by Amanda Tru
He slid into the chair in the middle of the island so she could have the end one with her bad foot. “How did you sleep?”
“Fine. I nap on that couch all the time. It’s one of my favorite places in the world.”
Joel didn’t know if he believed her or not, but he appreciated the sentiment. “Thanks.”
She sat next to him and bumped her shoulder into his. “I do wish you would have told me last night. I would have stayed out here all night.”
“I know, but I was hopeful. I prayed hard, did the relaxation breathing techniques I’ve learned, counted backwards. It surprised me how quickly I fell asleep. If only the nightmares had stayed away, I would have been fine.”
“But they didn’t,” she pointed out gently. “And if we’re here another night, we’ll both sleep out here again.”
Clari let her head flop back. “This is one time I wish Afi would let us have a television and DVDs in the cabin. Usually, there’s a ton of us here, so there’s always something to do and someone to do it with.”
Joel raised an eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m tired of board games for two people. You need at least three and really four or five to make most games worthwhile. Movies would give us something else to do.”
“What about MyBingeFlix on your phone? Stream a movie that way.”
Clari popped up as best she could. “That’s brilliant.” She grabbed her crutches. “I have my laptop in the car. I have some movies downloaded on it.” She had a couple of the Happily Ever After TV movies on there. Would Joel go for HEA TV?
“Wait!”
She stopped and looked at Joel. “What?”
“I’ll go. You’ve got those ridiculous crutches. You’ll get hurt.”
She sat back down and hoisted her leg up onto the couch. Stupid boot. She was so ready to be done with it. “Thank you!” she called as he walked out the door.
Her phone buzzed. The auto shop in town. The man told her what she’d expected to hear. As she hung up, Joel returned, her laptop bag in hand along with a backpack. He’d mentioned being a student, hadn’t he? Was he missing classes? He closed the door, stomped his feet, and shuddered.
“So it’s still snowing?” Despite the mid-afternoon hour, it was dark outside, and she couldn’t really see.
“Yep. Still coming down hard, too, though I think it’s slowing down. Did you ever get a call from the shop in town?”
“They called while you were outside. They’ll let us know when they can send someone out, but that it’ll probably be tomorrow.”
Her phone buzzed again. She swiped across the screen. “Hi, Afi.”
“Hello, Sonardóttir. Are you still at the cabin?”
“Of course.”
He sighed. “I got a call from your surprise.”
Clari blinked. “My surprise is a person?”
“Yes. Gina is on her way, but her flight has been delayed due to weather. She was supposed to meet you at the cabin yesterday. She was the treasure at the end of your hunt.”
Clari’s shoulders slumped. “And I’ve missed a full day with her.”
“She hopes to be in tomorrow morning. She’s in Auverignon just waiting for the storm to break and will be on the first flight over.”
“Thanks, Afi. We’ll be here waiting.” Clari winced as she realized what she said.
“We?”
“Joel. He’s the Yfir Delivery driver who delivered the flowers. I can’t drive, so I hired him as my Yfir driver, but he didn’t realize how much further the cabin was from town or how much extra fuel he’d used coming up the mountain. The shop in town will bring us more after the storm stops.”
“I’m not sure I like this, Sonardóttir.” She heard the frown in his voice.
“His sister is Rachel from the yarn store Amma loves so much.”
“Amma loves Rachel and Anabelle,” Afi admitted.
“See? Joel’s a good guy. He’s got approval to deliver to the palace. He could even deliver to some of the offices in the palace if he had an escort, not just the security office.” The Queen Mother’s office was not one of those locations, though. That’s why she’d had to come down.
“Very well. But if he tries anything...”
Clari smiled. “I know, Afi. I can take care of myself. Or beat him with one of my crutches.”
Joel’s head snapped up. She rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. He smiled and turned back to the text on his phone.
After a minute of exchanging “I love yous,” and having him tell her an interesting tidbit of information, she hung up. “You won’t believe this.”
“What?”
“Afi said he and Amma have a television and DVD player in their room along with a ton of DVDs.”
Joel chuckled. “Figures. Want me to move it out here? Would they be okay with that as long as we move it back?”
“He suggested it.” She tried to get more comfortable. “If you wouldn’t mind, I would appreciate it.”
She laid her head back and tried not to let tears overwhelm her. Gina was just a few miles away. A few hundred miles, but so much closer than the thousands of miles away she usually was.
“You all right?” Joel’s voice sounded strained. When she opened her eyes, Clari realized it was because he carried a television - much larger than she expected. He set it on one of the coffee tables. “What is it?”
“Afi told me what the surprise was.” A tear leaked out of one eye. “My best friend was supposed to be here yesterday, but she’s stuck in Auverignon until the weather clears in Akushla.”
“I’m sorry. Is there any ETA yet?”
Another tear followed the first. “Hopefully, she’ll make it to Akushla tomorrow morning then drive up.”
“And then I will get out of your hair.”
Clari sat up and stared at her reflection in the window. “You’re not in my hair.”
In the window-mirror, she watched Joel walk toward her. He took the spot next to her on the couch and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. As he pulled her closer to him, she felt warmth and safety surround her. How could she be so comfortable with Joel already?
“Thanks,” she whispered.
His hand rubbed up and down her arm. “My pleasure.” They sat in silence for another moment. “Now, what do you say we get this set up and watch a movie?”
“I think that sounds like a great idea. Why don’t you get the DVD player and pick a movie? I’ll get it all plugged in.”
“Sounds great.” He stood and walked back into her grandparents’ room.
Clari hobbled over to the television using one of her crutches to hold her weight. It took a bit of maneuvering, but she managed to get a power strip plugged in, and the television plugged into it.
“Okay, here we go.” Joel walked out of the room with the DVD player and a small stack of DVDs. “We’re going to have a marathon.”
“What kind of marathon?” She had no idea what kind of movies her grandparents would have stockpiled, except that it wouldn’t be anything remotely inappropriate. Likely a bunch of things mostly suited for small-to-medium-sized children.
He set it all down, then held up one movie box with a giant grin on his face. “Jurassic Park.”
Joel gaped at Clari as he pulled the bag of popcorn out of the microwave. “You’ve never seen any of the Jurassic movies?”
“Nope. Not a fan of the genre.”
“What genre? Dinosaurs?” He dumped the popcorn into a bowl.
“Thriller. Isn’t that what it is?”
Joel set the bowl down next to Clari. “I guess, but not really, I don’t think. It’s a zoo full of dinosaurs that escape, and people try to live through it. Plus there’s dinosaurs.”
She took a handful of popcorn. “I don’t see the fascination.”
He opened the box and popped the DVD out. “Give it a try. If you don’t absolutely love it, we’ll skip to Jurassic World. Even if you don’t love the genre, it’s got Chris Pratt in it.” Every girl lik
e Chris Pratt, didn’t they? His sister and Anabelle sure did.
With a long-suffering sigh and a twinkle in her eye, she agreed. Joel finished getting it set up, made sure the remote was next to Clari, then turned most of the lights off.
He sat on the other end of the couch from her and tried not to remember what it was like when he had his arm around her half an hour earlier. The rush of emotion had caught him off-guard. She was nice, clearly good to her family and grandparents, pretty, but he hadn’t thought himself overly attracted to her.
That changed when he saw the first tear fall.
A memory flashed through his mind. Rachel had been dating some guy the first time she’d seen this movie. They’d sat next to each other on the couch. Every time Rachel startled at a dinosaur coming out of nowhere, she’d grabbed onto that guy.
Maybe he should offer to sit closer to Clari.
“You know, if you’re not used to thrillers,” he started, “you might want a pillow to hold onto.” Chicken.
“I may make you come sit over here so I can smack you every time I’m scared.” She tossed her pillow at him. “In fact, I think I’m going to.”
While the popcorn had popped, they’d rearranged the room a little some. There was no shortage of chairs and sofas to sit on, or low tables for the television. They’d moved Clair’s favorite couch a couple meters from the television and put several ottomans in front of it to prop their feet on. By the time she settled back down, Clari was close enough their arms nearly brushed against each other.
The opening scene with the velociraptor in the cage killing the worker wasn’t overly startling though Clari hugged the pillow to her chest.
“This isn’t gory, is it? I don’t do gore.”
“Not really. You do see a guy kind of get eaten, but there’s very little blood.” He grimaced. “That sounds worse than it is. I wasn’t even ten yet the first time I saw it.”
“Okay.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“And you’ve got a while before anything else bad happens.” Did she mind the spoilers?
She glanced at him, uncertainty all over her face, but she didn’t say anything. About the time the cast headed back to the Jeeps from the sick Triceratops, Clari looked over at him. “I thought this movie had more dinosaurs and scariness.”
“It will.”
“And that’s when I’ll hit you with the pillow?”
He grinned and reached for popcorn. “Probably.”
By the time the game warden drove the gas-powered Jeep away from the chasing T-Rex, Clari was curled up as close to him as she could get with her boot on, and his arm was wrapped around her shoulders.
“Can we be done now?” she whispered into his shoulder.
“What if I told you only one more person dies?” Right? “No. Two, but you only kind of see one of them. Sort of.”
“You mean people actually get off this island alive?” Her skepticism was well-founded.
“Of course. How else could there be sequels?” He rubbed a hand up and down her arm. “And we’ve got a while before anything else bad happens.”
“You said that last time.”
“And I was right last time.”
She finally looked back up at the screen as Dr. Grant climbed the tree with the kids to pass the night.
By the time the helicopter showed up, she’d laughed a few times, jumped a few more, and even grabbed his shirt once - and didn’t let go.
As the music played, Joel took the remote and hit stop. “It wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Clari slowly unfolded herself and moved away from him. “I guess not. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.”
“We’ll skip II and III then. They’re worse. In II, they take a T-Rex from the backup island to San Diego, and he gets loose.”
She raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like the smartest thing ever.”
“Exactly. I think III is worse in terms of on-screen deaths and stuff. We can go straight to Jurassic World and Chris Pratt. There’s probably more deaths, but they’re mostly off-screen, and there’s not much blood.”
Clari stretched her arms over her head. “I can do that. Want more popcorn?”
He stood, needing a few minutes away from the sudden attraction he’d been feeling. “I’ll make it.”
But when he returned after putting the next movie in and sat back in his corner of the couch, she immediately curled up next to him.
“I don’t want to watch this alone.”
“You won’t. I’m right here.” His arm wrapped around her shoulders and tugged her closer. Before he realized what he was doing, Joel turned and pressed a kiss against the top of her head.
Clari looked up. “Did you really just do that?”
He had to look like a deer in the headlights. “Do what?”
“Kiss my head?”
His gaze flickered from her eyes to her lips. Did he dare? Was this really what he wanted to do?
Yes.
Without waiting for Clari to say anything else, Joel kissed her.
Clari found herself sitting next to Joel, but not paying any attention to Jurassic World. From what she could tell from staring at the screen but not really seeing what was happening, Joel had been right that it wasn’t overly gory. She didn’t do gory. Never had. To be honest, the first movie hadn’t been as bad as she expected, but she had found herself rather enjoying being so close to Joel
The movie ended with Claire and Owen walking off into the sunrise. She’d have to watch it again sometime when she was better able to focus.
“I think I’m ready to go to sleep.” Clari moved away from Joel. That kiss had been replaying in her mind for the last two hours, and she still wasn’t sure how she felt about it.
“If you want to sleep in your room, I’ll be fine.” Joel stood up and headed for the DVD player. “You don’t need to sleep on the couch.”
She didn’t believe him for a minute. He needed someone to be in the room with him. She hadn’t been lying when she told him this was her favorite couch. Without commenting to Joel, she grabbed one of her crutches and made her way to her room. Once she was ready for bed, she went back out into the living area and laid down on the couch.
“I mean it. You don’t have to stay out here.” Joel was getting his bed ready on another couch.
“I don’t mind. Really. I’d rather sleep out here and you not have nightmares, than sleep in my room and have you have nightmares.” Did that even make any sense?
“Well, thank you. I appreciate it.”
As she settled into sleep, Clari heard Joel’s even breathing from near the window. Would Gina get there in the morning? Or would it be another day or longer before she made it? At least they were supposed to get to spend a week and a half together. That meant even missing the first couple of days would leave them plenty of time.
The next morning they woke up to banging on the door. Clari wrapped a blanket around her shoulders as she used her crutch to help her across the room. Joel just looked groggy. She opened the door to find an employee of the auto shop in town standing there.
“I've been told you need fuel?” he asked.
“Yep. Let me get the keys so you can open the tank.” Joel tossed them to her, and she handed them to the man. He thanked her and headed for the car she closed the door but watched out the window. Joel started a pot of coffee. When the man came back with the keys a few minutes later, she opened the door and invited him in.
“Would you like something warm to drink?” she asked. “What do we owe you?”
“Nothing. Your grandparents have always been great customers. It’s our pleasure to help you out. I do have an insulated mug in the car I wouldn’t mind filling up with some coffee though.”
He handed over the keys and left to get his cup. Clari tossed the keys back to Joel, who put them in his pocket. She hadn’t considered that he had no extra clothes. He was still wearing the same thing he had been when he dropped off the flowers. At least she had clo
thes to change into in the cabin. “You can head back whenever you’re ready,” she told him.
“I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”
“I’m a big girl. I can handle myself.”
“How will you get home when the time comes?” he challenged.
“Gina will be here later today. She’ll have a car. Or my afi will come get me.”
“I’m not leaving you here by yourself,” he reiterated. “No more questions about it.”
Was he thinking about that kiss too? Or had he already forgotten about it? Was it really the best plan to stay here afterward? Alone together? The kiss had been intense, but not long. At the same time, it had hinted at so much more.
The auto shop employee came back with his coffee mug. She filled it up and handed it back to him. “Thank you so much for your help. We appreciate it.” He saluted with his coffee cup. “My pleasure.” As he started for the door, he continued. “Try to be a little more careful with how well you pay attention to your fuel consumption next time.”
“I will,” Joel told him.
And then they were alone again.
“So are we going to talk about what happened last night?” Joel asked her.
“I don’t know. You tell me.” She didn’t look at him.
“I think we probably should. Don’t you?”
“You kissed me. I kissed you back. End of discussion.” Wasn’t it? Did there have to be something more? But if there was, at least Amma would get off her back about finding a kærasti.
“Maybe.”
Clari took a seat on her couch. “It doesn’t need to be more than that. Just a nice kiss between two people forced to spend a bunch of time together unexpectedly.”
“Maybe,” he said again. “Or maybe there’s something more. You don’t think there’s an attraction between us that might turn into something?”
She shrugged. “I think I’m the first person you’ve told about being left alone since you were little. That means something to you.”
He didn’t reply, but sighed and turned toward the television. “I guess we’re ready to put this back? Or do you want to leave it out here for when Gina gets here? Or I can take you to Akushla with me, and then you come back with Gina driving.”
