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My chest tightened.
Ever since that first day on the boat, when I’d confessed things I shouldn’t and Jack had caught us touching, Neri had kept her distance.
I never told her that I overheard the conversation between her and her father and her quips about marrying me. The first few days afterward had been insanely awkward. I didn’t know how to act around her. Didn’t know if I should bring it up with her or pretend everything was normal.
What exactly was normal?
Nothing about our relationship or how we came to be sharing a life was normal.
Therefore, I chose not to say anything at all, and I was both grateful and suspicious when Neri toned down her friendship. She continued to speak to me, laughed at my half-attempted jokes at dinners, and seemed to watch me far more times than I was aware, but gone were the attempts at pulling me out of my depression. Gone were the impassioned explanations that she’d heal my heart because she’d found me for a reason.
To be honest, I was grateful for the space.
Yet something niggled, and I felt as if I’d lost something before I’d even realised that I wanted it.
My ankle burned a little as I crouched and inserted the laptop case into its secure shelf. A bead of sweat rolled down my spine beneath one of the seven t-shirts Anna had arrived home with a few weeks ago, along with a bag of hoodies, socks, shorts, underwear, and swimming attire.
I’d accepted the clothing...what else could I do when I had nothing but Jack’s borrowed things? But it didn’t mean I was happy about it.
I worked doubly hard to ensure she knew how grateful I was.
It was a daily fear that I’d come across as a leech, made worse by Jack paying me for my help every Friday.
To start with, I’d refused to accept. They paid for everything. They gave me a room, food, and safety. They kept my secret. They didn’t have to do any of it.
But he’d argued.
We’d ended up in a heated discussion.
And Anna had to intervene, stating time worked was time paid. It was fair even though I felt utterly indebted.
She forced me to accept the money. Jack gloated, pressing the envelope into my reluctant hand, and promised to take me into town if I ever wanted to buy anything.
I’d stopped fighting, and every Friday, I’d wedge the latest envelope with all the rest, untouched and hidden beneath my mattress.
One day, when I found my feet and could think about tomorrow without breaking apart over yesterday, then I would give him back the money. I would find a way to repay him for everything.
Jack strolled to the large chiller containing water, soda, cut honeydew melon, and packed sandwiches. Plucking out a ginger beer, he looked at his wife, daughter, and stowaway. “Anyone want anything?”
Anna finished wrapping a purple sarong around her black one-piece and drifted toward him. “God, I’d kill for an ice-cold Sprite.”
Jack kissed her on the lips as he passed her a dewy can. “Neri? Anything?”
His daughter slipped by me, her body free from its wetsuit and wearing her usual outfit of nothing but Lycra. Her never-ending supply of bathing costumes put my meagre wardrobe to shame. Today, she glowed in a burnt-gold one-piece with frills on the hips and bronze stars across her flat chest.
“Are we staying here for a bit?” she asked, not answering her father. “Or are we heading back to shore?”
“Why?” Jack asked suspiciously. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Neri threw me a look I couldn’t decipher and shrugged. “We’re near Low Isles. If we’re not leaving yet, I’d like to go swimming on the reef.”
“You just went swimming.” Jack took a drink. “That’s literally what we’ve been doing all morning. Swimming with the clams and noting any changes to their habitat with increased boat traffic and tourists.”
“You know I hate swimming with tanks and things.” Neri looked at me again. A glint appeared in her blue gaze, sending my instincts on high alert.
What is she up to?
“I much rather swim with nothing.”
“Take a snorkel, at least,” Jack muttered.
Neri grinned, her pretty face a little pink from the sun. “I’ll take my fins. Final offer.”
“Fine. But stay where we can see you. And don’t be out for hours. We have plans tonight with Carol and Tim from down the road.”
Neri groaned. “You’re not dragging me too, are you? I’d rather stay at home and do schoolwork than be bored at their place.”
“You know the rules. You’re too young to stay at home, especially with a swimming pool in the backyard.”
“A pool that I’ve swum in since I was born.”
“A pool that I’d hate to find you drowned in—not from lack of skills on your part, little fish, but a horrible accident. I don’t trust you to stay out of it while we’re gone. Therefore, that’s a firm nope on you staying home alone.”
