She gives me a kindly smile. “I was a high school biology teacher—retired now. I taught students about natural selection and the Galápagos for nearly thirty years.” She heaves a contented sigh. “I can’t believe I finally made it here.”

Gripping her walking stick, she crouches awkwardly to take a picture of the marine iguanas. Even though I can’t see her eyes behind her sunglasses, I can tell by the way her lips tremble that she’s tearing up with emotion.

“Are you traveling with anyone?” I ask.

She straightens. “Nope. Flying solo.”

“I’m Henley, by the way.” I extend my hand and she grips it briefly.

“Henley By-the-Way, I’m Sharon.” Her tone is cheerful, and I can’t help but smile.

“Would you like me to take some pictures of you with the marine iguanas?” I offer. “My smartphone takes pretty decent photos, and I’d be happy to AirDrop them to you or put them on a jump drive when we get back to the ship.”

“Oh!” she exclaims. “I don’t want to put you out…”

“It’s no trouble, really. I know it can be tough to get good photos of yourself when you’re alone. My sister’s back on the ship, so I’m flying solo at the moment too.”

She tilts her chin up to assess me. “You’re that Seaquest Adventures employee, right?”

I nod.

“Aren’t you traveling with your coworker? Isn’t that him over there?” She points to where Graeme is engaged in conversation with Juan Luis.

“Oh, well, yes. But we’re not close or anything.”

“Really? He’s smiling at you.”

I steal another glance over my shoulder, and sure enough, he’s looking in my direction, and the corners of his mouth are lifted. He quickly refocuses his attention on Juan Luis, who points at a black bird with a bright red chest flying overhead—a frigate bird.

Graeme wasn’t looking at me. Probably just taking in all the wildlife. I lick my dry lips.

Pushing up the brim of her floppy sun hat, Sharon clucks. “I hope you don’t mind me saying, but that man is a whole treat. Or is it a meal? What do kids say these days?”

“Snack. He’s a whole snack.”

“Mm-hmm.”

When it comes to looks, she’s right. Graeme is, objectively speaking, a total snack. Too bad his personality is more like week-old leftovers. Although I haven’t really seen as much of his bad side this trip as I expected. He’s been annoying, sure. But otherwise, he’s actually been pretty nice.

Still, the type of person who would commandeer credit for a massively successful video someone else created isn’t the type of person whose “nice” can be trusted.