Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
“And you just… popped up here?”
I cross my arms and narrow my eyes on him. “Yes.”
“For… personal reasons?”
I glare at him for a long moment and then roll my eyes with a huff of breath. “Fine! I’ll tell you. But you have to promise not to laugh at me.”
“Okay,” he says, looking at me funny.
“You’re already laughing!”
He puts his hands up. “I’m not. You can tell me. It’s okay.”
Oh my god.
I suck in a breath and then huff it out. This is so embarrassing.
“I was on a cruise ship and it was margarita night. They had these cute little umbrellas on them and the most delicious salty rim, you can’t imagine!”
My mouth waters as I remember the unbelievable taste.
“Okay,” he says, coaxing me on.
“I had a few too many of them,” I say as my cheeks start to heat up.
“Were you there with a boyfriend?” he asks.
I notice how he gets all stiff and surly as he waits for my answer. What’s that about?
“No, I was there on my own for vacation.”
His body relaxes as I continue.
“I have my own little accounting business, well, had my own business. I’m sure all of my clients have moved on now that I’m MIA. Maybe Sarah hasn’t moved on. She always loved the way I filed her invoices with color-coded sticky tabs.”
It still sucks to think that I’ve lost my business after working so hard to get it started. That’s what you get for going on vacation, I guess. One vacation in four years and this is what happens. Typical.
I come to and he’s staring at me, patiently waiting for me to continue.
“Right, sorry. So, I was having some fun with the margaritas and there was this pole dancing class earlier in the afternoon.”
“Pole dancing?” He swallows hard as he says it and his jaw gets a little tight. Either he’s picturing me swinging around a pole in lacy lingerie or he hates the idea of someone abusing poles. Not sure.
“So, at the party, I got a little drunk and wanted to show off my new pole dancing skills.”
Oh, this is so humiliating…
I take another deep breath and force myself to continue.
“I grabbed onto the flag pole, swung myself around like a wannabe stripper, and flew right off the cruise ship.”
His brown eyes widen in shock.
“You swung off?”
“Oh yeah. Dropped down three layers of cruise ship and smacked into the freezing cold ocean. That sobers you up real fast, let me tell you. By the time I swam back up to the surface, the cruise ship was quickly gliding away on the water and leaving me in the darkness. I could hear the bass of the music slowly fading away.”
“No one saw you go over?”
“Apparently, not. Nothing happened. No sirens. No hunky lifeguards jumping in after me. No brake lights. The giant cruise ship didn’t back up with the beep beep beeping sound. Nothing. It just sailed off into the night, leaving me stranded in the middle of the ocean.”
He’s staring at me in shock.
“Yeah.”
“Wow,” he says as my embarrassing origin story swirls around in that gorgeous head of his before sinking in.
I guess I shouldn’t be too ashamed. We both have embarrassing origin stories on this island. He ran out of gas and I pole-danced off a cruise ship. Totally equal.
“And you just… treaded water?”
“I floated on my back until the sun came out and then I spotted an empty gas can bobbing in the water a few yards away. That thing saved my life. You know, everyone complains about the garbage in the ocean, but it does come in handy every once in a while. I grabbed it, held on, and floated until this island popped up on the horizon. It took me a while to kick all the way here, but I made it eventually.”
He watches me for a long moment and then raises an eyebrow. “Do you still remember those pole dancing moves?”
I slap his arm and he laughs. I can’t help but blush.
We continue walking and the humiliation fades. It is kinda funny. It’s so me. I can’t wait to tell my older sister. She’ll die laughing whenever I get to tell her. If I ever get to tell her.
“So, you’re a pilot?” I ask, wanting to hear this intriguing man talk some more.
“I was in the Air Force,” he says as he finishes carving his sharp spear and tosses the rock on the ground. “Now, I just fly for fun.”
“What do you do for work?”
He looks around the jungle with a shrug. “I guess nothing anymore. I’m a wild man now.”
“Yes, you are,” I whisper as I glance at his big muscular arms.
“I started my own business making telescopes,” he says. “Pretty random, I know. But it’s always been a lifelong dream.”
“Cool,” I say, wondering what I can say next to sound smart. “I loved looking at telescopes in science class. All of the amoeba and… other stuff.”