Read Lost (Shifter Island Book 1) for Free Online Page B

intriguing.
    He went about preparing the meal with nervous chills running through his body. He told her he liked to cook, and urged her to sit in a sunny spot near the cabin while he scaled and gutted the fish, then started a fire in the fire pit near the edge of the clearing. He could tell from the way she wrinkled her nose at the heap of fish guts, then looked away, that she wasn’t fond of dealing with such things.
    “You don’t fish?” he asked.
    Again, she wrinkled her nose. “The boys—my brothers—always did that. Cleaning them.”
    He’d been careful not to get any of the blood and fluids on his clothes. After he’d buried the offal, he washed up at the barrel and ran his now-clean hands through his hair.
    A good meal, he thought. She’d realize he was a good provider.
    Then he stopped himself short. What difference would it make whether she believed he was a good provider or not? It wasn’t like she’d be staying here, as if he had any responsibility for her at all. She’d be leaving today, after he’d found someone to take her back to the mainland. More than likely, she’d never think of him again.
    That hurt, but it was foolish to believe otherwise.
    Shrugging off any thought of tomorrow, he went into the cabin to fetch what was left of his loaf of bread. He employed a trick his mother had taught him: he sliced some of the stale bread, sprinkled it with some water, and placed it over the fire to toast.
    When the meal was finally ready, he handed Abby a plate with all the gravity of a renewal ceremony, hoping that she wouldn’t reject it. It was the best he could do, a better meal than he’d eaten himself in more than two weeks.
    “It looks good,” Abby said, smiling down at her plate, then at him.
    He sat down too and balanced his plate on his lap. It was definitely the most elaborate meal he’d had since before the beginning of his Separation period, but that wasn’t saying much.
    They ate without speaking for a few minutes. Abby seemed to enjoy the fish, and nibbled on the toasted bread without complaint. She was probably hungry enough to eat almost anything without complaining, but the sweet expression on her face told him there was more to it than that.
    “Thank you,” she said at last.
    “I would have liked to offer you more.”
    “That’s all right. This is fine.”
    When the fish and bread were gone, she tried one of the mushrooms but didn’t seem too fond of it. The blueberries were more of a success.
    “You’re not eating much,” she pointed out.
    He remembered his mother saying, When you waste food, you injure the pack , and scooped up some more fish. He cleaned his plate quickly, mushrooms and all, then set it aside so he could focus on Abby.
    They’d set up their meal picnic style, outside the cabin in the sunshine, sitting on a spare blanket he’d pulled out of the cupboard. The breeze had shifted a couple of times during the morning, and the clearing was full of the fragrance of wildflowers and pine, much more pleasant than the inside of the cabin.
    “It’s so beautiful here,” Abby said.
    “You think so?”
    Her tongue slid across her lips, cleaning them of crumbs. “I love the outdoors, when it’s quiet like this. There’s a yard behind where I live, and I can sit out there, but the neighbors are always out there playing the radio or running a leaf blower or something. My favorite time is early in the morning, before everybody else gets up. It’s so peaceful.” She was quiet for a moment, and seemed to be weighing what she would say next, which turned out to be, “Do you live here by yourself?”
    “No. There are others.”
    “Is this a big island?”
    “Big enough.”
    “That’s mysterious.”
    “We don’t need much. We lead a simple life here.”
    She nodded and went back to thinking. After that, she spent a while basking in the sunshine, not looking at anything in particular.
    As much as he could, Aaron looked at her: the way her long, wavy hair