Emerging from the foliage,they found the camp clearing emptied and spotted Olivia and Isabella swimming the picnic items back to the boat. Nate stood on the rear platform, alternating between hauling in the things and frowning at the horizon.
“Sorry to break up your fun. Heard from Marta, and we’reunder a watch for some weather moving through. Need to head back a little earlier than planned.”
A knot settled into Heath’s stomach. “What sort of weather?”
He didn’t dislike storms. Quite the opposite, actually. Rainy days made for the best reading weather, but that was when he was safe at home in his condo far, far from the ocean. Storms in the tropics were a different story, of the nausea-inducing sort, and he didn’t relish the idea of experiencing one in person. No offense to Nate’s lovely yacht, but he especially didn’t want the experience to occur while in open water, even on a boat of this size.
Nate waved away his concern. “I checked the radar, and it looks like we’re in for some wind and fireworks, but we should be back before it gets too bad.”
“How far out is it?” Evan squinted in the direction Nate had been looking. “We had a good view from the hill, and the sky was pretty blue.”
“Far enough, but moving quick. If we’re lucky, we’ll have time to get everything unloaded and be enjoying a cocktail behind the safety of four stone walls.”
And if they weren’t lucky, they’d still be on the boat and tossed to the four winds. That was the worry Heath read between the lines of Nate’s furrowed brow.
“Right. So, hustle.”
Evan waded into the water, dunking and surfacing with slicked-back hair, his clothes clinging as he hauled himself onto the boat and worked with Nate to store their belongings and secure loose items on the deck.
Heath collected his own things in between admiring the efficiency with which they moved. Evan looked gravely serious, and Heath wondered just how checkered his boating past was. Would he be okay?
Isabella’s impish grin and fluttering eyelashes waylaid him. “Snuck away for a little alone time?”
“Nothing sordid, you nosy biddy. We were just talking.”
“Mm-hmm.” Her smile was wicked, and he laughed despite himself.
“You are incorrigible, woman.”
Nate took the helm, steering them out of the narrow cove and back into the open ocean, where the horizon had darkened to a worrisome shade of deep grey. They were only about an hour from the main island, but fifteen minutes in, the atmosphere shifted and the wind grew feisty.
The temperature dropped, and a misty rain kicked up, adding to the damp and chill of the waves sloshing over the rail. Nate pulled the brim of his cap low as the spray covered him from head to foot, and he yelled for everyone to get below.
Isabella and Olivia wasted no time following the order, but Heath hedged. Evan stood with Nate at the mast, swapping to the heavier storm sails, his skin pale beneath the flush of effort.
Heath fought his way through the now-blinding rain to reach them. His sandals were grossly ill-equipped for how slick the deck had become, and he slipped more than once as the boat rocked and lunged over the growing waves.
Grabbing onto one of the taut ropes, he pressed a hand to Evan’s arm to get his attention. “You coming?”
The skin beneath Evan’s soaked shirt was freezing, and his biceps trembled with such ferocity Heath knew it was more than the strain of the work he was doing. He was terrified.
“No. Four hands are better than two.”
“You want two more?”
Evan looked at him with glassy eyes, as though he’d spoken in some alien language. Myriad emotions flashed across his achingly handsome face with such speed Heath couldn’t keep up.
“Have you ever sailed in bad weather?”
“This is my first time sailing, period.”
“Then get below so I don’t have to worry about you.”
“What ifI’mworried aboutyou?”
The muscles beneath his palm flexed as Evan leaned closer. “It’ll be okay. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
He said the last so quietly Heath questioned whether it was a trick of the wind.
