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Think, Sara, think
I need to choose some place that's far away from New Jersey, but it also has to be somewhere that's particularly dry, like
"I'm inArizona," I say finally "That's all I can say for now"
Arizona is one of the states with the lowest percentage of water by area, and while I don't actually knohere we are, I'ht now can't physically sail into the cliffs and ridges of the Grand Canyon State
"My God, Sara Arizona?"
"It's athe desert all around me drives an important point home I can't and mustn't run away from my proble now"
"I see"
He sounds so defeated, and rows "Have you slept at all, Father?"
"A few minutes here and there I don't even knohat time it is"
"It's half-past five," I tell hilance at the alarm clock
"Halfpastfive?"
"It's too early, right? I'm sorry I didn't notice—-"
"It's not that I don't care what tiht" There's a slight pause, and when he speaks again, his voice has become hoarser and noticeably strained "Do you swear to ht?"
"I give you my word, Father I—-"
—-have er can because Raaf's old phone has run out of power
I stare blankly at its screen, unable to believe that my conversation with Father has ended in such a terribly anti-climactic way I don't even knohat to think or how to feel, and while I want to believe that I've succeeded in reassuring Father
What if I' happens to him?
My heart is still troubled when I finally decide to go looking for Raaf, and I eventually find him with a little help from Cain It's my first time up at the fly deck, and it's even ine
There's a long white leather couch facing a breakfast nook, and on top of the latter is an array of breakfast dishes and a laptop On one end there's a fancy grilling station, and on the other end is a waist-high dipping pool that's built right next to the cockpit And of course, standing behind its wheel is none other than Raaf
He turns as soon as he hears azes meet
"Good entle and almost tender even; it'sso crazily that I can only croak out a greeting in return
The way his bronze skin glistens under the faint rays of a partially hidden suna feet locks of his raven-black hair to fall over one eye makes him look adorably boyish Or at least, as boyish as one can be, with the sculpted panes of his chest exposed over a pair of dark board shorts