Page 41 of Uncharted

Zane laughs.

“Wait? Do I?” She’s awake now.

“No. You’re good, Little Bird. It’s not full-on talking. It’s more mumbling. You’re proper adorable, Haley. No worries.”

She lifts her head, staring at my arm. “And I drool?” She wipes at the wet patch.

But I catch her and roll her on top of me. “I like your drool. I like everything about you. Because I love you.” I reach up and take her lips in mine before she can respond. I don’t need her to say it. She loves me and the rest of us losers too. She’ll get there; the whole Sam thing has thrown her for a loop. I’m not worried. This isn’t like my brother Jared and Trisha. Haley isn’t anything like Trisha, and this whole thing is completely different.

“Calvin?” She sits up, straddling me, and I’ve completely forgotten all that had me worried in the first place.

“Chiefie?”

“You’re thinking about the Rock Candy, aren’t you? You get that gleam in your eye when you’re trying to solve a problem.” She pats my chest, but I take her hand and move it lower to my morning wood.

Zane clears his throat. “I’m all for a little more fun, but the sun is coming up and it’s almost high tide. We should get going.” He digs around next to the mattress until he finds his crew hoodie. He holds it to his nose, breathing in. “Who would have thought that smelling mostly clean laundry could develop into an addiction?”

Haley kisses the tip of my nose. “Not me.” She smiles. “I guess we should get going.”

“We?” Zane asks.

“Yeah, aren’t we all going to the Rock Candy today?”

“Hmm,” Easton says from the platform below. “Is there room for all of us? Maybe you and I should stay here, Firefly.”

Haley pivots back to me. “Why? A tender like that can take five guests to the dock.”

“Yeah, but if we want to bring more stuff back...” Zane scrubs his hand down his chin.

“I need more spices, my large skillet, and bowls,” Dante yells up. “Oh, fuck we had a gross of eggs on board. They should still be good. I’d kill for an omelet. Fuck, olive oil. I can’t forget the olive oil.”

“Dante’s going?” Haley’s voice cracks.

“I can stay,” Easton calls up. “Haley can go.”

“No, we should all go.” Haley’s crawling around on the mattress looking for her clothes, and I sit up.

Zane finds them from the other side of the platform and hands them to her. She stabs her legs into her leggings and zips up her crew jacket, shoving her bra and a T-shirt into her pocket with so much force the zipper slides down to her bellybutton. Damn, it’s a cute bellybutton. Sure, she was just walking around naked, but I’m not the only one staring. I’m even harder and she’s put more clothes on. It’s wacky.

Easton’s standing on the ladder, his head a foot above the platform. “It’s fine, Haley. I’ll stay here and keep the stove going for dinner. We need more firewood anyway.”

Now Rockwell becomes reasonable? What the hell?

“I can get my pots another day,” Dante yells.

What has gotten into them? Or I guess what has gotten into me? I don’t want her going. The less time around Sam, the better. Even though I know he’s not like Jared and she’s not like Trisha.

“If it’s not too rough, we can blow up one of the towable tubes,” Zane says. “We won’t be going fast, and we can strap things down. Or someone can ride on it wearing a life vest, of course.”

“Sure, that will work. Guess we’re all going to the Rock Candy.” I see it now. Me wanting her to stay is irrational.

“First you eat,” Dante calls up.

* * *

It’s a good forty minutes past sunrise when we’re finally pushing off our little beach. Pepper trots down the path and jumps on the big rock. She mews loudly.

Haley shifts in her seat. “Oh, maybe I should stay. Pepper will be lonely.”

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