And just like that, what had been one of the messiest moments of my life was also one of the sweetest.
Life was weird like that.
I spent most of the rest of the week at home, sitting on the couch with Mum and watching soap operas while my ankle slowly improved. Sometimes I limped over to Dominic’s place for lunch or dinner, and I stayed over a few nights. I invited Dominic for dinner one night. The look on his face when Nipper Will turned up and dumped a four kilo crimson snapper on the kitchen table was hilarious. Even Will hid a grin as he watched me try to teach Dominic how to scale and fillet it. But Dominic had to learn—I wasn’t going to live on toasted sandwiches and scrambled eggs every time I went to his place.
When I told him that he just laughed and nodded, like it was a given for him as well that we were in this for the long run. And maybe I was only nineteen, but I knew myself. I knew what I wanted, and that was Dominic. We talked about how I’d move in with him sometime soon, depending on what me and Will figured out with Mum, and how even though he’d only been transferred to the island for three years, he could extend that. And how crazy it was that was even on the table after what he’d first thought of the place.
Dauntless was my home though, and I loved it. I wanted Dominic to love it too, and I knew he’d get there in the end, because Dauntless was magical. Even Eddie, who’d only been here a little over a year now, said that he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. The island washed over you like the tide and held you until saltwater ran through your veins.
When my ankle was mostly better, we went back to Mayfair Bay. I rode on the back of the dirt bike and waved at Mavis as we left the village. It was a beautiful day. The island was full of places to picnic, but I wanted to be close to a beach, and Mayfair Bay was my favourite. It wasn’t the prettiest beach on the island, and it was probably one of the rockiest, but I liked the wildness of it. I liked watching the wind shake the tarpaulins that made up half of Young Harry Barnes’s house, and I liked watching the waves crash over the jagged rocks that jutted out of the water.
“Are you sure you want to picnic here?” Dominic asked me, helping me down the track to the rocky beach.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Because you almost died here last week?”
I wondered if he thought I should be having nightmares about that or something. I wondered if he wondered why I wasn’t. I waited until we were on level ground before I pulled him into a kiss. “I’m not worried. Not when you’re here.”
It was more than the sun that made him flush, I figured.
“There are some flat rocks this way,” I said, and pointed. “They’re good to sit on.”
We made our way slowly down the rocky beach, and then sat and watched the waves. There was a boat way out past the breakers, booms bristling in the sunlight. It looked like the Adeline, though it was hard to tell from this distance.
Dominic paused from unpacking our lunch. “Is that...?”
For a second I thought he was talking about the boat, but then I realised he was squinting in the direction of Young Harry’s place. There was a figure up on the scrubby slope of the backshore, wearing a plaid shirt and a floppy hat.
He saw us when we saw him and started waving and yelling excitedly. We couldn’t hear whatever it was he was yelling about, because the wind carried his voice away before it reached up. When we didn’t wave or yell back, he jumped up and down and pointed enthusiastically at the ground.
“Is that Eddie?” Dominic asked. “What the hell is he doing?”
“Dunno,” I said, and shrugged. “There’s nothing up there except a pile of old bricks.”
The moonlight shone off the water, and the waves lapped softly at the harbour wall. I sat, legs dangling, and listened to the sounds of the night. Behind me, a faint light gleamed above the front door of the house, illuminating the lopsided “Police” sign hanging from the doorknob. Dominic was still inside, finishing up his activity log for the day. Princess Frank was crouched next to me on the wall, staring intently into the dark water. On Frank’s other side, Button John was sipping hot Milo from a mug.
“We never do this anymore,” he said, gesturing a little too wildly with his mug.
Frank eyed him warily and leapt down from the wall, heading back towards the house.
“Do what?” Somewhere out near the horizon, the lights on a passing cargo ship blazed. From here, they were as faint as fairy lights.
“Just hang out,” Button John said earnestly. “Just you and me, you know?”
“We hung out today at the old radar house,” I said. “And then tonight we had dinner at your place.”
Button John sighed heavily. “That’s not what I mean.”
“I know,” I said. Button John was jealous I had a boyfriend. Not in a spiteful way, because he didn’t have a spiteful bone in his body, but because every bit of time I spent with Dominic just reminded him he was on his own. On his own without me there to hang out with, and on his own because he didn’t have a boyfriend. I didn’t know which one of those felt worse, and I didn’t really want to ask. “It’ll be tourist season soon. Maybe we’ll get some hot backpackers.”
It was dark, but I could tell he rolled his eyes. “We never get hot backpackers! All our tourists are old, Natty. Even I draw the line at someone’s grandpa.” He sighed loudly.
We sat in silence for a while, and then Button John slurped the rest of his Milo and tipped the dregs into the water. He swung a leg back over the wall and stood up, and I held out a hand to steady him as he wobbled onto solid ground. It was always around fifty-fifty odds that he’d end up in the harbour, and the tide was pretty low at the moment. If he fell down the wall now, he’d probably give himself a concussion or something. That would be very on brand.
“Okay,” he said brightly when he straightened up, “I’m going home. See you tomorrow?”
“I’m doing the yard in the morning,” I said. “You can help, if you want?”
