When it was light, I dressed quietly and left the house, so I would avoid talking to either Cole or Lucas. I felt anxious, unmoored. And worse than that, I felt like a fool. I wasn’t any freer now than I’d been. I certainly wasn’t going to leave Lucas, not now that a mistrust of Cole had sprung up overnight. I was still stuck on the island, and maybe more alone than ever, watching Lucas and Cole growing closer and closer in a dangerous brotherhood that excluded me and everyone else.

The waves were frothy on top, and they tossed the boats. I sat in the booth holding my hair to keep the wind from whipping my eyes. I bit my fingernails even though I’d recently kicked that habit. I felt cross with the tourists. Yes, no, over there, here’s a brochure. An old Lab walked past, grinning the way some dogs can. A little boy ran by barefoot, holding a dead fish.

I was restless, tired.

I refused the doughnuts Eddie offered.

“Not worried about getting fat, are you?” Ed said. He stood in front of me, blotting out the light.

“I’m just not hungry for doughnuts.”

“Because you have nothing to worry about,” he said.

“Thank you. I just don’t like doughnuts.”

“That’s a mystery I guess I’ll never understand,” he said.

“It takes all kinds,” I agreed.

Eddie played with the zipper of his Jack’s hoodie. The logo for One Eyed Jack’s was a mean-looking pirate with an eye patch and a parrot on his shoulder and the words yo ho ho floating out of the parrot’s mouth.

“How’s old Returned-from-the-Dead?” Eddie asked.

I thought about Cole, sitting cross-legged in the sunlight, his unapologetic paleness. Perpetual vacation, he kept saying about the island. I remembered the warmth of his hand as he touched my foot. Now he has me. I pictured his bare chest and confused expression when we’d looked at each other in my mother’s room in the night.

“He’s great,” I said. “Just fantastic.”

“He’s certainly making himself at home.”

“That he is.”

Eddie shook his head. “What are you doing, Lyd?” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen you with him. He’s not a good guy. This whole story he and Lucas are telling each other. Are you buying it now, too?”

“Of course not. It’s not that simple.”

“I think it is that simple. I think there’s something else going on.”

I felt a swell of anger. “What are you trying to say? That I like him being here? That I want him to stay forever? You know what, Ed Frank? You don’t get to give me advice. Not anymore.”