by Vivian Wood
“But it was real, right? The pirates, back in the day?”
“I think so, but that was a long time ago. And I highly doubt it was all Pirates of the Caribbean-like anyway.”
“We should do a stakeout,” Faith said suddenly.
Alex widened his eyes. “A stakeout,” he repeated.
“Yes! We can hide out on the island near Smuggler’s Cove. That’s got to be where they come in.”
“No.” Alex was firm. “No way. This is crazy, Faith!” he said. “I don’t know what these guys want, but I’m not about to let you go all Nancy Drew on them.”
“What’s with all the fictional references today?” she asked. “And besides, it’s this or I go talk to my cousins. Your call.”
Alex sighed, aggravated. “No,” he said. “You’re not going to talk to them. And I know how stubborn you can be. You’ll figure out a way to track them down with or without me.”
“So a stakeout it is,” Faith said with a smile.
“Fine. You’re absolutely insane, though.”
“I’m thinking that we probably need to start with three days.” She grabbed a notebook buried in the stack of design magazines and started writing down plans.
“What?” Alex leaned over to see what she’d scribbled down.
“On the island, camping,” she said. “You camp, don’t you? I’m sure you do. Probably got great camping gear out in storage. Could you—”
“Are you crazy?” Alex interrupted her. “There’s no way. No way in hell I, or you, are gonna—”
“My cousins are starting to look pretty approachable, aren’t they? Almost friendly.” She put down the pen and stared into his eyes. It was a showdown across the table, complete with steaming coffee and two abandoned waffles from breakfast.
“No,” Alex said begrudgingly.
“It’s your choice,” Faith said with a shrug. “I’ll pack the food. You just bring yourself, whatever camping gear you think we need, and the boat.”
“Oh, is that all?” Alex asked.
“That’s all,” Faith said. “Get your stuff together. I want to leave before dusk.”
Alex stared at her another beat then stood up and stomped out of the house.
Faith smiled after him.
“Alex!” Mama hollered. “Don’t slam the door. What y’all plannin’?” Mama asked Faith as she breezed into the kitchen. Her hair had been recently rinsed with a toner, and it made the platinum hair shine silver.
“Oh nothing much, Mama,” Faith said. “We’re thinking of camping out a few days. You know, get away from it all. Put this whole mess behind me for a bit.”
“That sounds like a mighty good idea,” Mama said. She sat down in Alex’s seat and tsked at the empty mug he’d left behind. “No point in dwellin’ on it. Still nothin’ from the fire department? Police?”
Faith sighed. “Nope. All they can say for sure is what kind of starter was used for the fire. Other than that, no leads. So many boats dock there, either kids sneaking away to drink or fishermen docking for a minute, there’s no way to trace them.”
“What a shame, what our tax dollars go for,” Mama said. “So. Is it just you and Alex camping?” There was a twinkle in her eye.
“Um, yeah. I think so.” Faith blushed.
“Hmm,” Mama said. “He tell you he was a Boy Scout? Eagle Scout, actually.”
“No!” Faith said. She couldn’t imagine Alex dutifully taking orders from a scoutmaster in a little brown uniform emblazoned with patches. “But I guess that’s good for me. The only time I’ve gone camping, it was no less than fifty feet away from full restroom facilities.”
Mama wrinkled her nose. “Restroom facilities or not, camping’s just not for me. Why would I want to sleep on the hard, cold ground when I have a perfectly good feather bed in my own house?”
“You never want to just get away?”
“Baby, when you live your whole life on an island, how much farther away can you get?”
“Well, I better go start packing. We’re thinking three days,” she said.
Mama whistled. “That’s a mighty long time. That long in solitude, just the two of you, well that can change things.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wait three days,” Mama said. “Then you won’t have to ask me.”
Faith shook her head and pondered what Mama hinted at as she climbed the stairs.
“Morning, ma’am,” Lee said. They met on the landing midway. “Where you off to?”
“Hi, Lee. Actually, I’m going camping for a couple of days.”
“Camping? While all this is goin’ on?” he asked. “I thought you and that phone had become permanently stuck together.”
She laughed. “Yeah, well, I could use a break.”
“Alone?” he asked. “I dunno if that’s such a good idea—”
“Oh no. Alex is taking me,” she said.
“Really.”
She couldn’t gauge the tone of his voice. It sounded a little knowing but a little cautious.
“Yeah,” she said. “Is that weird? Mama said he camped a lot.”
“Well, that’s true,” he said. She thought he would ask to join, but Lee kept quiet.
“Got any tips?” she asked.
“Tips?”
“You know. For camping. Or dealing with Alex camping,” she added with a smile.
Lee grinned. “Don’t poke the bear.”
“What?”
“That’s just good advice all round,” he said.
“Thanks?” she said questioningly as Lee turned away and continued downstairs.
“He and I were Boy Scouts together,” Lee called over his shoulder. “Y’all will be just fine.”
Faith shoved three days’ worth of clothes in the backpack she’d bought for her last trip to Europe to use as her carry-on. She’d thought it would save her some trouble, only having one wheeled suitcase to drag through the airports, but she never ended up using it. Might as well make use of it somehow.
But what to pack for a three-day stakeout? She dug through the dresser and pulled out a pair of denim shorts, khaki shorts, two tank tops and a zip-up Nike hoodie. Three pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks. What else?
She had no idea what Alex would bring for camping equipment. Tents? Or just sleeping bags under the stars? Was she supposed to pack something separate to sleep in? Maybe I should have thought more about this. However, she wasn’t about to back out now.
Faith shoved a pair of yoga shorts and a long tank top into the backpack just in case. She’d spend most of the days in her hiking boots but slid some flip-flops into the side pocket of the backpack as well. Baby wipes, she thought. And a swimsuit for a makeshift bath in the water. There was a freshwater creek on the island, but it wasn’t very deep.
By the time she’d finished thinking about three full days away, the backpack bulged. Her packs of vitamins, a hairbrush and ties, dry shampoo, plenty of sunblock, and travel-size bottles of her face-care regimen. God, I really am a city girl, she thought.
She ran her hands up her legs and felt a smattering of stubble from not having shaved in two days. Might as well. This will be my last chance for a proper shower for a while.
Underneath the warm fall of water, Faith closed her eyes and let her head fall back. She tried to pretend the careful shaving of her legs, thighs, and bikini area were so she’d feel as fresh and clean as possible for three days on the island. But she knew that wasn’t it. If something happened between her and Alex, she wanted to be as prepared as possible.
Faith blushed while she thought about it and ran conditioner through her hair. Will he think this is all a ploy to get him alone?
She wrapped herself in one of the big white towels that smelled of bleach and stepped out of the steamy bathroom. Alex lingered in the doorway to her bedroom, his broad shoulder against her doorframe.
“Oh my God!” she screamed. “Alex? What are you—”
“Your door was open,” he said. “I th
ought you were in a hurry to get goin’.”
“I am,” she said awkwardly and pulled the towel tighter around her chest. “I just figured I would have the chance to shower first.”
Alex scanned her, and his eyes lingered at her legs. She cleared her throat, uncomfortable, and it seemed to bring him out of his stupor.
“You packin’ for a month or three days?” he asked, and nodded to the pregnant backpack.
“I need clothes, don’t I?” she asked.
“I dunno. It’s three days,” he said with a shrug. “What else you got in there?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but some vitamins, my hairbrush. You know, women stuff.”
“Women stuff,” he repeated. His eyes never left her.
“Now, if you don’t mind?” she asked with raised brows.
“What?”
“I’d like to get dressed. I’ll meet you down in the kitchen. I still need to pack the food.”
“Oh. All right,” he said.
He closed the door slowly. Faith waited until she heard the click and the sound of his footsteps on the stairs before she removed the towel. What is his deal?
She caught a glimpse of herself in the vanity mirror and paused. The hourglass figure she was so used to had bronzed during the summer. And were her hips wider? She couldn’t tell, but her nipped-in waist looked the same. It’s Mama’s cooking, she told herself.
Faith pretended it was a coincidence that the underwear and bra she pulled on matched. Both were bright red with a lace trim. Yeah, this is exactly what everyone wears on a stakeout, she thought.
She ran a wide-toothed comb through her hair and wove it into a loose braid. After she slathered sunblock onto her limbs, she hoisted the backpack on and headed downstairs.
“It’s a Sherpa!” Caleb said when he spotted her from the wingback chair in the sitting room.
“Ha ha,” she said and dropped the backpack onto the bench by the front door.
Alex had already rooted through the kitchen and pulled out his camping snacks. Boxes and boxes of strange-looking items with “High Protein” and “No Sugar” printed on the sides. “I take it I’m packing those?” she asked.
“You guessed right,” he said. She swore he gave her a wink, but it was so surprising she couldn’t be sure. He sat at the table and watched her carefully assemble two coolers of food.
“Looks like you’re catering the fanciest camping trip ever,” he said.
“Y’all going camping? That’s what Mama said.” Caleb poked his head into the kitchen.
“Yeah,” Alex said quickly. “Faith just wants to zone out everything for a bit.”
“Wish I could go,” Caleb said. “But duty calls. And by duty, I mean a group of Canadian tourists who booked a two-day rafting trip.”
“Too bad,” Alex said. Even with her back to the boys, Faith could hear the relief in his voice. Too bad because Caleb annoys him or because he wants to be alone with me?
“Too bad, nothin’,” Caleb said. “I checked the ages of ʼem. Three girls, ages nineteen, twenty-two, and twenty-four are comin’.”
“Lucky them,” Alex said. “And stuck on a raft with you for two days, where their only escape option is whitewater rapids and certain death.”
Chapter 27
Alex
He put down his own framed backpack and looked around the island. Faith had given him shit, rightfully so, at the size of his own pack. “One of us had to bring all the camping gear, ma’am,” he’d said. She’d clamped shut those thick lips.
It had been years since he’d docked at Smuggler’s Cove instead of the updated and better maintained dock near Lydia’s old plantation. He could see evidence that Smuggler’s Cove was far from abandoned. Old beer cans were stuck against the bank along with plastic chip bags and cigarette butts. A bottle of Olde English and a travel pack of Jack Daniels were full of seawater and tossed onto the grass.
“Ew,” Faith said as she jumped onto the grassy knoll.
“Yeah,” Alex said. He shook his head in disappointment. What is wrong with people coming all the way out here just to trash the place? They are probably mostly kids, but still. Mama woulda whooped him and Caleb straight had they ever done that.
“Help me hide this,” he said.
Faith dropped her backpack next to a towering oak tree and helped him push the boat around the bend to a smaller cove. This one really was abandoned. It was tiny and treacherously slippery. When he was a teenager, he’d tried stupidly to dock here but gave up after he fell in for the third time.
“Gross,” Faith said as she slipped in the mud and dropped to one knee.
“Good thing you’re not wearing them fancy big-city clothes,” he said. She wrinkled her nose at him.
“C’mon,” Alex said. “It’s a bit of a hike to the lookout.”
“The lookout?” she asked. “Now who’s into Nancy Drew?”
“That’s actually what it’s called,” Alex said. He raised a brow at her. “Only one spot on this island where you can get a clear view of any vessels comin’ in.”
“Oh, I like the pirate talk,” she said.
Alex didn’t have time for her teasing. He hitched up his pack and took off. Faith’s footsteps trailed right behind him. “Can you slow down?” she asked. “Some of us don’t run five miles a day.”
“Not if you wanna get there before dark,” he said over his shoulder. She’d twisted the damp braid on top of her head and her face was flushed from the heat and the hike. New freckles sprayed across her nose, much more than what she’d arrived with. She was more muscular, too. Healthier, Alex thought. He tried not to notice the swell of her thighs or the way her collarbone glistened.
“Is this it?” Faith asked. She was slightly out of breath.
“This is it,” Alex said. From the water, it didn’t look like the island had much elevation to it, but that was deceptive. At the eastern tip, there was a small cliff absolutely covered in giant oaks. Moss and clover covered much of the ground, but tall, wild grass framed the edge of the cliff. It was like it was made to be a rendezvous point.
“This is awesome,” Faith said. It was one of those evenings when the moon and sun were equal in the sky, though the moon looked humongous. “Blue moon,” Faith said.
“I’m surprised you knew that,” Alex said as he started to pull the tent out of his bag.
“We have the same moon in California, you know.”
“Nah,” he said as he slid the poles into their sleeves. “It’s not the same.”
“Maybe you’re right. Can I help?” she asked.
“Probably not.” He gave her a smile to let her know he was joking. “How ʼbout you start unpacking for dinner?”
He listened to the rustle as she went through the cooler. “Just one tent?” she asked.
“Sorry it’s not more,” he said as he hammered the stakes into the ground. “Boss gave me kinda short notice.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I know, I’m impulsive.”
“Got two sleeping bags, though,” he said. He felt her eyes on him as he strung up the overhead tarps.
“Your mama told me you were a Boy Scout,” she said. “Now I can see it.”
Alex laughed. “Doesn’t take a Boy Scout to throw up a pop-up tent,” he said. Alex detached the camping chairs from the side of his backpack and unfolded them. He took extra time dusting them off, a lot more than he would have bothered if it had just been him and one of the guys.
He heard the sound of wood being dumped behind him and whipped around. “No fire,” he said.
“But—”
“The fire, the smoke, anyone could see it.”
“You’re right,” she sighed. “Dang. And I brought stuff for s’mores, too.”
“They taste just as good cold,” he said.
“You’re wrong about that.” Faith started to assemble a cold dinner while Alex got to hitching the food over a strong limb. “What, are there bears on the island now?” she asked.
>
“Who knows what’s on this island.” At that, she got quiet. He could have kicked himself. As if they both weren’t on edge enough.
“I’m guessing your cardboard square things will be okay in the cooler,” she said.
“Yeah. Probably.”
“God, I’m exhausted,” she said as she finished arranging a dinner of smoked salmon, prepacked salads, and fruit from the local farms. “I think the past few days are just now catching up to me.”
“Don’t be chickening out on me now,” Alex said.
“I’m not,” Faith replied quickly. “It’s just when everything happens so fast, it’s kind of hard to digest.”
“Yeah, I get that,” he said. He pulled at the strung-up food to make sure it would hold, then sat down in the chair beside her and reached for his plate of salmon.
“Cheers,” Faith said. She held up a plastic Nalgene bottle of sweet tea. “I have some gin to go with it if you want.”
“Best stay clearheaded,” Alex said, though he had to admit, a cocktail sounded good. However, it wasn’t just needing to stay sharp that kept him dry. Out here, alone with Faith, the last thing he needed was lowered inhibitions.
She sighed as she dug into her plate. He could watch her eat forever, those incredible lips and the high cheekbones. “What?” she asked suddenly. Alex realized he actually had been staring at her.
“Nothin’,” he said. “I think I’m just a bit out of it, too.”
They ate in comfortable silence. The chorus of crickets got louder each minute. “Hey,” Faith said. “Is that them?” She pointed to a boat in the distance.
Alex sat up straighter. “Nah,” he said. “That’s the Stewart twins from the other end of the island. Night fishin’.”
“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.
Alex crumpled up what was left of their dinner, sorted it for recycling, and strung it up the tree.
“Now what?” she asked as he sat beside her.
“Now we wait. What else you think we were Gonna do out here?”
“I don’t know. Stakeouts sounded a lot more exciting than this.”
The two of them stared into the distance. He realized he was in a prime position for another barrage of questions about Rebecca, but Faith didn’t seem interested in it. For once, she acted like the silence was all right. She slipped out of her hiking shoes and into flip-flops. Those long legs stretched out forever, propped up on a root that had shot out of the ground.