“How are you so calm?”
“No one’s shooting at me,” he said, rolling out his shoulders. “What’s there to panic about?”
Iris opened her mouth to respond, then shut it again. The hint of purple silk waved to him from underneath the collar of her T-shirt, and Justin looked away. She’d actually been smart to pull her clothes on over her pj’s, because now she had more clothes to work with. And he had a feeling they’d need every supply they could get once they made it to the beach.
His stomach cramped from the lack of food, but he’d been through worse. There was nothing as hot and miserable as the Middle Eastern desert, and though he felt fried from being out on the water in the sun for hours, he’d survive.
And no one was shooting, so there was that too.
“All right,” he said, rowing parallel to the break now. “I think I’m going to try a bit farther down. It looks a little calmer.” He pushed against the waves, glancing over his shoulder to see when the next one was coming. They rowed past it, losing a few feet but gaining several. Pull after pull, he moved them toward the break, a grunt escaping as he put everything he had into the next drag.
“Come. On.” He strained against the water, angry with himself for ever finding the ocean beautiful. It certainly wasn’t now, not when he wanted it to help him and all it could do was work against him.
The oars came out of the water, and he started losing precious inches. He dove them right back in, heaving against the weight of the world while his muscles ripped and another groan tore from his mouth.
“You’ve got it,” Iris said. “Don’t give up, Justin.”
Her cheerleading wasn’t entirely necessary, but he liked it just the same. It gave him the drive and the strength to dig into the water one more time, pulling them the last few feet over the break.
Without anything giving him resistance now, he fell forward in the boat as the oars gave way—right onto Iris.
She grunted too, and Justin realized his face loitered only inches from hers. Her eyes were the clearest of blue, and Justin suddenly liked the color of them. Like the ocean.
The waves pushed the boat closer to the beach, and he used that momentum to get himself back up and onto the bench in the middle of the boat. “You can untie your hand,” he said, grabbing hold of the oars so they weren’t flopping around.
He checked their position, and sure enough, they were drifting toward the cliffs. Of course, the waves wouldn’t just guide them right to the white sand beach. But Justin could get them there. He rowed, bringing the boat back to the beach and where it would wash up on the shore.
When the bottom of the boat scraped sand, Justin took his hands off the oars, feeling calluses starting to form there. When he was an active SEAL, his hands would’ve been hardened and able to row a boat anywhere. Now, since he spent his time in front of a computer, he’d softened.
He jumped out of the boat, the shallow water warm against his legs, and pushed the boat up the shore. “We’ll need this, most likely,” he said, thinking they could use it for shelter, firewood, or any number of things he didn’t know about yet. To fashion a weapon. To get around to another part of the island. The possibilities were endless, and he didn’t need the ocean stealing the boat.
After pushing it up several more feet just in case the tide came in while they were exploring, Justin faced the beach in front of him. Palm trees. Banyans. Green, lush-covered land that swelled gently.
And behind him, the constant, never-ending rush of waves rolling in. Justin turned in a circle, searching and scanning for anything that made sense. Beside him, Iris finally got out of the boat, her pink-painted toes sinking into the sand beside him.
“Okay,” she said, her voice full of air, carefully concealing her panic.
“Okay,” he echoed, wishing his phone worked. He could call Theo, who had more money than he knew what to do with. He’d get a boat out to rescue them, and maybe Justin and Iris would only have to be here for a couple of days.
But his phone was now just a timepiece. “Shelter first,” he said. “Then we work on water. Then food.” He started up the beach, expecting her to follow.
“I’ve got the water purifier,” she said from behind him. “Why don’t we start there?”
“Because we need somewhere to stay out of the sun,” he said. “It’s brutal.” Sapping his energy, dehydrating him, and making him see things that weren’t there.
Like a beautiful woman he wanted to take to dinner. He shook his head and kept walking though Iris wasn’t following him. She would. She couldn’t survive out here without him.
He reached the tree line and stepped into the blessed shade. Relief hit him, and he refused to let his thoughts focus on anything but the mission at hand. Shelter. Water. Food. It wasn’t cold, and if they got the essentials in place, they’d be fine until help came.
What if help doesn’t come?
He pushed the thought away, because it didn’t do any good to hypothesize on what-ifs. He knew that. Had served enough missions where there’d been enough paths to take. He had to focus on the one right in front of him.
“Iris,” he called as he turned. She still hadn’t moved from her spot next to the boat. Annoyance flashed through him. And to think he’d thought he was ready to start dating. He’d even installed that singles app that had made Theo a billionaire and had been chatting with a few people.
He approached Iris and schooled his emotions into something as soft as he could. “Hey,” he said, stepping beside her. “You’ve got to get out of the sun. You’re red already.”
She looked up at him slowly, a glazed look in her eye. Shock. “They won’t see us if we go into the trees.” She sniffled and wiped her face with one hand.
“They’re not coming right now,” he said.
“When will they come?”
“In a few days,” he said. “I’m sure the boat radioed back that they were having trouble, and the cruise line will send a new boat. But that’s a day and a half. Two days.” Justin had no idea if what he said was true or not. He didn’t even know if the boat had been sunk.
But he didn’t think so. If so, where were all the other lifeboats?
He said nothing, because he didn’t want Iris to know he may have taken them from the safety of the bigger boat, one with a radio and a GPS, a tad prematurely.
But he’d heard the captain order the evacuation, even with his hearing aids turned down. He had. He’d seen the flashing lights, witnessed the lights on the boat go out, heard the cry of everyone still on board.
Foolishness hit him, further silencing him. Eventually, Iris turned and walked up the beach, leaving Justin to follow in her wake this time.
Hours later, as the sun sank into the ocean on his right, Justin finished tying the last string of bark around the branches he’d pulled down to make a shelter. He didn’t want to sleep in sand, and the raised platform would keep them dry as well.
His fingers had been bleeding as he ripped tree bark into strings, as he pulled branches from trees strong enough to hold their combined body weight. Everything hurt, and Iris stepped over to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
“Take these.” She held out a palm full of pills and an expandable plastic cup of water.
“You filtered that?”
“There was a single bottle of water in my hip pack,” she said. “But I’m going to figure out how to filter in the morning.” She offered him a weak smile, and Justin found it lovely in the waning sunlight.
He accepted the pills, swallowed them, and collapsed onto the shelter. He’d positioned two tree limbs at almost ninety-degree angles and draped the biggest palm fronds he could find from one branch to another to create a roof.
The platform was barely big enough for him, but Iris was slight and petite, and she’d fit against him just fine.
He breathed in and out, in and out, hoping the medicine would spread through him quickly. “We’ll search for fruit trees in the morning,” he said. “An
d I’m sure we can figure out the filtration system.”
Iris sat on the edge of the platform with her back to him, the breeze playing with her hair. “I can’t believe this is my vacation.”
“First time on a cruise,” he said, chuckling.
She turned and glared at him, but it only lasted a moment before her face dissolved into a smile too. And with that, she tucked herself into his chest, and Justin closed his eyes, hoping sleep would claim him tonight when it hadn’t last night.
Chapter Five
Iris woke long before the sun, but Justin’s even breathing and steady rise and fall of his chest indicated that he was still asleep. She enjoyed the weight of his arm over her waist, the heat of him behind her.
A smile touched her lips. Maybe this wasn’t how she wanted to spend her vacation. She wondered if Sam and Betty had even thought about her. She wondered where everyone else had gone in their lifeboats, and if they’d managed to stay together.
She needed to use the bathroom and figure out how to make the sea water drinkable. Eden had taught her enough to know that water was more important than food. She slipped from under Justin’s arm and went out into the forested part of the island, looking back every so often to make sure she didn’t get lost.
She relieved herself and went back for her hip pack, intending to fill that collapsible cup many times over before the end of the day. Humming to herself, she didn’t realize Justin was up until she reached the platform and found it empty.
Anxiety sprang through her, and she glanced around. “Justin?” Maybe he’d had to use the bathroom too. Her hip pack wasn’t hanging on the pole where she’d put it, and she bent to look in the sand.
“I have it,” Justin said, and she glanced up to see him walking toward her, shirt off.
Iris could only stare, dry-mouthed, as he approached. He held out her hip pack. “You’re looking for this, right?”
She only took the pack because he would’ve dropped it if she hadn’t. “Yeah,” she managed to say stupidly.
“So we have shelter,” he said. “Up next is water.”
“I can do it,” she said, wondering why he needed her pack that morning. “I didn’t wake you when I got up, did I?”
“No,” he said simply. “I think it wise to stay out of the sun as much as possible today.”
Iris didn’t like how he said things like they were law, and she took her pack toward the water’s edge. “I’ll get us something to drink.” She marched away from him, the rising sun already heating the sand.
So maybe he was right. Maybe it would be in their best interest to have a quick drink and lay around in the shade for most of the day.
“And do what?” she muttered. “Talk?” More like he’d boss her around, expecting her to do everything he said, when he said it.
She pulled out the water filtration system and unfolded the instructions. Half of them were in Spanish, and she turned them over to find the English section. This was a solar-powered desalination kit, and it said it could take several hours to get drinking water.
Her hopes fell, but she filled the bag the way the directions said to and set it in the sun, also according to the instructions. Her mouth felt like she’d brushed her teeth with sand, and she mourned the thought that she wouldn’t be able to properly care for her teeth in the immediate future.
Justin approached, and Iris didn’t want to tell him there would be no drink water until afternoon. If then. So she said nothing.
“Solar-powered?” he asked.
“Yes.” She brought her knees to her chest and stared out at the water. “Justin, where is everyone else?”
“I don’t know.” He sat down beside her and gazed at the ocean too. “I can go see what I can find us to eat.” He stood up again. “Don’t stay out here too long. I really do worry about you in the sun.”
With that, he walked away, the sand making shifting sounds as he did. Iris stayed for another moment, and then she scrambled to her feet. She didn’t want to be left alone, and she caught up to him by jogging several steps.
“So,” she said, blowing out her breath and wishing a little running in the sand didn’t leave her so winded. “Do you have a girlfriend back in Getaway Bay?”
Justin looked down at her out of the corner of his eyes. “Going right for the jugular, aren’t we?”
Iris didn’t know what that meant. “I’m sorry?” He seemed to be walking so fast now. So fast, and Iris couldn’t keep up.
Relief met her under the shade of the trees, and still Justin hadn’t answered her. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised. Maybe because she’d thought they were getting along. He may have gotten them to this island, but she had all the supplies in the hip pack. She’d worked just as hard as he had on the shelter yesterday, dragging branches through sand as if both surfaces were well-lubricated.
She’d ripped tree bark too. She’d held pieces in place while he tied everything together. She wasn’t as strong as he was, but it had taken both of them to build that shelter.
“Coconuts,” he said, pointing up. “How good are you at climbing trees?”
“You’re joking, right?”
Of course he was, because he stretched his arms and started for the tree. He scaled it as if he were part monkey and started throwing down coconuts. She got out of the way, grabbing one that rolled in her direction. She could open this. She would. She’d show Justin that she could do important tasks, just like him.
But she’d forgotten the all-in-one tool back at camp. It was fine. She could use the collapsible cup. She could.
In the end, he was the one who stabbed the end of the collapsible cup into the top of the coconut and then broke it open on the ground. He held the two pieces in two different hands and handed her one. “Drink the water.”
“I don’t like coconut water.”
He gave her a nasty look. “Drink it or die.”
She wasn’t sure where the kind, compassionate man had gone, but she much preferred him to this bossy, meatheaded Navy SEAL.
“What does SEAL stand for in Navy SEAL anyway?” she asked, lifting the coconut to her lips. The coconut water tasted bitter in her mouth, but she supposed he was right. She needed to eat and drink, and this was what they had.
“Sea, air, and land,” he said. “We’re trained to navigate obstacles and run missions in all conditions.” Their eyes met, and Iris could appreciate his good looks. But no amount of handsome made up for a salty personality.
“Have you ever navigated a deserted island?” she asked.
“I can’t say that I have.” He chipped away at the coconut in his part of the shell with a pair of nail clippers he’d found in her hip pack. He’d at least given her the spoon, so maybe chivalry wasn’t dead.
“I didn’t mean anything by asking you about your girlfriend,” she said, trying to get the tension between them to dissipate. “I’m sure she’s great.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said.
“Then why’d you get all bent out of shape when I asked?”
“Did I?”
“You said I went right for the jugular. Did you…have a bad experience or something?”
Justin continued to eat, a flush creeping up his neck and into his cheeks. Or maybe he was just sunburned. Iris wasn’t sure.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said. “And not much experience with women at all.” Their eyes met, and he quickly looked back at his coconut.
“Really?” she asked, surprise streaming through her. “Why not?”
“I served in the military for two decades,” he said. “I didn’t think I had time for a girl.” He shrugged. “I didn’t want to drag a family all over the place, and I didn’t want someone at home, worrying about me.”
Iris kept her attention down too, trying to figure out how she felt about what he’d said. “It’s nice to have someone at home, worrying about you.” She thought of her parents, of how worried they’d all been when Eden was stuck up on the bluffs. At le
ast then, she’d called and texted. They knew where she was and that she was alive.
Her emotions choked in her throat, making eating the coconut impossible. Her family had no idea where she was right now, or if she was even alive. “I can’t imagine how my family is taking this news.” She sniffled, because she’d let her emotions out in her voice already.
Justin reached over and squeezed her hand. “We’ll survive this, Iris. We have food. We have water. Or we will have. And we have shelter.”
“I’m scared,” she admitted, still unable to look at him.
“I’ve been in dozens of situations that scared me,” he said gently. “We can beat this.”
She looked at him then, finding the sheer determination in his gaze. He was strong and capable, and she nodded. “I’m trying.”
Confusion rippled his eyebrows. “Did I say you weren’t?”
“No,” she said. “I just…can’t do everything you can do.”
“You’re doing fine,” he said, chipping away at his coconut again. “So, just your family will be worried about you? No boyfriend in the picture?”
She could’ve imagined the interest in his voice, but Iris had some experience with men and flirting.
“Oh, I’m married to my business,” she said, almost hoping that would get him to back off. Or did she want him to pursue her? “I own We’ll Weed That, and it’s a busy job.”
He glanced at her again. “So no boyfriend.”
“No,” she said.
“Have you tried that dating app?”
“No,” she said again. “But my twin sister has.”
“Twin sister. Wow.” He smiled. “Does she look like you?”
“We’re mirror twins,” she said. “So very close, but her hair parts on the left, mine on the right. Stuff like that.” And Ivy had been messaging several men through Getaway Bay Singles, and she’d liked it. Told Iris all about it.
“Ivy loves the app,” she said. “She’s gone on a few dates, but I don’t think she’s found anyone she quite likes very much.” She liked this easier conversation. “She did mention a guy she’s been talking with a lot, but he hasn’t asked her out yet. Is that normal? How much do you talk to someone before you ask them out?”
Stranded with the SEAL Page 3
