He plucked a seashell out of the sand, brought his arm around, and sent the shell flying into the water.
“I moved from Atlanta here to work with Edward. I was in between jobs. His business was booming, and he needed help. We worked half a year during the busy season, and the other half we just enjoyed a slow life in paradise. Sleep, fish, snorkel, take it easy. We worked together for five years until he passed away. Now I run a deep-sea fishing business.” He winced, squinting at the dock where his boat’s white side barely peaked above the surface. “Well, as you can see, my business is closed for the unforeseeable future.”
A breeze blew the loose strands of my hair, gently brushing my face. I inhaled the salty air, concentrating on the sound of small waves that refused to stop kissing the shoreline and chewed my bottom lip, taking in Hunter’s features. Perhaps he had a totally different personality from me. Something or someone rubbed him wrong in his past, and he was so fed up with people that he would rather playCast Awayfor six months. I could see myself leading a slower-paced life on a tropical island like St. John. I’d have a simple job, like running a trinket shop in a touristy area. I couldn’t imagine living in total isolation with no connection to other people. Of course, I spent close to two years barely leaving my house. But I had work Zoom meetings, and Tina visited me at least once a week, and that should count as staying in touch with the world.
“Sounds nice, but doesn’t it get boring?” I asked. “What about modern comforts? Internet? Electricity?”
Hunter rubbed his freshly shaven chin. Light freckles speckled his cheekbones and all the way past the crinkles by his eyes. “I’m getting there. I already ordered solar panels. It will be a nice place once I fix it up.” He looked over his shoulder at the hut tucked in the woods. “Keep in mind that this wasn’t my home until recently. I lived on theNauti Guy, where I had all the modern comforts a guy needs.”
“A naughty guy?” I arched an eyebrow. “Sounds like a brothel.”
He chuckled, rolling dry seaweed in his palms. “Nauti like nautical. Edward came up with the name.”
“Edward sounds like a fun man to hang out with.”
“He was,” Hunter said, with a ghost of a smile. “There isn’t a day I don’t miss him.”
“I know the feeling.”
I missed my parents every day too. Burying myself under a lot of work was the easiest escape for me. It didn’t help I also lived in their house. More often than not, when I thought grief and I, at last, had called a truce, a simple item like my mother’s favorite margarita pitcher I came across while rummaging around for a Tupperware would send me into the dismal vacuum. And it had felt like I wouldn’t ever find my way back. One of the agreements I made with Tina was that while I sailed, she would pack everything up, move it to storage, and then put the house on the market. If I truly wanted a new beginning for myself, I had to let go of everything that was old me.
I pulled my knees closer and rested my cheek on them, my face to Hunter. “What did you do before you moved here?”
“I was an on-call doc for a mobster,” he said, with a twinkle in his eyes.
I shook my head, suppressing a smile. “No, you weren’t. You said you were a drug driver.”
“That was my job, too.” Hunter laughed, the sound rich and free, and my heart fluttered again. “Before I was laid off, I worked in finance.”
I shifted my legs in the white sand and formed a mound with my feet. “Sorry about that.”
“That’s all right. I didn’t enjoy my job and I’m in the better place now. Anyway, you see those rocks.” Hunter pointed at the sizable stones in the water about three hundred feet away from the beach. “Most of them have poisonous sea urchins. Four out of five people die from their toxins.”
Jesus, I could have died during the storm if a wave slammed me into one of those. I shuddered at that thought. “Do these urchins wash up on the beach?”
“I’ve never seen them anywhere but on those rocks.”
At least now I could go in the water. Knee-high.
“Is there anything else poisonous here?”
He gestured toward the right side of the bay, where a set of dark rocks lurked. “There are snakes. I call them Medusa snakes because they turn you into stone.”
A prickle crept up my spine, one vertebra at a time. I stared at Hunter with my eyes wider than a pufferfish. “What, and I can’t stress this enough, the fuck?”
“Their venom temporary paralyzes you. The bite won’t kill you, but it’s hard to swim when you’re paralyzed.”
“They’re water snakes?”
“Sort of. They live on rocks near the water. Over there. It’s the only place I’ve seen them. They don’t swim in the ocean or really go on sand. Until we figure out my boat situation, don’t go there. But if we’re stuck here for a month or longer, you need to build an immunity to their venom, and the only way to do that is to let them bite you.” He brought his arms up so I could see them. “You see these little scars on my forearms and my ankles? The snakes have bitten me a dozen times, and now it just hurts a bit. Like a bee sting.”
I scuffed. “A bee doesn’t leave a scar. How about I’ll stay away from that area.”
“It can save your life.”
“How and why?”
His eyes swiped over my face. “Let’s say something happens to me and I die?—”
