When Adam Met Evie

by Giulia Skye

  And, God, he hoped she’d stay.

  So, he’d tell her. Tomorrow, he’d tell her.

  Tomorrow came.

  And so did more rain.

  They stayed in the tent, hoping it would soon pass. Adam made love to Evie again, slow and easy. When Evie came, he covered her mouth with his and held her, her orgasm gripping him, pushing him to his own breathless abandon.

  “I love you,” he whispered, his heart beating fast. He tried to breathe in, but laughed instead. The laugh of a man in love. It squashed the small voice in his head that nagged a reminder he had something else very important to tell her.

  Evie lay motionless beneath him. “You love me?”

  He nodded. “I love you.”

  And soon he’d persuade her that he loved her regardless of what she thought of him. Regardless of the fact he wasn’t called Adam.

  “You really, really love me?”

  “Yes.” He kissed her chin. “I do.”

  “Enough to go out in the rain and make me a cup of tea? I’m gasping.”

  He threw his head back and laughed some more. “Yes. A thousand cups of tea.” He should have known she’d be up to some mischief. “Your wish is my command.” He got up to go but she pulled him back and nestled her face against his neck.

  “Thank you,” Evie whispered, and he knew she wasn’t talking about tea. She held him for one fierce and intense moment. Then nudged him toward the tent’s opening. “You can go now. Tea.”

  He grinned and wriggled into his shorts. She’d forgive him. He knew she would. She’d want to stay with him. They’d work it out. Together.

  “I’ll be back in a minute.” Adam kissed her nose and left.

  Evie heard the saturated ground squish beneath Adam’s feet as he stepped out into the rain. Rivulets and gullies had formed with the constant downpour, but peeking out through the tent flaps Evie saw patches of light blue sky behind the broken clouds. She lay back in their bed, feeling the power punch of Adam’s words as they sank in and hit her core. He loved her! She hadn’t realized how much she’d needed him to say it until she’d heard the words. He loved her. She rubbed her face, tentatively checking that this was her life she was living and not a fantasy one. This was real. Adam and Evie loved each other.

  She heard Adam open the truck. Heard the clatter of their kitchen box as he rummaged for what he called her “tea-making kit.”

  And then—she heard someone shouting for help. She sat up. “Adam? Did you hear that?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t see anyone.” She heard his footsteps move around the tent as she pulled on her clothes and stepped out, shielding her eyes against the pouring rain.

  “Help!”

  “There,” Evie shouted, pointing to the line of trees farther up the campground. A man was limping his way toward them, his dirty, wet T-shirt stained with blood.

  “Help!”

  They ran across the field toward the badly injured man.

  “What happened?” Adam reached out to break the man’s fall as he collapsed at Adam’s feet, his face white with fear and pain.

  “The river’s burst. I need your truck. My wife. She’s trapped.”

  The river roared, an angry tongue of water, white and gray among the rocks.

  Adam jumped out of the truck and stood at the edge of the badly swollen river, with Jeff, the injured man, frantic beside him, tortured by the sight of his campervan stranded among the rapids, his wife inside.

  “Caz,” Jeff shouted. He was crying, holding Evie’s towel against his wound to stop the bleeding. “The river’s come up farther now. Jesus. We were parked there. I got out and tried to steady the camper, but the water came up from underneath, dragged it away like a toy. I tried to stop it. Bloody wing mirror caught my arm, pulled me under. Almost crushed me against that tree over there, and Caz—Caz stayed inside.”

  Adam saw the debris of their camp—a towel, a chair, what looked like a table—washed away into the trees. Even he knew not to camp next to a river during heavy rain, but he wasn’t going to mention that now. Searching the water, Adam made out the deepest part where the rapids flowed smoother. Evie was in the back of the truck, the satellite phone pressed to her ear and the map on her lap. One look at her told Adam she still hadn’t made a connection.

  “Fuck,” Jeff hissed, knowing it too. “Caz. I can’t see her. I gotta get over there.”

  Jeff stepped into the muddy water. Adam grabbed him before he got washed away too. His arm was busted and he could see the bump of a broken collar bone protruding through his T-shirt. Evie had strapped the man’s arm against his chest as best she could using one of Adam’s tops as a sling, but Adam could tell Jeff was in an intense amount of pain. “You’re not fit to go out there.”

  Adam’s brain scrambled to work out the best thing to do. His eyes shot to Evie. Still no connection. He scanned the camper again. The woman had probably been knocked unconscious, or had fainted. He had to get her out of there before the camper got swept away or engulfed by rising water.

  Just then, he detected a movement from inside.

  Jeff had seen it too. “Caz!”

  A hand, splayed white against the window, and then a face appeared. Jeff’s relief was palpable but the water kept on gushing. Adam knew he had to get across. He had a rope, but would it reach?

  Behind him, he heard Evie shout their coordinates down the satellite phone. She’d made a connection. “Thank God,” Adam said.

  They detected another movement from inside the camper.

  “Jeff!” They heard Caz sobbing. “The water’s coming in.”

  “She can’t swim,” Jeff cried. “I’ve gotta get her out of there.”

  Evie came running toward them. “The rangers are on their way. They’re sending a paramedic too.”

  But the camper shifted in the rising water. “I can’t wait that long,” Jeff said and began to wade out.

  Adam held him back again. “You’ll get swept away. I’ll go.”

  “No!” Evie screamed. “Adam, you can’t. It’s not safe.” Her eyes darted to the camper trapped in the rising water, then back to Jeff who was becoming delirious with pain and impending grief.

  Adam strode past her to the truck.

  “You can’t do this,” she hissed, following him up the bank.

  “I’ve gotta do something.”

  “You’ll get yourself killed.”

  “I’m a very strong swimmer.”

  “Even strong swimmers get washed away.”

  “We can’t just watch a woman drown.”

  He secured one end of the rope around the tow bar of the truck, then searched the ground for a stick to fasten the other end to. “When I get there, throw this at me.” It wasn’t a thick rope and he knew, when it was tied around his torso, that it would cut into his skin. “If I need more length, you’ve got to reverse the truck into the water.” He gripped her shoulders, knowing she wanted to scream at him again. He could see the frustration in her face. The horror and the fear. “I’ll tie her to me and when I say go, you drive the truck forward.”

  “Jeff …”

  “He’s not strong enough. You drive.”

  He kissed her, then ran up stream.

  Evie got to her senses and scrambled into the truck, her feet barely reaching the pedals. She watched with dread as Adam gaged the distance to the camper, surveying the rapids that would wash him toward it. He dived in, his powerful arms slicing through the choppiest parts. Evie felt the shock of the water as if it was sluicing over her own skin. She held her breath. Adam cleared the rapids and was now wading toward the camper.

  Jeff was on his knees. Praying, crying. She was desperate to do the same.

  “He’ll get her out,” she called to him, then ordered him to hold the rope and watch the back of the truck in case she drove out too deep. She cou
ld already tell the rope wasn’t going to be long enough. Jeff was shaking. “Watch the water level.”

  Praying she wouldn’t get stuck, Evie reversed the truck a couple of meters into the river. Even though she’d watched Adam drive this thing for hours, and he’d once explained the difference in handling a monster like this to a normal car, it was all lost on her now. She fumbled, scared of stalling and not being able to start the engine up again. She ordered herself to calm down. But it was impossible. Somehow, she got the truck into position and jumped out to take the rope from Jeff. Adam had reached the camper, and he was now trying to prize the window open with his bare hands.

  “Break it!” Jeff shouted, just as Adam ducked under the water and emerged with a small rock in his hand, having had the same idea. He smashed the window open, then frantically tapped the remaining shards away from the edges.

  Calf deep in water on the bank, Evie stepped on bushes and God knew what as Adam pulled the woman out. He gripped her under the arms in a sitting position, holding her in place with one hand and indicating to Evie with the other. “Let’s have the rope.”

  Evie grabbed hold of the stick Adam had tied to the end of the rope and launched it like a javelin across the water to him. It fell short so she yanked it back and tried again. On the fourth attempt, the rope landed close enough for Adam to reach. He positioned Caz in front of him, tied the rope around their bodies, then waded toward the rapids gushing between the riverbanks.

  “You ready, Evie?” he called, his face straining with the effort of keeping upright. Evie jumped in behind the wheel and slammed the truck into first gear, catching sight of Adam in the wing mirror as he prepared to cross the rapids.

  Jeff limped to the side of the truck as they waited for Adam’s signal. In the mirror, Adam braced himself, ensuring Caz was held tight against him.

  “Go.”

  The truck roared, pulling away from the river. Jeff hollered to stop and Evie slammed on the brakes. She looked behind her. Adam and Caz were in the shallows of the riverbank.

  And the camper had been swept away.

  CHAPTER 30

  “Next time, please think of a better way to frighten the life out of me.” Evie raised her head from where it had been plastered against Adam’s chest ever since he’d stepped out of the emergency vehicle, a survival blanket draped over his shoulders. The rain had stopped and steam was already rising from the bushes and trees, the rainwater evaporating as quickly as it had fallen.

  Adam had several bandages around his arm for cuts received from the broken window, and a strip of white gauze around his waist where the rope had burned his skin. Jeff and Caz had already been taken to hospital. Jeff had lost a lot of blood and Caz had been in severe shock.

  It had taken the rangers some time to reach them. After Evie had towed him and Caz out of the water, she had helped him lift Caz onto the back seat, with Jeff doing his best to hug his wife’s shaking body. Adam, fearing Jeff would pass out, his skin ghost white, had driven back to the campground, away from the water, while Evie called in their new location on the satellite phone.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” she said now. “You extremely brave, extremely stupid man.”

  Adam and Evie had to give their statements to the rangers, and then to pack away their tent and belongings, their hands shaking, their limbs weak from shock and exertion. By the time they got into their own truck to follow the rangers to Bert’s Waterfall Resort, a hotel not far from where they had camped, it was dusk. They’d been advised by medics to stay in a populated place until certain they weren’t displaying any signs of other injuries or shock, so Barry, one of the rangers, said he’d arrange with the resort owners for them to stay the night there.

  “You’ll get a hero’s welcome,” Barry had said. “You might get the local newspaper wanting to interview you, but I’ll keep them at bay for today. You’ve had enough excitement.”

  Adam drove steadily behind Barry now, the unease at any media attention adding to the aches thumping his bruised body. He’d tried to persuade Evie to drive to Darwin, but it was too far and she’d wanted him to rest.

  They pulled into the resort.

  “Must be a flashy place,” Evie commented, indicating the new shiny four-wheel drives that occupied the parking spaces next to the entrance. It was far busier than either of them had expected it to be. “Is that a news crew over there?”

  Adam glanced over at the van with the satellite dish and antenna on the roof and felt himself go cold. He’d actually spotted three different news vans, and now his spine tingled as he drove past a conclave of high-end SUVs and off-roaders.

  The ranger’s vehicle stopped in front of them. Barry got out and walked to Adam’s window. “Looks like it’s been a slow news day today, mate. We don’t often get this much coverage over an incident like this. I’m sorry there’s not much I can do but park up out of sight over there at the back of the resort if you need a moment first.”

  Adam needed more than a moment. He knew what this meant.

  “Do you think we’ll be on the news?” Evie was saying, not looking very pleased with the attention either. Her eyes were glassy with stress and relief. “Maybe we can slip in the back.”

  Adam reversed the truck so that he could access the darker, emptier side of the resort as Barry had instructed. When he parked, Evie turned to get out but he caught her hand.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” he said.

  He knew who those SUVs belonged to.

  “I don’t understand.”

  Evie felt dizzy. She pushed Adam away and marched toward the lights of the resort. He wasn’t making any sense.

  “Evie, listen to me!” He pulled her into the bushes, caging her against a tree with his arms, and repeated what he’d just told her, as if his words would make more sense the second time around. “My real name is Michael. Michael Adams,” he was saying. “I’m an Olympic swimmer. Retired. I’ve won medals. I model underwear and watches and whatever else my agent throws at me. I’m—”

  He was talking too fast, looking afraid and unlike himself. He’d lied about his name, about who he was. He’d been lying to her all this time. The ground came away beneath her feet. Any second now she’d fall through and land on something sharp and painful.

  Michael Adams.

  The name sounded familiar. Evie had always known he had something to tell her but never this—this she simply could not understand. But the heavy, dull ache in her chest told her she’d been missing something—something huge, something obvious—the whole time she’d been with him.

  She pushed him away.

  “Evie, listen to me.”

  “You’re not Adam.”

  “I’m still Adam, damn it. I’m still the Adam you love.”

  Her head pounded with the rush of blood. She was drowning in it. “Why did you lie to me?”

  “I was lying to everyone! I wanted a break from that life. God, Evie, I’ve wanted to tell you. I swear. I just didn’t know how, but I was going to this morning. We were meant to hike to the waterfall.”

  Evie was going to be sick, and Adam—Michael—looked just as pained as she felt. The noise from the bar suddenly got louder, as if someone had opened the door, enabling the excitement to seep out into the night. Why had everyone gathered here? Why so many TV cameras and photographers? She stared at him and finally managed to speak against the constriction in her throat. “There’s something more than you being called Michael, isn’t there? More than you being an Olympic swimmer?”

  “Yes.”

  Adam was trying to hold onto her. Trying to tether her by taking her hands in his, but she wouldn’t let him. “Please, Evie. We can’t talk here … I need to explain it to you properly.”

  “Your wallet was never stolen, was it?” If he had an agent … if he modeled … “You must have lots of money.”

  “Y
es, fuck it, I do. But it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

  He pressed a kiss on her forehead, but she froze under the bare realization that she’d fallen in love with a lie. His stubble was rough on her skin as he apologized, saying something about making it all up to her, but all she could think about were his lies, his bloody lies, and how she’d fallen for them. She was such a fool.

  And there was more to come. She could sense it in the way he kept his lips pressed to her forehead, in the way he drew breath to speak, but didn’t.

  Her stomach curdled, thick with nausea. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

  “Yes.”

  She didn’t want to know. “What is it?”

  “I’m married.”

  “Damn right, he’s married!” A woman’s voice. Evie glanced up past Adam’s pain-stricken face. A woman stood on the path, tall and stunning, bright lights flashing behind her.

  “He’s married to me.”

  CHAPTER 31

  Michael pushed Evie behind him, protecting her with his body. “What the hell are you doing here, Saskia?”

  “Looking for my husband.”

  A bright flash went off, then another. He raised a hand to shield his face.

  “I’ll sort this out,” he whispered to Evie, extending his free hand behind him, desperate to take hers. “I swear, I’ll sort it out. Just remember I love you.” But his hand touched only air and leaves and the rough bark of the tree they’d been standing next to.

  Good, he thought. It was good that she’d run off to wait for him by the truck.

  Another flash went off.

  Evie needed to hide until all this craziness boiled over, until he dealt with Saskia and whoever the fuck it was taking photographs. He stepped out of the bushes onto the path, pushing past the paparazzi in his face, hoping they hadn’t seen Evie leave.