“Wait, I thought you said Bertha’s not old enough to eat a seal,” Annabelle said.

Jeremy stood up and held a hand out to her. “Doesn’t mean she can’t try,” he said, and Annabelle held out hers—nearly healed now—and let him gently pull her up to standing.

Chapter 34

The next morning, Annabelle and Mitch got up early and went down to the little beach before the sun got too strong. Annabelle didn’t have to wear her brace anymore, and the physical therapist had cleared her to swim for real.

There wasn’t a buoy out in the water to swim to, but Annabelle didn’t need one. She knew how many strokes to take for every lap, and she didn’t need a wall to push off of when she changed directions.

Mitch’s two daughters were coming the next weekend, and Mitch was bubbling over with plans for all the things he wanted to do to make their visit special. And Mom and Mitch had encouraged Annabelle to email Dad when she was ready. They thought Dad had had the right idea—emailing back and forth to get to know each other a little bit again, and then maybe a phone call or two before they dove into seeing each other.

But for now, she was focusing on letting her wrist and thumb heal the rest of the way and getting ready for the school year in her tutoring sessions with Janine. And maybe even getting herself in good enough shape to be back for the last meet of the season—the rematch against South Shore—if Mom and Mitch agreed.

It would be pretty humiliating, showing up to see Connor and Jordan and Ruby and all of those people she’d embarrassed herself in front of.

But Kayla had come back to swim team this summer, even though everybody knew why she’d missed last season and nobody knew what to say about it. And Elisa had been hurt by Connor, too, but she hadn’t let that get in her way. And Annabelle had already survived plenty of other humiliating things and kept on going.

She might not be fast enough to help the team win the medley relay and beat South Shore out for the league championship after not swimming for a month. And she might not be able to do any better in Mr. Derrickson’s history class next year, either. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t try.

“I think I’m ready to keep up today,” Mitch said as they walked down the beach a little bit, away from the sandbar, and waded in until the water was deep enough to start.

“Good luck with that,” Annabelle told him.

Then she pulled down her goggles, kicked her feet off against the sand, and began to swim. The cold, salty water prickled her skin, and the gentle current of the tiny waves gave her just enough resistance to make her feel powerful enough to do almost anything as she pushed her body forward.

When she finally came up for air, she could hear the waves’ steady rolling and Mitch’s arms and legs splashing behind her, and then she was back underwater, blocking out everything but herself and propelling her body forward, out toward that infinite horizon.