Nerd in Shining Armor

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  His pickup men had to show today. Maybe he should forget about food and conserve his energy for when they arrived. They’d have water on the boat, and probably some food, too. Once they plucked him from the island, he’d be on his way to a perpetual feast. He couldn’t lose sight of the goal. He—

  A shout immobilized him. That was no bird. Chills ran through him as he heard a shouted reply. He’d thought this little piece of volcanic rock was too isolated to attract anybody. Besides, he’d intended to be long gone by now.

  They could be hikers. Or bird-watchers. They’d have a boat. They’d have food. And once he’d taken charge of both, he’d have no need of the people. He got quietly to his feet and moved to the spot where he had his .357 drying in the sun.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Annabelle hadn’t counted on how much she’d love steering that boat. As she sent it plowing through the waves to rescue her daughter, she felt like the whole blessed cavalry riding in to save Gary Cooper from the Indians. Once Matt turned over the driving to her, she didn’t want to give it up.

  Having Matt stand behind her seat so she could breathe in the scent of him was part of the thrill, of course, but she would have enjoyed herself without him being there, too. Maybe enjoy was the wrong word. She couldn’t very well enjoy anything until Genevieve was back home safe and sound.

  But driving this boat…she hadn’t felt this powerful since the day she’d stepped off the plane in Honolulu eleven years ago. At the time she’d promised herself to find more challenges—not in the area of airplanes, which were completely unnatural—but she’d thought about taking one of those classes where folks broke boards with the side of their hand.

  She wasn’t sure what all the kinds of martial arts were and she got the names mixed up with Chinese food. Kung fu sounded like something you ate and Kung pau sounded like breaking boards with your hand, but she thought maybe she had that backward. At any rate, she hadn’t done it, or any of the other projects that had flitted through her mind, like going to one of those karaoke bars to see if she could still sing like she used to be able to back in the Hollow. Then there was tap dancing. She’d always dreamed of being able to tap dance like Donald O’Connor or Gene Kelly.

  Oh, she could try blaming it on lack of money. Honolulu was an expensive place to live, and she’d struggled to make ends meet. But Lincoln had a friend who could break a board with the side of his hand, and one of Genevieve’s girlfriends from high school was a tap dancer. Annabelle had gone to a school musical to see her perform. Those kids would have taught Annabelle the basics if she’d had the nerve to ask.

  Instead she’d let herself get into a rut, and that was the truth of it, pure and simple. She’d moved from one rut in the Hollow to another rut in Honolulu. It might be a fancier rut, and at least her children had more to work with here, but as for Annabelle herself, she hadn’t grown a lick. Once they found Genevieve, she’d do something about that.

  She couldn’t expect to be allowed to drive boats, though, no matter how much she believed she’d found her second calling. Boats were for rich people, and she never expected to end up in that category. So she’d have to make the best of this chance.

  Matt leaned down close to her ear. “You look like you were born to do that.”

  “Hardly. If a body is born to do something, don’t you think the good Lord would provide a way for them to actually do it?”

  “You’re doing it right now, aren’t you?”

  “This is a special circumstance, and you know it.”

  Matt chuckled. “Are you saying that you know when the good Lord has a hand in something and when he doesn’t?”

  He had her there. But she hoped the good Lord hadn’t seen fit to create this problem with Genevieve just so Annabelle could drive a boat. In that case, she would need to have a talk with the good Lord.

  “Well, just keep doing what you’re doing,” Matt said. “You’re a natural at driving a boat. I’m going to confer with Lincoln and see if he’s getting any Genevieve signals from Kauai. Because if we’re going beyond that, we need to fuel up so we’re at full capacity when we leave there.”

  “You believe he’s getting signals?” That would comfort her some, if Matt was convinced about Lincoln’s special abilities.

  Matt hesitated.

  “Then you don’t believe it.” She hadn’t really expected him to, so she shouldn’t be so disappointed.

  “At this point, I don’t know what to believe,” Matt said. “And I’m—”

  “Just playing along?”

  He sighed. “No. I have a feeling you wouldn’t allow me to do that.”

  “You’ve got that right, mister.”

  “I’m trying to keep an open mind, is what I’m doing. Can you live with that?”

  “I don’t have much choice, now, do I? I can’t very well climb into your head and shine a light into your brain, can I?”

  “You know, Annabelle, sometimes I think that’s exactly what you’ve done. When I look at you, it’s like somebody turned a floodlight on in my head.”

  “That sounds downright unpleasant.” It was a long way from saying you light up my life, and she’d always wished a man would tell her that. She thought it sounded so romantic, and it was one of her all-time favorite songs. Telling her that she caused a floodlight to go on in his brain wasn’t the same.

  “That’s the best way for me to explain it,” Matt said. “You make me look at things differently, like when I was talking to you about Theresa, I finally figured out that I’d just never loved her enough to be a good husband.”

  “Well, I guess that could explain why Genevieve’s daddy and Lincoln’s daddy both took off so quick. Maybe they just plumb ran out of love. And here I thought they were irresponsible, selfish good-for-nothings.”

  “They were.” Matt said it with such feeling that it warmed her heart. “And I was selfish, too, hanging on to a woman and not giving her the love she needed. But leaving you with a baby…I would never do something like that.”

  “I believe you. You didn’t have to rent this boat, and now that I know you’re not rich, I can see it was even more of an imposition. And I’m going to pay you back, if it takes me—”

  “No, you are not.”

  “Oh, yes, I surely am.”

  “I don’t want the money. But there is something I do want from you.”

  Annabelle’s heart started thumping faster. She lowered her voice. “If you want sex, then I take back all the nice things I’ve ever said about you.”

  Matt leaned closer, his breath tickling her ear. “Annabelle, if I didn’t want sex, there would be something seriously wrong with me. But I respect your reasons for not getting involved. So I’m wondering if we can be friends, you, me, and Lincoln. After this is over and we’ve found Genevieve, I don’t want to go our separate ways.”

  Annabelle didn’t want that, either, but she had her rules, and Matt was too good looking to be only a friend. “You want to come over for supper and gin rummy? Is that what you’re thinking about?”

  “I’d love to. I’d also like to take a boat out for the fun of it again, and I’d like you and Lincoln to go along. You could practice driving.”

  No fair. He’d picked the one thing that she couldn’t do on her own. He was the only person she knew who could teach her all about boats. “Why should I care about driving a boat? I have as much chance of owning one as a mule has of winning the Kentucky Derby.”

  “You don’t know that. You don’t know what the future has in store for you. And you love being at the wheel of this boat. You might as well admit it, because it’s written all over your face.”

  “I do love it,” she said softly. “I didn’t expect I would. I only took the wheel so Lincoln would get back to concentrating on Genevieve, but…there’s something about being out here on the ocean, like we’re dancing over the waves.”

  “I feel that way, too. Let me give you a chance to really enjoy it.”

  She hesitated. “Ar
e we still talking about driving the boat?”

  “Why?” There was laughter in his voice. “What else could we be talking about?”

  Annabelle lifted her chin. “I may be a hillbilly, but I wasn’t born yesterday. I know all about those double meanings.”

  “I’m sure you do.” He cleared his throat. “I was talking about driving the boat. Let me teach you.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Good. That’s a start. Now I’ll go talk to Lincoln about our heading for the next few hours.”

  “I hate to see you ripping up your clothes,” Jack said.

  “I don’t. This is about survival.” Perched cross-legged on the South Park beach towel next to Jack, Genevieve opened a side seam on her dress with the hibiscus pattern on it and tore the dress apart without a single regret. Back in the Hollow she’d never worried about clothes. After this, she wouldn’t let herself worry about them again. She had a whole new perspective on things.

  Jack worked on the seams of his shirt. “Maybe we should have brought driftwood up to build a fire, instead.”

  “Oh, sure. I barely got you up here, let alone a bunch of driftwood.”

  “See, you think I’m a wuss.”

  “I do not. I think you’re an idiot for not telling me you were scared of heights. You could have stayed on the beach and I would have come up here to make the X.” She demolished the dress’s other side seam.

  “I couldn’t let you do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know—there could have been something dangerous up here.”

  “Like what?” She sneaked a glance at him. His protective urges were so cute.

  “Well, isn’t an albatross kind of big?”

  She bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Pretty big. Almost a seven-foot wingspan.”

  “Holy shit!” He looked up in the sky as if afraid one could be dive-bombing them at this very moment. Then he shuddered. “See what I mean? If some bird the size of a Learjet came swooping at you—”

  “I don’t think there’s ever been a report of an albatross attack.”

  “That doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. You could have a rogue albatross. Damn, are they really seven feet wide?”

  “That’s what I’ve read. I’ve never seen one.”

  “Well, if there are any hanging around here, it’s good there are two of us. They wouldn’t feel so free to mess with two people.” He finished ripping apart his shirt and picked up the jacket to her dress. “I don’t see any point in tearing this. It’s as big as it’s going to get.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” She knew their situation was a little uncertain, and she should probably be more worried than she was. But it was hard not to feel optimistic sitting here beside Jack, a most excellent lover, and enjoying an outstanding 360-degree view.

  “I really liked this dress.”

  “Me, too, but I don’t care about it now. We have to be practical. We want the X to be as big as possible, so—”

  “Bigger than a freaking albatross,” he muttered.

  “Jack, you really don’t have to worry about those birds.”

  “Oh, yeah? What do they eat?”

  “Fish.”

  “My point exactly. Meat eaters. For all we know, a herd of hungry albatrosses, or albatrossi, or whatever, could be headed this way. And we are a whole lot more accessible up here than fish swimming underwater. There’s this old Hitchcock movie about—”

  “Now, stop it. I saw that movie on TV and it made me mad. Birds aren’t like that.”

  “Says you.”

  “When it comes to birds, I am the expert on this island.” She pulled her pale green skirt out of the suitcase.

  “You’re going to ruin that, too?”

  “Yep.” She cut through the waistband. “So what? You’ve already sacrificed your shirt and the bottom half of your pants.”

  Jack laughed. “Yeah, but I think we’ve established that’s no big loss.”

  “True.” She grinned at him. “Except now I’m getting kind of sentimental about your style of dress. It’s you, after all.”

  “Don’t get too attached to that look. I’m going for all black when we get home.”

  “I’ll probably barely recognize you.” And wearing all black, he’d start attracting women. That’s what she’d hoped for, of course. She reached into her suitcase and handed him her blue panties. “Tear these along the side, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  She pulled the skirt apart. “I wonder if you really will buy an all-black wardrobe. You might get back to civilization, start thinking about computer programs, and forget all about your clothes and what we talked about. Right now you don’t have your computer stuff to distract you.”

  When he didn’t answer, she looked over to find him sitting like a statue while he stared at her panties. “Can you rip those by yourself, or do you need me to start you off by snipping some of the threads? The stitching’s small. Do you want the glasses?”

  He glanced at her, as if coming out of a trance. “No, I can do this without the glasses. Actually, I was thinking how much more fun it would be to rip them off you.”

  She gulped. Just like that, what had been a friendly discussion exploded like a cherry bomb. To think that thoughts of having sex with her had sent him into a trance. Now, that was exciting. “You…you know what ripping panties off of me would lead to.”

  “I know,” he said in a cocky, very-sure-of-himself way.

  His tone gave her delicious goose bumps. If a guy started out talking that way, like he was God’s gift, then everyone knew he was a jerk. But Jack had started out with a low opinion of his sex appeal, and his brand-new self-confidence really turned her on, maybe because she’d helped him get to this point. She was proud of her contribution, and almost ready to suggest changing into those panties.

  Then he tore them neatly across the side seam. “And for the record, Gen, I won’t forget a single minute of the time we’ve spent here.” He tossed the panties onto the pile of torn clothes and looked her straight in the eye. “The question is, will you?”

  “Of course I won’t.”

  “Then it seems to me we should reminisce together.”

  His suggestion made her heart hurt. She wished he hadn’t brought up the subject, but maybe they needed to get it out of the way. “It won’t be the same, once we’re back in Honolulu.”

  “Why? Because you can’t see yourself dating a nerd?”

  “That’s not it. Well, that’s sort of the problem, but not what you think.” She didn’t suppose he’d understand the astrology obstacle, so she brought up the other important issue. “You need to find somebody who’s willing to play second fiddle to that computer screen you’re so attached to. I’m not.”

  “Goddammit!” He lurched to his feet and started to pace. Then he winced and stopped. “Goddammit,” he said again, softer this time. “I’ve told you I won’t forget a minute of the time we’ve spent together. What makes you think I’ll get involved with my computer and forget about you?”

  “Because you’re a genius! And there’s some woman out there ready to make allowances for that, but I know myself, and the first time you forgot about me because you were so fascinated with your beloved computer program, I’d feel like you’d lost interest. I would hate that, Jack.”

  “I wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen.”

  “You couldn’t help it.”

  “I could! I could program my computer with a timer, so it would beep a signal when it was time to see you. Hell, I could program it to shut down completely, and then—”

  “Don’t you see?” It was good they were having this talk, because it pointed out exactly the problem she was so worried about. “I don’t want you to have to set a timer. I want a man who’s so crazy about me he remembers on his own, without being reminded.”

  “I’m pretty sure I would remember! But just in case, I could have a backup system.”

  She shook her h
ead. “Pretty sure isn’t good enough.” How she wished Jack was a normal guy, with a normal nine-to-five job. But then he wouldn’t be Jack. “What we’ve had on this island has been very intense.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “I think part of that’s the danger, don’t you?”

  “I think part of that’s me finally getting you naked.”

  Her cheeks grew warm. “And part of it’s because we have no distractions.”

  “Personally, I think Rainbow should be worried that I’ll be less productive now that I know what I’ve been missing in life. I think that’s a lot more likely than me ignoring you.”

  “I just think, after what we’ve had on this island, that anything back home would be a letdown. For both of us. This isn’t exactly your normal date, Jack. I mean, don’t you think going out for pizza and a movie would seem dull after this?”

  He gazed down at her. “Not if you consider what we could do when we came home from the movie.”

  When he talked like that, she got very hot and bothered. Then again, she was still on this island, which felt like being back in the caveman days. She was afraid that four walls and a regular bed wouldn’t give them the same thrill. And she couldn’t stand the idea of a watered-down sexual experience with him. Not after what had happened here.

  “I just don’t think it would work,” she said at last.

  “It won’t if you’re not even willing to try.”

  She gazed at him in silence.

  “Okay, then.” He gave her a long look before reaching into the pile of clothes. “I might as well start tying what we have together while you keep tearing things apart.”

  “Was that some sort of loaded remark?”

  His glance flicked over her. “Take it any way you want.”

  “I think it was a loaded remark. I’m not tearing us apart.” She started to take out the seams of her suit jacket. “I’m trying to keep us from ruining the magic.”

  “Don’t do me any favors, okay?” He tied the end of her bra to her panties. “I think the magic would transfer to Honolulu just fine. It would be like saving it on a disk and putting it into another computer. The files would all still be there.”