Page 30 of Uncharted

“Aye, he is that. But what he said. I mean it too. I’m not going to let you get in the way of what I have with Haley. I mean, I’m absolutely chuffed to bits that you’re alive, but I’m not going to move to the side to let you, well, take her from us.”

It’s a phrase my ex used, and it stands out in my memory. She said her new husband couldn’t have taken her away from me if we’d already had a stable relationship, which at the time I thought was total BS. But now I’m wondering if that’s true on either side of my relationship with Haley. If we’d really had something, would she have started anything with them? And on the other side, could I take her away from them? Would I want to?

What I need to do is stay away from her. I need the crew to help me fix the ship. They deserve a life. The evidence needs to get to the government. And really, the only ones I can tell about the broken motherboard are Calvin and Zane. I know them?they had nothing to do with it. So for now, I need to keep it to myself. Well, between the three of us. I need to keep the peace and stay away from Haley.

Easier said than done. I’ve made her out to be “the one” in my head for weeks. The one. Now she can’t be the one. She can’t be anything. Not when she has four guys drooling over her already. Four guys who glance at her like I do. I’m captivated by her.

Fuck. She’s mesmerizing, and what the psycho said is true?she’s wiser and kinder than anyone I’ve ever met. Then again, I’ve had a long time to think about her. In my head, I’ve aged the relationship far beyond what it is.

Zane has a crude basket in his hands. He takes some of the bigger fish from the weir and tosses them in it. Then he meticulously goes through the trap and throws anything too small or inedible back into the ocean. He turns to me. “Well?”

“What?”

“Everyone wants her.”

“Right.” I chuck a four-inch pink reef fish over the weir fence. “This is good.” I touch one of the posts.

“Lots of things here are good.”

And it hits me. No one has talked about getting the ship seaworthy again. No one but me. I’ve had conversations with Calvin about it, but no one has brought it up without me talking about it first. They’ve mentioned getting clothes, spices, a mattress, but no one has talked about wanting to sail away from this place.

“I need to get back to the ship. Do you want to help me and bring some things back?”

Zane gives me a look I can’t read. “Sure.”

“I can’t leave Penny overnight.”

“Of course.” He tosses the last fish and heads back.

“This beach would be a far better place to keep the inflatable tender, anyway. Having it scrape back and forth over the reef all night wouldn’t do it any good. You mind if you and Calvin come back with me?”

“Sure thing, Cap. You want to go now?”

“Yeah. We’re going to lose light soon enough, and you guys should get back in time to secure the tender.”

“Right. Right. I’ll go get Calvin.” Zane takes the fish basket from my hands, and I spend a few minutes helping a small reef fish find its way back to sea, but it looks stressed. Like me.

The tide will turn soon. It always does.

I look up, and Calvin and Zane are walking down the beach with the others.

I wave. “I’ll see you three tomorrow. Everyone should come for a visit.” I fucking sound like my dad standing at his door for an hour saying goodbye to the neighbors after a football watching party.

Zane gives Easton and Dante fist bumps, then he hugs Haley and kisses her on her cheek. It looks innocent enough.

Then Calvin grabs her and kisses her... and kisses her, and what the fuck? “Later,” he tosses over his shoulder at the other two. “Anything else you want besides the list?”

“No.” Haley waves. She can fucking barely look at me, and it makes my chest clench. I want to lose dinner. And dinner was the best thing I’ve eaten in... well, I’m not sure when I’ve had a better meal. I licked my bowl. I mean, I turned around when I did it, but I fucking licked it.

Calvin pulls the other rope and hops in.

“Captain, how come you hadn’t inflated this before?” Zane cocks his head.

I grit my teeth. It’s embarrassing really. “Honestly, I’ve been so busy trying to fix the boat. The patch is holding. It went through the storm last week without getting torn open again. And I only had enough water for another two months. Getting things working was more important than exploring. I figured if anyone lived on the island, they would find me. I had dreams that when I sailed around the corner I was going to find a modern city and want to slap myself. But then it’s just so rare to not see any light in the ocean. Even when you’re in the Caribbean and think you’re in the middle of nowhere during the day, at night, you can almost always see the lights of a cargo ship. Of course, we can see them on radar too. But here, I’ve seen almost nothing. One night during the storm, I saw lights, but they were so far away. I sent two flares up, but they didn’t see them. Then again, with all the pirates that were reported last season, I don’t blame them for not stopping if they did see. I only thought of this tender a few days ago.” I don’t mention the pirate boat I saw. I want to talk to Calvin about it by himself.

Zane pushes us off and far enough out that I can put the motor down, then jumps in.

It’s choppy getting back out, but we manage. When we get to the cliffs, the wind wants to throw us into the rock wall. But I steer us away.

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