Page 43

Chapter 43

Liberty Call

Haley

“Pepper?” I call down from the platform. I’m back from my bath at the waterfall with Easton. Things are still swirling in my head. But he was so tender with me, so kind. It’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.

Penny howls again, and it’s followed by a long hiss.

“Penny?” How is she here?

Zane and Easton have gone off to the stream to collect water. I’ve been sweeping out the sleeping platform and tightening the rain flaps. Zane’s improved our windows a lot with panels from the back of the Rock Candy that snap into place over the swim platform. They were for letting people fish while staying out of the rain.

Pepper hisses again.

“Pepper?” I head down to the living platform and then down the stairs. Penny barks.

“Hey, Sassy, we’re home.” Dante puts two boxes down in the kitchen area, tucking them out of the way.

Pepper’s back is arched, and she slowly moves backwards as Penny inches forward. I ignore the danger of her scratching and biting me. She might look like a full-grown cat now, but she’s still a kitten to me. I scoop her up. “It’s okay, Pepper. Penny is our friend.”

Penny barks.

“You’re not helping.” I crouch down. I’m not sure if that’s what I should do, but it feels right, letting Pepper see Penny face-to-face.

Pepper lets out a warning growl but curls up in my lap. Penny inches closer and lies down at my feet, her nose dangerously close to my leg and Pepper’s claws. She lets out a long sigh.

“It’s hard to make friends, I get it.” I risk Pepper fleeing when I take a hand off her and run it over Penny’s face, stopping to scratch her ears. For a second, Penny closes her eyes and I feel Pepper relax. “How did you get here?” I pet the sleeping dog again. It’s a silly question; I’ve already seen Dante. I turn to him. “Did Sam and Calvin come too? Is everything okay on the yacht?”

“Everything is fine. We were just missing you, Sassy.”

My heart dances inside my chest. It’s more than the rain that has been bringing me down. Not having all of us together every night is... odd. I know that’s a weird thing to say. Oh no, only sleeping with two or three guys instead of five. But it’s not even the sex. It’s like a piece of me is missing when we’re not together. I don’t like it, not at all.

I’ve been wondering if we should all start sleeping on the ship together. It’s not something we’ve done, not since my birthday. And it’s almost the holidays. Whatever that means. Thanksgiving, Christmas? They both still hurt. It makes me miss my mother so much. I never understood how people didn’t like the season, but for the last few years, it makes so much sense. “I was missing all of you too. I know we just left a bit ago. But yeah, I’m glad you came. And I’ve been waiting for Pepper and Penny to meet.”

Sam’s staring at Penny. “She’s always loved cats. But it takes a special kind to know that her licks are of love and not from hunger.”

“Well, that hasn’t happened yet,” I say.

“Pepper’s tough. She’ll let Penny know if she oversteps,” Calvin says.

I hug Pepper closer. “I think they can be friends once they work out some of their fears.” My eyes flick to Sam, and he smirks. The correlation between Penny and Pepper and Sam and the guys might not go over his head.

“Sometimes a little dose of healthy fear is a good thing,” Sam says.

“And sometimes fear can stop you from doing the thing you want most in life.” Dante kneels next to me. “You want friends, don’t you, Pepper?”

“It’s true. She’s seemed off when there’s only a couple of us on the beach.” I look up at Dante.

“She’s been lonely. It’s okay to be needy,” Dante says before popping up. And now I’m wondering if he’s talking about me. It’s Dante; he’s definitely talking about me. “We should get camp buttoned up. We’ll be lucky if the nightly storm holds off much longer.” He bustles around the kitchen area, which now has a rain shelter over it. It’s camouflaged. It had been ordered for Emily as a wildlife screen. Apparently, she’s a really good photographer.

“Are you going to bring Penny up into the treehouse?” I ask Sam.

“I hadn’t thought about it.” He skirts around Penny and loops his arm around me, pressing a kiss to my neck. “I’m glad to see you. Although, it’s only been a few hours.” Sam rubs Pepper behind her ears. Her round eyes gaze up at him before she rubs up against his chest, reaching for his beard. My little feline friend has a thing for facial hair. And I’ve got to admit it, while I wasn’t sure at first, their beards, both thick and scruffy, are sexy as hell.

“I’ve got just the thing.” Zane’s got the lid to one of his tool tubs open. “I knew eventually we’d have her here, so I made a sling to attach to the bucket rope and pulley.”

“I don’t know about that.” Sam takes it from Zane’s hands. “You think she’ll sit still to be hauled up a rope? I can barely get her in the life vest.”

“Is she good for the night?” Calvin’s leaning against the tree. “Like, has she done her business?”

“Yeah, back on the beach.” Sam’s eyes flick to Penny.

Calvin picks the dog up like she’s a small child and climbs the ladder.

“Or we could just do that,” Zane says, the bewilderment in his voice felt by all of us.

“There you go, Penny.” Calvin sets her down and tosses his legs over the opening next to the ladder. “She doesn’t jump off the boat. Don’t see why she would do it here.”

Penny puts her head on his shoulder.

“That’s got to be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Wish I could take a picture.” There’ve been plenty of times since we had the treehouse that I’ve thought the same thing. “Do you think I could charge my phone enough to take some pictures?” I’m looking up at Calvin, since he’s the one who rigged up the second solar pack here. We needed a way to keep the binoculars charged for their night vision. Although, there have been a few days in the last weeks that the rain has kept them from charging much.

“I don’t see why not,” Sam says.

On the beach, we all refer to Calvin when we have a question, and on the yacht, we go to Sam.

“You know that little proverb you dropped a few weeks back, Dante? It’s easier to ask for forgiveness?” Zane puts something in the basket and lowers it down. “There you go, Little Bird. I charged my phone last week after the binoculars were done. There’s no signal, but you never know when Cellnex Telecom is going to take over the South Pacific.” He laughs. “Passcode is 18741982. There’s no signal. I did check. That would have been mental if our cells had signals all this time.”

I hand Pepper to Dante and take Zane’s phone from the basket. I turn it on and type in the code. “1874?”

“The year Aston Villa Football Club was formed, and 1982 is the last time they won the European Cup.” Zane wiggles his eyebrows at me.

“Naturally.” Dante laughs.

“This feels so weird. Hold still, Calvin.” I take the picture. And now my heart is soaring. I want to go snap pictures of everything. Penny tilts her head on Calvin’s shoulder like she knows exactly what I’m doing.

“My ex had an Instagram account for Penny. Penny knows how to pose.”

Penny sits up behind Calvin and puts her paw on the other side, effectively giving him a hug.

“You’re not kidding.” I snap a few shots.

When the thunder rolls out over the ocean, Pepper lunges from Dante’s arms and scurries up the tree, leaps to the sleeping platform. I’m sure she’s ducked right into the little sleeping cubby that Zane made for her.

“We’ve got a few minutes before the rain pours down,” I say to Sam. I push Zane’s phone into my pocket and bustle around the camp, getting ready for the downpour. Things stay pretty much dry as long as we get everything in. We’re a well-oiled machine, with everyone taking charge of a certain area. Dante does the food tent, Zane and Easton get the windows in the sleeping area tightened down, Calvin secures the firewood, and I make sure that there’s nothing on the secondary platform that can’t get wet.

I’m up the ladder and tackling the living room platform in no time. We ate dinner up here when we got back from the boat. Zane spent the day at the treehouse standing on the observation platform, watching the never-ending empty ocean.

“Easton, here, take Penny.” Calvin hands her up to Easton. I move up to the other platform, gathering some cushions I had out earlier, tucking them back into their containers, and I have the empty dinner dishes in a basket to go down to the kitchen later.

When I look down at Sam, he’s standing there watching us all. His blue eyes catch mine. He gives me a small shrug and turns to Dante. I don’t know what he says, but Dante hands him a bucket, and he heads down the trail.

On the sleeping platform, Easton is watching me watch Sam. “He’s getting water,” Easton says before he turns back to helping Zane with the window.

“Right, but he’s only been to camp once,” I point out. “Maybe I should go with him?”

“He’s not going to get lost, Firefly. The trail is pretty trampled.”

I nod. He’s right. “But I think I should still go.”

Lightning flashes through the trees. Crap, I hate it. Even after months of the rainy season, I still hate it. The noise, the flashing—all of it. I always have. But as much as I hate it, I don’t want Sam to, I don’t know, feel unwelcome.

When Easton moves to the other side of the sleeping platform to help Calvin, I climb down the ladder and run along the path. Easton’s right—the path to the stream is really worn down and not from animals but from us. Sam should be at the first turn of the stream, but he’s not there.

“Sam.” I cup my hands and call out to him. I stop speed-walking and wait to see if he answers me, but there’s no reply. Now I’m full-on running. Easton said if you stay on the path, there’s no way to get lost. But if you head into the jungle because you see something... My heart pounds in my chest. “Sam,” I call again, but there’s no answer. My steps thud on the wet path. It hasn’t started raining yet, but it also hasn’t dried off from the last storm.

I stop. This isn’t how Calvin taught me. Observe, look, and listen. I push against my panic, panic of not knowing where he is, of not knowing about the storm. He’s only been out of my sight for a few minutes. I’m being silly.

“Sam,” I shout. The wind is picking up, and while the rain hasn’t started, the palm fronds are throwing the water from the last storm down on my head. I push down the path, way past the point where we stop to get our water, and I keep going.

The rain starts, small droplets at first, but I know what’s going to happen; they’re only going to get bigger. I’m almost at the waterfall. I don’t think I’ve ever come this far, this fast, or by myself. I turn back, and there are two black eyes peering at me.