." He hunched over his BLT, looking a little defeated. He probably hated asking for Jeffrey's help, but that seemed like the most logical approach to take.

"Okay. I'll call him." I scrolled to my call log and dialed the fathead.

"June. I'm glad you called. I was worried you might have blocked me."

"It was a thought."

He chuckled. "I wouldn't have blamed you. After I had a chance to think about it, I realized what a dick move that was. If I can be painfully honest for a minute, I was driven by emotion when I did it. I like you. I guess I was trying to see how serious things were between you and Cabe."

Crap.

I glanced across the table at Cabe. I knew he couldn't hear Jeffrey's end of the conversation over the noise in the diner, but clearly my expression gave away my shock when he mouthed the word 'what?'

"We barely know each other, Jeffrey."

Cabe's eyes widened, and he held perfectly still, as if a wasp had landed on his nose.

"I think we had a chance to get to know each other pretty well last Thursday. That was the best time I'd had in a long time. Even Peterson noticed it."

"It was fun, after the weirdness in Crystal River. I . . . I called to ask a favor, if I can change the subject."

"Sure. Anything."

"I need you to identify a marina, if you're able to. My mom posted a video on her YouTube channel with a partial view of the marina and a boat that we think might belong to her. Her channel is called Beach Bar Behatch. It's the last post."

"We?"

"Yes. Me and Cabe."

"Ah. Give me a second. I'm sitting at my laptop. I'll pull up the video."

I held the phone away from mouth. "He's looking at the video."

Cabe nodded, but he remained alert. I figured his mind was working a mile a minute.

"Okay, June. I know where the boat is. It's Sea Isle Marina. There's a blurry view of MacArthur Causeway in the upper left corner of the screen. I take it you're trying to identify the boat with the named censored out."

"Yeah. We've already uncovered the name."

"Let me guess. It's Beach Bar Behatch."

"No. It's a nickname my parents used for me whenever I was being a pain in the ass. They thought it was funny, but I've never liked it."

"And your mom named her boat that? Yikes."

"I'm not sure if it's her boat. Boating was more my dad's thing. I just needed help locating the marina so we can investigate."

"Are you and Cabe in Miami?"

Damn. I should have stopped while I was ahead.

"Um, yeah. We're just here to look around."

He was quiet for a few beats, and I was getting ready to tell him so long and thanks for all the help . . . "You think your dad's in Miami, don't you?"

"The thought crossed my mind."

"And if he's in Miami, then it's possible your mom knows too."

As he verbalized what I had only speculated inside my head, a terrible feeling came over me, and my thoughts rushed back to the dream I'd had of Dad leaving me to drown in his wake. How horrible would it be to find out my parents were duping me?

"June?"

"I'm here. Thanks for the help. I guess now I need to decide if I really want to go through with this."

"It's a tough call. Let me know if I can do anything else."

"I will."

I set my phone down and looked at my half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. How many times had I been put off my food in the last month?

"You alright over there?" Cabe spoke softly.

"Not really. Apparently, I was pretending this was just an excuse to extend our reunion."

"It can be that, if you'd rather. I can only imagine what's going through your mind right now." He sighed, releasing his breath in a long, guttural moan. "I've gone about this all wrong. I was thinking about how I would handle things. I assumed you would feel the same."

"It's a reasonable assumption. I do want to know. I just hope it's not true."

Cabe reached across the table and squeezed my hand. "I'll be with you every step of the way."

We left the diner and took an Uber to Sea Isle Marina. The place was sprawling and busy as hell. Cabe had a guess where Moody Junie was docked, so we started there. Within a few minutes, we had found it. I imagined the search taking longer, and I immediately started to backpedal, something I said I would never do.

"June?" Cabe turned and followed me.

"Okay, we found it." I glanced at the convenience store on the next dock over. "I need water. Can we go over there before we continue the investigation?"

His reflective shades couldn't hide his concern. I had just downed a huge glass of water at the diner. Clearly, this was a stall, but he didn't say a word. He took my hand, and we walked to the little shop. But the thing about running from the truth was, it catches up with you eventually, and when we entered the store, the truth was waiting for me.

There stood my dad, leaning against the check-out counter chatting with the clerk like they'd been friends forever. He'd always had charisma in spades. I'd seen him talk his way out of hopeless situations. But when his attention flicked to the door, and he saw me standing there, I watched all his coping mechanisms disappear through his unhinged jaw. There would be no backpedaling now. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to everyone who congratulated me in the previous chapter. Your well wishes make me smile every time I read them. As for my notes for this chapter, I wondered what you all thought about June confronting her dad. Would you have gone through with something like this? Or would you have turned and busted ass out of there? As for me, my dad was my best friend. He also ran with the wolves (refer to the intro chapter of my story Neon Girl for more info). If my dad had abandoned me like that, I would have been more worried about his wellbeing than mine.