For a moment, Arthur didn’t say anything, squeezing the phone in his grip as he took in a slow, steadying breath. “Nothing.” He turned to her and nodded to the canteen and tablets in her hand. “Let’s go down to the water.”
The rain had given the vivid blue Lotties surrounding them quite a battering, knocking some of the petals loose. At the meadow’s edge, Eva stopped and carefully bent over, plucking a clean, bright stem that had snapped at the base. She popped the whole thing into her mouth.
Arthur’s eyebrows shot up.
“What?” she said. “It’s the same flower as our tea, isn’t it? I’m curious if it will help.”
His expression shifted to intrigue. “How does it taste?”
Eva considered, tonguing a silken petal against the roof of her mouth. “Vegetal.”
Arthur snorted a laugh.
Her ankle throbbed the whole way down the hill, the two of them retracing their steps back to the water. No doubt Izzy would caw after Eva to elevate her foot, and Eva would, after she let the cold river numb it up.
As they walked, she considered their options. There weren’t many. The most pressing priority, of course, was to reconnect the satellite phone, but Eva was starving, and so thirsty her throat felt scraped raw. So, water first.
Arthur noticed her struggling to keep pace, and offered to let her lean on him again. They hobbled through the woods, he in her father’s old boots and Eva in her still-damp tennis shoes.
When they reached the river, Eva sank onto the lip at the water’s edge with a relieved sigh. Slowly, after removing her shoe, she eased her bare foot into the flow and winced. The pressure of the quickly rushing water hurt the sprain, but if she angled it just right, the cool temperature also provided relief. Soon her skin went slightly numb. It would hurt like hell when she had to stand and the blood rushed back down, but for now she would take the temporary relief.
“Toss me the canteen?”
Arthur did her one better, kneeling by the water’s edge and filling the canteen nearly to the top. Eva dropped a water-purifying tablet in, her eyes sliding down his forearm. Heat flamed across her chest as she thought of how those same hands had sculpted so reverently over her curves. She looked up. Arthur’s hazel eyes were even more brilliant in the sunlight, and the unspokensomethingbetween them glowed a little brighter as he screwed the lid to the canteen back on, meeting her gaze with a smile.
Goose bumps rose on her arms. Eva blamed the river’s chill, and she turned from his steady gaze, leaning down to scoop a bit of water onto the back of her neck. “We have to wait thirty minutes for it to take full effect, I think,” she said.
“I could drink twelve canteens in thirty minutes.”
While they waited, Eva watched Bug pounce on little creatures in the grass, her tension slowly fading away. The river had been a good idea. Occasionally the ice-cold waves splashed droplets against Eva’s face, refreshing her. The rainstorm had made the whole forest glow, the world dyed its deepest and most vibrant shades, like jewels in a box.
She dipped a finger into the rushing water, her mind drawn back to the man stretched out on the grass behind her. The color of his infected skin was an alarming shade of strawberry. He spun the satellite phone between his fingers, watching the red lightflick, flick, flick.
Eva plucked a stray blue Lottie from the ground and tossed it his way. “Try this.”
She expected his refusal. Arthur didn’t like using the flowers that way. But to her surprise, he not only accepted the bloom but, like her, popped it straight into his mouth. His nose wrinkled.
“Your dad’s tea is better.” That startled a laugh out of her, and after a moment, Arthur’s expression turned rueful. “What?”
“Nothing. You just… seem different.”
She felt different too.
Something fundamental had changed between them, and not just because of what they’d done in the shed. After so many yearsof buried feelings, perhaps such a release was needed. Inevitable, even.
When a honeybee landed on Eva’s knuckles, she smiled.
Wait.
Eva’s eyes widened at the sight of more bees flying overhead. It wasn’t unusual. She always had a few nearby, no matter where she went. They had likely sought out shelter during the storm and were now making their way back to their hives.
She drew in a breath.
“Eva,” Arthur said slowly, staring at her hand. “Is that…?”
Like a bolt of lightning, the realization sent a shock straight through her. Eva launched upright, causing the bee to take flight with a startled buzz. “Wild hives!” she exclaimed. “They must be nearby!”
She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before.
