His heart went out to her. Three years was tough when you had to rough it. She had her friends, which put her in a good spot overall, but she also had her guilt. Her friends trigger the guilt, and Mel’s accident obviously mad her go right back to whipping herself over a mistake. When she’d mentioned being lonely, Goner smiled and nodded slowly “I bet” was all he said in response to that, though he moved an arm around her. He did it like he’d done it a thousand times before, and he did it because they both needed it. She was still without a rudder, in many respects, and he was a rudder without a course.<br/><br/>Sometimes life just crashed you where you needed to be.<br/><br/>“I do want to try to get off the island…I still feel it’s my responsibility to do so, but I’m honestly conflicted. I’ve been living close to this…” he waved his hand around them “for a while, though closer to the beach. This place is one more step farther from who I once was. Part of that is appealing, but…” He shrugged, unsure if this life was what he was really looking for. “I’m here now. And now is all I’ve got. No 401k, no wife and kids, no plane and therefore no business…now is definitely all I have at this point”<br/><br/>He looked at her in the dim light. Though the trees around them protected them from the worst of the rain, there were still some drops on them, and being close to her made him feel…cozy. He hasn’t had that feeling in a while. The feeling that all they needed was a fire and a warm place to call their own. He breathed in deeply and stared back into the trees around them. The last thing he needed was the feeling that he was taking advantage of someone.<br/>