Page 29 of Fake Coral and Keys

“You know what I mean,” I say, flustered. “People don’t walk around looking like this.” I gesture to the phone. “I’m dressed up and posed. With perfect lighting and caught at my most flattering angle.”

“You’re being told how beautiful you are.” Blake points to the screen. “That’s exactly what a person looks like when people they love make them feel important.”

I glance up. His face seems softer now. Whatever weird tightness he’s had in his features has slid away. “It has been nice to be included in Lily’s shenanigans.”

“You do know that Lily should have always included you.”

Giving him a smile, I place a light kiss on his lips. I do know they should have included me this entire time. But I guess they didn’t realize they should have. “Erin and Lily saidI was more sassy and confident. Maybe they didn’t include me because I didn’t have it before. Maybe that’s the spark I’ve been missing.”

Blake hooks a finger under my chin, so I look back at him instead of the phone. His expression looks almost pained. “Your spark’s always been there, Daisy. They’re just finally seeing it.”

***

“Not like that,” Erin snatches her phone from Kane. She lowers it, then tilts it upward slightly. “Hold it like this. See how it captures the ocean and the sky?”

“Yeah,” Kane says with a bored tone and takes the phone back from Erin. He adjusts himself in the seat to take a picture of Lily and Erin. The boat bobs up and down, and he sways side to side. He takes the picture, then drops his arms to his side. “Can we be done now?”

Erin makes this weird sound in her throat and grabs the phone from him. She looks to Lily. “Tell your fiancé that if he’d not left the tripod on the dock, he wouldn’t be takingpictures.”

Kane leans back on the white cushioned bench lining each side of the deck. “How is you leaving your tripod behind my fault?”

Erin glares at him. “Because I asked you to grab it before we left.”

With a shake of his head, Kane picks up his phone and makes a show of ignoring her.

“There isn’t enough room on the boat to set up a tripod anyway,” Lily interjects. “It isn’t as big as I thought it would be.”

“That’s what she said,” Erin snickers, glancing at the Captain navigating the charter boat.

“How much longer until we’re at the reefs?” Justine asks. She’s sprawled out on the white seat, taking up too much room and shoving anyone who slides too close away with a foot. “If I don’t get in the water soon, I will die of a heat stroke.”

Lily leans back in the seat next to Kane, but I can imagine her eye roll behind her dark sunglasses. “So dramatic.”

“It’s hot,” Justine whines, and I can’t help rolling my eyes.

Blake mumbles next to me, but all I catch is something about melting. Witches melting? I chuckle at the reference, wishing I could add something about flying monkeys without consequences, and shoot him a smirk. The secretive mirth in myglance falls when I see his face. He looks miserable. He’s been pretty quiet since we left the resort, only offering a faint smile and a nod now and then. Lily and Erin have been so wrapped up in trying to capture perfect shots that I’ve barely paid much attention to him. Looking at him now, he seems a little green, a thin sheen of sweat covering his forehead.

“Are you okay?” I lightly run a hand up and down his back. He’s leaned over slightly, his forearms propped on his knees. He gives a barely discernable nod. “You look a little green.”

Blake shifts so I can see his face. His eyes look glassy, but he manages a weak smile. “I’ve not spent much time on a boat.” His features pinch. “A boat this size.”

“The smaller the boat, the rougher the ride,” Erin says. “You’d think it would be the opposite.”

This time Lily snickers.

I shift closer to Blake so that our legs touch. The second our flesh meets, the skin turns slick with sweat. I dig the small bottle of motion sickness medicine from the day bag I brought, then grab cold water out of the cooler near my feet.

“Take this,” I tell him. “It will help.”

He gives me an appreciative smile, pops the pill in his mouth, and drinks water.

I glance back at the Captain navigating the boat, blissfully unaware of his passengers. Part of me wants to ask him to slow down a tad, but the faster we get there, the faster Blake will feel better.

Draping an arm over the side of the charter boat, I turn to see if I can spot the rest of my family. A few yards behind us, the bright blue of the boat bobs in the light waves. My parents reserved two boats for the day. Each only seats six, so we had to split our group into two. Blake, Erin, Justine, Lily, Kane, and I piled into boat one. The rest joined another older couple on boat two, and we set off just after breakfast.

“We’re headed to Alligator Reef?” Justine asks the Captain.

“No.” He shakes his head. His shaggy, sandy-blonde hair spills out under his floppy hat, curling somewhat around his ears. The mirrored aviators hiding his eyes turn to look at Justine, who’s slid up close to the Captain as we’ve sped along, then move back to look in front of him. “We are going to Hen’s and Chicken Reef.”

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