Reckless Girls(55)
She’d chalked it up to first love and adolescent hormones, but on this night, here on the Azure Sky, she learns she was wrong. It’s just—Jake. Whatever sparked between them before is immediately rekindled again, and even though she has friends she knows are waiting on her, she falls asleep in his arms thinking she might never leave.
* * *
HER SECOND NIGHT ON THE boat, she finds the drugs.
Eliza wasn’t snooping, not really. She was looking for a bloody wineglass, the ones they’d used the night before still dirty in the sink because god forbid Jake Kelly wash a glass, and she’s certainly not doing it for him.
She opens a cabinet and sees stacks of something wrapped in plastic, and for a moment, her brain doesn’t quite understand what they are, these solid bricks covered in cling film.
When she realizes what she’s looking at, a strange thing happens inside of her. Her skin feels cold even as rage—a rage stronger than any she’s ever felt—boils up in her stomach.
She’s still squatting there in front of the cabinet when Jake comes out of the cabin, wearing just his boxer briefs and a robe, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
“Ah,” he says seeing her, and shrugs. “Family business continues apace.”
He says it cheerfully, with that same grin—and that, in the end, is what dooms him.
For Jake, this is nothing more than A Thing That He Does. A way to make money—extra money, because for all he’s joking, this is not his actual family business. That’s real estate. This is simply a side hustle that allows him to buy fancy boats and never wear a suit unless he wants to.
This—the thing that destroyed her mother’s life and, in many ways, her own—is just, for Jake Kelly, a bit of fun.
And it always will be.
No lesson learned from her mum’s prison sentence. No remorse. The Kelly men just trundled on their way.
He never even asked about her.
Eliza realizes that now. The last time she’d seen Jake, her mum had just been sentenced to prison, but not once in the last two days has he asked about her. Where she is, how she is.
Like she never even existed.
Rising on shaking legs, Eliza turns to him, and schools her face very carefully into a bland expression. “Good to know,” she says, and her voice doesn’t crack even the tiniest bit.
He comes closer, kisses her cheek, and she smiles up at him. But inside, her mind is whirling and whirling, and something too hazy to be called a plan begins to form.
* * *
ELIZA DOESN’T SPEND THE NEXT night on the Azure Sky, or the night after that. She rejoins the friends she’s been hanging out with, spending her time with them in various museums and shops and pubs and restaurants, and all the while, she’s thinking—about Jake and that boat and his plans and those hidden bags under the sink. By the time her phone rings on the third day, the plan is not so hazy anymore.
She looks down at her mobile, smiling at the number that pops up.
She doesn’t answer.
She doesn’t answer Jake’s second call or his third, either. She lets him wait five days before finally, she decides to pick up.
“Are you trying to torture me?” he asks as soon as she answers, and Eliza smiles, excusing herself from her friends and wandering into the back hallway of the pub where they’ve been drinking.
“A little,” she admits, and she hears Jake laugh on the other end, imagines him sitting there on the deck of that gorgeous catamaran, tan and golden and gorgeous.
“Well, it’s working,” he replies. “I can’t stop thinking about you. Haven’t even washed my sheets, that’s how pathetic I’ve become.”
“Aww, Jake. Not used to being the one left in the morning, are you?”
“You’re bloody well right I’m not,” he answers, and then pauses. “Can I see you tonight?”
Eliza glances over her shoulder, back into the pub. “I’m busy tonight.”
He groans. “Of course you are. Tomorrow?”
“Can’t think that far ahead,” she tells him, leaning against the wall, remembering all those afternoons she’d waited for his call, all the canceled plans just in case he’d want to see her that day. “Honestly, I’m not even sure I’m going to stay in Australia that much longer. Might be time to move on, have some new adventures.”
Immediately, she begins to worry. Has she pushed it too far? Was that too obvious?
She holds her breath.
But then Jake says, “Lucky for you, this guy loves a good adventure. Remember that island I was telling you about? Meroe? Feels like the perfect time to head out that way. You, me, sand, surf. Whaddya say?”
“Jake,” Eliza purrs, even as her heart pounds harder, her blood fizzing like champagne. “Are you asking me to sail away with you?”
“No,” he says. “I’m begging you.”
And Eliza laughs.
They sail out two days later.
And, of course, the big news this year was our trip to Hawaii! The weather was lovely the whole time—we really lucked out there! Hope you’re all prepared to look at about a thousand pictures of dolphins next time we see you, because Dave and I sure did take a bunch, lol.
We did have one little “spooky” thing happen on our trip, though. We had sailed out to this place called Meroe Island. Dave wanted to check out an old WWII airstrip that’s there, and I thought it might be neat to see a real live deserted island.