“No one will find us.”
They made eye contact. “He won’t find you, Ren.”
She nodded. Her purse was beside her, and she felt her phone vibrating. She dug for it and glanced at the notifications. Over one hundred missed calls from Theo and work. One thing she couldn’t stand, and the other got on her nerves lately. She stood and walked to the edge of the boat, cocked her arm back, and heaved her phone into the water. She expected to feel some sort of relief, but she felt only anger.
“Don’t need it?” Graham asked after she sat back down.
“The only person I care to speak with is standing next to me,” she said while staring out the window. It was cold, and she tucked her legs under Graham’s sweatshirt. He briefly left the helm and pulled the sliding windows shut all around them and turned on the heat. “I guess boats are really meant to only go out in the summer.”
“We’ll be fine. I checked the forecast, and there isn’t a storm in sight. I’ll keep watch.” Once Graham was out of the no-wake zone, he pulled the throttle and picked up speed. Rennie longed to feel the wind in her hair, so she went outside, closing herself off from Graham. She stood at the bow, with her hands gripping the railing, and screamed until her throat hurt, hoping Graham couldn’t hear her.
TWENTY
It took about an hour to reach the marina. Rennie helped when they came to the dock, pushing the buoys out to protect the boat, and while Graham fueled it up, she went inside and started to shop. He found her down one of the four aisles, with a basket resting on her arm. Graham went to take it from her and hold it, because as soon as you put one item in, those metal bars dug into your skin, making them unbearable to carry.
“Why’s it empty?” he asked.
“Everything is jacked up in price,” she whispered as her eyes darted toward the front. Graham chuckled lightly at her obvious concern that the clerk would overhear her.
“Once you leave the mainland, prices skyrocket. I’m glad you didn’t see what I just spent on gas, because your eyes would’ve bugged out.”
“I’ll pay for everything this weekend,” she said.
“You will not. We can be a team. Go Dutch. Is going Dutch still used these days?”
Rennie laughed. “I don’t even remember using that term. Wait, doesn’t that mean . . .” Her eyes went wide, and she slapped Graham on the shoulder. “That’s gross.”
“What?” he asked, as if he had no idea what she referred to. “Do you remember—”
“No, I’m not playing the do-you-remember game. You boys were gross in high school.”
Graham laughed. He took the empty basket from Rennie and grabbed her hand with his free one. He stopped at the stand near the door and set the basket down and walked toward the deli counter,
“Okay, this is more my speed, but what will we do for food later?”
“We’ll get some sandwiches, grab a few things to tide us over on the ride out, and we’ll shop when we get on the island.”
Rennie leaned into Graham. She placed her lips on his shoulder and kissed him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Graham Cracker.”
Graham put his arm around Rennie and pulled her close. He pressed his lips to her forehead and held her there for a moment. “You’ll never have to know, Ren. I’ll always be here for you.” He spoke the truth. They may have been out of touch for a good chunk of time, but now that they’d found their way back to each other, being in Rennie’s life made sense to him.
They placed their orders, and while they waited, they picked out a bag of chips and grabbed a couple of waters and a few pops, and Graham tossed in a box of cookies for good measure.
Back on the boat, Graham went to the cockpit and started the engine. As he backed away from the dock, Rennie lifted the buoys and set them on the deck.
“Can they stay out?”
“Yeah, might as well, because we’re not anchoring; we’re docking.”
Rennie worked in the galley, putting their sandwiches and chips onto plates, and brought everything over to where Graham was. She sat next to him in a seat that was meant for one person and maybe a small toddler. Graham didn’t care, because he enjoyed her company and they had always been like this, back before they grew up and became adults with real-life problems.
“Sorry, I know this isn’t ideal.”
“It’s perfect,” he said to her. He set his plate down on the compass display, his bottle of water in the drink holder, and picked up a quarter of his sandwich.
“I thought it would be easier to eat if the halves were smaller.”
She was right. It was easier. “Thank you.”
They ate in silence for the most part. Rennie would point out another boat or tell him she saw a whale, but the built-in sonar wasn’t showing anything on the screen. He wouldn’t tell her that, of course. If she thought there was a sea animal out there, and there might have been, he was going to let her believe it.
When they had finished, she got up and took his plate to the galley. He would glance over his shoulder every so often and wonder how things could have been different for them if life had gone their way. He saw her in ways no one else ever would, and despite the fact she was with him, cruising their way out into the middle of nowhere, he wasn’t about to let himself think things were completely over between her and Theo. They fought; that was what Graham kept telling himself. By tomorrow, Graham expected his friend to ask him to take her back to Cape Harbor so she could not only buy a new cell phone but find Theo. And he would because she asked.
Rennie came back to where Graham was perched and placed a can of pop in the cup holder, then went back to where she had been sitting, practically on top of him . . . not that he was complaining. She rested her feet on the edge of the console and pulled the tab on her can of pop. She took a sip and then another, all while Graham studied her. She was acting as if last night hadn’t happened, as if she hadn’t texted him to drive to Canada to pick her up.
“You can ask me, ya know.”
“Ask you what?”
“About yesterday.”
“I figured if you wanted to tell me, you would. You know I don’t like to pry.”
She nodded and took another sip from the can. “I need something stronger.”
“We can go out tonight,” he suggested. “There’s a nice bar in town. They have decent food.”
“I want to get drunk enough to forget everything.”
“Everything?” he asked. Graham kept his hand on the steering wheel, even though he could’ve sat back and enjoyed the ride out to Friday Harbor. There wasn’t another boat in sight, and likely the only ones they’d come across were the ferries.
“The last year, especially yesterday.”
“Okay, I’ll bite.” He sighed. Aside from the fact she had a boyfriend, he would never want to erase the past year, especially the past six months, or even the last few months. Brooklyn’s return was in that block of time, which meant it was Rennie’s return as well. As of late, he and Rennie were finally close again and growing closer each day. “What happened yesterday?”
Rennie cleared her throat. “The car ride started off awkward, and I think most of that was on me. Since Thanksgiving, things with Theo have been off. I’ve been off. I’ve been angry with him about his job, and then out of the blue, he suggests we move to Spokane because his company is there, and it would be easier for him. Never mind the fact that my family is on this side of the mountains.”