Page 39 of Adrift

I can’t let him get away with that. My self-consciousness vanishes as I raise my stick high overhead, preparing to narrate my victory just like old times.

“Charge!”

Chapter

Fifteen

KIERAN, THREE DAYS LATER

“It’s a tragedy.A Greek tragedy. We’ve been sharing a bed! And we haven’t even…” I trail off meaningfully, waving my cleaning cloth around.

“Besmirching your good name?” Felix grins. “Don’t worry, your reputation is intact. Half the island has seen him leaving your house in the morning.”

“Okay,” I groan. “But when we’renotactually boning… that’s even worse.”

Felix’s laugh isn’t unkind. “Oh, sweetie,” he shakes his head as he sits at the bar, tapping the counter and turning around to face me. “All right. Spill. Tell me everything.”

The tables in the restaurant are already spotless, but I need something to keep my hands busy as I give Felix an earful before his social committee meeting.

I sigh, turning back to scan the tables with my hands on my hips. I don’t know if I can pretend any more of them need to be cleaned again. “For once, there’s nothingtotell. He’s been the perfect gentleman, and I’ve been…”

Felix’s lips twitch. “Perfectly slutty?”

“Exactly! And he’s not biting. Or licking. Or?—”

Felix interrupts by holding up a hand. “Yeah, I get the picture.”

“And I could post that picture on Facebook without getting banned.” I groan as Felix laughs. “See? A Greek tragedy.”

Felix hums, drumming his fingers on the bar top. I think he sees my whole over-the-top act… and he knows that I’m not being entirely facetious.

That’s the most unsettling part.

I wanted to follow Doug and Berty’s advice and follow this path and see where it leads. Preferably without overthinking every detail of our lives together, the top ten options for wedding colour schemes, and the names of our future kids.

“I don’t even want advice, really,” I tell him glumly. “I know it’s because of the orchard. He’s cleaning it up at record speed. And…” I groan, “I hate to admit this. But it’s honestly really fucking hot that he’s so determined. I didn’t think I wanted a man like that, but it turns out I need a man like that.”

Felix’s eyes sparkle. “Like what?”

The restaurant door swings open, but I’m already on a roll… and the ladies on the committee know me by now. Most of the island does, to be fair.

“Someone whowon’tlet me sweet-talk him into 72 hours in bed with me?—”

A quiet, deep cough makes me spin on my heel, dropping my cleaning cloth and nearly stumbling backward against the nearest chair.

Shit.

It’s Gage. He’s tilting his head, his expression inscrutable.

“H-Hi—I, ah—hi. Hah. I… uh…”

“Hiya?” his voice rises slightly at the end.

It sounds like a question. He seems to think I actually had a word in mind, and I was failing at saying that word. Truth is, my mouth’s just flapping away like a mortified goose.

But he’s throwing me a life ring, and I’ll grab it.

“…yeah,” I echo faintly. “That. Hiya.”

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