“How bad is it?” Grey dropped the first aid kit onto the counter and reached for Lauren’s hand.
Lauren shook her head. “I’ll be fine,” she protested weakly as Grey’s fingers wrapped gently around her wrist and turned her hand so that Grey could see the cut. “I just need a band aid.”
“Just lemme see,” Grey murmured, wiping Lauren’s hand dry with a paper towel and then leaning in to inspect the wound. It was a clean slice across the pad of the thumb and, she was relieved to see, did not look like it was quite deep enough to require stitches. It was, however, bad enough to need some butterfly sutures. She held Lauren’s left hand in her own and she rustled through the first aid kit with her right. “You need a little more than a band aid.”
“I’ve had worse.” Lauren pinched the cut closed with her good hand as she watched Grey pull antiseptic wipes, gauze, butterfly sutures, and a band aid from the kit and set them onto the lid of the first-aid kit.
“I’m sure you have.” Grey motioned with her head for Lauren to let go of her injured thumb as she tore the top off an antiseptic wipe package with her teeth. “This is gonna sting,” she warned half-a-second before she swiped it across the cut.
“Fucker,” Lauren hissed, gritting her teeth.
“Sorry,” Grey murmured with a small smile. She looked up through her lashes at Lauren and leaned in to blow lightly over the cut to help the stinging alcohol dry quicker as she opened the package of Steri-Strips she would use to close the cut up. She had to use the small pair of scissors in the kit to cut them to size, and her brow furrowed in concentration as she stretched two strips over the cut, pulling the sliced skin together. Blood trickled from the wound, and she sighed as she covered it with a piece of gauze and held it in place. “Once the bleeding slows, I’ll cover this with a band aid,” she said as she cradled Lauren’s injured hand in both of her own.
Though she knew that she was more than capable of applying pressure to her own wound, Lauren simply nodded, lulled into agreement by the feeling of Grey’s thumb stroking lazily over the back of her hand. Her heart skipped a beat at the way Grey stared at her, warm brown eyes clouded with concern and something else she could not quite identify. She had no idea how long they stood there, Grey caressing her hand while she held the gauze to her thumb, but when Grey finally pulled it back to inspect the wound, the dressing was soaked with blood.
“Bleeding has pretty much stopped.” Grey flicked the edge of her thumb nail over the butterfly sutures to make sure they were still holding, and then let go of Lauren’s hand to retrieve the band aid she had pulled out of the kit. She carefully wrapped thebandage around the pad of Lauren’s thumb, being careful to not let the bandage’s adhesive come into contact with the Steri-Strips holding the wound closed. If it needed to be changed later, she did not want to risk pulling them off.
The silence between them crackled with electricity as she smoothed her thumb lightly over Lauren’s. Every breath took more effort to take-in, and the feeling of Lauren’s fingers wrapping almost hesitantly around her hand made her pulse race. Her eyes dropped to Lauren’s lips, and she licked her own impulsively as the urge to kiss the redhead swept through her.
Lauren noticed the way Grey’s attention had dropped to her mouth, and she flashed Grey a small, lopsided smile as she gently pulled her hand away. It would be easy to give in to the attraction she felt toward Grey, but she knew that it would be a mistake. “Um…thank you, for fixing me up,” she murmured. “I guess I should start cleaning up this mess.”
“Oh.” Grey took a step back and ran a hand through her hair. “Yeah. Of course.” The walkie-talkie clipped to the waist of her shorts crackled to life, and she frowned as she pulled it free, surprised to be hearing from the Muellers when they still had an hour of play time left on the island. “This is Grey.”
“Do you have a first aid kit? Max cut his foot,”Kim said without preamble.
“Yeah.” Grey’s eyes flicked over at the still open kit on the counter. “I’ll bring it over right now.”
Lauren watched Grey pack up the orange waterproof kit. Grey’s posture was stiff, her movement lacking her usual confident fluidity, and Lauren’s heart sank when Grey turned to her and she saw the uncertainty dulling her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Grey forced a small smile and nodded. “Pretty sure you didn’t mean to almost cut your finger off, so it’s okay. I’m gonna go patch up Max, and I’ll be back in a few,” she said as she hefted the case off the counter. It bumped lightly against the side of her knee, and she added, “Just try and go easy on the knives while I’m gone, just in case.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“THIS IS THE island that inspired Stevenson’sTreasure Island.” Grey glanced over at Lauren as she furled the sails and let theVeritasdrift into Benures Bay on the northern side of Norman Island.
“Really?” Lauren pushed her sunglasses up onto her head looked around the empty bay. “I loved that book when I was a kid.”
“Me too.” Grey smiled and let her eyes sweep over Lauren’s profile. She had spent the afternoon replaying that moment in the galley over and over again in her mind, trying and failing to make sense of the relief and disappointment she was feeling about it all. She had not missed the searching looks Lauren had thrown her way from the moment she returned from patching-up Max’s foot, but she was grateful that Lauren seemed content to pretend like it had never happened. “The treasure caves are on the southern side of Pirate’s Bight—the main bay we sailed past to get up here.”
“Really?” Lauren’s eyes sparkled with interest as she looked at Grey. “Why didn’t we stay down there?”
Grey chuckled and shook her head. “Pirate’s Bight isn’t a good place for kids. Things tend to get a little wild, there’s way too much drinking happening in that bay. Last time I was there, therewas literally an orgy happening on the tramps of the boat next to us.”
“Oh.” Lauren nodded slowly. “I see. That’s… Wow.”
“Yeah.” Grey laughed and ran a hand through her hair. “It was pretty nuts. Anyway, that’s why I figured we’d just stay up here instead.”
“Good idea.” Lauren’s eyes drifted over Grey’s face, and she sighed softly under her breath. She knew that pulling away from Grey earlier had been the right thing to do, but a part of her wondered would have happened had she not. “So, are we going to visit the caves tomorrow, then?”
“Nah. They’re fun to explore, but they’re also dark, and I don’t think it’d be good for the boys. We’ll head over to the Indians instead.” She hitched a thumb at the archipelago they had passed ten minutes earlier. “It’s easier snorkeling, and there are lots of coral and fish to look at.”
Lauren turned to look at the cluster of rocks jutting out of the water. “Are there even any mooring balls out there?”
“There are, but we’ll have to hit it early to grab one because they fill up fast. I’m thinking I’ll get us over there at first light, and then we can do a quick breakfast before they hit the water.”
“Okay.” Lauren looked back at the bay they were motoring across, her eyes sliding over the low hills that spilled down onto the water. A feeling of giddy excitement filled her as snippets of the story she had not read in years flashed across her mind. She was at Treasure Island. “I’m just gonna go get my phone real fast to take a picture…”
Grey smiled and nodded. “Go for it.” She shook her head as she watched Lauren scamper down the stairs, and chuckled softly as she turned her attention back to the water in front of her.
