"I bet you are," she said, looking up at him. "Maybe later."
Eren swallowed and glanced away, but his hand stayed on her back, a warm and comforting touch.
They reached an opening in the trees where sunlight shafted down. A little wooden fence had been built here, enclosing an area where the thin island soil had been dug up into heaps, each one tidily enclosed with rocks. Little seedlings were growing in neat rows.
"Ta da," Dane said proudly.
"Wow," Lucy enthused. She didn't have to fake her interest. Her only exposure to gardening had been following the groundskeepers around while they did their work, and she supposed that any of them would have had nothing good to say about this crude garden in the woods.
But Lucy loved it. It was like a magical fairy garden. She carefully opened the gate of lashed-together sticks and knelt to look more closely at the tiny, delicate seedlings in their little rows. Eren bent down next to her to look too, still with his hand lightly resting on her back.
"Those are carrots, and some radishes, and turnips in the next one over," Dane explained. He picked up an old coffee can half full of water and sloshed some onto the small plants. "And there's some lettuce and tomatoes. I can't offer you anything yet, but hopefully by midsummer I'll have nice salads."
"This is really great, man," Eren told him. "I had no idea you could even get them to grow here, let alone this well."
"Not a lot else to do out here," Dane said, looking a little embarrassed. "Good to have a project."
"Do you live out here year round?" Lucy asked. She could imagine ice grinding against the sides of the island instead of soft blue water. Would it be safe? She pictured tremendous storms with huge, towering waves. The island was pretty high above the water, but was it high enough? "Or is it just a summer cabin?"
"Year round," Dane said.
The way he said it made it sound like he had lived here forever and planned to keep living here for the rest of his life.
Eren cleared his throat. "Hey, we should get back to the cabin before the coffee burns."
On their way back, Dane showed Lucy the spring where he got fresh water. It bubbled up in a mossy basin, and he had built a little wall of stones around it. Sitting on the wall, there was a cup. Dane made an inviting gesture, and when Lucy looked at Eren, he nodded. So she dipped a cup of water and sipped it. The water was cold, fresh, and good, with just the tiniest hint of salt.
"You better bring it with," Dane said. "I just have two cups in the cabin for me and Eren."
So he really didn't have any other visitors, ever? Lucy trotted alongside the men, stretching her legs to keep up with their longer strides. "Who else knows you're here, besides us?" she asked.
Dane didn't answer. Eren was the one who said, "Nobody."
"No one at all?"
"You remember that I told you it had to be kept quiet."
"Yes, of course," she said. "I promised. I'm good at secrets. I won't tell anyone."
But she wondered what could have brought Dane to the island, what he was hiding from, and how Eren had become involved in it all. She was running away from her own secrets, but it seemed as if in the process, she had stumbled into more.
EREN
It wasmid-afternoon when they cast off from Dane's island, the boat riding lightly on low swells. Eren looked up at the blue, cloud-flecked sky with a practiced sailor's eye.
"We should have smooth sailing back to Westerly Cove," he said. "Or—is there somewhere you'd prefer to be dropped off?"
Lucy sat on the bench along the wall, holding his flannel shirt tightly around herself. She had been happy and animated, if a bit shy, while they visited with Dane on the island, but now she seemed to have retreated into herself again. It was as if being back on the boat had brought all her problems crashing down on her. Eren had, once again, a powerful urge to do something about it, if he could only figure out what.
"I don't have anywhere to go," she said quietly.
"Then come home with me. We have lots of room, and I'm sure my family would love to meet you." Especially if she was his mate—although he still, frustratingly, couldn't tell for sure.
He hoped she was. He had only known her for a few hours, but already he loved everything about her. He loved her warmth and humor, her fearless willingness to try new things, her sympathy for Dane. Eren had had his doubts about taking her to the island, but now he fully believed that she would keep Dane's secret to the best of her ability. Dane had even liked her, which felt like a stamp of approval if he'd ever heard of one.
Eren could all too easily imagine telling his secrets to her.
Lucy chewed her lip, staring off across the white-topped blue waves. Finally she said, "I don't want to bring danger to you."