“Then I won’t do that,” he said gently. “And thank you, Gen. That might be the nicest speech anybody’s ever made about me.”
She sniffed. “You’re welcome. But I have to warn you, I can’t quit, either. Mama needs my income until Lincoln graduates, and he has three whole years left.”
“Don’t worry.” Jack’s expression was tender. “We’ll figure something out.”
“I hope so.” But she had no idea what. From now on, every time she saw Jack at the office, she’d know he was doing battle with his penis. And knowing that, she’d start thinking about what had happened on this island and get all worked up herself. Maybe she should have considered that before she allowed herself to get so carried away by lust.
At any rate, the depressing conversation had taken care of Jack’s problem for the time being. Now instead of looking like an actor in an X-rated movie, he looked like the statues standing around in fancy museums.
He leaned over and swished the sand-coated energy bar through the water. “Let me wash this off so you can finish it.”
“You are going to finish it.”
“I’ll eat guavas.”
“You hate guavas.” She wasn’t too keen on them herself.
She’d tried to pretend they were okay, back before her suitcase had come drifting in with an alternative food source.
“I love guavas now.” He held the dripping energy bar out to her. “Take it.”
“Nope.” She backed up a step.
“Come on, Gen. Your mother packed these for you, not for me. Besides, you need your strength.”
“And you don’t?”
“I’m used to going without food. Sometimes when I’m writing code I forget to eat for a day or more. I’m not even that hungry right now.”
“Liar.”
“Gen, let me do this for you. Please.”
“Why? Why not let me do this for you? Sure, my mother packed these in my suitcase, but you’re the one who landed the plane without killing us dead. If you hadn’t done that, nobody would be eating these energy bars. I want you to have half.”
He sighed. “In all my life, I’ve never felt like somebody’s hero before. Yesterday was the first time that I was a…” He flushed. “It sounds dumb.”
“A knight in shining armor?”
“Yeah. Something like that. I want to keep that feeling a little bit longer. I know this isn’t much, but it’s something I can do, something heroic. Take the energy bar.”
“Okay.” She stepped closer and took it, knowing that he must be even hungrier than she was. “Thank you, Jack. You really are a knight in shining armor.”
He smiled. “Don’t overdo it.”
“But I mean it. You are.” As she started to take a bite, she saw the yearning in his eyes. Taking it back out of her mouth was a challenge when she was so ready to devour it, but she managed. “I’ll go somewhere else to eat this.”
“No, eat it here. I want to watch you enjoy it.”
“But you looked at it with so much longing. Now I feel really bad that I agreed to take it.”
“It wasn’t the energy bar I was looking at.”
“Oh.” She felt warm all over when he said things like that.
“Now eat it.”
She bit into the bar, and although it was salty, and sand he hadn’t been able to wash off crunched when she chewed, she’d never eaten anything so wonderful in her life. And she was absolutely certain that no man had ever given up so much for her as Jack had just now, by sacrificing his half of the very last decent thing they had to eat.
Annabelle felt like the most selfish person in the whole wide world. Matt and Lincoln were getting along great, and Matt had even let Lincoln drive the boat. Lincoln was eating up the attention.
Annabelle had kept herself a little apart, hanging out near the stern of the boat so the men could bond. And they were bonding to beat the band, which made Annabelle feel even worse about her son. Out of fear that she’d pick another loser, she’d deprived Lincoln of a daddy. She’d deprived Genevieve, too, but for a boy it might make more of a difference. Then again, maybe not.
Once they’d arrived in Honolulu all those years ago, she should have gone on a manhunt for a nice, respectable father for them. If she’d made sure that he wasn’t very exciting in bed, then he wouldn’t have been as likely to run out on her.
It was the exciting ones you had to watch out for. The boring ones were grateful to get any woman at all and so they stayed put. She’d just never thought of going after a boring man in order to provide for Genevieve and Lincoln’s development.
Unfortunately, Matt might not qualify in the boring department. Every time Annabelle looked into those big brown eyes, she knew exactly why the cocktail waitress had wanted to take him home to play Count the Bedsprings. The fact that he’d caught the waitress’s attention pretty much put the guaranteed-to-be-exciting label on him. Annabelle had better steer clear of Matt Murphy.
But Lincoln sitting up there driving the boat, proud as could be, was heartwarming, and she’d never forget the sound of Matt laughing at something Lincoln had said to him. She could imagine how that made Lincoln feel, getting a man like Matt to laugh at those one-liners of his. Annabelle tried to be a good audience for him, but she knew he probably craved the sound of male laughter. Shoot, she craved it, too.
Now wasn’t the time to be thinking of things like that, though. Now was the time to concentrate on Genevieve. Much as Annabelle liked knowing that Lincoln was enjoying himself with Matt, she sincerely hoped he wasn’t allowing himself to be distracted. He needed to be concentrating on his sister.
With that thought, she reluctantly decided to interrupt the little rooster party they had going on in the cockpit of this boat. She steadied the binoculars with one hand so they wouldn’t hang loose around her neck by the strap and bang against her breasts as she climbed the steps to the cockpit.
Matt noticed her first. Even without being able to see his eyes, she could tell he felt guilty about something, too.
“Hi, Annabelle. Listen, I don’t want you to think that I was up here laughing because I’ve forgotten what this trip is all about.”
“No, Mom, he wouldn’t forget,” Lincoln said quickly. “Like, we were just trying to relieve the tension.”
She didn’t know which amazed her more, that Matt was afraid she’d disapprove because he’d been laughing or that Lincoln was sticking up for him. “I never thought for a minute that you were forgetting anything.”
“Mom, you should try driving this boat. It’s unbelievable. The guys are gonna be all, You got to drive a boat?”
Matt picked up on the suggestion right away. “Sure. Take a turn, Annabelle.”
“I didn’t come up here so that I could—”
“Aw, come on, Mom.” Lincoln’s voice turned singsongy and coaxing, like it did when he’d tried to get her on a roller coaster. “It’s very cool. If you don’t, then later you’ll be all, I wish I’d tried it.”
“All right. And while I’m driving, maybe you could put your earphones on again and see if anything comes to you regarding your sister.”
“Uh, sure. Sure, I will.” Lincoln sounded eager to please as he started to get up. “Matt, maybe you’d better take the wheel while Mom and me are switching places.”
Annabelle noticed that her son was using Matt’s Christian name again, and decided not to bring it up. She’d kept Lincoln from ever being able to call a man Daddy, so maybe she shouldn’t be so particular about what he called his new friend.
“Can I have the binoculars?” Lincoln asked as he slipped out of the captain’s seat.
“You’ll have to ask Mr. Murphy. They belong to him.”
“He’s welcome to use them,” Matt said. “And I wish both of you would call me Matt. I think the situation puts us all on a first-name basis.”
Lincoln gave her a look that said plainly See there?
Annabelle wasn’t in the mood to argue. “I suppose you’re right.”
She lifted the strap of the binoculars over her head and stood on tiptoe to put it around Lincoln’s neck.
“Mo-om. I can do that.”
“I don’t want you to drop them. No doubt they cost a pretty penny.”
“I’m sure he’ll be careful,” Matt murmured.
Annabelle felt the two males closing ranks on her, which made her feel out of place. She began to wonder if that had been another reason she hadn’t wanted to invite a man into the family. When it was her and Genevieve and Lincoln, the females had the advantage. Well, she hoped she hadn’t been that unsure of herself.
“Go ahead and sit here and take the wheel,” Matt said.
“I do believe I will.” Annabelle settled into the driver’s seat and immediately felt better. She’d always been one to steer her own course.
At Gen’s suggestion, Jack sat on the beach towel and soaked his feet in the salt water.
“I’ll pick us some guavas and be back,” she said.
Jack watched her go, glad he’d kept the glasses so he could enjoy the free way she walked around this beach without a stitch on. When she reached up to pick guavas off the tree, she could have been Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Yeah, but once Adam had eaten the little treat Eve had brought him, things hadn’t worked out so good. Jack wondered if Adam had enjoyed the kind of amazing sex with Eve that he’d just had with Gen. If so, being booted out of the Garden must have been a real bummer. Jack could relate.
Gen came back toward him holding three guavas in her cupped hands. Her breasts swayed gently as she trudged through the sand. Jack wondered if this was the picture he’d superimpose over Gen the next time he met her coming from the copy machine with a stack of papers.
She dumped the guavas on the towel beside him. “This time we’ll use my manicure scissors to peel them. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.” Turning to watch her walk up to the hideaway would definitely be ogling, so Jack faced the ocean instead.
Some kind of seabirds soared overhead, but he’d never learned their names. He’d bet Gen would know. He loved that she was so tuned in to the natural world.
Sunlight sparkled on the water, but there were no fins. That didn’t mean the shark wasn’t out there like a submerged submarine, though.
Jack shuddered every time he thought of the times he and Gen had tempted Fate by splashing around in that water. Why the shark hadn’t grabbed one of them when they’d swum in from the plane was a puzzle. So far they’d been incredibly lucky. Jack knew from his statistics class that the odds couldn’t keep going in their favor.
He caught Gen’s scent before he heard her steps in the sand behind him. She’d put on some more of that coconut suntan oil. As he turned his head to smile at her, he discovered that wasn’t all she’d put on. She was wearing a light-colored bikini.
“Now I feel underdressed,” he said. He wondered if the bathing suit was a signal that they wouldn’t have sex anymore. If so, it wasn’t a very good signal, because those little scraps of material would come off in no time. He’d always thought that was the idea of a bikini—gift-wrapped sex.
“I put this on for a reason. I have a plan, but first you need some more of this lotion on your back and shoulders. You’re starting to get a little red.”
“Okay, thanks.” He wasn’t about to object if she wanted to rub her hands all over his back. “What’s the plan?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking.” She knelt on the sand behind him, snapped open the lid, and squeezed out some lotion. The slurping sound made him think of sex, and the strong scent of coconuts made him think of sex. When she started smoothing the cool lotion over his back, he had to casually splash water over his penis to keep it subdued.
“About what?” He listened to her breathe, trying to tell if she was the slightest bit turned on. He couldn’t tell.
“About what you said before, that they wouldn’t look for us down here.” She re-capped the lotion, and gave a couple more swipes over his back. Then she swished her hands through the water before sitting cross-legged on the towel beside him.
“They might not.”
“I agree with you.” She picked up a guava. “They’ll be down around Maui, because that’s where Nick was supposed to be headed.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Then we need to do something to get a lot of attention if we expect to be noticed.” She licked the guava juice from her hand.
“Probably.” Jack thought Gen in a bikini licking guava juice from her fingers should do the trick, or at least it would for him.
“I think we need to climb to the top of this rocky cliff and use my clothes, and whatever you can spare, to make a big X that a plane could see.”
He’d been considering the same thing, although the thought of scaling that cliff turned his insides to water. But as scared as he was to make the climb, that wasn’t the worst part. Once they left their little section of paradise here on the beach, they wouldn’t climb all the way back down again. Their interlude would be over. That was the worst part.
She handed him a juicy piece of guava. “What do you think?”
He knew exactly what Adam had felt like when faced with that apple. The poor sap had known he was screwed, but he’d had no choice. He was going to be kicked out of paradise. “I think you’re right,” he said, and took the dripping piece of fruit.
Chapter Sixteen
An hour later, Gen stood beside the hideout with Jack. Leaving this spot felt a lot like leaving the Hollow. In many ways being marooned here had been like a trip back home, and she was glad for that. The girl who had left Tennessee at fifteen still lived inside her, and Genevieve wanted to renew the acquaintance. Maybe she wouldn’t go back to being a hillbilly, but she wouldn’t be so ashamed of her roots, either. They’d helped her survive.
“We did a pretty good job of making a hideout,” Jack said.
“I wish I had a camera to take a picture of it. If we ever come back here, it will probably be gone.”
“You never know. It’s pretty sturdy.”
“It’s a wonderful hideout, Jack.” She could tell he was proud of having built it and hated to leave it to the elements, as she did. But if they ever hoped to be rescued, they had to climb to a high spot and concoct a signal that a plane would see. “But it’s served its purpose and now we have to go.”
He gazed at her for a long, silent moment.
She wasn’t as psychic as her mama or Lincoln, but it didn’t take a psychic to read what was going on in Jack’s genius brain. He was thinking of a very specific purpose the hideout had served. They still had one condom left, packed into her pink suitcase along with six guavas, their clothes, and the last of the rainwater. They hadn’t discussed it, just packed it in with the other stuff.
All in all, she thought they’d made good use of the materials at hand. They’d rinsed out her shampoo bottle and funneled the water into it using Jack’s cupped hands. Because she’d ripped the original handle off the suitcase, she’d had to come up with a way for Jack to lug it along with them. She’d cut the cord off her curling iron and put that through the holes made when the handle had pulled out.
The cord was long enough to loop over Jack’s shoulder and across his chest so the suitcase sat against his right hip. While they’d rigged that up, she kept thinking about how he’d hog-tied her with the cord. From the look in his eyes and the jut of his fly, he most certainly remembered it.
He cleared his throat. “Guess we’d better get started. Sure you don’t want to use the glasses first?”
“No, you first. You’re leading the way.” He looked like such a manly man right now, if you didn’t count the pink suitcase attached to him by the curling iron cord. She’d made cutoffs out of his pants, and although he was still wearing his belt, he’d decided against a shirt. The women at Rainbow wouldn’t recognize him now. If she could take a picture of him looking like this, without the suitcase, of course, he’d have about a million dates in no time.
“You don’t?” So maybe he looked more manly than he was. Once again, she’d made the mistake of thinking he’d had a normal childhood. She’d assumed he’d want to lead this expedition. “You’ve never climbed a ledge before?”
“Nope.” He started toward the rocks. “But there’s always a first time.”
“Wait.” She admired his grit, taking on the challenge without having a lick of experience. “I don’t want you to fall down and break your leg. You’d better give me the glasses.”
“I suppose you’re a climbing expert.”
“No need to take that tone with me, just because you’re feeling testy.”
“I’m not feeling testy.”
“Oh, yes, you are, mister. You’re ready to bite my head off because I might know a little bit more about the outdoors than you do.” Her mood wasn’t the greatest, either, come to think of it. The good sex was over and now they had nothing but climbing and signaling and trying to survive on guavas.
“Well, then, take the damned glasses.” He whipped them off and shoved them at her.
“Thank you, Your Prickness.” She took them, glared at him, and put them on. “You’d think some people could be a little more grateful, instead of starting a fight with the very person who is about to save their sorry—” She paused as he began to grin, his teeth white against his beard. She frowned at him. “Now what?”
“It’s the glasses.”
“What about them?”
“They just don’t go with that hot little bikini of yours. You look like a cross between Jennifer Aniston and my high school English teacher.”
Nerd in Shining Armor Page 21