by Doyle, S
All I knew was that I had a clear path to the island and on that island was a cabin stocked well enough to sustain us for a few days.
A cabin. Fucking worse than if we’d stayed on the rig. I had been so laser focused on getting us out of there I hadn’t considered what might happen if we couldn’t make it to the mainland.
The wind and snow didn’t help either. Visibility was crap so I could only hope I was picking out the right inlet.
“Where are you going?” she asked. Actually shouted at me over the fury of the storm.
“We’re not going to make it,” I shouted back.
“I know. Are we turning back?”
I looked over my shoulder and surveyed the water around me. All I could see were chunks of floating ice. If I turned back now and we couldn’t make it to the rig, then we’d be hosed.
There was no way we could ride out this storm as exposed as we were on the boat. I was left with no option other than to pick the sure bet.
I pointed to the island right in front of us. The tricky part was going to be finding a strip of beach where I could ground us. As we got closer I checked over the sides of the boat trying to see if I could get a sense of how shallow the water was.
Slowly, I piloted the boat forward, eventually feeling the give of sand and gravel catch underneath until we were good and docked.
“Why are we stopping?”
“We’re beached.”
I made my way to the side of the boat and checked the water levels. Pretty shallow but it still meant I was going to have to wade through some of the fucking coldest water I had ever felt in my life to get to dry land.
My shit day just got shittier.
I sat on the bottom of the boat and started unlacing my boots. Then I took my socks off and stuffed them deep inside my boots.
I stood and for five seconds considered how Olivia was going to react to my next move, but then I realized neither of us had a choice. We were in full-on survival mode.
I grabbed the walkie-talkie from the back of my pants and held it out to Olivia. It was clear she was confused by what I was doing. I made that more clear when I undid the buttons on the front of my jeans.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
I shucked the jeans and draped them over my shoulders. Then I picked up my boots and handed them to her.
“What do you think I’m doing? We have to wade through the water to get to the land.”
She looked over the side and realized the situation.
“Noah, that water is freezing.”
That was stating the obvious. “Yep. Which is why I’ll want dry pants, socks and boots when I’m on land.”
She shook her head. “You can’t do this. We should head to the rig.”
“Can’t risk not getting to the rig. There is shelter on this island. At this point I have to take what I know for sure. I can make it the ten steps carrying you. You make sure you don’t drop my shit.”
She bit her thumb. “If you’re walking, I should walk, too. You shouldn’t have to carry me.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” I snarled at her. “There is no point in both of us freezing when we don’t have to. Trust me, if I thought you could carry me, I would let you. I happen to like my toes and don’t relish the thought of losing them to frost bite.”
“Noah! Don’t joke about that. See, I can’t let you do this. We have to turn back to the rig.”
“Olivia, I’m standing here in my boxers freezing my balls off. And we still have to get to the cabin. Can we not argue about something for at least ten damn minutes? Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
I didn’t waste time trying to prepare myself. The sooner in, the sooner done. I threw my leg over the edge of the boat and the minute my foot hit the water I sucked in my breath.
It felt exactly like I’d expected it to feel: as if I had just plunged my foot into an ice bath. I found my footing on the sand underneath and brought my other leg over. It only came up to my calves but that was enough to drop my entire body temperature.
“Fuck!” I shouted. I imagined I could actually feel my dick shriveling up. I had no plans to share that information with Olivia however.
“Noah!”
I was scaring her. I didn’t mean to do that.
“I’m fine. It’s just fucking cold. Hurry, but remember don’t drop my shit. And grab the boat line. There are trees close to the shoreline we can tie it off to.”
It was awkward but I managed to lift her over my shoulder, my hand gripping her ass to keep her steady. I could feel the numbness already setting in but I didn’t hesitate. Just took even, measured steps so I didn’t risk hitting something in the water that might make me trip and drop both of us into the ice bath.
She shouted something but I didn’t stop to listen. I needed out of this water fast.
Once we were on dry land, I set her down. Then I sat on a log and waved her over to me. I could barely speak my teeth were chattering so much. That’s when she did something unexpected.
Kneeling in front of me she lifted my right leg and shoved it up under her coat and sweater so that it was pressed against her bare belly. She sucked in her breath, and I did the same at the shocking shift in temperature. It was only when the numbness wore off and I was able to wiggle my toes that she did the same with my left leg.
Again, the shocking change in temperature ran through my whole body. So much so that I groaned. We looked at each other then. My foot pressed up against her, her body heat drawing the cold out of me.
It was a strangely intimate moment.
She held me against her like that until I could wiggle my toes. As soon as I could, I pulled away.
“Good?” she asked.
“Better,” I said. I stood then grabbed the jeans draped over my shoulder and put them back on. She handed me my boots then went to tie the boat to a nearby tree. I considered it a show of respect that I didn’t check her knot to make sure it was secure. My feet still felt like blocks of ice, but the good news was that I could feel them.
“You have the walkie-talkie?”
Her face went slack, and I knew that wasn’t a good sign.
“I dropped it,” she said, then bit her thumb again. “I was so focused on not dropping your boots when you lifted me over your shoulder that I had an awkward hold on it. That first step you took…it fell out of my hand.”
Swell. That meant we were here with no communication. What would Cal think when we didn’t make it to the shore? That we stayed on the rig most likely. He would wonder why he couldn’t reach me, but it’s not like he would be able to do anything about it until this storm let up anyway.
“Doesn’t matter. Let’s go find that cabin.”
“Find it? You mean you don’t know where it is?”
“Olivia, this island isn’t more than a half mile long. I don’t think we’ll have too hard a time. It’s basically in the middle of it.”
“Will it have a fireplace?”
I shook my head. “It’s a cabin in Alaska. Of course it has a fireplace.”
“Stop treating me as if I’m stupid. This is my first time getting marooned on a small island in the middle of an Arctic snowstorm in Alaska. I told you we should have stayed on the rig!”
“Oh no, you don’t,” I fired back. “I told you why it wasn’t a good idea and you agreed. I had no way to know that the ice would come in that fast. We should have been able to make it back.”
“Only we didn’t.”
“No, we didn’t. Now, do you want stand out here and fight about it or go find a cabin that absolutely has a fireplace?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and didn’t retaliate. Point one to me. I led the way through the thicket of trees and bushes, my only thought to get farther into the center of the small island. That’s where I had found it last time.
If this was the right island. There were at least ten or fifteen clustered in this area off the coast. But my gut said that, based on my position relative to wher
e the rig was and where the shoreline was, this had to be the one.
I wasn’t an engineer for nothing. Details mattered.
Fifteen minutes later, my gut paid off when I spotted the cabin among the trees. Covered almost totally by snow it would have been easy to miss if I hadn’t known it was there.
I had to clear away a bunch of drifted snow in order to open the door. Cautiously, I pulled it back. Any animals native to this island might use the cabin as a shelter.
However, a quick look inside showed it was empty.
“We’re good.”
I stepped inside, and Olivia followed me closing the door behind her. The lack of noise was the first thing that struck me. We’d been out in that wind, both on the water and on land, for so long it felt like that sound was my new soundtrack.
The fact that the sound of the storm was so muted meant the cabin had been built by someone who knew what they were doing.
“Thank you, Zeke.”
“Zeke?” Olivia asked.
“The badass in town who carries his baby around in the sling.”
“Oh, that guy! Yeah, I didn’t know what his deal was. His wife seems nice, except the time she offered to fight you in my place, I really think she meant it.”
It had been another one of our public battles. Which ended in Olivia slapping me. When I said I’d retaliate, if she was a guy, Eve had offered to take her place. No lie, I was slightly intimidated.
“I’m pretty sure she did, too.”
“So, this is his place?”
“To get away,” I said.
“Away from what?”
I laughed. “I’m pretty sure neither of us wants to know.”
I took stock of the place. Not big, just a single room, maybe two hundred square feet. The fireplace ran along the back wall and came with a supply of wood stacked to the ceiling. A hook swung out from the side of the fireplace that could be used to hold a kettle for boiling water, or a skillet for heating food.
One rolled sleeping bag was in another corner, along with a heavy extra blanket. Two sturdy wood chairs were situated in front of the fireplace. He must have had Eve in mind when he stocked this cabinet.
On the opposite wall there were two large storage cabinets. One had a padlock on it. The other was unlocked. I lifted that lid and found what I expected. A couple cans of food, dried meats and one cup of noodles that could be cooked just with hot water. Plus a kettle, a pot some basic utensils. Soap, toothpaste. There was even a deck of cards. Something to help pass the time.
“Do we need to find the key for this cabinet?” Olivia asked, pulling on the padlock to see if it would open.
“My guess? That’s guns.”
“Oh.”
I was looking at what probably amounted to two or three days of food. Enough, assuming the storm broke, Cal and the crew made it to the rig and realized Olivia and I weren’t there then started searching for us and found us quickly.
Not enough if the storm went on for a few days, or if Cal didn’t find us quickly.
“I wouldn’t worry about it for now,” I told her.
I had no doubt the key was here someplace in easy reach. However, I also didn’t want to open that cabinet up and find some crazy shit like a bazooka. It might freak out Olivia. I would deal with it if we ran out of food. I could hunt grouse but with this weather I might be more likely to set snares for rabbits.
“I’ll get the fire started.”
I worked with the dry wood cut in various sizes to burn more easily. A flint was close at hand. It had been a while since I’d used one, so it took a few tries before I got it to fire. I let one of the smaller pieces burn hot then gradually moved it so it lit one of the larger logs. In a few minutes, a fire was burning hot.
“You did it!”
I hadn’t realized Olivia was sitting behind me in one of the chairs monitoring my progress.
“Yes, Olivia. I know how to make a fire,” I said sarcasm dripping from my tone. Mostly to cover my own annoyance that it had taken so many tries with the flint. There was something about failing in front of her that didn’t sit well with me.
I sat on the other chair and waited for the heat in the cabin to build. We were going to need water, but I would deal with that eventually.
“I was paying you a compliment,” she said her arms crossed over her chest.
“It’s not a compliment when you’re born and raised in Alaska. I learned how to make a fire before I learned how to tie my shoe laces.”
I sat back in the chair and relished the heat that slowly spread through the room, my core temperature still low from my trek through the water.
“You’re from here?”
“Not here. Big Lake, which is not too far north of Anchorage.”
“I didn’t know that.”
It sounded like that bothered her. Not knowing where I was from.
“Why would you know that?”
The only talking Olivia and I had ever done revolved around whatever we disagreed about.
She shrugged. “Just seems like something you should know about a person who you work with. I’m from—”
“Seattle,” I finished for her.
“How do you know that?”
“I looked at your personnel file.”
Her jaw dropped. It was actually pretty funny. “You looked at my file? Can you even do that?”
Without even a little guilt, I thought. “Are you shitting me? The second I left that meeting where they introduced me to an engineer who was going to offer me ideas about improving my work, I was on it. Sally in human resources loves me. I told her I needed to see your file and she handed it over.”
She was shaking her head. “You were taken off guard because I was a woman.”
No, I had been taken off guard by how hot she’d been. By her pencil skirt and high heels. Then I had to immediately look beyond that to the fact that she would be looking over my shoulder and critiquing my work.
Woman or man, I’d decided she was the enemy.
“You act like you’re the only female engineer in America. I didn’t have a thought about your gender one way or another.”
Which was a total lie. I’d thought about Olivia a lot after reading about her education, job history and experience. After seeing that picture.
I knew she’d graduated top of her class from the University of Washington. Knew she’d worked for the EPA coming out of school. Then later for a larger energy company until coming on board with Dyson. Always a promotion with each move.
Now she was here.
With me.
Stuck in this cabin. Which was way smaller than an oil rig.
I took a deep breath.
“Yeah, right,” she returned. “I don’t buy it for a second, Mr. Don’t-wear-skirts-because-I’m-afraid-for-you. You have no clue how to work with a woman who is your equal.”
“My equal as an engineer?” I said, looking over at her and immediately I could see she was flustered.
“Okay, maybe I haven’t done what you’ve done in this industry.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Or anything close to it really,” she conceded. “Still, it’s obvious you don’t like that I’m a woman.”
“I like that you’re a woman just fine, Olivia,” I drawled.
“See, right there! You just made my point. That little drawl you do. That’s innuendo. You’re deliberately bringing sex into the conversation so you can put me in a box.”
“No,” I said, getting annoyed. “That drawl was to tell you I like the fact that you’re a damn woman because you’re fucking beautiful. Period.”
She blinked a few times. “You think I’m beautiful?”
Shit. This was definitely not a conversation I wanted to have. I stood and made my way to the cabin door, taking the kettle with me to fill with snow.
“Where are you going?”
“To take a piss.”
“You’re going to pee in the kettle?”
She truly was c
lueless up here. “No, I’m going to piss in the snow. Then I’m going to get non-pissed-in snow and fill the kettle with it so we can have drinkable water. Does that work for you?”
“You’re being condescending again.”
“You’re being thickheaded again.”
She glared at me and I glared back. Finally, I claimed victory again when she turned her back on me to stare at the fire.
“I’ll be back,” I told her.
“Don’t hurry on my account,” she said with her own drawl.
Yeah. Me. Olivia. Stuck in a cabin for what might be an extended amount of time.
Not good.
And we hadn’t even gotten to the sleeping arrangements yet.
4
Olivia
“I’m not getting in the sleeping bag with you. Just give me the blanket,” I told him again the second time he insisted.
We were standing on either side of the rolled-out sleeping bag, both of us with our hands on our hips in fighting mode.
Noah closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Okay,” he began. “I’m going to walk you through this rationally and logically. You’re an engineer. These things should appeal to you.”
“Condescending,” I pointed out again.
“The fire is going to die out eventually. The storm is not letting up. We need our combined body heat to keep us warm. This is basic survival.”
I hated that he was right. “I’ll stay up and keep the fire going.”
“You won’t. The cold will lull you into sleep. Now, I want you to consider the day I’ve had. I had to call you in to get a second opinion. I had to deal with the fact I was taking you out to a rig that could have potentially exploded. Because you were right. Having two of us out there meant we could work faster. Still, I was responsible for putting you in danger. I then had to blow out my best producing well, and I don’t have any clue what started the problem in the first place. That’s pissing me off. There was my little walk through the ice bath, barefoot, with you on my back. While you dropped our only method of communicating with our team into the water. I’m tired. I need to keep my strength up to be able to handle these next few days, and I need you to cooperate with me.”