by Beth Orsoff
* * *
"You survived," Captain Bailey called out to us as we approached the skiff. This time it was just me and Ethan, no bear.
"Did you think we wouldn’t?" I slurred, as I stumbled onto the boat. I was still woozy from the painkiller Ethan had given me to keep me calm on the plane.
"I didn’t give it much thought one way or the other," Captain Bailey said, as he reached for the shopping bag holding the two-foot tall stuffed polar bear I’d purchased for Jake at the Anchorage Airport. My duffel bag was still slung over Ethan’s shoulder, which surprisingly he’d agreed to carry for me without a fight.
Captain Bailey deposited the stuffed bear at the back of the boat, where a dozen boxes were already stacked up. The top layer contained groceries, but the bottom ones were sealed.
"What’s all that?" I asked.
"I don’t know, but they’ve got your name on them."
"My name?" I pulled one out and Captain Bailey slit the top open with his pocket knife. Inside were a dozen bags of pita chips. I’d forgotten I’d ordered all this junk food. That was before Blake had told me about his new macrobiotic diet.
Ethan peered over my shoulder then reached inside and grabbed one of the bags. At least the beer and chips wouldn’t go to waste.
The sky was gray, as usual, but the sea was calm. I don’t know how Ethan amused himself during the boat ride back to Wilde Island because I passed out on a bench as soon we started speeding across the water. I awoke two hours later feeling relaxed and refreshed.
My tranquility was short-lived.
Chapter 47
Jill waved from the stairs as Captain Bailey lowered the dinghy’s anchor into the water.
The captain decided this time Ethan should have the honor of accompanying me from the skiff to the jetty. Ethan didn’t seem to mind, especially when I started to lose my footing on the slippery rocks and he grabbed me around the waist to keep me from falling.
"Thank heavens you’re back," Jill said, as I climbed up onto the jetty
"Let me guess," I said, as we exchanged a quick hug. "You woke up this morning and thought what this island really needs is a good publicist to spruce up its image?"
"Yeah," Ethan said, as he handed me the shopping bag with Jake’s polar bear. "Do you know one?"
Before I could come up with a barbed reply he winked at me, then grabbed my duffel bag, which he slung over his shoulder, and a box of groceries, which Captain Bailey had set down on the rocks, and headed for the staircase clinging to the side of the cliff.
Jill’s jaw was still hanging open when she stopped staring after Ethan and turned back to me. "What exactly happened between you two in the Arctic?"
"Nothing," I said, fighting to maintain my innocent façade. "We tagged walruses for a week." Then I too grabbed a box of groceries and took off toward the staircase before the flush rising in my cheeks could give me away. I waited until I was sure it had faded before I turned around. "So why are you so glad to see me?"
Before she could answer, a voice called out to me from the top of the cliff. We both looked up. Standing at the edge of the bluff was Blake, flanked on all sides by the rest of the island’s human inhabitants. Jake, who was wedged between Sean and Tony, screamed "Sydney, you’re back!" and immediately ran for the steps.
"I’m so glad you remembered that bear," Jill said. "That’s all he’s talked about since you left."
I turned to her but couldn’t speak. I was still processing the fact that Blake McKinley was on Wilde Island instead of in Australia, where he was supposed to be for the next eight days.
"He arrived this morning," Jill said, reading my mind.
I hurried up the steps as fast as I could while balancing a box of groceries in one arm and trying to hide a polar bear behind my back with the other. Jake caught up to me at the third landing, and almost knocked me over hugging me around the waist. "Did you remember my present?"
"Of course," I said, and pulled out the polar bear.
As Jake hugged the soft white fur, Jill not so subtly prompted him. "What do you say, Jake?"
"Thank you, Sydney," he said, but he’d already started climbing the stairs, dragging the bear behind him by its paw.
Jill and I reached the top of the steps at the same time as Blake and his posse.
"There’re more boxes down on the beach," Jill announced to the group.
"Welcome back, love," Duncan said, before he trotted down the stairs. Brie said hello too before she followed him, and Sean and Tony nodded and waived.
Jill glanced from me to Blake and back to me again before she reached for my box of groceries. "I’ll see you at the cabin," she said, and stepped out onto the trail carrying a load under each arm. Which left just me, Guy, our director/cameraman, and Blake.
"Hey, Syd." Guy leaned in for a hug. "Long time no see."
I took my eyes off Blake just long enough to say hello to Guy and hug him back. He was a friend of Blake’s from high school and worked on all of his projects. We’d known each other for years.
Guy shifted his gaze from me to Blake then said, "I think I’ll go give those guys a hand," before he took off down the steps too.
It had only been three and a half weeks since Blake had left for Australia, but if felt like years. He was even more gorgeous than I remembered—chiseled jaw, deep green eyes, his hair bleached golden from the sun. He was still the same surf god who’d asked to borrow my statistics notes, except instead of shorts and a t-shirt, he was clad in dark rinse jeans, a thick wool sweater, and knee high rubber boots. Although I wasn’t yet tired of staring at him (I never tired of staring at Blake), I finally spoke. "So?"
"You haven’t seen me in almost a month and all I get is a ‘so’?" Blake said.
I was about to throw myself into his open arms when I caught sight of Ethan striding down the trail. "Not now."
Blake followed my gaze up the hill. "Who’s that?"
"No one." I knew they’d have to meet sooner or later, I was just hoping for later.
"Good," Blake said, and embraced me in a long, sensual kiss. Blake’s technique was very different from Ethan’s, but the effect was the same. I was so caught up in the moment that I temporarily forgot where I was, until I heard Ethan’s voice behind us. "You must be the infamous Blake McKinley."
I avoided Ethan’s gaze as I introduced them. Blake held out his hand, but Ethan barely shook it. "Your bag’s in your tent," he barked, then disappeared down the steps.
"What’s his problem?" Blake asked, staring after him.
"You don’t want to know."
"Cozy," Blake said, as he surveyed the inside of my tent, which was still covered with clothes from my rushed packing job the week before. As I picked up discarded pants and sweaters and tossed them on top of my suitcase, Blake spotted my sleeping bag and laid down. "Care to join me?" he asked, then flashed a lascivious grin.
"Not until you tell me what the hell you’re doing here. I thought you weren’t wrapping for another week." I’d heard of film shoots running over schedule, but never under.
He patted the empty space next to him. "Lie down and I’ll tell you everything you want to know."
And he did, between kisses. By the time Blake had finished his convoluted tale, the upshot of which was that one of his co-stars injured himself riding his motorcycle and the production had to shut down for a week while he recovered from emergency knee surgery, I no longer cared.
"So it was either come now or cancel the whole thing," Blake said, before returning his lips to my stomach, where they were making a slow descent to my waist.
"Obviously, you made the right choice," I replied, and pulled my sweatshirt over my head. Thankfully I was wearing my push-up bra instead of one of the sports bras I’d purchased at the Barrow AC.
"Definitely," he said, as he unzipped my jeans and slipped them off of me.
Minutes later I was on the verge of ecstasy when I heard, "Sydneeey!" and froze.
"Ignore him," Blake whispered. "He
’ll go away."
"Sydney, where are you?" Jake’s sing-song voice rang out, even closer this time.
I pushed Blake off of me and jumped up. "You don’t know this kid. He’ll never go away."
I managed to pull my clothes on, sans underwear, just as Jake unzipped the flap to my tent. "Sydney, didn’t you hear me?" Jake asked, as he crawled inside.
"Sorry." I stepped in front of him in an attempt to block his view of Blake, who was pulling up his boxer shorts. "I was sleeping."
Jake ducked around me and directed his next question to Blake. "What are you doing in Sydney’s tent?"
"Nothing," Blake said, as he stepped into his jeans.
Jake shifted his squinty-eyed stare back to me.
"Blake was helping me find something," I said in response to his unspoken accusation.
"What?" Jake demanded.
I looked around the tent in a panic until I spotted my watch next to my pillow. "This," I said, as I grabbed it off the floor and jiggled it in his face. "Blake found it for me. See?"
My six-year-old prosecutor was not so easily fooled. "You said you were sleeping."
"Jesus Christ, kid, give it a rest!" Then Blake turned to me. "You were right. He is a pit bull."
"I am not!" Jake screamed. "I’m telling Mommy!" Then he ran out calling her name.
"Well, that went well," I said, turning back to Blake.
"Hey, I got rid of him, didn’t I?" In one swift motion he managed to pop open all the buttons on the fly of his jeans.
"Trust me," I said, ignoring the bulge in his pants while I searched for my bra, "you’ll be sorry you did."
Chapter 48
Much to Blake’s dismay, I refused to finish what he’d started. After we’d both dressed, with underwear this time, I lead him up the trail to the cabin. As soon as I pushed open the door, the conversation ceased and all eyes turned our way.
Duncan, Brie, Guy, Sean, and Tony were sitting around the coffee table playing a game of cards, Ethan had commandeered the recliner, and Jake, his new polar bear, and his entire collection of action figures had appropriated the dining room table. Even Jill stuck her head out from the kitchen, but when she saw it was just me and Blake, she returned to her chopping board.
I grabbed Blake’s hand and ventured inside but he stopped at the couch. "I’ll be here if you need me," he said, and sat down in the empty space next to Guy.
"Thanks a lot," I mouthed then walked to the dining room table alone. "Hi Jake."
He looked up briefly and scowled at me, before resuming the battle amongst his action figures. I could see from his red rimmed eyes that he’d been crying, although at the moment no tears were in evidence.
"Jake, will you come outside with me for a minute? I want to talk to you." I needed to do a better job of explaining why Blake was in my tent. Although based on the smirks passing back and forth around the coffee table, Jake had already made good on his threat to tell everyone what he’d seen.
"No," Jake said without looking up.
"C’mon, Jake, please. I really want to talk to you."
"I’m not a pit bull!" he yelled, and ran into the kitchen, where he threw his arms around Jill’s waist and buried his face against her side. Jill set down her knife and rubbed the back of his head.
"So I guess he told you," I said, joining them in the kitchen.
"Afraid so," she replied.
I bent down next to Jake so we were eye level, even though he still refused to look at me. "I’m sorry, Jake. I know you’re not a pit bull. It’s something grown-ups say about someone when they’re really tenacious. Blake meant it as a compliment."
"What’s ten-a-shus?" Jake asked, peeking out from Jill’s waist.
"It means you never give up."
"And that’s good?" he asked.
"Very good. It means some day you’re going to get everything you want."
"Like a real polar bear?" he asked, finally looking at me.
"That’s exactly what I mean." Then I held out my hand to him. "Friends?"
He ignored my hand but smiled, showing off his newly sprouted top tooth. "Mommy says Blake’s your boyfriend and that’s why he was in your tent."
The conversation in the living room, which had resumed, suddenly fell silent again. I looked up at Jill, but she seemed more amused than concerned.
"Well if your Mommy says it, it must be true."
"Do you want to see my helicopter?" Jake asked, already running back to the dining room table. "Ethan gave it to me and it flies by itself and everything. But Mommy says I can only play with it outside when I’m with an adult."
"Sure, Jake. Sounds like fun."
If I had any doubt that they were all listening, it was put to rest when everyone but Ethan stood up. It seemed the big boys wanted to play with the remote-controlled helicopter too.
After ten minutes watching Jake repeatedly crash the helicopter into the ground, Sean cajoled him into letting everyone else take a turn. Tony narrowly missed decapitating Jill when she popped her head outside the cabin to remind us all that we still had to assemble Blake’s and Guy’s tent.
I found the box with the new Eureka X-80 among the rest they’d stacked in the corner of the living room. I managed to drag it to the cabin door myself, but I’d need help carrying it down to the campground, not to mention assembling it.
"Anyone want to help build a tent?" I called out from the doorway of the cabin.
"I will, I will," Jake said and ran to my side. Even he must’ve realized the odds of getting that helicopter back was nil. Sean, Tony, Duncan, Guy, and Blake were having a contest to see who could fly it the highest and farthest before crashing it into the ground. Guy was currently in the lead, but Sean hadn’t had his turn yet.
To my surprise, Brie volunteered as well.
"You could’ve told me," she said, as we lugged the heavy box between us down the trail. "About Blake," she added in response to my questioning gaze.
I gave her an embarrassed smile. "We were trying to stay under the radar."
"Well, you can’t get much farther under the radar than Wilde Island."
I had to agree. "It’s a habit I guess. In L.A. you never know who might call the tabloids with a tip. That’s how the paparazzi always know where to find the celebrities."
"I don’t think you have to worry about the paparazzi showing up here."
True. But I still wasn’t letting any of them borrow my sat phone until after Blake left the island.
Although there was plenty of space next to my tent, Brie dragged the empty platform to a clearing twenty yards away. "I figured you and Blake would want your privacy," she said.
I hadn’t even thought of that, but of course she was right.
Brie read the instructions while Jake and I pulled the pieces out of the box.
"So how are things with you and Duncan?" I asked, as I handed her a handful of stakes.
"Fine," she said, as she hammered the first one into the ground.
"Fine?" I would’ve thought things between them would’ve improved once Ethan and I were both gone and she had Duncan to herself.
"It’s funny," she said, joining me on the platform. "I used to love just listening to him talk."
"The accent?" I asked, and she nodded.
"But lately . . . ." She shook her head. "I’m starting to wonder why I’m even here."
By the time the three of us returned to the cabin, Sean had started a fire for the makeshift grill. The rest of them—Tony, Duncan, Guy, and Blake—just stood around him drinking beer. I didn’t know where Ethan had disappeared to, but I found Jill in the kitchen pressing out hamburger patties.
"Need some help?" I asked.
"I don’t know. Can you peel a potato without slicing off your finger?" But she smiled so I tried not to take it personally.
Since there were ten of us now and only eight dining room chairs, dinner was a buffet. I grabbed a burger and a handful of French fries and joined Blake on the couch.
&
nbsp; "Sorry about the food," I said, nodding at his plate of sliced lettuce, tomato, and pickles. "They don’t do macrobiotic diets in Alaska, or at least not on Wilde Island."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out when I asked Jill if she had any raw vegetables and she handed me a can of peas." Then he smiled and grabbed my burger off my plate. "When in Rome . . .," he shrugged and took a huge bite.
After dinner I suggested to Blake that he, Guy, and I read through the script, then spend the rest of the evening scouting locations so we’d be ready to start shooting the next morning.
"What’s the rush?" Ethan asked, setting an unopened bottle of whiskey in the center of the dining room table.
"Nice," Sean said, inspecting the label.
"Very nice," Blake agreed.
I picked up the bottle and read it too, but the name "Highland Park" had no meaning to me. "I thought you finished all this stuff on the boat?"
"Different stuff," Ethan said, grabbing the bottle from my hand and placing it in front of Blake. "Care to join me?"
"Sure," Blake replied.
"Blake, we’ve got work to do."
"C’mon, Syd. I’ve been traveling for two days straight. I could use a drink."
"Or two or three," Ethan said.
I ignored his malicious grin and turned my attention back to Blake. "I know, but you’re only here for three days. Can’t you save that for later?"
Blake turned to Guy, who nodded slightly then said, "It’s okay, Syd. We toured the island before you got back. We can do a quick scout in the morning and still be shooting by noon."
A quick scout? This was important, damnit. "I know but wouldn’t it be better to do it tonight? Then we wouldn’t have to rush."
"Christ, Syd, it’s a fucking ten-minute documentary about a bunch of stupid walruses. Lighten up already."
Lighten up? I’d put my career on the line for him and he wanted me to lighten up? I glanced around the table for support but Sean and Tony stared down at their hands, Guy took a sudden interest in a nick in the wood surface of the dining table, and Duncan and Brie, who had been listening to our exchange from the kitchen, returned their attention to the soapy dishes. Only Ethan made eye contact.