edemption all the time. I'm not going to forgive him and I'm not going to work with him. I don't care. leave and get a job on my own working for some other fisherman, if I want. Or maybe, I'll just find a boat-building company and take a job there," he vowed.
"You're just upset, Cary. You can't leave your family. They need you more than ever now, especially your mother and May."
He shook his head and looked down. I went to him and sat beside him on the bench. When I put my hand on his shoulder, he raised his head slowly and turned to me, his eyes full of pain and sadness.
"What about you? You don't need me any longer, now that you have your work with Kenneth and your new friend, is that it?"
"Of course not," I said. "I need you very much."
"Really?"
"Yes. I'm just helping Kenneth with his most important art project. It's not anything more," I said. 'And as for friends, you're the best friend I have right now."
His eyes warmed and his lips softened.
"You mean that?"
"Yes, I do. I mean it," I said firmly. His smile widened. He stared at me a moment and then he looked very concerned.
"You're soaked to the skin. Look at you."
As soon as he mentioned it, I felt the cold and shuddered. Then I laughed at how I looked: the strands of my hair pasted together, the sari full of sand.
"I guess I'm not really dressed for the weather," I said. The rain was pounding the roof of the cabin now and the boat continued to rock. "Is it supposed to be a bad storm?"
"No, but it will be like this for a while," he said and hurried to light the kerosene heater. Then he opened the closet and pulled out some towels. "It might even be an all-nighter. There's not much here in the way of clothing," he said. "But I do have this raincoat."
"I remember putting it on right after you rescued me from Adam Jackson's clutches," I said smiling.
"Yes."
"And here you are, rescuing me again," I said. "You should have turned back when it started to pour."
"I was worried about you," I said. We stared at each other for a moment.
"Your sari is pretty sorry right now," he said smiling. I laughed and rose to unwind it, pausing when I realized I had taken Holly's advice and worn nothing underneath. Cary gazed at me. His eyes were so full of love and desire, he made my heart pound. I kept my gaze fixed on his and continued to unwrap the garment until I was naked, the lantern flickering the shadows over me. Cary lost his breath for a minute and then he thrust a towel at me.
"Dry yourself off before you get pneumonia," he advised.
I took the towel and scrubbed my stomach and legs and then the rest of me while Cary turned up the heater. He gathered up the sari.
"This isn't going to dry so fast," he said. "It's really soaked through and covered with streaks of grime."
He draped it beside the heater and turned back to me.
I had the towel wrapped around myself, but I still shivered. Cary hurried to get the raincoat over me and then he pulled out a rolled up thin mattress and untied it, spreading it out on the floor near the heater. The rain continued to beat a drum roll over the sides of the cabin and the roof, drops zigzagging down the windows. Just the sound made me shiver. Cary stripped off his shirt.
"Here," he said. "Put this on too."
"But aren't you going to get cold?" I asked.
"Don't you remember? I don't get cold," he said smiling. I took the shirt from him and slipped it on. Then I lowered myself to the mattress and rubbed my hands together in front of the heater. Now that I was dry, I began to feel a bit cozy and my shivering stopped. Cary stood, staring down at me, the light from the lantern glittering on his chest and shoulders.
"I was just getting into that meditating, too," he said, going to his knees beside me. His polished smile shone again.
I laughed and he reached past me to take some empty sacks out of a cabinet near the bench. He crunched them together to form something of a pillow for both of us. He patted it and lay back, his hands behind his head, gazing up at the ceiling. The rain thumped, but the wind seemed to die down a bit so that the boat rocked less.
"Maybe you and I can just get a boat like this and live in it," he said.