This surprises me. So much so, that I’m not sure I believe him. “Well, I didn’t say the entire fight was about me, but like everything else, Mom won’t talk about it. Forbidden subject. And if we can’t talk about it, how can we get past it? So maybe you’re right about the invisible wall theory. You and I, we’re okay now, because we let down the wall. But Mom and me? I’m not sure we can ever be fixed. If there’s a permanent wall up between us, blocking any communication, the only way it’s coming down is with a bomb—see? That’s why that fight with Grandma happened.”

“Which is why you won’t go to Florida with her,” he says, finally understanding.

“It would be like flying smack into the Summers & Co window. Only pain and heartbreak for us little birds, not palm trees and sand.”

The skies darken dramatically. It smells like rain. It almost feels as if I could have conjured it with my guilt.

“Did you hear that?” Lucky asks, head tilted.

I still, listening. I hear nothing. Wind? Waves? What happened to the birds? The dark sky lights up blinding white and a terrible crack strikes the island—so loud, it startles me. My foot slips on the rocky ground, and I drop my Nikon.

“My camera …” I check it quickly, but it seems to be fine. I quickly close the lens and stow it away in its leather case as Lucky brushes dirt off my shirt. “That was lightning?”

“Yeah, and it definitely hit something nearby,” he confirms. “Maybe a tree or the lighthouse. It’s the tallest thing around. That’s what it’ll go for.”

“What about us? Will it go for us?”

The skies darken again as if it’s midnight, not four in the afternoon.

Thunder rumbles, and it’s loud. More lightning strikes. White. Bright. Close. Very, very scary. But this time, it doesn’t crack the sky open. It just brings rain. Sudden, surprising, steady.

“Shit!” Lucky says. “Let’s go to the boat and head back to town.”

“Is it safe to be out on the water in this weather?”

“It’s not windy, and the lightning’s passed. Yeah. We’ll keep an eye on it.”

He seems remarkably unfazed. He knows what’s he’s doing.

Everything’s fine.