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“And the Coast Guard?”

“They compared photographs taken during the rescue with their initial search. Other things had changed.”

“What things?”

“A portable generator was gone. So were several boxes of emergency supplies.”

“Why didn’t they immediately know someone had taken them?”

“Blackwater was chaotic after the rescue. Multiple teams moved through the harbor. Evidence technicians, engineers, divers, medical personnel. The missing items could’ve been relocated and recorded incorrectly.”

“But you didn’t believe that.”

“I didn’t know.”

She stopped walking.

“You didn’t tell me.”

“There was nothing you could do with a suspicion.”

“That isn’t why.”

I looked at her.

Moonlight touched the ends of her hair. The breeze had blown it across her face, and she pushed it behind her ear.

“You didn’t tell me because you wanted me to have a few days without Blackwater,” she said.

“Yes.”

“You don’t get to decide which truths I can handle.”

“I know.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because I keep getting it wrong.”

Her anger disappeared before I deserved for it to.

“You aren’t always wrong.”

“No?”

“No. Sometimes you’re merely annoying.”

“I can live with that.”

“I’m not sure I can.”

I smiled.

She tried not to.

Failed.

I touched her cheek.