Page 84 of Obsession Under the Southern Stars

I blink and lift my head to look around. Zoe and I are still pressed together in the tiny bunk, and she’s breathing evenly, still asleep. The rain has stopped, and the wind has abated. Sunshine is streaming through the windows, falling across the floor like gold bars, as if we’re in a bank vault. Wow. Last night I’d have been convinced the bad weather was here to stay for weeks. Talk about four seasons in one day.

I badly need to pee, but I can’t get up without disturbing her. “Zo…” I kiss her on the nose, then on the mouth.

She stirs, yawns, and blinks at me. She looks startled as her memory obviously kicks in. “Oh. Morning.”

“Morning. Sorry, sweetheart, but I have to get up.”

“Okay.” She turns over and levers herself upright, then stands. I scoot over and get up, too. Our eyes meet, and a touch of color appears on her cheeks before she turns away.

“Oh my God,” she says, looking out of the window. “It’s sunny!”

“I know, crazy eh?” I check my phone and discover it’s 7:45 a.m., far later than I normally rise, but that just shows how exhausted I was. I go to the front door and open it. Outside, everything looks as if it’s been scrubbed to within an inch of its life. The flattened grass glows a vivid green. The forest sparkles where the sun hits the raindrops on the leaves. The cabin gleams as if it was built yesterday.

I step out and walk across the grass to the toilet. I could just pee in the trees, but it seems polite to use the facility. When I’m done, I walk back across the grass, stop to wash my hands under the tap attached to the tank, then go back inside.

Zoe has dressed in the clothes that dried in front of the fire last night, and she’s combed her hair and pulled it back into a small ponytail. She’s laid out what’s left of the food and water, and she’s currently eating a cracker while she looks at her phone.

“Is it working?” I ask, pulling up a chair next to her and picking up one of the pies.

“Yeah. No internet, obviously, but it looks as if it’s dried out.”

I pick up mine, which is the same—working but with no signal.

Zoe puts hers down, and I glance at it and see that she has a photo of Rory as her wallpaper. Of course, she has that problem to sort out when she gets back.

“I wonder if anyone’s tried to contact us,” she says.

“Will your mum be worried if she can’t get hold of you?”

She shrugs. “Probably not. What about you?”

“The only problem might be if Manu and the others realize the boat’s not there. They’ll know I would have tried to get back before the bad weather hit.” I sigh. “I’m sad we didn’t find the necklace.”

She shrugs. “It is what it is. I’m used to disappointment.”

I frown. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m sure she’s not telling me everything.

Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it. She only got three days on the Relentless, and it was spoiled by her regulator malfunctioning and then of course the storm.

She won’t meet my eyes now. Is she regretting what happened last night? I hope not. I feel as if I ought to say something to reassure her, but I feel oddly tongue tied. I want to push her to admit that we were so good together, and that we should give this a go, but I have a horrible feeling she’s going to turn me down. The passion from last night was born out of ourfear that our lives were in danger. In the cold light of day, maybe she’s realized she doesn’t have feelings for me at all.

She turns around, her lips curving up. “That was a big sigh.”

“Was it?” I hadn’t even realized I’d done it.

She comes back and sits down. “What’s the matter?”

I shrug. “I feel as if I’ve let you down.”

“Aw, Joel. None of it was your fault. Not the regulator malfunctioning, or the storm, or not being able to find the necklace.”

“It wasn’t my fault that your regulator developed a problem, but it could have been avoided if I’d checked for moisture. I’m not to blame for the storm, but it was my idea to go out on the boat, and I should have set an alarm when we both dozed.”

She looks into my eyes then, and for a moment I feel as if she’s searching them with a flashlight, the way we did while we were looking for the necklace.

“Is this all to do with Elora?” she asks. “Do you blame yourself for what happened to her? Because you know it wasn’t your fault, right?”

I just stare at her, speechless.

---