Chapter Thirteen #2
“So,” Mary called after a while, “what really brought you here, Heidi?” She paused, giving her a pointed stare. “Not the story you give to make yourself sound better.”
Heidi’s gaze lingered on the horizon for a beat. “I needed a reset,” she said. “Work got . . . heavy. I kept thinking if I didn’t leave, I’d start resenting people who needed me.” She shrugged. “Thought I’d come here, drink too much, flirt a little, remember what it feels like to be . . . free.”
Candy, who hadn’t spoken much, snorted. “Good luck with that. This island doesn’t let anyone be free.”
Heidi turned toward her, her expression open, rather than defensive. “Seems like it does,” she said. “I’ve found both light and dark. Kind of depends on where you’re standing.”
Candy’s fingers tightened around her rod. Harmony saw the slight tremor in her hand, the one she tried to hide. “And who you’re standing with,” Candy said.
Zach glanced at her, something unreadable crossing his face. Then his line jerked.
“Fish on,” he said, voice shifting to pure focus. The rod bowed.
Heidi grabbed the handle with him instinctively, laughter bursting from her in a delighted scream. “Oh! Is that—is that real?”
“Real enough,” Zach said, voice rougher now, breath near her ear.
Harmony felt a pulse she refused to name.
“Careful,” Joe warned. “Fish don’t like amateurs.”
“Neither do men,” Candy muttered.
“That’s not true,” Tosh said. “I like them.”
Cass snorted.
Mary didn’t laugh at all. She watched Heidi fighting the fish with Zach’s arms bracketing hers, then murmured softly to no one.
“Pretty things shouldn’t bleed for sport.”
Harmony heard it. She shivered.
“What do I do?” Heidi exclaimed.
“Keep tension. Don’t overpower it.” His hands guided hers, strong and sure, forearms flexing as the fish fought. “Let it run, then bring it back.”
The line sliced through the water in a silver V. The boat seemed to lean in, everyone’s attention narrowing to that single-threaded connection between them and whatever was thrashing unseen below.
“Careful,” Joe called. “She’ll spit the hook if you bully her.”
“Story of your life,” Cass said.
Heidi’s laughter came bright and breathless. “I feel like if I screw this up, it’ll haunt me forever.”
“That’s Catalina for you,” Candy muttered.
“Steady,” Zach said quietly. “Just breathe and focus.”
Heidi obeyed. Harmony watched the way she did it—how she trusted the instruction, how she leaned into it instead of fighting. There was something in her that believed in second chances. In magic. In people like Zach.
Dangerous.
The fish broke the surface in a shimmering flash, tail thrashing, spraying water across the sides.
“Yellowtail!” Joe yelled. “Hell yes!”
Zach and Heidi worked together, muscles straining, hands tight. When the fish finally thudded on the deck, it flopped wildly, silver and gold, mouth gaping.
Heidi squealed, stumbling back. Zach’s hand shot out, grabbing her waist to steady her. Too quick. Too practiced. Joe and Tosh moved in to subdue the catch.
Harmony saw Heidi’s hand linger on Zach’s arm. He then looked up, catching Harmony’s eyes with an unreadable expression. Something sharp zipped through the air.
Cass leaned close to Harmony. “He’s playing with you. He wants a reaction.”
Harmony looked down at her notebook. “Zach doesn’t need a reaction from me. There’s nothing between us.”
Cass laughed, clearly amused. “If you say so.”
Zach still hadn’t removed his hand from Heidi’s waist. All eyes were on them, waiting to see what would happen next—all eyes except for Harmony’s. She watched the water instead.
“Torie would push this woman off the boat,” Joe said with a chuckle. Heidi didn’t hear.
“Why is that?” Harmony asked the captain.
“She doesn’t like competition,” Joe said.
“She isn’t flirting with Tosh,” Harmony pointed out.
“She might be flirting with Zach to get Tosh’s attention. At least that’s what Torie would assume.”
Harmony nodded. Not an invalid point.
“First fish,” Joe called, grinning at Heidi. “You’re officially one of us now.”
“Poor fish,” she said, breathless, staring at it. “I feel kind of terrible. And also oddly proud.”
“That’s how this island works,” Mary said quietly. “Terrible and proud.”
Zach was staying close to Heidi’s side. She didn’t seem to mind one little bit.
Harmony noticed. Candy appeared irritated. Mary rubbed her fingers along the edge of her blade.
“This is fun,” Heidi said, tilting her face toward Zach. “I don’t remember the last time I did something that felt this uncomplicated.”
“Give it time,” Cass murmured under her breath.
“I understand now why people come here,” Heidi said as she ran her finger along Zach’s arm.
He grinned at her, leaning a bit closer.
Heidi threw her arms around him. Over her head, Zach looked straight into Harmony’s eyes .
. . She didn’t allow the gaze to linger.
She gazed out at the calm water instead.
“What else is on your island bucket list?” Zach asked.
Heidi’s eyes lit. “Everything. I want to see the buffalo up close. I want to listen to the waves from up on the cliffs. I want to watch the stars somewhere without streetlights. I want—” She stopped herself, suddenly shy.
“I don’t know. I want to feel like I’m actually living before I go back to twelve-hour shifts and fluorescent lights. ”
Zach’s gaze lingered on her a moment too long. Harmony watched it happen—the moment something in him shifted from casual to intentional.
“I might know a place for that last one,” he said.
Heidi smiled, slow and genuine. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Joe rolled his eyes theatrically. “Oh great. Now he’s going to steal my tourist.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to be stolen,” Candy said, voice light but eyes sharp.
Heidi looked between them, then back at Zach. “I can make my own choices.”
“Good answer,” Tosh said. “Dangerous, but good.”
Harmony let her pen hover over the page, absorbing the configuration.
Heidi in the center of the circle. The three men orbiting—Joe, loud and obvious.
Tosh, smug and daring. Zach, quiet and magnetic.
Jealousies flickering at the edges like heat igniting.
Cass amused. Candy calculating. Mary listening.
Heidi didn’t see it yet. She was too busy trying to memorize the way the sunlight broke over the water, the thrill of the fish on the line, the feeling of Zach’s hand curving around her waist like an anchor.
“Another cast?” Zach asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. I think I’m hooked.”
Joe groaned at the pun. Tosh applauded. Cass snorted. Candy didn’t smile at all.
Harmony wrote a single line in her notebook.
Bright things make the best bait.
When they finally headed back toward Avalon, the cooler held two fish and a tangle of jealousies. The sun dropped lower, turning the water molten gold. Heidi leaned at the bow, hair whipping around her like a blessing.
Zach watched her.
Then he watched Harmony.
Then he looked away.
Cass whispered. “You know this ends badly for someone.”
Harmony nodded. “It always does.”
Heidi laughed at something Joe said, tossing her head back without a care in the world.
Zach would show Heidi the stars. Heidi would say yes.
She had no idea that the island had already written her into the story . . . She had no idea she’d been chosen.
When they got off the boat, Harmony left the group. She was feeling restless. Too many things weren’t going as planned. There was too much uncertainty in the air. She didn’t like it.
As the stars grew brighter, she replayed the day. More than anything, she thought of Heidi’s hand on Zach’s arm, the way he hadn’t moved away.
She wasn’t sure why it lingered. It didn’t feel like jealousy. That emotion had rules, and this didn’t follow any of them. It felt like a disruption. A misalignment. She disliked inefficiencies.
There was a killer on the island and all of them were acting as if nothing was wrong. How could their lives keep moving forward when someone was trying to hold them in place?
She didn’t have the answer which was unacceptable.