He Voted Me Off the Island, So I Left Him Stranded novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Question

Fern's POV

Ben had been rehearsing something for nine days, and he was bad at hiding it.

He muttered at the chart table. He stopped mid-sentence when I walked into the shed. Once I caught him talking to the mirror by the stove, and he turned the mirror to the wall.

On Sunday morning he untied the boat at six, in the dark.

I came down the pier in my warm coat and his gray cap.

I stepped aboard without being helped.

"You look terrible," I said.

"I didn't sleep."

"Why not?"

"No reason."

I sat in the seat behind him with my knees up and smiled at the back of his head.

I knew he had something in his left coat pocket. He kept touching it. I did not say so.

The harbor was black glass. The sky went gray in the east, and then pink over the water.

He opened the throttle and took us out.

I didn't ask where we were headed. I watched the lighthouse slide past and the buoys go by one at a time.

After half an hour, the island came up out of the haze.

"Ben."

"I know."

"Tern Island."

"Brittany gave me permission. The uncle too.

"He said the house is the family's, but the north rocks belong to whoever climbs them."

"That is not true."

"It might be. I didn't check."

He brought the boat in to the Thornquists' dock, tied her off, and handed me up.

The house stood dark behind its spruce.

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