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Chapter 1

Overhaul

Haley

“What do you want me to do with this vine rope?” I cup my hands and yell up at Zane. I know what he wants me to do with it, but I want to see if he’ll come up with another answer. One that we could have a little more fun with.

“She puts it in the basket.”

I glare at him. For the last week, we’ve been snuggling at night while Zane retells us old movies. Last night was Silence of the Lambs. I wasn’t a fan. I coil the rope and put it in my newest basket. This one has a handle and can actually hold more than a pound or two. All thanks to the reed-like plants Calvin found on the other side of the island. I watch as Zane pulls it up.

“How’s it going?” I call back up again.

“Get on up here and take a look.” I put another log on the stove. Dante will want it hot for dinner tonight. I give Pepper a scratch behind her ears. She’s getting so big, like a gangly teenager. Her ears are too large for her head, and she’s all paws—and only a little bit of claws.

I hold on to the rope and use the few footholds we’ve made to get to the platform. This one is mostly finished, and when the other ones are done, it will be our living room. There’s a corrugated tin roof from the ship over most of it. The other side, with the least amount of wind, has a palm frond covering the top of the tarp. Calvin and Zane are working on the bedroom platform, a few steps above this one. It’s going to be something when it’s done. It’s a lot bigger. It will have solid walls that the guys are convinced will hold through the rainy season. A few more boards, and the base will be finished.

I climb up the steps to the bedroom and poke my head in. “It’s looking amazing.” A soft brush of fur rubs up against my legs. “Look at you, Pepper. You’re such a big girl getting up here on your own.” I pick her up and nuzzle her to my face. I know it’s going to take a while for her to get back down on her own. But it’s a step in the right direction. “Can I come up?”

“Yes. Don’t step over there. We’re still getting it secured.” Calvin points to the far corner.

Maybe it’s all the time I spent working in yacht ship interiors, but I’ll swing a hammer if they need me to. We only have one hammer. We found it in the locked chest on the fishing boat, along with two wool blankets that were remarkably not moth eaten. There were a few other tools, a saw and a hand drill, along with a picture of a woman wearing a flower in her hair. We’ve brought the chest into the kitchen area. It’s where we keep all the supplies we want to keep dry. The hardest thing we’ve done is cut the raft apart. It was starting to leak. And I don’t care what happens. I’m not leaving this island in an inflatable raft. Even if we could get it past the breakers, the thought of being thrown about with no way of knowing where we were going or being able to steer? Yeah, I’m not interested in that. I did spend a few hours yesterday straightening nails. But most of my time has been spent trying to make things better for us. I made more mats for the roof above the living space. Swept the dirt and sand out of the kitchen area. But I’m ecstatic about the sleeping loft. “When can we move into it?” The floor is almost done, and the roof was in place at almost the same time the support timbers were put up.

“It needs the rest of the sidewalls up. It’s going to take a bunch more trips to the derelict to get the supplies we need.” Zane has a sharp stick behind his ear. It’s one he uses to draw in the sand when he’s trying to convince Calvin to build something his way. He looks just like the architect I think he should have been. “We can’t sleep in it until we know we won’t fall out.”

I nod. Bringing the supplies from the ship has taken a long time. We even talked about building it closer to the derelict, but there aren’t any trees there as good as these.

“Hey, Sassy. We’re home,” Dante calls out, and something large thuds to the ground.

Zane crouches and looks through the last hole in the floorboards. “Excellent. They’ve got the support beam.” He hops up and zips down the tree ladder.

I stand at the railing of the living room. “Hi, guys.”

“Haley.” Easton brushes his hand on his pants. “Is that a new basket?” He takes the swinging basket in his hands.

I’m down the ladder a lot slower than Zane. “Yeah. What do you think?”

Dante gives me a hug as he makes his way over to the stove. “Perfect temperature, Sassy.”

“It’s good. You’re really improving.” Easton kisses the spot below my ear. The one he knows makes me squirm.

“Hey, you two. We’ve got work to do. There’s a few more hours until it gets dark.” Zane examines the new beam. To me, it looks like one of the ribs of the ship. But I’ve been wrong about my guesses before.

“Tide’s going out. I’m going to go to the beach and check the fish weir,” I say.

“I’ll come with you.” Calvin’s down in three long steps.

“We’re losing light.” Zane kneels next to the beam, taking measurements with his pencil stick.

“And we’ll have sunrise tomorrow,” Calvin responds.

Dante puts his hand on Calvin’s forehead. “Who are you and what have you done with taskmaster Green?”

Calvin pushes Dante’s hand away. “Let’s go see what’s for dinner, Haley.”

“Bring something good back. I don’t want to make jerky stew again,” Dante threatens. It’s the only thing of his that we all had a hard time getting down. And it was only once.

“You coming, Easton?” I hold my hand out to him.

“No, I’m going to stay here.” He looks at Zane, and I get the subtext. He’s going to see if he can get Zane to chill out. Which lately has been next to impossible. He’s excited. And I get it. But he needs to take a break.

“You all know where we’ll be.” I give them each a kiss before I go. It’s become this little ritual we do. And I didn’t even start it. It was Zane, or Easton. I don’t remember.

I start with Easton since he’s next to me. His kiss is tender and sends a zip to my toes.

“Me next, Sassy.” Dante’s waiting in line. He pulls me close and takes my breath away.

I move next to Zane. He’s not looking up from the peeling green-painted beam. “Zane?”

“What?” He’s deep in envisioning land.

“Give your girl a kiss,” Dante calls over from where he’s chopping up a coconut.

“Shit, Little Bird. Sorry.” He pops up and wraps his arms around my neck. He kisses me and dips me deeply.

“Show off.” Easton punches playfully at Zane’s arm when he rights me.

“Take a break, Zane.”

“I will, Little Bird.”

When I turn back, he’s measuring the other side of the new beam. I point at Zane’s back to Easton. Easton nods. Maybe he can make him sit and take some of the pressure off his foot. The wound is healing, but not well. It’s not infected, but the scab doesn’t look right.

Calvin takes my hand in his. He has one of our oldest mats and a hunk of the plastic from the raft under his other arm. The trail to the beach is well-worn. And while we don’t man the signal fire on the beach often anymore, we do sometimes. I kind of figure that once the shelter is done, we’ll get back to it. Watching the horizon. Or maybe we’ll just watch from the top platform, when it’s complete.

“Look.” I run down the beach, dragging Calvin along behind me. The fish weir is a lot bigger now. And we’ve discovered the far side of the beach works a lot better with the currents of the waves. Some days we have so many fish we throw a good portion of them back into the ocean. Other days there aren’t many, but enough for dinner. “Holy crap, is that a sea bass?”

Calvin picks it up. The thing is two feet long. “It’s huge.” Calvin wades in.

“I’ll toss the rest back.” I pick up a small reef fish and toss it over the weir fence. We’ve added a lot more stakes over the last few weeks.

“Good job not squealing, Haley.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ve been practicing. Still don’t like picking fish up. But I don’t want the poor thing to die for no reason.” I gather more of the small fish, setting them free. “Go Willy, you’re free.”

“So help me, Haley, if you have Zane telling us the Free Willy story tonight...”

I hold my breath and wait for his reaction before I turn slowly to him. He’s tossing another fish back. “What are you going to do if I do?”

He shakes his head. “It’s not punishment if you like it, Haley.” He picks up the sea bass again. It’s huge. “Shit, this thing has to weigh over ten pounds. It’s a good thing we came down here now. We’re going to need the smoker going tonight.”

We walk back shoulder to, well, mid-chest. “Want me to carry the fish for a while? You’re not getting tired.”

“Not tired. Contemplative.” His eyebrows furrow.

“Really, Mr. Green? What are you thinking about?” I know the answer before I ask. While I love Zane’s story time, he picks movies that he knows I’ll like and will drive Calvin batshit crazy. He’s done The Devil Wears Prada, The Notebook, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days , and The Proposal . Calvin hated all of them. How you can hate anything with Sandra Bullock in it, though, is beyond me.

“A punishment.”

“Oh. Well, if I’m going to be punished...” I take off running. I know I’m not going to beat him back, but I’m going to give it a try. I’m almost to them when he thunders beside me. “I won’t, I won’t. I won’t make Zane tell us Free Willy.” Calvin picks me up and throws me over his shoulder–––he’s got the sea bass under his other arm. “Zane,” I scream.

Dante’s looking at me oddly, or at least I think he is. It’s hard to tell when you’re upside down. “What am I, chopped liver?” Dante shivers.

“What?” Zane races out of the jungle.

“Do you know the plot to Free Willy ?” I’m out of breath from running and holding in my laughter. Dante bursts out laughing. Easton too. “Do you?” It’s childish. I know, but pushing Calvin’s buttons is necessary to keep him from going back to being a workaholic. Something I hope I can get Zane out of too. I’m a hard worker. But sometimes enough is enough. We have a roof and food. It’s okay to relax.

Zane shakes his head, and he’s back to whatever measurement or plan he was making.

“Nice try, Sassy.”

Calvin drops the bass on Dante’s new work surface. It’s waist-high with a slab of worn, smooth lava rock on top. “Holy shit, that’s a beauty.” Dante slaps Calvin on his back.

“You got it? I’ve got some punishment to pass out.” Calvin slaps Dante back.

“If I say no, do I get to help with the punishment?”

“No.” Calvin laughs. “I need Rockwell for this.”

Did Dante just wink at Calvin? I gulp.