Page 55 of Lawless
“Anyway,” Button John continued blithely, “it’s good to see you here, copper.”
“My name is Dominic.”
“It is!” Button John exclaimed with a smile. “Mine is Button John because I’m as cute as a?—”
“That’s not the reason,” Red Joe said, brows arched.
“Cute. As. A. Button,” Button John said, poking Red Joe in the chest to emphasise each word.
“He’s had a lot of rum,” I said.
“Been there, done that,” Eddie said with a nod.
I grabbed Button John by the waistband of his shorts and pulled him back. “It is good to see you here though,” I said to Dominic, heat rising on my face. “I’m, um, going to get Button John some water.”
“That seems like a smart idea,” Dominic said, his smile polite this time, like I was some stranger. That stung, but I couldn’t blame him for it.
I steered Button John towards the pews at the front of the church, where all the food and drink was set up. Someone would have brought an esky keg filled with cold cordial for the little kids, and right now a cup of it had Button John’s name on it. Except Button John was wrenched from my grasp before we reached the pews.
“What did you say about Little Harry having to put his pants back on when you found us?” Emily demanded.
“Um...” Button John flashed her a smile. “It was a joke?”
Little Harry Finch hovered behind Emily, and we exchanged glances, silently trying to communicate if we needed to pull the siblings apart or not. He chewed worriedly on his bottom lip, showing off his crooked incisor.
“It wasn’t fucking funny!” Emily rolled her eyes. “How bloody drunk are you?”
“I have had two rums,” Button John said, and held up three fingers. He looked at his hand. “What happened to my cup?” He looked at his other hand. “Oh, there it is!”
“I was taking him to get a drink,” I said, and Emily gave me a hard look. “Of cordial, not rum.”
“I’ll take him,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “We need to talk, don’t we, little brother?”
Button John made an unhappy face as Emily dragged him away and Little Harry followed, but I didn’t feel too sorry for him. He’d earned it.
I slipped out one of the side doors of the church and into the cool darkness. There were a few older headstones here, broken and lying in pieces on the ground. People didn’t get buried here anymore; the church yard wasn’t big enough for that. All the newer graves, including my dad’s empty one, were in the middle of the island, surrounded by fields and crops and pine trees, in the sunlight with the sea breeze whispering over them. The graves down here in the churchyard were over a century old, but in the daylight you could faintly make out the names on the broken headstones. They were the same names that belonged to the people inside the church now.
From inside, someone started to play the fiddle. A second fiddle joined it a moment later, and then a flute and drums. It was the music I’d grown up with—folk songs that had come to Dauntless from half a world away under the snapping of sails and the creak of the ropes. You could still taste the salt in the notes. I closed my eyes for a moment and listened. This was Dauntless. This was home. I’d never wanted to be anywhere else, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t allowed to want someone to share it with.
Maybe I’d messed things up with Dominic, or maybe he’d give me another chance. I wouldn’t know unless I tried. And maybe the risk of him finding out about the contraband in the cave was miniscule anyway. Because we could move that stuff, and he’d never have to know. My heart raced faster as I thought of it—it was stupid that it had never occurred to me before. Dominic didn’t know shit about Dauntless Island. If I told him I sometimes ducked out in the middle of the night to collect orange-clawed sand crabs because they only came out when the exact right tide met the exact right moon, he’d believe it. I mean, I’d think of something better than that though. Something not made up. I was a terrible liar, and everyone knew it, but maybe that was only because I’d never had anything worth lying about before?
I ignored the whispering voice in the back of my skull that told me that planning to lie to Dominic was a bad idea, because that voice was wrong. Okay, it was probably right, but I could worry about that part later. For now, I wanted to find out if I still had a chance with Dominic.
I drew a deep breath and headed back inside the church.
Dominic was still standing with Red Joe and Eddie. Tall Tom had wandered off now, and Nipper Will had taken his place. That made me second-guess myself, but only for a moment. I sidestepped a few people to reach them.
“Hey,” I said to Dominic.
He gave me a wary look. “Hey.”
“Can I talk to you outside for a second?” I asked, trying to pretend I couldn’t feel Nipper Will’s gaze boring into me. “It’s about your yard.”
“Oh.” Dominic’s eyebrows shot up. “My yard. Yeah, sure.”
We squeezed our way back to the wide door of the church. I didn’t dare look back to see Nipper Will’s expression.
“I like you,” I said, as soon as we were out in the darkness. It wasn’t dark enough to hide the surprise on Dominic’s face. “I thought about what you said, and you were right.” I lifted my chin so that he didn’t know I was shit scared that I was going to spill all my feelings just to get rejected. “You want to hold someone’s hand in public. I want that too. And if you still want that hand you hold to be mine, then so do I.”
