The taxi driver left them at the ferry port with a surprising hug for each of them. “You take care now, you hear?” she said, getting back into the car. “Look after that lad of yours,” she’d winked at Darren as she let him go.
Darren had blushed to his roots and Gwyn had felt his own face heating as she slammed the car door and drove off.
“God, sorry about that, I... last night... she asked... um...” Darren stuttered, bending to pick up his bergen and not meeting Gwyn’s eye.
Gwyn was grateful. He gave a slightly choked laugh. “It’s fine,” he said. “It’s fine. She was joking, I know.”
Part of him wished she hadn’t been joking. It had been nice, last night, lying in the narrow bed, listening to Darren’s steady breathing a few feet away, in and out, soft in the orange-tinted dark. It had b
