Page 7 of Adrift

I’m in their chat group to help coordinate restaurant and ferry hire… and get the best gossip.

Today, all I see is one forwarded message:

I saw a young man walking around the old orchard………anyone know what’s happening?

My heart pounds with excitement. They’ve gotta be talking about this guy, right? Maybe the Coffee Shop Neighbours chat knows more.

HERBERT:

Looks like the orchard really is for sale… I heard a potential buyer is on the island today! Best foot forward, people!

IRENE:

The Russells are selling??

Shirley Jean wouldn’t have wanted that, I’m sure

What a shame…

CROOKED JIM:

I can’t see it listed anywhere! Private sale?

I chew my lip as I back out of that chat and try the Keep Sunrise Wild group instead.

GEORGIE B:

When’s the next town council?? I’ll get a petition started this weekend!

We’ll fight them on development permission… we can’t lose our beautiful old orchard!

I squint and scroll up quickly through a couple dozen messages. It looks like they think he’s a property developer here to tear down the orchard and build houses.

I’m still no closer to any real answers about who this guy is, but I’m going to make it my job to get this guy talking—flirting, if possible—and find out. Call it my community service for the day.

“Ahem.”

Holy shit. He’s standing right in front of me, watching me scroll through my phone.

“Oop!” I squeak, nearly jumping out of my skin.

How the fuck does a guy that big move so quietly?

“Sorry,” our mysterious newcomer apologizes. “I don’t want to interrupt you.”

I blush furiously, clutching at my chest and shoving my phone away. I look up at him—and I keep on looking, until my neck is finally craned back enough to see his face. He still isn’t smiling, but his eyes are crinkled with amusement.

The fucker’s teasing me, and… I’m not even mad about it. I just can’t tell if he read anything on my screen. It puts me on the back foot, and I so rarely get flustered that I don’t know what to do with myself when I am.

Worse still, he’s even hotter up close. I can see the softness of his lips and the hard planes of his chest, and my downstairs brain iswaymore awake than my upstairs brain right now.

Fuck me.

“No, no,” I laugh. “I mean, it’s fine. I shouldn’t have—it’s—sorry…”

He winks at me. “It’s fine. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”

Holy shit. Did I see that right? Yeah, I must have.

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