We spend a little time with Grandad, but it doesn’t last long. The day catches up with him. I can see it in the way he sits, the pauses between his words.
“Time for this old man to turn in,” he says, already halfway down the hallway. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Get some rest, you two.”
And then he’s gone.
Our rooms are across the hall from each other. I stand in mine and take it in—white, clean, separate. No wind. No tide. No movement in the walls.
Just stillness, and the sound of my own breathing.
And the awareness of where he is.
I sit on the edge of the bed and wait. The door opens without a knock. It never needed one.
Dane steps inside, closing it behind him, and we just look at each other for a second.
“This is going to be a problem. People are going to expect us to act like siblings.”
“We’ll deal with it.”
He crosses the room and sits beside me. We stay there for a moment, then he leans back, and I follow without thinking. We fall into the same shape we always do—his arm around me, my head against his shoulder.
“You’ll have to go before morning,” I say.
“I know.”
His hand moves once through my hair, then stills. His breathing slows, steady, and mine follows.
We wanted this for years—a way off the island, a way back to everything we left behind.
Now we’re here, and it isn’t simple. It isn’t the relief I thought it would be.
Everything feels… complicated.
And I’m not sure I want it.
Chapter 26
Dane Gallagher
The darkbeyond the curtains has that early-morning quality—not quite black, just edged in gray, like the sun’s close.
I’ve been awake a while, lying still with Charlotte against me.
I knew when I came in here last night I’d have to leave before anyone started moving through the halls. Now it’s time.
I shift slightly, and she stirs.
“Babe, I have to go.”
She makes a small sound, barely a word, her hand tightening in my shirt.
“Charlotte.”
“I know,” she whispers against my shoulder. “I just... I don't want you to.”
I tighten my arms around her.
“You know I'd stay if I could.”
