“Yes, here we are,” Daniel agreed as a bemused smile spread across his face. “The question is, why are we here?”
“I tried calling you earlier, and you didn’t answer the phone,” Harper said. “I thought maybe … I don’t know. Something might have happened.”
“You were worried about me?” He stepped closer to her, and his smile grew wider.
“Yeah. So?” Harper shrugged and tried to seem casual. “I worry about people. There’s lots of crazy stuff going on right now. It makes sense that I would worry. I worry a lot. That’s not a big deal. It’s just how I am.”
Another wave came up, and since Harper had been leaning against the rail, she almost fell backward over it. She caught herself at the last second, and Daniel grabbed her arm, just to be safe.
“Why don’t we go down inside and talk about how natural it is for you to worry?” Daniel asked. “It’s much less likely that you’ll fall overboard down there.”
“Yeah, sure.” Harper stepped back from the edge and followed Daniel down into the boat.
This was actually going against her original plan, which was to avoid getting on the boat in the first place, and, if she did go on the boat, not to go down into his living area. But it was better than standing on the deck and getting tossed around so he’d have to catch her.
When Harper went down, she noticed his tiny quarters appeared a bit cleaner than when she’d seen them before. A stack of neatly folded clothes was at the end of his bed, and his bed was actually made. There was an empty bottle in the tiny sink, but that was about all that constituted a mess.
“So?” Daniel leaned against the small dining table that sat between padded benches. “You were saying that you were worried about me?”
“No, I was saying that with everything going on, it makes sense that I would worry in general.” Harper sat down on the bed, since it was the farthest away from him that she could sit. “Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
“I was sleeping,” Daniel told her. “I went on this really long road trip yesterday, and I was awake for, like, twenty-four hours in a car. For some reason, that made me really tired, so when I got back, I slept a lot.”
“Sorry.” Harper smoothed out a wrinkle in his blankets. “I mean, thank you for coming with. And all the stuff you’ve been doing to help me, and Gemma. You really have been so helpful lately, and it means a lot to me.”
“That’s so weird how you can do that,” Daniel said, and she looked up at him. He was staring out the window, his lips pursed.
“What?”
He shook his head and smiled crookedly. “You can say something that’s supposed to be nice, like you’re trying to compliment me, and you make it sound so bad.”
Harper bristled. “How was that bad? I was just thanking you!”
“Exactly!” He motioned to her, the sad, crooked smile still on his face. “You’re thanking me, and I can just hear the ‘but’ coming.” He changed his voice to a high falsetto, presumably meant to sound like Harper. “‘Thank you so much for helping me, Daniel, but the thing is, you’re a dick.’”
“I never said that!” Harper shot back, genuinely offended by his impersonation. “I would never say that! I don’t think you’re a dick!”
“Sure you do.” He scratched the back of his neck and wouldn’t look at her. “You think I’m some kind of a slob and a loser. You have ever since we met, and I am sorry about the way we were introduced, but I think I’ve spent enough time trying to prove to you that I’m not like that. It was just a really bad first impression.”
When they’d met, Daniel had just woken up and decided to pee over the edge of the boat. Harper looked up at just the wrong time and got a full of view of his nether region.
“That was an awful first impression,” Harper said. “I will agree to that. But I’ve never … Okay, I haven’t thought you were a loser for a long time. You’ve been so great with me and Gemma and everything that’s been happening. I know that you are not a dick at all. You are kind and patient and brave and funny and so nice…”
She trailed off and stared down at her lap, because that wasn’t what she wanted to say at all. And it actually embarrassed her that she’d admitted so much.
“You did it again, you know,” Daniel said. “You just made a whole string of compliments sound terrible.”
“Well, I’m sorry!” She threw her hands up in exasperation. “I meant them, but I don’t know how else to say it.”
“I believe you meant them. But you didn’t come here today to tell me any of that.” He paused, and Harper looked at him. He appeared to be in the middle of a very serious thought. “You came here to tell me to leave you alone.”
Harper was silent for a moment, then lowered her eyes. “I wasn’t going to tell you to leave me alone.”