if to get out, hampered by Jude who still sprawled, boneless and contented. “Shift yourself, so I can get up, will you?”
“Why?” Even if the bunk was too small, Jude didn’t want to move, relaxed with Rob so close to him, even if they were a little sweaty. He finally shifted slightly sideways as Rob persisted in sitting. “Where are you going?”
“Back to the office. Get my phone charger. Unless…” he pulled aside one of the pothole curtains, the moon lighting his face as he studied Jude’s. “Could you set an alarm on yours?”
“On my phone? Nope. I haven’t even charged it since I got back.” Jude sat up and reached for the top sheet to wipe off them both. He dropped it to the floor and then rummaged through his duffle to retrieve one of the bright rolls of fabric that he’d brought back from his travels. He pulled at Rob’s shoulder, urging him to lie back before covering them both with the light-weight fabric. “We’ll wake up plenty early enough without it,” he promised, his head finding a perfect spot between Rob’s neck and shoulder to nestle.
“Didn’t have you pegged as a cuddler,” Rob said, not exactly sounding snippy as he pressed a kiss against the top of Jude’s head. His next question was muffled. “Why haven’t you charged it?”
“My phone? Because it’s pointless. Got it wet one time too many. Didn’t seem much point in buying another when I didn’t have any news worth sharing.”
“So you really didn’t stay in contact with the rest of the world while you were away?”
“Only with Lou. There’s a satellite phone on the Aphrodite.”
“But you didn’t stay in touch with anyone else? Not even via Facebook?”
Logging on to read about normal life continuing in England had been too much to handle when he was on what felt like another planet. “No. No, I didn’t.”
“Ah.” Rob’s following huff was quiet. “I thought it was only me.”
“Only you, what?” That he’d thought about daily?
“That you left without saying goodbye to, and then completely ghosted.”
Jude twisted to find Rob’s mouth in the dark and kissed it. “No. I just… I couldn’t… Not when it was my fault they….”
“Stop that.” Rob chided him with two words and then supported him with three more. “It absolutely wasn’t.”
“I am sorry though. I couldn’t deal with anything other than searching.”
Rob kissed him into silence, their foreheads still touching once he broke off.
“It doesn’t matter now.” The way Rob could let go was a lesson. His last kiss lingered, languid until Jude registered a small shift in tension. Rob asked, “So that means you also didn’t catch any coverage of the last stage of the contest?”
“No.” It seemed unimportant compared to his mission, trivial next to scanning each horizon. “Why?”
Rob relaxed, the sigh he let out somehow relieved. “No reason, I just wondered.”
“Well hurry up and wonder yourself to sleep. Someone’s got to be a star chef in the morning, and apparently, you’re the best new one in Britain.”
For someone who usually didn’t need an excuse to preen, Rob sounded strangely subdued. “Don’t remind me.”
18
Three things struck Jude the next morning. The first was that it was very bright compared to when he usually woke up. The second was that burying his face into the pillow to block the sun’s glare was hard while Rob hogged so much of it. The third realisation came right on the heels of the kiss he pressed on Rob’s bare shoulder: it was bright because the door stood wide open, Louise framed in it for a second before lurching backwards.
Scrambling free from Rob’s hold was hard while he still slept, only waking when Jude extricated himself.
“Time’s it?” Rob mumbled sleepily, his expression as rumpled as the fabric covering him from the hips down. Jude didn’t answer. He grabbed another bright roll of material from the top of his open duffle, knotting it sarong-like around his hips as he wove between the stacks of chairs and tables to follow his sister.
“Lou,” he called out as soon as he emerged into full daylight. “Lou!”
The ground was gritty under his bare feet, but he hardly noticed, too intent on catching up with his sister. This time, she didn’t run far, stopping way before she got back to the Anchor, waiting for him at the gap in the sea wall where steps led down to the water. Jude stopped a few steps behind her. “Lou?”
She sounded shaky. “S-sorry. I don’t know why I didn’t knock and then