Page 107 of Uncharted

“I... I don’t see why not,” Zane says. “She can handle it. Make sure you strap in when you go to the platform?—”

“Easton should stay too. The two of them can take turns working on smoking the fish and getting the fish weir cleaned out. That okay with you, Swimmer Boy?” Dante barks at me, like I’m going to put up a fight.

“That’s good with me. My delicate hands are getting calluses from all the mopping.” I hold up my very not callused hands.

Zane loops his arm over my shoulder. “Ah, poor guy. Guess you’d never cut it as a deckhand.”

“You know it,” Dante says with a smirk.

They’re teasing me. It’s weird; I had guys I swam with for a long time, but as I got better, they dropped away. At the Olympic level, sure, there are people you see over and over, but it’s not the same. These men are my brothers. Which is weird to say because they’re not brothers... Yeah.

“We should get the fish smoked sooner rather than later,” I say. The fish weir is still pulling in a decent haul, but it’s not like the first month we had it up. We need to be more cautious with the resources we’re using. The pomelos are done, but there are other trees coming into season. And the other side of the island, while a long hike, has a good amount of coconuts.

Haley cocks her head at me. “I can stay by myself. I can do the smoker.”

“Sure, but now you can do the watch and I’ll do the fish.” I take her hand and position her back between my legs.

Her eyes widen. “Oh, okay.”

I raise my eyebrows at Zane and hope to fuck he understands that in no way are we telling either Sam or Calvin that Haley’s the one up on the platform. Even if she’s strapped in, those two would burst an appendix. Sure, it’s up high, a lot higher than a high dive platform. But she can do it.

Haley, Penny, Pepper, and I walk Zane and Dante down to the tender. Dante and Zane hop in, and Haley and I push them out.

They’re a little past the breaker when Dante cups his hands. “I’m bringing family dinner back tonight.” We’ve been doing family dinners once a week. Sometimes on the Rock Candy. Pepper really likes the yacht. Beds and pillows and endless places to hide from Penny are her jam. The tender isn’t her favorite, though, so most of the time, we have family dinner at camp.

Haley and I wave, our arms wrapped around each other. I kiss the top of her head. She gets sad anytime any of us leave. And I get it. Nothing is guaranteed. Look at Candy. Hell, the fact that Roger Harding seems to want us dead. Well, Emily and me at least. Everyone else was an innocent bystander. Not that we’ve cracked any codes yet. But we’re working on it.

Her blue eyes blink at me. “Sorry you have to babysit me.”

“I’m not babysitting you. But you know how Sam and Calvin worry.”

“If we were going to encounter pirates, wouldn’t we have already?”

“I don’t know, Firefly.” And that bothers me. Calvin and Sam are both uber worried about someone finding and taking Haley. But there are more days than not that I think we should just try to talk about the VHF. I’m not naïve. I know there are bad operators in the world who want to use us or anyone for their own profit, but there are good people out there too. Maybe not here, though. Maybe not the voices on the VHF. And for now, we’re good. We’re making progress on the yacht, and that’s all that matters.

“Having you not stay here alone isn’t about you, Haley. It’s about our own insecurities. We need to be needed. We’ve got fragile egos.”

She stands on her tippy toes and yanks me in for a delicious kiss. “You’re so full of it. But I lo—like you a lot, anyway.”

I freeze. I thought she was going to say she loves me. Because I sure as hell love her. Zane, Calvin, and even Dante tell her they love her all the time. I haven’t said it. I do love her, but I see she hasn’t said that to the other guys—not that I know for sure. It’s not that I need her to say it to me first, not at all. I just don’t want to put pressure on her. Pressure does horrible things to a person, makes them reactionary. I can wait. I know she loves us all.

“You are the most special person I’ve ever had in my life, Haley Brewster. You make me happy. Everything about you brings me comfort and joy.” I move a tendril of her hair away from her forehead.

“You are amazing too, Easton Rockwell. Are you really okay with me up on the platform?”

“As long as you’re safe and use the harness.”

“Of course. I don’t have a death wish.”

I watch as she gets into position. “You good, Firefly?” She’s locked in, with the binoculars around her neck.

“It’s beautiful up here. I really missed out on my tree climbing years as a kid.”

I laugh and get ready for my day on land. When I get the fish smoker up and running, I’ll have a little time to examine the metal lock box we have with our collection of clues. Zane likes to study them at night. They’ve been at the treehouse for a long time now. In fact, there’s a lot of the ship here now. It’s come over one trip at a time. We’re working on getting the ship up and running, no one as hard as Calvin. Individually, it’s like we’ve all come to the realization that we might never leave. And being as comfortable as we can at the camp makes sense.

I stoke up the smoker. Pepper and Penny keep me company while I watch it. “Come on, girls, let’s see what Haley is up to.” They both follow me up the path. “Hey, Haley?” I call to her. She’s up on the platform.

“Easton. How’s it going down there?”

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