Chapter 27
Alex

He put down his own framed backpack and looked around the island. Faith had given him shit, rightfully so, at the size of his own pack. “One of us had to bring all the camping gear, ma’am,” he’d said. She’d clamped shut those thick lips.

It had been years since he’d docked at Smuggler’s Cove instead of the updated and better maintained dock near Lydia’s old plantation. He could see evidence that Smuggler’s Cove was far from abandoned. Old beer cans were stuck against the bank along with plastic chip bags and cigarette butts. A bottle of Olde English and a travel pack of Jack Daniels were full of seawater and tossed onto the grass.

“Ew,” Faith said as she jumped onto the grassy knoll.

“Yeah,” Alex said. He shook his head in disappointment. What is wrong with people coming all the way out here just to trash the place? They are probably mostly kids, but still. Mama woulda whooped him and Caleb straight had they ever done that.

“Help me hide this,” he said.

Faith dropped her backpack next to a towering oak tree and helped him push the boat around the bend to a smaller cove. This one really was abandoned. It was tiny and treacherously slippery. When he was a teenager, he’d tried stupidly to dock here but gave up after he fell in for the third time.

“Gross,” Faith said as she slipped in the mud and dropped to one knee.

“Good thing you’re not wearing them fancy big-city clothes,” he said. She wrinkled her nose at him.

“C’mon,” Alex said. “It’s a bit of a hike to the lookout.”

“The lookout?” she asked. “Now who’s into Nancy Drew?”

“That’s actually what it’s called,” Alex said. He raised a brow at her. “Only one spot on this island where you can get a clear view of any vessels comin’ in.”

“Oh, I like the pirate talk,” she said.

Alex didn’t have time for her teasing. He hitched up his pack and took off. Faith’s footsteps trailed right behind him. “Can you slow down?” she asked. “Some of us don’t run five miles a day.”

“Not if you wanna get there before dark,” he said over his shoulder. She’d twisted the damp braid on top of her head and her face was flushed from the heat and the hike. New freckles sprayed across her nose, much more than what she’d arrived with. She was more muscular, too. Healthier, Alex thought. He tried not to notice the swell of her thighs or the way her collarbone glistened.

“Is this it?” Faith asked. She was slightly out of breath.

“This is it,” Alex said. From the water, it didn’t look like the island had much elevation to it, but that was deceptive. At the eastern tip, there was a small cliff absolutely covered in giant oaks. Moss and clover covered much of the ground, but tall, wild grass framed the edge of the cliff. It was like it was made to be a rendezvous point.

“This is awesome,” Faith said. It was one of those evenings when the moon and sun were equal in the sky, though the moon looked humongous. “Blue moon,” Faith said.

“I’m surprised you knew that,” Alex said as he started to pull the tent out of his bag.

“We have the same moon in California, you know.”

“Nah,” he said as he slid the poles into their sleeves. “It’s not the same.”

“Maybe you’re right. Can I help?” she asked.

“Probably not.” He gave her a smile to let her know he was joking. “How ʼbout you start unpacking for dinner?”

He listened to the rustle as she went through the cooler. “Just one tent?” she asked.

“Sorry it’s not more,” he said as he hammered the stakes into the ground. “Boss gave me kinda short notice.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I know, I’m impulsive.”

“Got two sleeping bags, though,” he said. He felt her eyes on him as he strung up the overhead tarps.

“Your mama told me you were a Boy Scout,” she said. “Now I can see it.”

Alex laughed. “Doesn’t take a Boy Scout to throw up a pop-up tent,” he said. Alex detached the camping chairs from the side of his backpack and unfolded them. He took extra time dusting them off, a lot more than he would have bothered if it had just been him and one of the guys.

He heard the sound of wood being dumped behind him and whipped around. “No fire,” he said.

“But—”

“The fire, the smoke, anyone could see it.”

“You’re right,” she sighed. “Dang. And I brought stuff for s’mores, too.”

“They taste just as good cold,” he said.

“You’re wrong about that.” Faith started to assemble a cold dinner while Alex got to hitching the food over a strong limb. “What, are there bears on the island now?” she asked.

“Who knows what’s on this island.” At that, she got quiet. He could have kicked himself. As if they both weren’t on edge enough.

“I’m guessing your cardboard square things will be okay in the cooler,” she said.

“Yeah. Probably.”

“God, I’m exhausted,” she said as she finished arranging a dinner of smoked salmon, prepacked salads, and fruit from the local farms. “I think the past few days are just now catching up to me.”

“Don’t be chickening out on me now,” Alex said.

“I’m not,” Faith replied quickly. “It’s just when everything happens so fast, it’s kind of hard to digest.”

“Yeah, I get that,” he said. He pulled at the strung-up food to make sure it would hold, then sat down in the chair beside her and reached for his plate of salmon.

“Cheers,” Faith said. She held up a plastic Nalgene bottle of sweet tea. “I have some gin to go with it if you want.”

“Best stay clearheaded,” Alex said, though he had to admit, a cocktail sounded good. However, it wasn’t just needing to stay sharp that kept him dry. Out here, alone with Faith, the last thing he needed was lowered inhibitions.

She sighed as she dug into her plate. He could watch her eat forever, those incredible lips and the high cheekbones. “What?” she asked suddenly. Alex realized he actually had been staring at her.

“Nothin’,” he said. “I think I’m just a bit out of it, too.”

They ate in comfortable silence. The chorus of crickets got louder each minute. “Hey,” Faith said. “Is that them?” She pointed to a boat in the distance.

Alex sat up straighter. “Nah,” he said. “That’s the Stewart twins from the other end of the island. Night fishin’.”

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.

Alex crumpled up what was left of their dinner, sorted it for recycling, and strung it up the tree.

“Now what?” she asked as he sat beside her.

“Now we wait. What else you think we were Gonna do out here?”

“I don’t know. Stakeouts sounded a lot more exciting than this.”

The two of them stared into the distance. He realized he was in a prime position for another barrage of questions about Rebecca, but Faith didn’t seem interested in it. For once, she acted like the silence was all right. She slipped out of her hiking shoes and into flip-flops. Those long legs stretched out forever, propped up on a root that had shot out of the ground.

Alex sipped his sweet tea and watched the water. The moon grew higher and smaller. “What time is it?” Faith asked. Her voice, sudden in the night, was like thunder.

He glanced at his watch. “Nearly midnight.”

“They’re not coming,” she said.

“Doesn’t seem like it. Not tonight.”

“I’m tired. Are you tired?” she asked.

“I could sleep. Ready for bed?”

“I guess so.”

Alex crawled into the tent while she “did her face regimen.”

“Alex?” she called.

“Yeah?” He’d just gotten into Caleb’s old sleeping bag.

“You in there for the night?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I’m going to change into my pajamas out here.”

“Pajamas? Just sleep in what you got on.”

“No! I packed them, and I want to be comfortable.”

“Are you serious? Actually, go for it,” he said. “And bring the clothes you got on in here for a pillow.”

“You didn’t bring pillows?”

“This isn’t glamping.”

She laughed. “I can’t believe you know what glamping is.”

When she finally crawled into the tent, he turned on the solar-powered flashlight so she could find her way. “What are you wearin’?”

“Hot yoga shorts,” she said.

“Looks like underwear.”

“Underwear? What kind of women’s underwear have you seen that are this big?”

“I dunno.”

“You need to get out more.”

“I don’t need to be goin’ to no yoga places if that’s how y’all dress.” He watched her slide into his old sleeping bag and fuss at her bundle of clothes for a makeshift pillow.

“This isn’t so bad,” she said. “But I wish I’d known. I wouldn’t have packed clothes with so many buttons and zippers.”

“Sleep always comes easy in a tent,” he assured her.

He wished it were true for him. It was awkward sleeping next to another person. The same as the night they’d spent together. She rolled away from him and fell asleep almost instantly. Her hair had uncoiled and fanned out wildly, and Alex watched the even rise and fall of her body with every deep breath.

The moonlight shone with ferocity through the thin summer camping tent and lit it up like an intimate bar. He’d forgotten that small birthmark on her left shoulder. The night they’d been together, he’d lingered over it with the tip of his tongue.

Shit. Just thinking of that night got him hard. She’s right there. And already asleep. Apparently, Faith didn’t share his discomfort.

Alex closed his eyes and willed himself to be still. Get some sleep. I need some sleep if I’m gonna be out here three days.

He counted breaths, just as one of those therapists had taught him to do. Even count in, even count out. He was hyperaware of his stiffness. Would it be so bad just to brush myself? There is a good foot of distance between them. No, stop it.

 

At some point, he must have fallen asleep. The tent was roasting hot. When he opened his eyes, it was still dark out, but Faith was curled up against him. She’d pulled herself out of the sleeping bag and was spooned next to him, one leg thrown across him. Even through the thickness of his own sleeping bag, he could feel her heat as it burned into him.

In the night, his own sleeping bag had become partially unzipped. How the hell did it get so hot in here? He felt a flicker on his stomach and glanced down. His T-shirt was halfway up his torso, and Faith’s hand rested on his stomach. He was hard again, or still hard from earlier, he couldn’t tell. Her fingers were just inches away.

He looked at her closed eyes with those thick lashes that fluttered in sleep. A small smile played at the corner of her lips. Whatever she was dreaming about, she seemed miles away. Would it be so bad to just kiss her? Wake her up with my lips on hers?

Alex wanted so badly to just take her right there. Rip those little shorts off and bury himself deep inside her. And he knew she’d be wet fast, just like the first time. He craved those little moans she gave when he fingered her, how her breath caught when he licked her clit.

Faith stirred and murmured something in her sleep. Her hand went an inch lower and hovered at the top of his shorts.

Shit. Carefully, he took her hand and moved it away. She tucked it under her head and sighed in her sleep.

Alex unzipped more of his sleeping bag as quietly as he could. It took him a good three minutes to get out of the tent. He had to unzip the opening one inch at a time, otherwise it would squeal and she’d surely wake up.

He crawled outside and slid on his shoes. As he zipped Faith back up in the tent, he saw that she’d rolled onto her back. Her tank top was so loose, it had fallen to the side. One of her breasts threatened to spill out completely. He could see the outline of one of her nipples, which made the hardness in his shorts almost unbearable.

Alex stood up, grabbed the flashlight, and sat in the chair. The moon had lowered again in the sky. Why the hell am I even resisting anymore? He dug through the cooler for one of his protein bars, anything to distract himself.

It’s not like she’s not into me. Most guys would kill for a girl like that for the summer.

But that was the kicker. It was just for the summer. Why feel so deeply for someone who’s just going to leave? And this time, it was for certain. Anything he and Faith might have came with an expiration date. That was something he just couldn’t handle.