Page 31 of Unmoored

“Don’t fight it,” Alph advises me with a laugh. “Berty’s the entire Sunrise Island Fan Club in one man. He’ll open up the museum and give you a personal tour if you so much as mention the wordhistory. It won’t be less than three hours long.”

“I’ll mind my vocabulary,” I snort, handing back the bar towel to the pink-haired guy. “Thanks, everyone.”

“Let me give you a ride back once you’ve got your groceries,” one of the neighbours says with a kind smile. “You can’t go back out in that.”

“Not if there’s any wind, that’s for sure. But I saw a little rowboat going cheap.”

“What about a kayak? Might be easier to paddle.”

“A rowboat would carry more.”

Before I know it, someone is adding my phone number to the Sunrise Island “Stuff for Sale” group... and two more groups. Someone else is showing me the “for sale” noticeboard in the ferry waiting room.

I just can’t get over how nice everyone’s being.I’m starting to see why Murph is the way he is. Maybe there really is nowhere quite like Sunrise Island.

“Oh, here’s Justin!”

The newcomer gives me a friendly nod as he digs around in his pocket for a jangling handful of keys, all hanging from a huge foam keychain. “You’re the guy who needed groceries?”

“Desperately.” I tell him, and then I nod around at the others. “Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.” And it’s true—but I don’t want to do my grocery shopping with half the island crowding around me.

Once the goodbyes are over, Justin leads me up the ramp. “So, you got a real Sunrise welcoming committee.”

“Yeah. I sure did. And I made the worst first impression ever.”

Justin laughs as he unlocks the door of the store, revealing a couple of tiny aisles crammed with floor-to-ceiling shelving. “Until you’ve ignored every bit of advice and run a sailboat aground slap-bang in the middle of the Maple Island strait… you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“You don’t want to jinx me,” I laugh. “Trust me. If it wasn’t for Murph…”

Justin flicks on the lights and glances at me. “Oh? You know him?”

It’s all I can do not to glow. I know he’d be embarrassed to have anyone else find out about it, but he’s earned all the credit I can give him. “First day on the water, he rescued me.”

Justin doesn’t look surprised. “Yeah. That’s Murph. He’d give the shirt off his back. So, you need help finding anything?”

I grab one of the three tiny baskets by the door. “Capers? Pine nuts?”

“Trying to impress someone?” Justin grins, rummaging on a shelf nearby to produce them both with a flourish. “Call me if it doesn’t work out. I’ll close early for capers and pine nuts any day of the week.”

I laugh. “I’m pretty sure he’ll show up,” I tell him as he pretends to be disappointed. “But thanks again for opening for me. I’ll be quick.”

“Oh, take all the time you need,” Justin says, and really seems to mean it. He plops onto a stool behind the checkout desk, picking up a sudoku book as he winks at me. “This sounds like an important meal.”

“Yeah,” I admit softly as I tighten my grip on the shopping basket. “Yeah, I hope it is.”

I’ve had months of practice cooking dinners to make a man want to come home… and when I say Murph will show up, I actually believe it. That’s worth embarrassing myself in front of my neighbours, Mr. Otter, and the president of the whole freaking island.

Even if I’m cooking with a kettle and a single-burned electric hotplate, I’m determined to show Murph that Idohave talents. And if I play my cards right… dinner won’t be the only thing spread over the table tonight.

ChapterThirteen

MURPH

“All fuelled up,”I tell Eden, dropping the empty gas can into my boat.

Eden gasps from the doorway into the living quarters. “I can run the engine again? Oh, god. Hot showers!”

I frown at him. Hot water is a basic requirement of a home. “Have you been taking cold showers this whole time?”

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