8. Hangry Bridesmaids and Other Hazards
8
Hangry Bridesmaids and Other Hazards
Paige
I wake up to the sound of pounding rain on metal. My body feels stiff, but I’m alive. I think. What’s that warm feeling on my hand? I open my eyes and see Mac crouched over me, his fingers pressed to the inside of my wrist. “There you are. You’ve been out for a few minutes.”
“Am I okay?” I ask, sitting up a bit.
He removes his hand from mine and nods a little. “Yeah, you look fine, anyway. I think you passed out just before we crashed.”
Crashed. Oh, God. We crashed. I was in a freaking plane crash!
“Where are we?” I look out the window. Water slides down it in rivers, but I can make out what appears to be a whole lot of sand, and maybe a wooded area in the distance. No buildings. No road that I can see. “Oh, my God. Are we on a desert island?”
“Deserted, not desert. And, maybe.”
“What do you mean, maybe ? You’re the pilot . Aren’t you supposed to know where we are? ”
“Yeah, well, forgive me for managing to crash land without killing us while you were screaming the entire time.” He glares at me for a second, then his face softens. “We were above a string of about twenty cays, and we got blown around so much, I don’t know which one we’re on. There’s a good chance that it’s deserted though.”
I suddenly notice that he has a deep gash above his right eyebrow. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine,” Mac says, waving away my concern. “We’ve got bigger problems than a little cut on my face.”
This is real. This is all happening . I glance down at my dress, and the truth of what’s happening hits me. “I’m not going to make it to my sister’s wedding, am I?”
Mac shakes his head. “Not unless there’s a miracle, and at the moment, I’d say it’s not looking too good.”
“I don’t think you understand. I have to get there. I’m her sister. Who else is going to hold up her dress when she needs to pee?” I say, feeling a panicky lump form in my throat. “Just radio someone, okay? Maybe there’s a boat nearby. They could pick me up and take me, then when the storm stops, you can fly back to Santa Valentina Island.”
“Fly back in what? Did you miss the part when I said we crashed?” He runs a hand through his hair and breathes hard out of his nose. “Eight hundred dollars. Fucking hell. My livelihood is this aircraft. And it’s gone.”
I try to focus on what he’s saying and not how he’s saying it (like a jerk). His livelihood may be gone, but he can always get a new job. I can’t exactly get a new family. “Won’t your insurance pay for it?”
“Yeah, and wish me luck getting it renewed after this fuck up,” he says, shaking his head. “I knew better than to come back for you. I should have left you at the dock. ”
“Clearly! You almost got me killed, Mr. Gambles-Both-Our-Lives,” I snap.
He sets his jaw, his eyes narrowing, but he says nothing.
Okay, that was unnecessarily mean. And really not helpful at all. Tears blur my vision as the reality sinks in a little further. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just … so upset.” My voice comes out as barely a squeak and I have to suck in a breath so I can speak clearly. “Is there a chance we could be on Azure Island? Or maybe it’s so close I could swim? I’m a very good swimmer. Well, I took lessons, anyway, when I was a kid. But it all comes back to you, right? It’s like riding a bike, isn’t it?” I stare into his eyes, pleading for him to think of some way to fix this.
His face softens a little. “We had another ten minutes to go by air. Even if you were Michael Phelps, it would be impossible.”
“Fine. Whatever. Just radio someone for help. There’s got to be a boat nearby.”
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he says, “The radio’s dead. It got fried along with the rest of the dashboard when we got hit by lightning. But even if I could contact someone, nobody’s going to be out in this storm.”
“No, but … there must be…”
Mac shakes his head.
“Nope.” I jam my thumb into my seat belt buckle, and it comes loose on the first try. “ No way. I’m not going to just sit here and do nothing. I’m leaving. I can’t miss it. I won’t. Just tell me which direction to go, and I’ll get there!”
I reach for the door handle, but Mac stops me with his tone. “Don’t open that, you’re just going to get soaked. We’re roughly thirty nautical miles away.”
“Nautical miles? I don’t… Give it to me in real miles.”
“A little under thirty-five, but in this storm, it might as well be a thousand,” he says. “I know this is hard, Paige, and it’s a lot to take in, but I need you to accept what’s happening so we can get on with things.”
My head snaps back. “Get on with things? What is that supposed to mean?”
“With surviving until someone finds us.”
“Surviving?” Surviving? That’s not something I have to worry about. It just happens, doesn’t it? Apparently, not today. I suddenly feel cold even though the air in here is hot and sticky. My body starts to shake uncontrollably as the shock of what just happened sets in. We almost died. Like, real death. The kind you don’t come back from. We didn’t, but we could have. And now, it seems as though I’m being told we may not survive until we’re found. A voice in my head says, Buck up, Paige. You’re a Chadwick. Chadwicks … oh, fuck it. I nod quickly, and when I talk, my voice is a high-pitched whisper. “That’s it. I’m afraid I’m going to fall apart now.”
“Oh, please don’t?—"
I burst into loud sobs. “What if nobody finds us?”
“Someone will find us. But even if it takes a few days or weeks, I can keep you safe and fed.”
“Weeks? I can’t be here for weeks! I need to … I live on Guy Time.” Okay, so I know that made no sense at all to him, but it’s that thought that does me in. My voice is swept away from me by all the obligations that are waiting for me. My sister. My parents. My job. Li’l Rhythm. “I need to get out of here.”
“We will. I promise I’ll get you out of here alive so you can go back to your real life. It just might … take a while.”
I stare into his eyes, that I’m noticing for the first time are the most incredible shade of deep blue. The look on his face tells me he means what he’s saying. He intends to get me out of this. Alive. Nodding, I whisper, “Okay,” even though none of this is even close to being okay. We’re stranded, and nobody knows where we are, and my sister is getting married in a few minutes, and I won’t be there. I’ll miss it, and there’s no way to get that moment back. I bury my face in my hands and let the tears flow.
A few moments later, I feel a blanket around my shoulders. It’s scratchy on my bare skin, but it’s warm and comforting. “Thank you. I’m sorry. I’m not normally such a wreck, but I’m afraid you’ve met me on the worst day of my life.”
“Well, that makes two of us.” He holds up an energy bar to me, his eyes filled with kindness. “Here, I heard you say you hadn’t eaten since yesterday.”
“Shouldn’t we save it? If we’re going to be stuck here?”
“You eat. The last thing I need is a hangry bridesmaid.” He gives me a half-grin, then opens the wrapper and places the chocolate-covered bar into my hand. I feel the warmth of his skin as he presses my fingers around it. “There’ll be plenty of food to find once the storm passes.”
“Really?”
“Yup. All these islands have fruit trees and I’ve got my fishing gear. You won’t starve.” He gestures with his head for me to eat the bar, so I take a bite.
The chocolate melts in my mouth as I chew, and I realize this might be the best thing I’ve ever tasted. He offers me a tentative smile before disappearing into the back of the plane. Maybe he’s not such a jerk after all…
I manage to turn in my seat, even though my dress gets in the way. I crane my neck to see that he’s folding down a seat at the back. He opens a bin and takes out a pillow and blanket. He makes up a bed, then stands and walks back to the cockpit. “You might as well go have a nap.”
“Isn’t it a little early to go to sleep?” I ask.
“Time doesn’t matter right now. You’ve been through a lot. You should rest. ”
The word ‘rest’ reminds me of how utterly exhausted I am. Sleep suddenly sounds so appealing to me, if only to escape this horrible day. “Okay, yeah, maybe I should.”
I stand up and squeeze past him in my stupid puffy dress, trying not to notice how tall he is next to me, or how good he smells—all crisp and clean like fresh linens drying outside on a sunny spring day. As I walk to the back of the plane, I realize I’m being selfish. “Wait. Are you sure you don’t want to sleep? You’re the one with the head injury.”
“I’m fine,” Mac says, shaking his head. “Besides, there’s no way I can sleep right now. I need to think.”
“Okay,” I say, lying down and pulling the blanket up to my neck. “I really am tired.”
“I’m sure you are. Get some sleep.”
I turn so I’m lying on my side, facing the back of the plane. I think about Tiffany in her wedding gown, waiting for me to show up so they can start the ceremony. I think about my parents and how disappointed they must be with each second that passes without me arriving. Silent tears slide down my face and into my hair. I’m missing it all and my mom was right about everything, including all those awful things she said about me. I’m also stranded with no way of letting them know where I am or how hard I tried to get there. I think about everything until my brain is overwhelmed and exhausted and I can’t think anymore.
I close my eyes, listening to the steady beat of the rain pounding on the plane and the gusts of wind that would threaten to tip over the aircraft if we weren’t wedged in the sand. Tears pour until the side of my head is soaked and I’m sure my mascara has made a black trail into my hair. Not that it matters. Nothing I thought mattered means anything. Not right now.
I curl up a little more under the blanket, hating that there’s nothing I can do to fix this. There’s no solution. No plan that will get us off this island and get me to the wedding. All I can do is the one thing I hate more than anything—wait. Wait for the storm to stop. Wait for someone to notice Mac’s plane is missing. Wait to be rescued. Exhaustion takes over, edging out the grief I’m feeling. I allow it to whisk me off to some other place. Somewhere where I haven’t screwed everything up. Somewhere I’m safe and warm and happy. Somewhere far away from here.