by catjohnson
“I’ll be fine,” Rob shouted back.
That proclamation didn’t make Jamie feel any better. Looking around, he spotted the long, coiled rope tied to a nearby life preserver. “You should probably lash yourself to the rail.”
The look of fear on Rob’s face didn’t instill much confidence in Jamie either. He needed to get below and see to the engine and Gillian.
After rifling through the rest of the bins on deck, he gathered enough vests for them all, then strapped one on himself. He hoped to God they wouldn’t need them.
Downstairs, he found his cabin empty and panic hit. Where was Gillian? With his heart in his throat, he tore down the dark, narrow hall, hindered by the life jackets he carried. He crashed into Gillian as she came toward him. She’d changed into shorts, a T-shirt and deck shoes.
“Sorry. I went back to my room to change. If we’re going to be in a storm, I didn’t want to be wearing nothing but a bathing suit.”
“Good idea. Put this on.” She gave him the same wide-eyed, doom-filled look Rob had. “It’s only a precaution. Just in case.”
Gillian nodded and did what she was told. Fear was a great motivator.
Jamie braced himself against the wall while the boat rocked him nearly off his feet. “Listen, I have to ask you to do something. Can you look around for some sort of instruction or safety manual? Something that will tell us procedures for a storm.”
“Rob doesn’t know?” Her voice rose into the panic zone.
“Um, again, it’s just a precaution.” Withholding the truth couldn’t hurt. Right?
Her throat worked as she swallowed nervously. “All right. I’ll see what I can find.”
An impulse had him leaning over the remaining vests in his arms and catching her lips in one last kiss. Just in case.
She kissed him back with enough urgency to ramp up his already strong will to survive.
“I promise you, Gillian, come hell or high water,” literally, “you and I are going to live to see Rob and Julie married.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m going to hold you to that, James Foster.”
Silently, Jamie vowed to keep that promise or die trying.
Chapter Five
Feeling utterly alone, Gillian pawed through the boat’s drawers looking for something, anything that may help them.
Jamie was below deck unsuccessfully trying to get the motor running when what she really wanted him to do was hold her and tell her it would all be okay. Rob had his hands full, running back and forth between Julie and the top deck. Julie had been so hysterical, one of the bridesmaids gave her something that knocked her out. Now she was passed out in the stateroom she and Gillian were supposed to be sharing. The other two women wouldn’t be able to help at all between the crying and screaming every time a wave hit, and Gillian would rather die than turn to Brandon or Reilly for support.
Finally, Gillian’s hand hit upon a small booklet and she pulled it out. A U.S. Coast Guard manual. Thank God. This would tell her what to do.
Using the dim light filtering through the porthole, Gillian flipped through it. Page by page, the book provided no information that would calm her. After it advised small watercraft never be out on the water during a storm, ever, it went on to specify what to do if your boat went down with you on it.
Never be below deck on a sinking ship. Gillian’s stomach turned. They weren’t sinking. Were they? Julie was in bed, knocked out by the pill she’d taken. What the hell would they do with her in the ocean unconscious if they sunk?
The yacht listed sharply to the side. As she stumbled and grabbed onto the edge of the cabinet to remain upright, Gillian figured it was more likely they’d flip over than sink. Or perhaps they would both flip over and sink. Regaining her balance, she read frantically, hoping for a section on capsizing.
She came upon a part describing procedures for if someone fell overboard. Rob kept going up top. Even considering the possibility of her sister’s future husband being lost at sea had her heart palpitating. Her eyes scanned the explanation of the EPIRB, an electronic locating device that gets thrown overboard or attached to a life jacket. Did they have one of those? Should she look and strap it onto Rob? And even if they had one, then what? The motor was dead. Locator signal or not, how could they even look for him?
All of her thoughts threw Gillian into a state nearly as bad as Julie had been in before they drugged her. She ended up crawling fully clothed, life preserver and all, onto Jamie’s bed where she finally let herself break down and cry.
The storm raged past nightfall. Why did things always seem so much worse in the dark? Gillian didn’t know the answer to that. By some grace of good fortune, the storm subsided enough that Gillian, exhausted from worry and the late hour, fell into a fitful sleep.
She woke to a grinding crash followed by silence.
When her eyes flew open, she found daylight streaming through the porthole and Jamie, fully clothed, leaping off the mattress. At some point during the night, he must have crawled into bed with her. She couldn’t have been more grateful to have him there with her now.
“What’s happening?”
He peered out the glass. “I think we ran aground.”
Gillian sat up. “That’s bad.”
“Actually since I couldn’t get the engine working I think it’s good. At least we’ll stay in one place instead of drifting.”
She added the words farther out to sea in her own head and felt sick to her stomach at the thought.
Jamie came back to her, an expression of concern on his face. “I need to go up top and see where we are. Do you want to stay here or come with me?”
A special kind of man took a woman’s feelings into consideration, even in the face of possible disaster. She reached for her shoes on the floor. “I’ll come.”
The rest of the group was already upstairs by the time Gillian and Jamie arrived.
Julie, dark shadows under her eyes and hair falling out of a ponytail, looked the worse for wear as she asked, “Where are we?”
Rob pulled her against him. “I have no idea, baby. I’m sorry. I wish I did.”
“What about the radio? Can we call for help?”
Rob’s expression answered Jamie’s question even before he spoke. “It’s dead.”
“The way that wind was blowing, we could be anywhere.” Reilly’s comment didn’t help the mood.
Adrienne and Ronni, who both somehow managed to look like they were on their way to a beach party even in this situation, clung to each other, wide eyed. She predicted mass panic if someone didn’t shut up Reilly with his negative comments.
Jamie squinted out over the landscape. “There will be clues to where we are. We have to explore.”
“Explore what? There’s nothing here.” Brandon frowned at him.
Gillian glanced around them. She hated to admit it, but Brandon was right.
Jamie shook his head. “There’s plenty here. Native vegetation. Animal life. It will all give us an indication of where we are.”
“And then what? Say we know where we are. What are we going to do then? The radio isn’t working. The engine is dead.” Brandon folded his arms across his chest. “You couldn’t get it running last night. Remember?”
“I’ll try again. Maybe once it dries out—”
“James, you can’t do everything.” Brandon cut Jamie off mid sentence. “Yeah, you’re brilliant. You’re a frigging genius, but what we need right now is a good old dumb mechanic, not a valedictorian.”
Gillian felt Jamie stiffen next to her. She dropped her voice low. “He’s an idiot.”
He glanced down at her and sighed. “It’s okay. He’s right.”
“Everybody relax. Jamie’s right. We have to get off the boat and take a look around.” Rob’s voice held an air of authority, which calmed Gillian’s panic a bit. “There could be a five-star resort just around the bend. Wouldn’t that be nice, baby?”
Julie nodded as Rob hugged her closer.
J
amie laughed sadly. “God, I hope so. Rob, did you drop the anchor?”
Gillian hadn’t thought of that. Had she been in charge of this floating nightmare, they’d all be in even bigger trouble.
“Did it the minute I got up here. I didn’t want her drifting away if the tide comes in while we’re ashore. We may have a dead boat, but it’s better than no boat at all.” Rob managed a grin.
Jamie smiled too. “My sentiments exactly. All right, we can cover more ground if we split up. One group should cover the shoreline to the left, another the shoreline to the right. I’ve got a compass on my watch…”
Brandon snorted. “Of course you do.”
Jamie ignored him. “So, I’ll head straight, and we’ll all meet back here in, let’s say an hour?”
Rob nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Ready?” Jamie paused, waiting for her answer.
Relieved that question implied she was going with him, Gillian nodded. “Yes.”
“We’re going to get a little wet I’m afraid.”
There was land on the other side of that water. After the hell she’d lived through the night before, she’d deal with wet feet. “That’s fine. I won’t melt.”
He squeezed her arm, encouraging her, and they were off on their big adventure.
Jamie helped her through the shallow water to shore, and then released his hold on her hand. She missed the contact immediately.
He glanced at the group as they dispersed in different directions to search for clues, then down at her face. “There’s something I wanted to say before we start off.”
Gillian nodded, though the tone in his voice told her something bad was coming. “Okay.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way. Last night was great, but I know we’re stuck here together and if it was just a one-time thing, I totally understand.”
She tried to maintain a neutral expression even as she failed and felt her face fall. “Oh, sure. No. You’re right. Of course.”
He laughed and she frowned in response. “You really should never play poker.” Jamie took her face in both hands and smiled. “I don’t want what happened to be a one-night stand, Gillian. I was giving you an out in case you did.”
“Why would I want an out?”
“I know smart, beautiful women like you don’t end up with men like me.”
How could a man be so perfect? He was too good to be true. Her heart warmed as Gillian covered Jamie’s hands with hers and squeezed. “If they were really so smart, they would.”
He smiled. “Guess it’s a good thing you’re smart then, huh?”
“I’m not as smart as you, but I’m smart enough.” Much as Gillian would like to go back to the yacht and crawl into bed with Jamie, she wrestled her racing heart and mind back to the situation at hand. “Do you really think we can figure out where we are?”
“I do.”
Not believing for one minute there was a five-star spa on the other side of this island, Gillian gathered her nerve and asked the question she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to. “What do we do if we can figure out where we are and it turns out to be somewhere we don’t want to be?”
“I suspect we’re not as far off course as Brandon thinks, but if we are, I’ll fix that engine even if I have to rebuild the damn thing to do it. If we’re still as close to California as I hope, we may not have to do a thing. A ship or a plane will see us. Besides, that is one expensive yacht we just beached. I’m sure the owner will be looking for it, not to mention for us.”
Gillian’s brain flew to every shipwreck movie she’d ever seen. They all had one thing in common. “Maybe we should build a signal fire.”
He grinned. “Good idea. We’ll pick up whatever wood we see. It’ll be wet from the storm, but in this sun, it should dry fast. I bet there’s some sort of lighter back on the yacht too, so I won’t even have to use my Eagle Scout skills and start a fire with two sticks.”
Gillian’s insides calmed from just listening to him. “How can you make me feel so much better in even this situation?”
He shrugged. “Nerd gift?”
“Maybe. See. That explains my geek fetish.”
They walked along, hand in hand until they began picking up firewood and couldn’t hold hands any longer. Soon, they had nearly more than they could both carry for any distance.
Jamie glanced at the bundle she balanced on both arms. “I think we better head back. It’s been thirty minutes.”
“We haven’t found anything yet.” No spa. No anything.
“I know. Don’t worry. I’m going to leave you back at the boat to handle the signal fire, then I’m coming back out.”
“Alone?” Her heart clenched in fear.
“We haven’t seen any indication that there’s anything dangerous here. I’ll be fine. Promise.”
“You should at least take one of the guys with you. What if you get bit by a snake, or fall in a pit of quick sand or…” The horrors Gillian could imagine befalling Jamie were nearly endless.
“Run into a tribe of cannibals?” He grinned.
She frowned. “I’m concerned about you.”
“I know, and I like that you care enough to worry, but there’s really no need. I honestly believe we’re not too far from the coast.”
“But then wouldn’t there be some sign of civilization?” In any other situation, she’d find this island absolutely beautiful. The fact it was deserted didn’t make any sense. Tourists flocked to beaches. “A place like this, close to the city of San Diego, the developers would have long since built billion-dollar vacation homes and a few resorts here.”
“Not if we landed in the middle of Channel Islands National Park. They can’t build here. A little more exploration and I’ll know for sure.”
“A national park?” Gillian let out a big breath in relief. “That’d be wonderful. There must be a ranger station or something here then. With a phone.”
Jamie looked skeptical. “Not every park has live-in park rangers, but we’ll see I guess. In any case, if we’re in the Channel Islands, we’re not far from the mainland at all.”
“Thanks for making me feel better.” Gillian managed a smile.
“I’m not just making you feel better. It’s true.”
Unconvinced, she nodded. “Well, thank you anyway.”
Chapter Six
A few hours later, Jamie headed back alone toward the shoreline from his second excursion into the interior of the island. Tired and frustrated, he heard the group before he saw them. When he did get a visual, he didn’t believe his eyes.
They looked more like guests at a beach party than stranded castaways. From what he’d seen on his hike, they were good and truly stranded, but you’d never know that by looking at these people.
Music blasted. Women in barely-there bikinis danced, and someone was grilling steak.
A single figure broke out from the group and ran toward him. He needn’t look too hard to know who it would be. Gillian. He walked faster and met her halfway.
“I’m so glad you’re back.”
“Thanks.” By the looks of them, he doubted the others had noticed he was gone. “What’s going on here?”
“My signal fire has turned into a bonfire slash luau.” Gillian’s frustration radiated off her. “They decided since there’s no electricity, all the fresh food was going to spoil. They’re cooking all the beef and chicken now. All of it. A week’s worth. And of course, they’re drinking a week’s worth of champagne with it.”
“I hate to say it, but they’re probably right. I mean we can stash some of the cooked meat in with whatever ice hasn’t melted yet in the freezer and it will stay cold for maybe forty-eight hours, but not much more.”
Gillian appeared panicked. “Then what are we going to eat if we’re stuck here longer?”
“That’s the good news. There are plenty of things to eat. I spotted kelp. There are sea urchins, abalone.”
She didn’t look relieved by his list of food.
>
“If that’s the good news, what’s the bad news?” She asked the question that would make her far more uncomfortable once she heard the answer.
Jamie let out a deep sigh. “Gillian, I don’t want to worry you, but it’s going to come out eventually. I haven’t seen any fresh water sources yet.”
“You didn’t find any fresh water?” Wide eyed, Gillian repeated what he’d reluctantly revealed.
“Yet.” He emphasized that word. “But, yes, that concerns me a bit too.”
She looked truly worried now in spite of the fact he’d said he didn’t want to worry her.
“Oh, my God. What will we do without drinking water? I’m not as smart as you, but I do know humans need water. Without fresh water, we’ll die in what? Three days?” There was panic in her voice.
He reached out and took her by the arms. “We’re not going to die. Listen to me. There’s some water on the boat. Not just the bottled water in the galley, but there are fresh water tanks for the heads and showers. That’s drinkable.”
“How much do we have onboard?”
“Enough for a while, but not for the long haul.” Terror shown on her face. Jamie squeezed her arms tighter. “Relax. If, and that’s a big if, we’re here that long I’ll rig something up.”
“You can’t make fresh water out of thin air.” She shook her head.
“Yeah I can and actually I have.”
“Really?”
He grinned at her expression of shock. “Really. Eagle Scout nerd, remember. Besides that, I may still find fresh water. Then, when it rains again, we’ll capture and store as much rainwater as we can, too. We’re going to be okay, Gillian. I swear. Like I said, I’ll keep looking for a fresh-water source tomorrow. I only walked the width of the island dead east. Tomorrow, I’ll search south-east and after that, north-east.”
“Wait. You reached the other side of the island and came back? In that short of a time? This island is that small?” Any calm he’d managed to instill in her about the water vanished again.
“It’s not like we’re on a sandbar. It’s a decent-sized island. I figure, judging by my speed and my time, it’s about four miles wide, give or take.”