Chapter Twenty-Nine
This is nice.Being stranded on an island with Coop makes me feel so incredibly happy that I almost forget how we ended up here and that I have a job to do. Everything got soaked from the storm, so both of our phones are completely useless. Sure wish I had that satellite phone right about now. I should have listened to my gut and purchased one instead of listening to the recommendations about not needing one.
Coop is currently down at the plane to see if he can contact someone to come rescue us, while I begin organizing and drying out the equipment. The sky is still a bit cloudy, so I am trying to move it all to a location where it will stay dry, just in case it rains again. I have inventoried all of the snacks and have them in a large gallon Ziplock bag inside of Coop’s backpack. He told me to keep an eye on the food because there are little critters who like to steal on these islands, and that is the last thing we need to happen. Instead of setting it down, I have it strapped to my back; no way in heck is a stinking critter going to steal away my snacks. Once he is done at the plane, we will make our way to the springs to fill up our bottles with water.
I’m busy organizing things as Coop walks up behind me, making me jump. “No one answered my call, but they have to know we are here from the emergency call I made just before we crashed. Whoa… Sorry, Sunshine. Didn’t mean to scare you.” He wraps his arms around me and kisses my cheek.
“Why do you keep calling me Sunshine?” I turn around, and that’s when I realize he is shirtless and now I am gawking at him as I look him up and down.
“Holy mother of hot tamales,” I blurt out, and I am pretty sure he flexes as he laughs at my reaction, my cheeks flaming from what I said.
“I can put a shirt back on if you’re too distracted, Sunshine.” He just stands there in all of his perfect glory, his tan skin glistening in the sunlight as I take him in.
“No… no. You’re fine.” I say too quickly, making his cheeks blush a little. “Also, I think you might have heard me wrong. I said, I wish I had some tamales. I’m hungry.” I turn my back to him, hoping he’ll buy it, as I hear him chuckle behind me.
“Yeah. I’m sure you are, Molly. But not for tamales.” I have to fan myself with my hand as I pack my backpack. He isn’t wrong. That man is delicious.
“Are you about ready to go fill up our water bottles?” Nodding my head, I hand him the backpack with snacks and strap my own backpack on as we head out.
We have been walkingfor about ten minutes when I see stakes and tape in the distance. “Can we check the nesting sites really quickly before we go inland for the water?” Coop stops, folding his arms across his chest, causing his muscles to bunch and flex, and I have to look away before my face turns red again.
“We can probably stop for a bit, but we really need to get that water before the sun starts to go down.” We head for the closest nest and can see right away that it looks different than when we first saw it. Little pieces of eggshells are scattered around the deflated dome, an indicator that the babies have hatched and made their way to sea.
I move to the next one, and it still looks like it hasn’t hatched yet. I get a giddy feeling in my stomach as we continue to move on. “Coop, most of these haven’t hatched. That means we could still see them if we are here tonight. We could probably even tag a few of the mommas that come in to lay their eggs, if we are lucky.” I look up at him, and his eyebrows are furrowed, a scowl on his face.
“You cannot be serious… Molly, your job is no longer our concern. We crash landed on an uninhabited island. Survival is our main goal here, not some sea turtles.” I draw back, his words like a slap to my face.
“But… but…,” I don’t have a chance to speak because he is moving away from me, shaking his head as he walks. His fists clenched in frustration.
“You don’t get it, do you? You could have died, Molly. Died.” He spits out the words as he turns around.
“I know, Coop.” I look down at my feet as I think about how scared I was when I came to, and he wasn’t there. “I was so afraid when I woke up and didn’t know where you were. I don’t know what I would have done if you had left me here alone.” My lip starts to quiver, and he is in front of me in an instant, wrapping his arms around me, my face resting on his chest, his heartbeat pounding under my ear.
“I’m sorry, Sunshine. I’m sorry,” he whispers into my hair as he holds me to him. “If we are still here tonight, we can watch the babies and tag the mommas. I promise.” I pull back and look him in the eyes, sniffing back the tears from before.
“We don’t have to. It is actually really selfish of me to ask. It’s just…” I pause as I look at his face, full of concern. “It’s just that I have dreamed of this trip for years, and now that I am here, I want to make sure I give these babies the best chance they have to survive.” I look down at my feet again, and he grabs my chin, tilting it up to look him in the eyes.
“I know. And that’s why I said we are going to. We will give them whatever chance we can. If we are still here.” He brings my face to his and places a gentle kiss on my forehead before grabbing my hand, and leading me away from the beach.
The little springwas easy to find, and we have enough water to last us until tomorrow. However, when we arrive back at the little shelter, we find that it has fallen down. Like the big bad wolf came along, huffing and puffing, and blew it down. We are pretty lucky that it held for the storm, but the sun is going down soon, so we need to get it back up before night falls. Coop gets started on the blankets, using doubled up flagging tape to anchor it to the trees. Grabbing a bunch of palm tree fronds, he weaves them together, making a sort of palm tree screen to help weigh down the flimsy plastic blanket, and places it on top. He then moves on to make another one for the floor, placing the blanket on top of it, a nice little palm tree leaf bed for tonight. Meanwhile, I help shovel out the little pit he dug yesterday. The wood has dried out a bit, so we will be able to have a fire tonight to keep us warm.
He grabs a few stakes from my bag, and tries to hammer them in around the pit, but the rubber mallet isn’t getting them deep enough, so he takes his foot and stomps on them, using his body weight to pound them in deeper.
“Molly, can you grab a few of those palm tree fronds from over there? I want to weave some of these in and out of the stakes, so that the sand doesn’t keep falling back into the pit.”
“Sure, Coop.” I grab some fronds, head back to where Coop is, and turn around to place them down on the ground. Only, I moved too close to where Coop is kicking, and before I can register what is about to happen, Coop kicks my elbow. “Ouch, Coop, you kicked me in the weenis.” Coop’s mouth drops open, and while I hold my arm, waiting for the numbness to go away, Coop has fallen backwards onto his butt, a warm chuckle rumbling out of him.
His laughter escalates the longer he sits there, and he holds his chest. “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” he says while continuing to laugh. “Did you really just say that I kicked you in the weenis? I don’t think I have ever kicked a girl in the weenis before.” He starts to laugh again, and I fold my arms, trying not to laugh as I wait for him to stop.
“Have you seriously never heard it called a weenis before?” I ask.
“Yeah, jokingly, but never seriously. It’s an elbow, or a funny bone.” He points to his elbow, shaking his head at me while laughing.
“My dad always called it that, so it kinda stuck. Now stop being such a weiner.” I keep my face straight as I say the word, waiting for him to laugh at me again, which he does.
“Now I am a weiner? Do you ever use normal words?” We continue to argue about what words are normal and which ones aren’t as I help him finish weaving the fronds around the stakes.
“Hey,Sunshine, I’m going to go check the radio and catch us some fish for dinner.” He holds up the fishing pole from the pile of things, and I laugh, shaking my head at the adorable man in front of me.
“Sounds great. I’ll take mine with extra pepperoni and extra cheese. Also, why do you keep calling me Sunshine? You never told me before when I asked, and I kind of forgot, with the whole shirtless thing.” I motion to his body, and he winks at me, making my insides heat up, before he turns around and heads for the water, my question still lingering in the air. “You’re a brat,” I yell at him, and he sets his pole in the sand and spins around, moving toward me at a run. “No… No, Coop. Sto–,” I turn away from him and try to get away, but he’s much faster than I am. He grabs me from behind and twirls me in a circle, my legs kicking out in front of me as I giggle uncontrollably.
He sets my feet down in the sand and kisses me on the cheek while breathlessly whispering in my ear, “Because you are my sunshine, Molly.” He gives me one last kiss on my cheek, ending in a raspberry of some sort, before heading back toward his fishing pole. His words make little butterflies erupt inside of me as I walk back to our little shelter.