“Stay with you?” I repeat, my heart starting to pound.
“Yes,” he says.
“Are you asking or—”
“I’m asking, Daisy. I’m asking that if you move to New Zealand, that we can be together. And if you go to a school somewhere else, we can be together there, too.”
My stomach flips. Butterflies have been unleashed.
“You’d want that?”
“Gingersnap,” he says, pressing his forehead against mine. “I’ll go wherever you go. All I know is that I’m going to be with you. I told you that. One sunrise at a time, with me by your side.”
I thought those were pretty words. I didn’t think he really meant it.
“What about your chartering company?”
“I’ll make it work. You’re never too far from the ocean when you live on an island.” He kisses me softly on the lips. “You have no idea what I’d do for you.”
My god.
I am melting inside.
Whatever glacier my heart used to be has fully dissolved and I am nothing but a puddle. A sappy puddle of love.
Ugh.
Is this the person I’ve become?
One madly in love? Yup.
“Well, you have no idea what I’d do for you,” I tell him, kissing him back, my hand sliding down his rock-hard abs, toward his swim trunks. “And I mean, sexually. In case you didn’t know.”
“You’re never not obvious,” he says, lying on his back and watching me as I take his already hard cock out of his trunks and make a fist. I start running my hand up and down his soft, rigid shaft, watching him watch me, before his eyes roll back and his head flops down on the sand.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve done a good old-fashioned handjob. It’s a skill that’s sorely overlooked.
“God, don’t stop,” Tai says through a groan. “Keep going.”
My hand goes faster and faster and—
“Hey! Hey you guys!”
Oh my god.
I quickly let go of his cock, and look up to see the dinghy approaching us from across the lagoon.
Lacey is sitting at the front, waving her arms at us, looking to be smiling or something. Richard and Fred are behind her, also looking joyous.
Tai sits up, quickly tucking his dick away with a frustrated groan. “What the hell is she so happy about?” he grumbles. “Cockblocker.”
Lacey was supposed to come over here later, and we were going to have a spa day, where I’d light my candle and give her a pedicure (sand makes the best foot scrub), but I have a feeling that’s not it. Unless the boys want pedicures too. There’s no way I’m touching Fred’s feet.
The boat is barely at the shore when Lacey is climbing over the bow, and jumping into the water, running through it toward us, grinning.
She looks insane.
“What’s going on?” I ask her warily.
“We’re getting rescued!” she yells, barreling right into me and pulling me into a hug. “We’re getting rescued!”
I stare at Tai over my shoulder, confused, too afraid to believe her.
“Is this true?” Tai asks them.
“It’s the truth, Captain,” Richard says, grinning. He points to his missing tooth. “And not a moment too soon, I think I was getting used to this look.”
“We’re getting rescued!” Lacey continues to squeal, jumping up and down as she holds me. My brains are getting jostled, it’s hard to know what’s right.
I look to Fred for help.
He nods, standing in the water beside the boat. “We have two hours to pack and get ready. Plane is already on route from Nadi as we speak.”
“This is happening so fast,” I say. “What happened?”
Lacey stops bouncing. “I told you that it would happen.”
“Well, actually I told you all it would happen,” Fred says, adjusting his ball cap. “It’s been two weeks.”
“Yeah but…I thought that we’d get a bit of warning first…” Tai says.
“No warning. Everything’s last minute. But it’s great isn’t it?”
“Are you coming back with us?” I ask Fred. I’ve grown to really like this man. And his goat.
He wiggles his mustache. “Nah. I’m staying. Can’t leave Wilson behind. But they’re bringing in a new researcher, so that’s very exciting. His name is Owen. Supposed to be brilliant. As long as Owen doesn’t smell weird, I’m good. I put in a request for better coffee too, so here’s hoping.” He makes a show of crossing his fingers.
We’re getting rescued.
WE’RE GETTING RESCUED!
It hits me like a jackhammer.
This is actually happening.
We’re actually leaving this place.
We’re going home—wherever home may be.
“Oh my god,” I whisper, the tears coming to my eyes as I’m overwhelmed with awe. “This is happening. We’re being rescued.”
“We’re going to be okay,” Lacey says to me tearfully.
She hugs me again, hard.
Then Richard hugs the both of us.
Then Tai hugs us three.
And finally, Fred wraps himself on the end.
“Group hug,” Fred says. “You were the finest castaways I’ve ever known.”
He sniffles.
Great, if Fred’s crying, now I’m crying.
I’m pretty sure all of us could have stayed in that group hug for a while, sniffling tears of joy, had Richard not said, “How large is the aircraft, Fred? Do you think it’s big enough for Daisy’s luggage?”