Page 46

Chapter 46

Buried Treasure

Easton

My gut clenches. It’s Haley’s turn to stay at camp with Pepper and Penny, and none of us like the idea of her staying here by herself for the day. Every time her turn has come around, we have made up an excuse to have one of the guys stay with her.

Haley walks away from the treehouse down to the outhouse, and Zane turns to me and asks. “You want to stay?” I’ve been helping with the wiring, but that’s almost done. Really, Dante’s a bigger help with the things they’re doing down in the engine room. I do know how to swab an engine room floor now. Although, now that the crash patch has been fixed again, there’s hardly anything to mop up. “Yeah, I’ll stay with her. But we need an explanation.”

“I’ve got you,” Dante says.

I cock my head at him. “And?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I wasn’t worried, but now I am. I sit in one of the director’s chairs we’ve brought over from the yacht and sip at a cup of island tea—leaves from the pandan plant that Haley found a few weeks ago. It’s not coffee, but that’s long gone. We’ve all gone through caffeine withdrawal a second time. And honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever pick it up again. But I’ve come to like the pandan plant’s vanilla-like flavor.

Haley’s light footsteps patter back down the trail. She loops her arm around my shoulder. “How’s the tea?”

I lean over and kiss her cheek. “It’s good.” It’s not a classic tea, more like warm, flavored water. But I’ve become quite fond of it. I pull her into my lap, and she nuzzles into my neck.

“I’ll miss you today,” she murmurs.

I give her a squeeze and wait for this grand plan of Dante’s, the one he hasn’t shared with us yet. He has cleaned the counter and has the fire going in the wood stove. His back is turned to Haley and me when he sighs loudly. I cock my head at him because there’s no way she’s not going to see through his middle school drama performance.

Haley gets up from my lap. Dante better pull his plan off. She puts her hand on Dante’s shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“Getting set up to smoke some fish for when we come back.”

“Okay, I’ve helped you a bunch of times. I’ll do it today.”

“Sassy, you should go to the Rock Candy for the day. I’ll stay.” What in the hell? He could have just said that to start with.

“And do what, exactly? Work on my tan? You’ve been helping with the engine. It’s my turn to stay at camp and keep watch. With the new viewing platform that Zane made, I can do it. I can even drive the WaveRunner now.” She turns to Zane. “I did a good job last week, didn’t I?”

“You did, but...” Zane runs his hand through his hair. Calvin and Sam were on the ship last night. Calvin’s been working nonstop in the engine room. He’s not close to getting it going. At least, that’s what he says. But he’s closer than he was back in September.

“Oh no, not you too? What if I want to hang with the girls and have a spa day? Just me, Pepper, and Penny.” Haley purses her lips at Zane.

“I... I don’t see why not,” Zane says. “She can handle it. Make sure you strap in when you go to the platform?—”

“Easton should stay too. The two of them can take turns working on smoking the fish and getting the fish weir cleaned out. That okay with you, Swimmer Boy?” Dante barks at me, like I’m going to put up a fight.

“That’s good with me. My delicate hands are getting calluses from all the mopping.” I hold up my very not callused hands.

Zane loops his arm over my shoulder. “Ah, poor guy. Guess you’d never cut it as a deckhand.”

“You know it,” Dante says with a smirk.

They’re teasing me. It’s weird; I had guys I swam with for a long time, but as I got better, they dropped away. At the Olympic level, sure, there are people you see over and over, but it’s not the same. These men are my brothers. Which is weird to say because they’re not brothers... Yeah.

“We should get the fish smoked sooner rather than later,” I say. The fish weir is still pulling in a decent haul, but it’s not like the first month we had it up. We need to be more cautious with the resources we’re using. The pomelos are done, but there are other trees coming into season. And the other side of the island, while a long hike, has a good amount of coconuts.

Haley cocks her head at me. “I can stay by myself. I can do the smoker.”

“Sure, but now you can do the watch and I’ll do the fish.” I take her hand and position her back between my legs.

Her eyes widen. “Oh, okay.”

I raise my eyebrows at Zane and hope to fuck he understands that in no way are we telling either Sam or Calvin that Haley’s the one up on the platform. Even if she’s strapped in, those two would burst an appendix. Sure, it’s up high, a lot higher than a high dive platform. But she can do it.

Haley, Penny, Pepper, and I walk Zane and Dante down to the tender. Dante and Zane hop in, and Haley and I push them out.

They’re a little past the breaker when Dante cups his hands. “I’m bringing family dinner back tonight.” We’ve been doing family dinners once a week. Sometimes on the Rock Candy. Pepper really likes the yacht. Beds and pillows and endless places to hide from Penny are her jam. The tender isn’t her favorite, though, so most of the time, we have family dinner at camp.

Haley and I wave, our arms wrapped around each other. I kiss the top of her head. She gets sad anytime any of us leave. And I get it. Nothing is guaranteed. Look at Candy. Hell, the fact that Roger Harding seems to want us dead. Well, Emily and me at least. Everyone else was an innocent bystander. Not that we’ve cracked any codes yet. But we’re working on it.

Her blue eyes blink at me. “Sorry you have to babysit me.”

“I’m not babysitting you. But you know how Sam and Calvin worry.”

“If we were going to encounter pirates, wouldn’t we have already?”

“I don’t know, Firefly.” And that bothers me. Calvin and Sam are both uber worried about someone finding and taking Haley. But there are more days than not that I think we should just try to talk about the VHF. I’m not na?ve. I know there are bad operators in the world who want to use us or anyone for their own profit, but there are good people out there too. Maybe not here, though. Maybe not the voices on the VHF. And for now, we’re good. We’re making progress on the yacht, and that’s all that matters.

“Having you not stay here alone isn’t about you, Haley. It’s about our own insecurities. We need to be needed. We’ve got fragile egos.”

She stands on her tippy toes and yanks me in for a delicious kiss. “You’re so full of it. But I lo—like you a lot, anyway.”

I freeze. I thought she was going to say she loves me. Because I sure as hell love her. Zane, Calvin, and even Dante tell her they love her all the time. I haven’t said it. I do love her, but I see she hasn’t said that to the other guys—not that I know for sure. It’s not that I need her to say it to me first, not at all. I just don’t want to put pressure on her. Pressure does horrible things to a person, makes them reactionary. I can wait. I know she loves us all.

“You are the most special person I’ve ever had in my life, Haley Brewster. You make me happy. Everything about you brings me comfort and joy.” I move a tendril of her hair away from her forehead.

“You are amazing too, Easton Rockwell. Are you really okay with me up on the platform?”

“As long as you’re safe and use the harness.”

“Of course. I don’t have a death wish.”

I watch as she gets into position. “You good, Firefly?” She’s locked in, with the binoculars around her neck.

“It’s beautiful up here. I really missed out on my tree climbing years as a kid.”

I laugh and get ready for my day on land. When I get the fish smoker up and running, I’ll have a little time to examine the metal lock box we have with our collection of clues. Zane likes to study them at night. They’ve been at the treehouse for a long time now. In fact, there’s a lot of the ship here now. It’s come over one trip at a time. We’re working on getting the ship up and running, no one as hard as Calvin. Individually, it’s like we’ve all come to the realization that we might never leave. And being as comfortable as we can at the camp makes sense.

I stoke up the smoker. Pepper and Penny keep me company while I watch it. “Come on, girls, let’s see what Haley is up to.” They both follow me up the path. “Hey, Haley?” I call to her. She’s up on the platform.

“Easton. How’s it going down there?”

“Dante left us lunch. Are you ready for it?”

“Yes, coming down now.”

When we’re done with lunch, I know I have to ask her. “I’m glad you’re here with me.” I have the Pink Phoenix in one hand and the fake one in the other. “I’ve thought about this for a while. And I don’t want to see these anymore.” I’ve been using them as worry stones.

She’s got her stew face on, but I’m not sure what it means. “Okay. And what are you going to do with them? Throw them into the ocean?”

I laugh. “I’m not nuts. 55 million isn’t something I’m going to trash in a childish rage. No, I want to bury them. And I want you to know where they are.” I take her hand and the shovel from the tool bin.

“Let’s do it.” She takes the shovel from me.

And damn if I don’t like this woman more. There’s no second-guessing me. No Are you sure? Just Let’s go . I smile at her. This girl.

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“Someplace special.”

“I know just the place.” The trail to the big rock near the waterfall isn’t as stomped as others. She stops at the rock, right where we had our talk about what we want for the future.

There’s some clear-ish ground near the side of the waterfall, empty enough to get a shovel in.

“Here?” she asks.

“Exactly where I was thinking.” I hand her the bag of mostly diamonds and take the shovel. I dig a hole a foot deep, deep enough that the bag should stay put. I raise my eyebrows at her, and she holds the bag back out to me. “Drop it,” I say.

“No, you should do it. It will be therapeutic.” She holds it out closer to me.

I’m nodding as I take it. She’s right. I place them in the hole. And a little of my pain disappears. My pain of not knowing what’s happening to my sister and dad.

Haley and I stare at the bag. “I’ll see them again,” I say. “When we get out of here.”

The dirt sprinkles over the white bag, and it’s starting to feel a lot like a funeral.

“This is one buried treasure I’m not making a map for.” I stamp down the earth and place two round, fist-sized rocks on the spot to mark it. They’re a slightly different color than the surrounding ones.

I want to tell her I love her. I know she loves me, loves all of us. But the future scares the crap out of her. It does me, too. I’m not going to pressure her. I can wait.