On This Island, I Make the Rules

Chapter 009

Brooke watched them walk away hand in hand, furious.

Beneath the anger was something she couldn't quite name: a sharp sense of being left behind, as if someone had taken something she had always assumed was hers.

Ethan scraped a shallow pit in the sand and arranged the firewood, leaving gaps for air. Then he set to work with his improvised fire drill.

It took more than ten minutes to produce an ember.

He sheltered it carefully and blew until the tinder caught.

“Wow,” Hannah whispered.

She had never seen someone make a fire that way. She watched the first flames rise, then looked at him with such open admiration that he couldn't help smiling.

Brooke saw the smile.

“Doesn't take much to impress her,” she muttered.

Once the fire was established, Ethan went to the rocks to gather food. He pried loose oysters and even collected barnacles. There might be crabs, shrimp, or small fish hiding in the pools too, though they would be hard to spot in the dark.

The flashlight changed that.

He swept its beam through the gaps and soon had a growing pile of large oysters. At home, a meal like this would have cost good money. Here, it was theirs for the taking—provided he could find it.

For days, he and Brooke had been eating what they caught without cooking it. Tonight, the thought of hot food made his mouth water.

A crab followed the oysters. Then a small spiny lobster. He even managed to catch a young grouper trapped in a pool.

“Use my jacket,” Hannah offered. “You can't carry all that.”

She took off her lightweight sun jacket and spread it out to hold the catch.

Ethan reached for it, then caught himself looking at her. Underneath, she wore a simple sports top. Her weight loss had left a little loose skin at her waist, something she had once been painfully self-conscious about.

She noticed his glance.

“Do you think I look okay?”

“You look great.”

The answer came without hesitation.

Hannah's cheeks colored.

“Do you mean that?”

He fumbled the flashlight slightly, sending its beam across the rocks.

“Yeah. I do.”

She stepped closer.

“You don't have to be nervous with me.”

“I'm not—” He stopped. “Okay. Maybe a little.”

“Do you think I'm being too forward?”

“No.”

“I don't act like this with everyone, Ethan. It's you.”

She took his hand.

The simple certainty in her voice affected him more than he knew how to explain. There was no demand in it, no threat, no reason to wonder what he would owe her afterward.

They sat together on a rock, the catch bundled beside them.

“I really do love you,” she said.

He looked at her and felt the words finally become easy.

“I love you too.”

He kissed her.

“What are you two doing?”

Brooke's shout cut across the beach.

Hannah startled and drew back, her face burning.

“She's watching us.”

“Let her. We're not doing anything wrong.”

Hannah smiled then, a relieved, almost disbelieving smile, and leaned against him again.

For a while, the island seemed to recede. There was only the warmth of her beside him, the sound of the water, and the astonishing feeling of being wanted.

He had never had a girlfriend. He barely knew how to behave. Hannah seemed no more certain, but for once that didn't matter.

Brooke was still glaring from farther up the beach.

Ethan stood, helped Hannah down from the rock, and led her a little way along the sand.

“You're beautiful,” he told her.

She studied his face.

“You used to say Claire was beautiful.”

“That doesn't mean I want to be with Claire.”

“And Brooke? You always seemed so caught up in what she thought.”

Ethan looked down at their joined hands.

“Brooke's spent years making me feel like her opinion is the only one that matters. I'm tired of living that way.”

He looked back at Hannah.

“You know me. And I know you. You're the person who's always been there.”

He understood now how much that meant. Someone who cared for him without making him earn every scrap of kindness wasn't someone he could afford to take for granted.

At college, he had spent so much time managing Brooke's moods and trying to keep up with his work that he had never allowed himself to think seriously about what Hannah was offering.

Now he wished he had.

“Do you two have any shame?”

Brooke had marched over. She stood above them with her hands on her hips.

“I thought you were getting food, Ethan. That fire's been burning forever. Are you going to cook anything before it goes out?”

“We're coming,” he said impatiently.

Hannah leaned closer and lowered her voice.

“Since when does she call you Ethan? What happened to Leech?”

She sounded genuinely puzzled.

Even now, she found it difficult to meet Brooke's eyes. Back at college, someone like Brooke wouldn't have let her into the outer edge of her social circle.

Brooke hadn't finished.

“Maybe you don't listen to me, but you could remember what my dad told you. Focus on your education. Stop getting distracted. He asked me to keep an eye on you, remember?”

Her gaze shifted to Hannah.

“And this is who you choose? The pig everyone laughed at? No wonder I've had to stay on your case.”

She turned to leave.

“What did you call her?” Ethan's voice hardened. “Brooke. Stop.”

Hannah caught his arm.

“Please. Leave it. She's always looked down on me.”

“That doesn't make it okay.”

“It doesn't matter.”

“It matters to me. I don't care how popular she is. She doesn't get to treat you like that.”

He picked up their bundle of seafood and took Hannah's hand.

Then he followed Brooke toward the fire.