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The coconut cracks, and the screwdriver falls out.
I lean forward. “Hey! Don’t lose the water!”
Rhett lifts it from the dirt. “Let’s see what we’ve got. Open wide.”
I lean back and open my mouth.
Rhett upturns the coconut and a thin stream of water falls into my mouth.
It’s cool and delicious. I’ve never tasted anything so good.
When I swallow, Rhett dribbles more of the water over my skin.
“I’m going to take mine like this.”
He buries the coconut in the sand so it won’t fall over and leak.
Then his mouth follows the trail of the water.
And our night begins.
28
RHETT
Asound startles me awake during the night.
Instinctively, I draw Bailey closer to my chest. We originally slept in the shed, but the lack of breeze quickly became stifling, so we moved our makeshift mattress out by the fire.
It’s down to embers, and the very first hint of dawn shows as a blue haze over the ocean.
But then I sit up. There’s a shadow on the water. A big one.
It’s the cruise ship.
It’s back.
I shake Bailey awake. We had originally agreed not to sleep naked because of this very possibility, but when our second night went about like the first, we ended up scattering our bathing suits again.
I reach for her white cover-up and drape it over her. “The ship is out in the water.”
She murmurs something unintelligible and tries to snuggle back in, but I shake her shoulder. “We might want to get dressed. They’re probably going to boat here any minute.”
This snaps her awake. “What do you mean, they?”
I point to the ocean. “I heard something that woke me, and I see the shape of the ship.”
She holds her cover-up to her chest as she scrambles for her bathing suit. “Is it ours? Can you tell?”
“No. It’s too dark still. But it’s the right size and shape.”
As I slide on my shorts, she asks, “What do you think you heard?” She’s managed to get her bottoms on and faces away from the ocean as she fastens her top.
“I don’t know. Obviously, something my subconscious knew was not any of the usual sounds.”
“Funny how fast you can assimilate to anything.” She ties her wrap over her suit and slides on her flip-flops.
I grab my shirt and shoes, and we slowly head toward the shore.
