“You ready?” he asked Hazel.
“What are we doing?”
“We’re taking a boat out.”
“Yeah, I figured that much—but to where?”
“The reef!” Hunter blurted out excitedly.
“Wait,” she said slowly. “The Great Barrier Reef?”
“Well,” Luca said, “Red says you’ve never seen it—and we are in Australia.”
Hazel looked around at the sparkling sea, the palm trees, the white sand, the blue sky. “So we are.”
* * *
Luca had rented the boat for the whole day so that the three of them could explore the outer reef at leisure. Both he and Hunter had marine licenses, so they were going to take turns driving. Luca had barely driven them out of the harbor and into the open water when Hunter started getting impatient and begging for a turn at the wheel. Luca rolled his eyes and swapped out of the driver’s seat, making his way to the back of the boat to sit with Hazel.
It took about three-quarters of an hour for them to find a spot above the reef that Hunter was happy with before he cut the engine and lowered the anchor. As far as Hazel could tell they were literally in the middle of nowhere—all she could see in any direction was bright, clear water. The sun was beating down hard now that they were no longer moving, and everything seemed unnaturally still.
Luca unzipped his rucksack and pulled out a selection of accessories for Hazel to wear: a wet suit to keep the jellyfish at bay, some heavy, clunky black flippers, a snorkel, and a pair of fluorescent-green goggles. Hunter pulled his hair back into a ponytail and began stripping down to his blue hibiscus-print swimming shorts, and Luca followed suit, peeling his top off with slightly less gusto. Underneath, he was every inch the athlete, all toned, well-built muscles and tanned, smooth skin.
Hazel realized that she was staring. She tore her eyes away, cheeks flushing hotly, and focused on pulling on her wet suit as the boys put on theirs without meeting anyone’s eyes. By the time she was suited up and had struggled into her flippers, Hunter was already in the water, using his strong legs to swim away from the boat in just a few easy strokes. Then he was swimming downward under the surface until she could just see the spout of his snorkel. Luca waited until she was ready and then he helped her put on her goggles.
“Okay?”
“I’m nervous.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “You’ll be fine. All you have to do is climb in.”
He tossed the ladder over the side of the boat, and Hazel listened to his snorkel instructions as he guided her into the water, which felt refreshingly cool even through the thick material of the suit. Once she was submerged, he jumped in too, right over her head, and then turned back to grin at her. “I’ll see you in a bit,” he said, holding his mouthpiece ready. “Prepare to be amazed.”
* * *
By the time Hazel had her own snorkel sorted and had gotten used to using it to breathe under the water, Hunter and Luca were nowhere to be seen. She found it was, strangely, a relief. This was new to her; this was something completely out of the ordinary, and knowing how comfortable they were out there in the water was a little unnerving. Hazel forced herself to stop thinking about it, about anything, and just put her head under the water to really look at what was down there.
If they’d left one world behind by coming out into the middle of nowhere on the big wide ocean, Hazel found a whole new one below the waves. The sun cut through the glassy surface and shone in beams of golden light through the water. She could see the seabed, but it wasn’t the sort of floor she’d imagined, not just sand or pebbles—it was alive, an explosion of colors and shapes.
There was coral everywhere, some vivid orange and piled high so that it was within arm’s reach, some pale pink and lying low, tendrils swaying slightly through the surprisingly shallow water. There were clams so large it would be impossible to pick one up, and flamboyant blue starfish dotted around, clinging to rocks with their pointed arms.
There were fish too, fish everywhere—halfway between her and the floor was a shoal of tiny silver ones, sparkling and glittering as they darted from side to side, in and out of the coral. Hazel could see bigger fish as well, types she had never imagined actually existed outside of movies, all bright and moving slowly and nonchalantly, as if they weren’t fazed at all by the fact she was there.
It was surreal and utterly wonderful, and as time passed she let herself relax completely, just floating in the water. It was beautiful, serene, and … What the hell was that?
Hazel went rigid, every inch of her body frozen in fear. Directly below her, gliding out menacingly from under a rock, was a creature with a dark and thick but somehow still streamlined body, a broad round snout, and large silvery eyes. Fully emerged from the rock, it was huge—its fins seemed to slice through the water. A shark. It was so close she knew she’d only have to stretch slightly to touch it. It turned to look at her, and Hazel screamed on instinct. Her snorkel fell out and her mouth filled with bitter salt water. She shot her head up above the water, choking and calling out for the boys.
Luca appeared in an instant, and as soon as Hazel saw him, she burst into tears, still gasping for air.
“Shit,” he hissed, propelling himself toward her, tearing off his own mask as he went. Hazel let him pull her against his chest, burying her face in his shoulder.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he soothed. “It’s all right, Hazel. I’ve got you.”
Hunter appeared in the water beside him. “What the hell happened?” he asked Luca.
Hazel felt Luca shake his head, treading water to keep them both afloat. She wanted to warn them about the shark, to let them know the danger they were all in, but she couldn’t speak. “I don’t know. I just heard her calling my name.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
“I think we should get her back on the boat.”
“Good idea,” Hunter agreed.
“Hazel, we’re gonna move, okay?”
She nodded. Getting out of the water sounded like the best idea in the world. Hunter climbed the ladder first so he could be at the top to pull her up if she needed help, but she managed it on her own. Luca followed behind, and once on deck he took a towel and wrapped it around her, sitting beside her on the bench. Hunter handed her a bottle of water, which she took gratefully.
“Hazel,” Luca asked then, after giving her a minute to collect herself, “what happened?”
“I saw a … a shark.”
Hunter burst into laughter before he could stop himself. “Are you serious?” he spluttered. “All that for a shark?”
Luca glared at him and then turned back to Hazel. “Ignore him. It’s fine. How big was it?”
“Big.”
“Thirty centimeters?” Hunter asked, holding his hands apart. “Half a meter?”
“No, I—I don’t know. At least a meter, probably more?”
This wiped the smirk off Hunter’s face. “It can’t have been.”
“Well, it was.” She looked at Luca, and Luca nodded back. I believe you. “It was wide, really wide, and it had a white tip on its fin, the big one on its back.”
“That’s the dorsal fin,” Hunter said absentmindedly, his face creased with concentration now. “Luca, you know what that sounds like, right?”
“… No?”
“Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos,” he told them proudly. “Or, grey reef shark. It’s really rare to see one, especially here.”
“Are they dangerous?” she asked.
“Reef sharks generally aren’t. But I have heard they can get extremely aggressive when they feel threatened. They’re supposed to have this incredible threat display. I guess you got lucky.”
“I guess I did,” she agreed, but somehow she didn’t feel it.
“Are you okay now?” Luca asked her, and she forced a smile.
“I’m fine.”
“Maybe this was a bad idea. Do you want me to take you home? We can eat the picnic onshore if you don’t feel like—”
/> “I want to stay,” Hazel said firmly. Luca didn’t look convinced, but she just smiled at him again, this one not forced.
“Okay,” he said after a moment, smiling back. “Good.”
* * *
That night on the beach, Red laughed without stopping for a solid five minutes when he caught sight of her heading across the sand toward him.
“Is this about the shark?” she said when the chuckles finally ceased.
“I’m sorry. But only you would come face-to-face with a shark the first time you go into the ocean.”
“It’s really not funny,” she said. “I was terrified!”
He managed to compose himself. “Yeah, Luca did say that, actually. I think he was worried about you.”
“He worries too much.”
“I think it’s nice for him to be stressing over someone else for once. So what did Graham think about you finally seeing the reef?”
“He was pretty happy about it. He wants us to go out together sometime.”
Red was quiet for a moment, studying her closely. “He really likes having you around, huh?”
Hazel’s chest tightened. “He likes having someone around. He was lonely—it’s not personal.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
She hung her head. She didn’t know what to believe anymore. Everything she ever thought she’d understood about having a dad—or not having one—had been turned on its head these past few months. Things with Graham were … complicated, and the longer she stayed in Port Sheridan, the more complicated they became. Now her feelings about him had gotten tangled up with her feelings about going home to England, and with the weight of her grief, and the pain of missing her mum too, and she didn’t know how to separate them anymore. Didn’t even know if she should.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“You’re his daughter.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” she said. “Being family isn’t something you get automatic rights to—you have to earn it. It’s about choice. And he didn’t choose me.”
Red’s face fell. “Hazel…”
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? He chose not to be a part of my life, like he chose to let a child take care of the woman he was supposed to love. That was his decision. And I’m not going to forget that after a few months. I never had a dad, and I don’t need one now just because I’ve got no one else.”
Red looked at her, concerned, and Hazel took a shaky breath and exhaled slowly. There were tears in her eyes, threatening to spill, and a lump in her throat. That first day in the lawyer’s office in London, she’d hated Graham so much that she’d felt sick with it; hated him for all the years of her life he had missed, for all the moments he hadn’t been there for, for all she had had to go through alone. As she’d gotten to know him, that hatred had lessened and faded, but it didn’t make things any easier. Hating him was something she was used to—she’d resented him for his absence all her life—but caring about him was not.
“He loves you,” Red said finally. “Unconditionally. That much is clear as day to everyone. He loves you today, he’ll love you tomorrow, and he’ll love you every single day after that too, for the rest of his life. And I know it doesn’t change anything, but I’m sure that he’s loved you all these years, even if he wasn’t around.”
Hazel didn’t know what to say, but she thought he was right. Graham was family. He always had been and always would be. It wasn’t his fault he was all Hazel had left.
“He loves you,” Red repeated, squeezing her hand, and Hazel finally let herself nod in agreement.
33
Hazel spent the next few days mulling over her conversation with Red, thinking about what he’d said about Graham loving her unconditionally the way only family could. She knew she owed Graham the same courtesy, and it was about time she started making an effort.
On Wednesday, he’d worked the daytime shift, so he was there at the house when she got back from school, doing paperwork in his office. He looked up in surprise when he caught sight of her standing in the doorway.
“Everything okay? How was school?”
“It was fine, thanks!”
He set down his pen. “What can I do for you, then? These can wait until tomorrow if you need me for anything.”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” she said. “I was just … I was wondering if maybe we could sit together in the kitchen at dinner tonight? So we can talk and catch up and stuff?”
“I think that’s a lovely idea, Hazel, but I’m not sure there’s enough food on hand to make a proper meal.”
That was a very good point. Graham had taken to leaving out cash on the counter in the kitchen for Hazel to buy groceries with when they ran out of fresh fruit and other basics, but she hadn’t been to the store in a couple of days, and they were running low on pretty much everything.
“I think we have bread?” she said. “And maybe three eggs?”
“Do we have any cheese?”
“Only those orange burger slices.”
He pushed himself away from the desk and stood up from his chair. “You know what? I think I can rustle something up out of that.”
“On second thought, let’s just get takeout,” she teased.
Graham turned to look at her, amused. “I’m sorry, is my world-famous grilled cheese not good enough for you?”
“I’m just saying—a fresh meal at home every once in a while wouldn’t kill either of us.”
Graham broke into a huge, goofy grin.
“What?” she said warily. “What did I do?”
“You said at home.”
“So?”
“So it’s the first time you haven’t called it just a house. You called it a home. Like it’s your home.”
Hazel felt the blood rushing to her cheeks and she knew she must be flushing a deep red. “I’m sorry, it was a slip of the tongue. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Please don’t apologize,” Graham said. “I like hearing it.”
She didn’t say anything; she couldn’t. Suddenly, there was a lump in her throat, one she couldn’t swallow. It was true, what he’d said. All this time she’d refused to look at Graham’s house as anything other than a halfway house, a place where she could gather herself back together before continuing onward. But there had been no continuing, no moving on, and she supposed it made sense that somewhere along the way she’d started looking at that stupid big white house as a home. It made sense, it really did, it was totally logical—so why had it come as such a shock to her?
“Look,” he said then. “Maybe I can’t cook anything decent with those ingredients—but I do happen to know a place where every chef learned their five-star skills from me.”
“To the Anchor?” said Hazel.
“To the Anchor,” he agreed.
* * *
Half an hour later, the two of them were walking wordlessly along the beachfront, the bright lights of the restaurant glowing before them. It was funny—coming here felt completely different with Graham than it did with her friends. With him there she didn’t just think of it as a restaurant; it was his baby, his pride and joy, the one thing in his life he’d truly loved and nurtured.
“You never told me the story of how you got this place,” Hazel said to him once they’d taken their seats.
Graham looked surprised. “You really want to know?”
“Of course. This place means a lot to you.” And you mean a lot to me, she finished silently.
“Okay, well, let’s see. I opened the Anchor when I was twenty-four. I’d dreamed of having my own restaurant since I was a little kid, so when it finally happened it felt like a miracle. At first, business was tough, because I was new and young and people doubted I’d be any good. Months went past where I was so close to throwing in the towel and becoming an engineer or something, but I stuck at it, and eventually people started to realize that for someone so young and so new, I was actually a pretty awesome chef.”
&nbs
p; A waitress, who Graham introduced to Hazel as Arisha, stopped by the table with some water and the menus, which neither of them had to look at before they ordered their food. Once the waitress had gone, they talked some more, Hazel shooting off any random questions about the restaurant that entered her head, and Graham answering them.
When their food arrived, Hazel asked Graham if Claire was working tonight. He nodded. “Yep. We’ll pop into the kitchen afterward and say hello if you like.”
“She’s a pretty good chef too, huh?”
“One of the best. Which is why I’m so interested in making her my business partner.”
It took a moment for the implications of what Graham had said to sink in, but when it did Hazel’s mouth fell open. “Wait, you want her to co-own the Anchor?”
“I do, yes. Why do you sound so surprised?”
“I thought this restaurant was your baby?” She frowned.
“Oh, it is!” he said earnestly. “But babies grow up into bigger things. I’ve had a handful of offers to expand the Anchor into a chain. They’ve wanted one up in Tamoya Bay for a couple of years, but I just don’t have the time. With Claire, though…”
“And she hasn’t said yes? Why not?”
“Luca,” he said, and then shrugged. “She doesn’t want to sign up to something so huge until she knows that Luca’s going to be okay.”
“But he’s been getting better,” Hazel pointed out.
“He certainly has. Every time I bring it up lately, she seems more and more interested. I don’t want to push it, but I just wish she knew how perfect she would be. I mean, this is a good thing I’ve got here, isn’t it?”
Hazel looked around the restaurant, feeling suddenly overwhelmed with pride. “Yeah,” she breathed. “It’s a really good thing.”
“You have no idea how much it means to hear that from you,” he said. “And you know if you ever want a job, there’ll be a place for you here, right?”
Hazel laughed him off. “I’ll bear that in mind.”
Don't Forget Me Page 16
