FORTY
Feeling like the world's most inept stalker, Jason followed the girl across the sand dunes, slipping and sliding so many times that he lost his thongs twice before she finally came to a halt at the top of a rust-coloured dune that was higher than the rest. From this vantage point, you could see clear out to sea, and even the western edge of the Buccaneer Archipelago. Not quite as far as Romance Island, but Jason didn't need to see his island to know where it lay.
Oblivious to the view, Calais sank to her knees and wept.
Jason was lost. He had no experience with this sort of heartbreak. Oh, unless you counted Angel in the early days after her a*******n, but offering her comfort back then would earn you a knife in the goolies just as surely as saying you'd seen her cry.
So he sai
