“Thank you.”
I patted her shoulder. She kept saying she was very self-reliant, but she was just a little girl.
“Smitty.”
I glanced around at Nick. “Yeah?”
“Gimme me a hand with these, oke?” Nick had one of the rucksacks in his hands, ready to toss it to me.
“Sure thing.” I caught it and set it at my feet, and we unloaded the lifeboat as if we’d worked together the entire trip.
Suddenly, there was a low rumbling, and for a brief instant, the ground felt as if it was shimmying. The water of the previously calm bay rolled in waves to the pier and splashed up, soaking our feet and the lower portion of our pants legs and the hem of Hildy’s nightdress. The lifeboat rocked, and Nick landed hard on one of the seats.
Through the canopy of fronds and leaves, we could see a thin curl of off-wh
