Page 33 of Uncharted

“Let’s give it a day. Let the captain come to his own conclusion that they’re innocent.”

Zane nods. “Copy that.”

We’re past the cliff in a relatively calm part of the ocean when Zane glares back at me.

I furrow my brow at him. “What?”

“You could have waited.”

I know instantly he’s talking about me telling Haley I fucking love her. “You could have said it too.”

“And look like I was just copying you.”

“Who cares what it looks like? She needed to know before Sam came and planted his flag on our beach.”

“You’re afraid of Sam?”

It’s a good question. Am I? Fuck yeah. I’d take Sam over the lot of us any day. “No,” I lie.

His scoff is loud even over the waves. “Right, well, you could have waited. Been more romantic about it.”

“I’m not the romantic one?that’s you.” I slow the tender a little. “She knows you love her. Just tell her.”

He nods.

It’s getting dark when we approach our beach, but Dante is sitting out by our old fire pit with a nice-sized fire going. He jogs over and helps us pull the tender ashore. “What did you bring?”

“An even better cushion from the top deck and some little stuff. More clothes, bathing suits.” I pass him a bag.

“I don’t need a bathing suit.”

“Yes, you do,” Zane and I say together. I’m tired of seeing his monster junk.

“Right.”

I dry the motor and tuck it up. Part of me wants to pull it all the way into the jungle to keep it out of sight.

Chapter15

Swab the Deck

Easton

Haley stares in the direction the tender disappeared ten minutes ago. “They’ll be back,” she whispers to herself.

“Definitely, Firefly. They’ll be back.” I rest my arm over her shoulder and squeeze her to me.

“No need to worry, Sassy. The three of them are expert seamen. They’ll be back before dark.”

“I know.” Her eyes glow light blue in the early evening light. She turns to me and then to Dante. The tension for the last few hours has made the air thick.

“You ready?” I hitch my head to the tree house.

“Yeah.” She turns, and we walk along the trail.

“Sassy, you and Swimmer Boy should go get cleaned up at the waterfall. You know, with shampoo. Real soap?” Dante’s got his head in a bin. He picks up a container of spices and then puts it back.

“No, I’ll stay. We should get the sleeping platform ready for when they get back.”

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