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Everyone but the honeymooners were up by the time Trystan raised anchor and took them up the channel.
Today, they would visit a tiny bay where a natural hot spring flowed into a concrete pool constructed during Ocean Falls’ heyday.
Trystan had the boys help him bait a few crab traps when they dropped anchor, then he offered up the two double kayaks while Johnny launched the inflatable Zodiac.
The boys wanted to try kayaking. The New Yorkers took the other, promising to stay with the boys since this was their first time. Johnny ferried the rest of the guests ashore.
It wasn’t the best day for an outing. The clouds had thickened through the morning and a fine mist was falling, but most of the guests were going into the hot pool anyway so they didn’t care.
Nathan and Christina, the newlyweds, wanted to hike so Trystan handed them a day pack with a few essentials, including a bear bell and bear spray.
Christina looked skeptical as Trystan explained how to use the repellant.
“We don’t have to go all the way,” Nathan assured her.
As soon as they were in the Zodiac with Johnny, heading to shore, Cloe blurted out what she was thinking. “I bet they go all the way.”
“Which is impressive, since they spend more time in their cabin than out of it,” Trystan replied with a smirk, watching out the galley window with her. “Good for them.”
Cloe was biting her lips, embarrassed that she’d made a sex joke when all she could think about was the kiss she’d shared with Trystan. Did he realize they were the only two people on board? She was dying to ask him if he had ever had sex in the woods, but that led her to wondering with whom, and she actually didn’t want to dwell on that. But also, had they almost had sex in the woods yesterday?
“Do you want to go ashore for a soak?” Trystan asked her, yanking her out of her erotic ruminations.
“I don’t have a bathing suit.” Now she was thinking about skinny dipping with him andit had to stop.
“Wear that.” He nodded at her shorts and T-shirt. “Johnny will bring you back to change after.”
“I’ll get my work done and think about it.” She started to turn toward the stairs to the guest cabins.
“Hey,” Trystan said, making her pulse leap as she turned back to him.
He opened a drawer and offered her a handful of rubber bands. “For the origami bunnies.”
“Oh. Thanks.” She plucked them from his palm and slipped downstairs to air out rooms, make the beds, and wipe down the heads.
Most people were being respectful of water conservation and were reusing their towels, but she gave each of the boys a facecloth bunny on his pillow, adding a wrapped butterscotch from the tin in the saloon.
When she finished her chores, she made two cups of coffee and brought one to Trystan in the bridge, where the marine report was droning in the background.
“What else can I do?”
“Relax?” he suggested. “Or I can radio Johnny to bring you ashore? You have to take your breaks when you can on these cruises.”
She looked to where the kayakers had joined Johnny on the beach. He was serving the boys from the cooler she’d sent ashore. It was filled with sandwiches, fruit, and iced tea.
A month ago, she would have given anything for the chance to beachcomb or visit a hot pool or do anything except be confined to one place, but she didn’t feel like doing those things right now.
“I miss Storm.” She hadn’t meant to say it aloud. It just came out.
Trystan made a noise that was acknowledgment and empathy. He reached to the smartphone tucked into a cupholder on the dash and briefly thumbed it, then handed it to her.
“That’s all the photos I’ve taken of her along with any that Em sends me.”
“Really?” All the air in the room came into her lungs in one giant ache.
She hitched herself onto the elevated chair beside his and began going backward in time, starting with one of her and Storm on the beach during their hike. When had he taken it? She didn’t ask. At least it was flattering.
Besides, she was too hungry for the rest. Storm with food all over her face, Storm pulling at her hat, Storm showing her four little white teeth in a happy grin. Here she was all big-eyed and there she was looking cross. Here she slept like an angel. There she was with Reid, with Logan, hanging in the sling on her brother’s chest like a parachuter hung up in a tree. She was with Sophie and Biyen and in the arms of an octogenarian Cloe suspected was the grandfather Sophie had lost not too long ago. Was this older woman the esteemed Glenda? She had Logan’s eyes.
