“What is tha—”
“Off the boat,” Dean barks as he rushes toward me.
“But—”
Dean grabs me by the lifejacket and jumps into the water, taking me with him. I bob up out of the water a second later, sputtering and wiping the salty spray out of my eyes. Dean drags me back toward the beach so fast my feet don’t touch the sand until we’re on dry land.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I yell over the rising wind, smacking him on the chest as soon as I can stand on my own two feet.
“Something is wrong with the electrical.” He yells back over the wind. “It’s not safe!”
I remember that sharp odor, and my stomach clenches.
“The blower wouldn’t start and if there’s a spark, it could—”
Phhhhhhhhht.An odd noise comes from the boat and both of us whip around, trying to place the sound.
“What was—”
BOOM!
A wave of heat and a deafening explosion hit me in the chest. Dean grabs me and throws me down in the sand, covering me with his body. My ears are ringing and I can feel Dean’s breath warm on my shoulder as he sucks deep, adrenaline-fueled gulps of air above me.
Then his weight lifts off me, the wind chilling my wet clothes as I sit up. Staring out at the cove, I put a hand over my mouth. The boat’s practically torn in two, flames licking at the fiberglass hull, at least what little is still sticking out of the water. Most of the boat is submerged in the shallow cove.
I glance at Dean, too shocked to say anything. He’s staring out at the wreckage, eyes wide and mouth gaping. He has a hand fisted in his hair and he’s pulling it so hard it looks painful.
“My boat,” he mutters.
“Dean,” I say, trying to ease his grip, wiggling my fingers under his. He lets go and turns to stare at me. I feel like he’s moving in slow motion, but my heart is pounding a million miles an hour.
“Dean. Dean, what are we going to do?” My hands start shaking, and he’s still sitting there like a zombie. “Oh, shit. Dean, we’re stuck out here. Oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit.”
4
Dean
I’m paralyzed, watching the waves wash over the remnants of my boat, snuffing the last of the flames. It’s all I can see. My fucking boat just blew up. It just blew up twenty yards from me and could have killed us both. Sutton could have died, and it would have been my fault.
Sutton’s voice pierces my fog, growing louder and more frantic with every word.
“… and we’re going to die out here. What the fuck are we going to do, Dean? It’s not like we can fucking swim back to Sugar Creek. I’m going to die on this stupid rock! Cool. Fucking cool. I guess you’re just going to sit there and wait for the inevitable, then.”
Her voice is so high pitched she sounds like a squeaky toy as she gasps for breath. She’s squeezing my hand so hard, she’s going to leave bruises. I don’t even remember taking her hand, but I squeeze it back as I run my other hand down my face, only to remember that I’m covered in sand.
Sutton is full-on panicking, rambling about starving to death.
“Sutton,” I try to interrupt, but she doesn’t stop.
“It’s going to be the fucking Donner party out here but just the two of us and I’m telling you right now, I’m probably all stringy-”
“Sutton, calm your tits.” I put my hand over her mouth. Outrage flashes in her emerald eyes and I like that a hell of a lot more than the wide-eyed panic. “No one is eating anyone.”
Although, in another context, I could make a meal out of her. But I’m guessing this is a piss-poor time for dirty jokes.
“It’s going to be fine. People know where we are. The boat has… well,hadGPS. When we don’t turn up back at the dock tonight, they’ll come looking for us. It’ll be tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest.”
I pull my hand away from her face and do my best to wipe the sand off her skin. She stares up into my eyes for a long moment. “Oh. Well... I hadn’t thought of that. Sorry I panicked.”