Page 52 of Adrift

“Good. I want to try fishing.” Calvin is rummaging in the supply box. He pulls out the smallest reel I’ve ever seen. Fishing is something I know how to do. My dad is a fanatic, and it’s one reason he was willing to let wife number two move us to Florida.

I lean up on my elbows. Haley snuggles lower on my belly, grabbing me around my waist. She’s inches away from my hardening cock, but I’m not complaining. It’s the only good thing that has happened to me since I stepped on the plane in L.A.

Calvin throws the line into the water, and we wait. That’s the thing with fishing: it’s like meditation except for when it’s not. The line goes almost immediately taut. He’s caught something.

“Pull it in,” Zane yells.

“Wow, you’ve caught something.” I sit up farther, trying to get a better angle of the window, when I realize Haley is moving. She gives me a squeeze, the flap of her life vest covering her head. I don’t know how she’s sleeping. The heat is rising, and I’m already sweating. She’s sliding lower and lower, no doubt to avoid the plastic on my chest. Damn. I’m not sure I’ve ever had morning wood this hard. And we’re fighting for our lives drifting in the middle of the ocean.

“You got it,” Zane yells.

Haley jumps up. The sleepiness on her face vanishes.

Chapter 22

Chumming

Haley

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” My heart’s slamming in my chest. When Zane screamed, Easton’s giant dick jumped into my cheek. I can’t believe I left drool on the owner’s son. That’s a definite line, and I’ve crossed it. It reminds me of kissing the captain.

My heart squeezes, and I want to vomit. Sam. He can’t be dead. Rationally, I understand. I understand why he stayed on the boat. Without the location beacon online, we would drift here forever. I sit up. But we should have stayed tethered, letting him join us when he could. Yes, there was another raft, a raft he could get in the water in five minutes. Less, knowing how talented a captain he is.

The back window and front window are down. A slight breeze is flowing through the raft, but I’m dripping with sweat.

“It’s fine, Haley. I’m happy to be some sort of help.” Easton adjusts himself, and I look away.

Calvin is pulling on the fishing line, expertly letting line out and reeling it back in. The reel is basic, one you could buy atany box store. But the way the tip is dipping, I’m wondering if what he’s caught is too big for the gear. Calvin has it in hand, though. The tug and pull, the fight—I loved fishing when I was little. When I told my grandmom I was going to work on yachts instead of going back to college so many falls ago, she replied,“Makes sense.”

Weird, I miss her so much, but right now, I’m glad she’s gone. She would have been mad with worry.

Dante looks the same as yesterday. He hasn’t moved. I brush his hair back from his face, and Easton checks his pulse.

“It’s a little better than last night, when I checked it last.” He smiles at me.

Calvin and Zane are taking up most of the other window. I shimmy on my butt to them. My skin sticks to the floor. It’s not comfortable, but I guess comfort isn’t the point—surviving is.

The waves are silent today, but my stomach isn’t. When the guys finish fishing, I should get the desalination kit going. It’s slow, and we’ll need to have it running because the kit only has water for four days.

There’s nothing around. NoRock Candy, no other life raft. Nothing for us to see. Just the swells of the waves up and down, up and down, taking us wherever it wants to go. I know nothing about the currents here, but off the coast of Florida, there are currents that can carry a small boat in a circle. And a half mile away, you could get stuck in the Gulf Stream and end up zipping up the coast.

“I’m getting it. It’s tiring.” Calvin’s determined. The muscles in his biceps are flexing, like their own Morse code.

“Do you want me to take a turn?” Zane’s light brown hair flaps around. It doesn’t brush his vest, but it’s close.

“No.” Calvin juts his jaw out, and he’s bracing his arms on his knees. Reel, brace, reel, brace. And as he does, the raft is goingzipping along with the creature caught on Calvin’s hook. The tip of the rod dips farther, and Calvin releases slack on the line.

“How big is it?” Easton pipes up behind me, and I’m glad it’s him and not me asking because I want to know too. But I also know better than to talk to a fisherman while he’s reeling something in.

“Damn if I know, Swimmer Boy,” Calvin grits out between reeling and releasing.

I’m biting my lips when I glance at Easton. He doesn’t seem offended by Calvin. No, we’re all invested. But it’s the peacemaker in me... I want them to get along. Even if we weren’t on a raft together, I’d still have the same feelings. I don’t want people to argue or fight. I’m more liable to do something I don’t want to do just to make others not fight around me. It’s why I stayed with Steven for so long, even though I had evidence of him cheating.

Zane sits on his haunches. “Who has their phones with them?”

“I do. Why?” Easton pulls his out.

“I have mine too.” It’s in my bra, beside Calvin’s bear. I turned it off before I fell asleep.

---