Chapter 11 Two Soggy Situations
TWO SOGGY SITUATIONS
What’s in your daypack?
Cole: Sunscreen, insect repellent, two water bottles, a couple of granola bars, and my phone.
Bridget: My phone, reading glasses, lipstick, hairbrush, extra hair ties, a bottle of water, my passport, my wallet, trail mix, ibuprofen, and Pepto Bismol tablets for Gina.
brIDGET
Holy. Shit.
I stared down at the reptile who was now in possession of both my passport and my phone. So, my life.
“What’d you lose?” Cole asked. “Do you need me to go after it?”
Oh my god. First, he’d given me the jacket off his back, and now he was offering to fight a crocodile for my passport? Who was this man, and what had he done with stony Cole Campion?
“No. He devoured it. It’s gone.” I sank onto the gently swaying metal bridge.
At least the rain had slowed, so I didn’t need his jacket anymore.
Still, I didn’t give it back. It smelled faintly of his aftershave, and it had been warm from his body when I’d first put it on, making it feel disconcertingly like I was getting a hug from Cole Campion.
Not that he’d ever touch me on purpose. Or that I wanted him to touch me.
As surreptitiously as I could, I hugged it to my chest and sniffed the collar.
“What was it?” he asked, dragging me back to our soggy situation.
“My passport and my phone.” A tiny moan escaped me.
“Why the fuck did you bring your passport on a hike?”
“I don’t know,” I wailed. “I thought someone might stop me and ask to look at it.”
“You think the Costa Rican migration police patrol the rainforest?” He looked around mockingly. Then he shot me a deadly serious glare. “Never walk around with your passport.”
“It was a mistake. And it just slipped out of my wet hands. So did my phone,” I said mournfully.
There were so many photos on that phone: all my sisters, my niece Ashlyn, my parents, my friends Tessa and Justine, and the rest of the Goddess Gang.
Most of them were backed up in the cloud, but the ones I’d taken here were probably gone forever.
And I’d taken such a cute photo of Gina and me standing next to a tree with an actual sloth curled up a few branches above.
“Forget about your phone. Your passport is the problem right now,” he said. “How are you going to get home?”
“Um, maybe there’s a form I can fill out online? Do you have any bars? Can I borrow your phone?”
“We’re in the fucking rainforest. There are no bars here.
Besides, you’re going to need to make a phone call.
And go to the embassy in San José. I know this because a buddy of mine got pickpocketed while we were on winter break in Rio.
It didn’t matter that he was the son of an ambassador.
He had to stand in line like everyone else. ”
I was a nobody, just someone who’d grown up in San Ramon, someone who’d qualified for free school lunches once upon a time.
“Are you okay?” His dark eyebrows slashed down.
It was only when he asked that I realized I was not, in fact, okay.
My hands had gone cold and trembly, even in the Central American warmth, and spots appeared in front of Cole’s face.
I put my head between my knees and tried to take a full breath.
“No,” I said miserably. The rain started again, and I shrugged back into Cole’s jacket.
“I’ll go down there. Maybe the crocodile spat it out when he caught on it wasn’t a fish.”
“Oh my god, no! That’s a wild animal who might take a chunk out of you. I’d never forgive myself. I’ll get a new passport and a phone.”
“Today’s Sunday. The embassy won’t be open, but you can head to San José tomorrow and take care of it. You’d be back in time to wrap up the retreat on Tuesday.”
I lifted my head. Had he somehow oiled up my passport to sabotage me? Maybe there had been grease in the sleeves of his jacket to force the booklet out of my hand. He’d look like the hero for the end of the retreat, and I’d look like the jerk who couldn’t hold it together for four full days. Shit!
I took another breath. I was being unreasonable.
He had nothing to do with my dropping my passport.
It was all my own stupid fault. Still, there was no way I’d miss a minute of this retreat that was a crucial element of my ninety-day plan.
“No, I’ll stay until the end and deal with it on Wednesday.
I bet I can get to the consulate early enough to catch the last flight home. ”
Time stretched when he said nothing. A toucan croaked nearby and a frog trilled. “Okay,” he said at last. “Want to turn around or keep going?”
There was nothing I could do about my passport today. “Keep going. I want to see the view from the top.”
That was the moment the rain turned into a downpour, and not even Cole’s jacket could keep me dry.
“Ever been kayaking before?” Cole’s voice was low in my ear the next day as we stood in a circle watching the guide’s safety presentation.
“No,” I whispered so only he would hear.
“Why the fuck would you plan a kayaking trip if you’ve never been?”
I looked up into his eyes, which were the same color as the wings of the blue morpho butterfly he’d pointed out to me on the walk from the shuttle bus.
As a woman, it irritated me that his eyes were prettier than mine, a deep blue color ringed by thick, dark lashes.
“Where’s your sense of adventure, Cole? Or do you only play games you think you can win? ”
“I have an excellent sense of adventure, thank you,” he said stiffly. “I just…I worry about you sometimes.”
Worry about me? The last thing I wanted from Cole was pity.
I was reasonably in shape, and I’d been only a little out of breath when we’d reached the misty summit yesterday and gazed down onto the stunningly teal water inside the caldera.
“What, because I’m”—I dropped my voice further—“forty-three? I’ll admit it, I’m ten years closer to retirement than you are—”
“Nine,” he interrupted. “I’m nine years younger than you.”
“Whatever. I’m not ready for the retirement home yet.
” I remembered how old forty seemed when I was in my twenties and even in my early thirties.
And now I was well on the wrong side of it.
Sure, I’d overestimated my hiking abilities when I slipped on the way back down from the summit and tweaked my ankle.
Call me stubborn, but I refused to limp.
Cole would consider me weak, since no human was as fit as him.
I definitely hadn’t ogled the thick thighs his shorts revealed.
“I wasn’t saying—”
“Senorita Bridget.” The guide used his paddle to point at the sunshine-yellow kayak next to Gina.
“Com—”
“She’s with me,” Cole said.
“What?” I tilted my head and peered at him.
“Gina’s a newbie too,” he said. “Together, you two’d tip in about three seconds.”
“No, we—” But I stopped. It wasn’t worth arguing. The guide had taken Cole’s words as gospel and assigned Miguel as Gina’s partner. Too bad. It would’ve been fun to paddle with her, whether or not we went anywhere.
“How do you know she’s not an experienced kayaker?” I asked.
“She’s wearing her life vest wrong,” he said. He barked out an order to the guide to check Gina’s vest. “And so are you.”
“What?” I glanced down at it. Everyone else’s was blue, but mine was neon orange. I suspected it was a child’s size. “The guide already checked me.”
“And he was probably afraid you’d bite his hand off if he cinched it tight enough.” He waved at the vest. “May I?”
I scanned his face. Was he trying to sabotage me? He probably planned to dump me in the water, where my vest would float off, and I’d sink to the bottom and be devoured by a crocodile. Maybe the same one who’d chomped on my passport. Then he’d be the sole CEO.
“If I die on this trip,” I said, “the company pays out a massive amount to my family.”
“Our insurance pays out a massive amount to your family. And this is why I’d rather you not tip in a kayak with another noob or have your vest ride up and smother you. Can I fix it?”
“Fine.” I held my arms away from my body.
Silly me. I hadn’t expected my breath to quicken when his big hands approached my breasts or how deftly his thick fingers would dance over the straps on the jacket, and definitely not how a tiny gasp would escape me when he snugged the vest around my chest.
His eyebrows crashed down, and he cleared his throat. “That feel okay?”
“Fi—” I fought to bring air into my lungs, not because of the tightness of the vest but because suddenly, someone had sucked all the oxygen out of the rainforest. “Fine.”
“Good.” When he turned toward our bright blue kayak, I breathed again.
The others hadn’t fussed with their vests and were already grabbing their boats by the straps and teaming up to carry them down to the riverbank. I spotted the strap on the end closest to me and reached for it when Cole said, “Stand back.”
Good idea. He hadn’t even touched my body, only the inch-thick foam over it, and my heart was racing like a teenager’s at her first boy-girl dance.
There were a million flowers here, and one of them must act as a hallucinogen.
Or I was dehydrated. I shuffled backward under the shade and pulled out my water bottle.
In one smooth motion, he grabbed the side of the boat, flipped the thing onto his thighs, and hoisted it to his shoulder.
Whoa. The water was definitely not helping.
My tongue was dry as I watched his shoulder muscles bulge under his T-shirt, and I let my gaze trail down his strong back to his glutes and thighs in his Bermuda shorts as he carried it down the bank.
“Coming, Bridget?” he called over his shoulder.
I almost did from watching you. Dammit, it was not cool to ogle my coworker. My younger coworker, whom I hated. I shook my head to rattle out the inappropriate thoughts. “On my way.”