Page 73 of Swept Away

He climbs in with me, tucking his body behind mine. I hold his hand to my chest and close my eyes. I’m scared and tired and broken, just physicallywrecked, but it doesn’t matter, not right now. Right now I feel safe.

Dayten

Lexi

When I wakethe next morning, the sunlight is blindingly bright against the cream-paneled walls of the dorm room. Zeke is sitting by the boxy window, his hair disordered, one of his knees drawn up in front of him on the chair. He looks gorgeous, and a little wild, a new rough-edged version of the well-groomed man I met at The Anchor.

And he’s reading.

He’s reading one of thelogbooks.

“Oh my God,” I say, sitting up too fast and wincing as the movement makes my head thump.

Zeke looks up at me, and I feel as if I’m looking through his eyes to the little boy who came to that houseboat hoping to find a father who’d make him feel loved.

He clears his throat. “Hey. Morning.”

“You’re doing it,” I whisper, my gaze dropping to the book.

“I’ve read four so far,” he says, nodding to the pile on the chest of drawers beside him. “And went down to check onThe Merry Dormouseas well. I freshened up the drain blocker and bailed the water out a bit…”

I blanch. “Bailed? How bad are we talking?”

“She’ll be fine. I think we just need to go down every…eight hours or so.”

I breathe out. “OK. That doesn’t sound too bad.” I redirect my gaze pointedly to the book in his lap. “And…have you got…” I am about to sayan answer, but instead I say, “what you wanted?”

He smooths the page, eyes downturned. “Some cryptic stuff that looks pretty obvious to me, but he’s never actuallysaidhe’s not my father. And he’s not said who my dad really is.”

“I’m sorry.”

I wait, give him time.

“It’s so weird, to be honest. Reading it. It makes me remember…all the other sides of Dad, the ones I’ve forgotten about. I focus so much on the times he excluded me or favored Lyra and Jeremy. But I’m actually mentioned in here a lot.” He looks up with a halfhearted smile. “Mostly stuff about him not understanding me, but still.”

“Not understanding someone and not loving them are not the same thing.”

He swallows. “Maybe. Anyway, I’ve started reading them. That’s something. I was sick of being too scared to open the books, and after yesterday…” His smile turns genuine as he looks at me. “I felt kind of inspired to be brave.”

I look down at the duvet cover, half-pleased, half-embarrassed. Iwasbrave yesterday. I can hardly believe what I did. I hope one day I can tell Mae all about it, and that she’ll be proud of her auntie Lexi. I’m pretty proud of me.

“But I’m glad you’re up,” Zeke says, snapping the book closed. “No more logbook angst. We’ve got big plans.”

“Have we?”

“Oh yeah. Full agenda. Because today we’re on holiday.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Holiday,” Zeke confirms, with a definitive nod. “In an exclusive resort.”

I prop myself up on my elbows, looking at him. His eyes turn warm.

“I want to make today…good. I want us to have a good day, like the day we might have after a kiss like that if weweren’tstranded in dystopia. So. Stay there. Relax. Enjoy the fact that you can’t drown right now. I’ll be back in a minute with your flat white.”

He heads out of the door as I say, “What do you mean you’ll be back in a minute with my…”

He’s gone.

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