26. A Master Class in Making a First Impression
26
A Master Class in Making a First Impression
Mac
Well, this is a little awkward, no? Meeting the parents of the woman I’ve fallen for while completely nude. They both stop rushing toward Paige and stare at me, her mom’s eyes landing squarely on my midsection.
Her father, a tall, thin man whose entire being screams rich and powerful, glares at me from behind his sunglasses while his willowy blonde wife holds her mouth agape.
I wave to them, feeling an urge to say, “Eyes up here, Mrs. Chadwick.” But I don’t. Instead, I cover myself with both hands. “Excuse me. I’ll just get some clothes.”
I hear a man’s laugh from next to the chopper, then a familiar voice calls my name. I look over to see Pete Black, a Coast Guard paramedic based out of San Felipe, holding up his cell phone. Perfect. He’s definitely taking photos to send to the rest of the guys.
“Hey, Pete,” I say, trying to sound casual.
“Sorry to interrupt what looked like a pretty good time,” he says, then bursts out laughing again. Turning to the helicopter, he says, “Darryl, come say hi to Mac.”
Darryl hops out onto the sand. “Hey Mac, how’s it hanging?”
“Looks like it’s hanging loose,” Pete answers.
“Loose and free,” Darryl adds. “You dog.”
My face heats up knowing Paige’s parents just heard that entire exchange. “Haha. Very funny,” I answer as I continue on to the cottage. “I’ll be right back.”
Pete nods. “I need to check your vitals, but I’ll let you get some clothes on first, for both our sakes.”
“Can we skip it? I’m in perfect health.”
“Nope.”
Before I can reach the cottage, I hear another helicopter coming. After a few seconds, I recognize it as a Robinson R44—used by the local television station. Crap. That’s what we need right now. I squint and look up in time to see it making a wide turn around our corner of the island, likely getting footage of Tweety, the cottage, Paige, and my naked ass.
Son of a bitch.
Our clothes are strewn around outside. I quickly locate my shorts and pull them on while the R44 lands. By the time I’m almost back to Paige with the bikini and t-shirt she had on briefly this morning, a reporter and cameraman are rushing out of the chopper. “Mac! You’re alive! Did you know the disappearance of you and Ms. Chadwick has been one of the biggest trending stories around the globe for the last week?”
I ignore him and jog down to the water while the reporter keeps shouting questions. “Paige? Mac? How’d you survive the crash? Did you two know each other before this? Was this all planned? ”
“Please, can you give us some privacy?” her mother asks.
“Yes, back off!” her father demands. “And put that camera down. I will sue you for everything you’ve got if footage of my daughter in the nude ends up on the news.”
His threat seems to work because the cameraman puts the camera down and the reporter stops shouting questions at us.
“I can’t believe you’re alive, Paige!” her mom shouts. “My baby is alive! Should I come out there to you?”
“That’s okay, Mom. I’ll come to you!” She crouches in the water, her face red with shame while I hurry toward her. When I get to her, I’m in up to my waist, and my shorts get soaked, but I couldn’t care less. “Turn around. I’ll shield you while you get your bikini on.”
“Are you okay?” she asks as she stands, and I get one last glimpse of her nude body.
No, I’m not. “Yes, I’m fine. But I’m afraid your parents are going to hate me forever.”
She quickly ties her bikini top, tugs on the bottoms, then manages to pull the shirt over her wet body before turning back to me with an embarrassed look on her face. “Worst case scenario, right?”
“Nah, this isn’t so bad,” I say, lifting her chin with my index finger. “We could’ve been having sex on the beach.”
Say it, Mac. Say it right now. Tell her you love her. I stare into her beautiful green eyes and think about the world she comes from. One of luxury and important people. I’ve met a thousand people just like her parents—rich, demanding, and one-hundred-percent sure I’d never be good enough for their daughters. I don’t belong in her world any more than she belongs living in my little beach house, scraping by from year to year. It’s a life she would hate. It would be amazing for a while, but eventually, she’ll leave .
“Paige! Please,” her mom says, her voice breaking. “I need to hug you so I know this is really happening.”
“Coming, Mom!” She gives me one last look before she steps out from behind me. A moment later, she’s in her mother’s arms, as they both sob happy tears and tell each other they love each other. Her dad hovers protectively over her, blocking my view of them. “We thought we’d lost you,” he says, his voice cracking. “Thank God, you’re okay.”
“You are okay, aren’t you?” her mom asks, pulling back to look Paige up and down.
“Yes, of course, I’m fine. Mac took very good care of me.”
“Apparently,” her mom answers, and they both start to giggle while her father looks utterly annoyed.
The reporter has set up on the beach nearby and is talking excitedly into the camera. “Again, Paige Chadwick and Mac Gamble, who have been missing since January twenty-fifth, have been found alive and well on Fanny Island, a remote cay that is part of the Benaventes. Again, I repeat, they are alive and well on what was to be the last day of the official search by the Coast Guard. The odds that they would be found alive were one in two-hundred-fifty thousand, but they are indeed alive and appear to be in good health. A happy ending for a story that has had the entire world gripped for weeks. We’re going to get more footage here on the scene, but for now, we’re cutting to New York to get reaction from some of the key celebrities involved in the search, starting with Li’l Rhythm, whose video Finding Paige has had forty million views. After that, we’ll cut to Sean Penn who was here helping with the search until yesterday, and who has some well wishes for Paige and Mac.”
Pete walks over to me with his first aid bag, a welcome distraction from their family reunion. “Have a seat,” he tells me, pointing to the lounge chair.
I do as he asks, and he takes the blood pressure cuff out of his bag and wraps it around my arm. “I caught a good look at Tweety when we were landing. Damn, man. What were you thinking flying in that storm?”
“I wasn’t,” I answer, glancing over at Paige again as she hugs her mom again.
“A beautiful woman’ll do that to a guy,” Pete says, his gaze following mine. When he finishes with my blood pressure, he takes my pulse, then uses a light to look in my eyes, and gets me to follow his finger from side to side. “Everything seems fine. Pulse and blood pressure are a little high, but I’m going to chalk that up to meeting her parents while naked.”
I give him a glare while he writes on his chart. “You’re not writing that down, are you?”
“No, I’m writing ‘likely elevated due to stress of situation.’”
“Thank you.”
“She must come from quite a powerful family,” he tells me. “No way would the powers that be let normal people come along for a search and rescue.”
I chew on my lip for a second, relief washing over me that I didn’t tell her I love her, or worse, ask her to stay. Suddenly desperate to get away from here, I say, “Can we skip the hospital part? We’re both in good health.”
“No can do,” Pete answers. “You know the protocol on missing persons. We land on the hospital roof or I’ll have my ass handed to me. It’s going to be a total circus when we get there, by the way. This reporter is only one of hundreds that have invaded since you two went missing. Paige must be one very important woman to get all this attention. ”
“She is,” I answer. She doesn’t seem to know it, but she’s a very important person, especially to me.
“Well, I best go get Ms. VIP so I can check her vitals too.”
And just like that, the dream ends and reality devours all the hopes I was allowing to grow in my mind. “I need to go grab a few things from the house, if that’s okay.”
“Sure thing,” Pete tells me. “But make it fast. Otherwise it’ll look like I don’t take my job seriously.”
“You don’t.”
“Hey, I found you, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but it took you almost two weeks,” I call over my shoulder while I walk back to the house. In the distance, I hear her dad’s voice, and he doesn’t sound happy. Although I can’t blame him. I wouldn’t be happy to find my daughter naked with some stranger either.
“…worried sick about you, and you’ve been out here doing God knows what with that … that float plane pilot.”
“Phillip, who cares? She’s alive! Our little girl is alive!” her mom says.
When I get back inside, I let out a huge breath. I am not ready for this. I should’ve figured out how to play this, but I was too busy enjoying the moment. Now I have no idea what to do. I quickly change out of my wet shorts into some dry cargo pants and a t-shirt. Looking around, I see all the signs of a happy relationship. A small vase with bright pink hibiscus flowers that we found when we were out looking for mangoes yesterday morning, our lunch dishes drying on the rack next to the sink, the deck of cards waiting for our next round of poker. I walk over to the table and rip the paper we were using to keep score off the pad, then pocket it.
After that, I toss my things into my backpack and make my way to the bedroom to throw Paige’s stuff in her suitcase. I’m just zipping it up when she walks into the room. “Oh, wow, you’re fast.”
“Yup. We need to hurry so we don’t get the boys in trouble.” I point to a pair of panties, a bra and a sundress that I left out of the suitcase. “I thought you might want to change into something dry.”
“Thanks.” She gives me an awkward look and gestures to the door with her head.
“Really? We’ve been nude for days and suddenly you’re shy?” I ask, letting the right side of my mouth curve up.
She blushes a little. “Well, now my parents are here. And your Coast Guard friends.”
“Okay, that makes no sense at all, but I’m just going to go with it anyway.” I close the door, then say, “If you want, I’ll turn around, but I’m not leaving. I don’t want to miss a second more with you than I have to.”
I turn and face the corner, listening to the rustling of fabric. “Did Pete check your vitals already?”
“Yes, I’m in perfect health.”
“That’s good. For some unknown reason, my blood pressure is a little high.”
She laughs a little, then says, “I wonder why. Okay, you can turn around now.”
When I do, we lock eyes and just stare at each other. Her gaze is intense, as if she wants to say something important but doesn’t know how. “Listen, I?—”
“Paige? What are you doing?” Her father’s voice comes from the front room.
She sighs and calls, “Just gathering my things.”
I open the door in time to see him on the other side, his jaw set as he looks at me. Somehow, even though I’m a few inches taller than him, he’s able to look down on me. He looks past me to the bed and gestures to the suitcase. “I’ll take that. ”
I grab it and hand it to him without a word, because there’s no sense in trying to win a guy like him over. He leaves the room and I wait for him to be out of earshot before speaking again. “What were you going to say?”
Her mom bustles in before she can answer. “I’ve got your makeup kit all packed up.” She glances around the room and sniffs. “I can’t believe you had to live like this for so long.”
Smiling at me, Paige says, “Yeah, I can’t either. I got so lucky.”
“Lucky?” her mom asks, wrinkling up her face. “Oh, well, I suppose it would’ve been worse if there was no house at all.”
I follow Paige and her mom to the front door, picking up my bag on the way, then take one last look around before I walk outside.
“No, wait. We can’t leave yet,” Paige says.
My heart picks up its pace a little, and I find myself hoping she’ll say she’s not ready and that she and I need to talk first. But she doesn’t. Instead, she turns to her father. “Dad, do you have some cash on you? We need to pay the homeowner back for all the food and fuel we used.”
He gives me a look that asks me where my money is, then nods. Pulling his wallet out of the back pocket of his pants. “Will a couple hundred cover it?”
“No need, Mr. Chadwick,” I say, irritation making my skin crawl. “I’ll be back in a few days to get my plane. I’ll bring a load of supplies and leave some cash.”
“You sure?” he asks.
“Positive. I’m not the kind of man who doesn’t repay his debts.”
“Well, that’s good, at least,” he mutters.
The four of us start back toward the helicopter, the news crew filming from a distance. Mrs. Chadwick loops her arm through Paige’s. “Oh, you won’t believe it. Guy has been all over this whole thing since Vivian figured out what happened. She’s been amazing, by the way. She flew straight to San Felipe and got busy bothering the authorities until they finally agreed to do something about it.”
“Did she?” Paige asks, her voice cracking. “Is she still here?”
“No, she had to fly back home for some sort of shoot.”
“The Neutrogena thing.”
“Not sure, she didn’t say,” her mom answers. “Anyway, Guy has been wonderful too. Honestly, I think we judged him a little too harshly because he has absolutely stepped up and made a huge fuss, which is exactly what we needed to find you.”
Oh great, now they’re drinking the Kool-Aid.
When we get to the helicopter, Paige ends up sandwiched between her parents in the back while I end up in the row of seats facing them, my hands empty on my lap instead of holding hers. I slide the headphones on and stare out the window as the chopper lifts into the air, allowing me a bird’s eye view of the cottage, my plane, and the island. As we fly over the mountain, I see the flags we made and I smile to myself, thinking about us working together on Paige’s big plan. I think about how we were just getting started, not knowing where this was going to take us, and now, here we are, having done what we set out to do, falling in love in the process.
I glance at Paige, who is craning her neck to look out the window. She smiles at me. “You did an amazing job with the flags. They look better than I thought they would.”
“Thanks, I was really trying to make sure there was enough white space. ”
“It’s perfect,” she tells me, her eyes shining with emotion.
“We’re a good team,” I answer.
Her dad, who clearly doesn’t want his daughter on any team I’m on, says, “It’s amazing what people can accomplish when they’re forced to work together.”
Her mom, who seems to share Paige’s belief you have to shout when on an aircraft, says, “It wasn’t the flags that worked though. It was the bridesmaid’s dress!”
Pete interjects with, “You don’t have to yell, ma’am.”
“Oh sorry,” she says, at a slightly lower volume. “Anyway, this morning, a yacht was going by on the east side of the island and they spotted the dress hanging from a tree. They immediately called the Coast Guard!”
I turn back to Paige and she grins at me. I give her a wink, feeling proud of her. “See? Told you you could do it,” I say quietly.
She mouths, we did it to me, then says, “I hope Tiffany won’t be upset that I used the dress to try to get attention.”
“She’s just thrilled you’re alive,” Mrs. Chadwick says. “She and Ethan are waiting back in San Felipe. We’ve been trying to prop each other up this entire time.”
“This has been the worst time of my entire life, thinking you were gone,” her dad says. “But here you are. Alive. Healthy. We’re the luckiest parents in the entire world.”
Her mom says, “We really are. The whole family was literally jumping for joy when we heard about the dress.”
“We called Guy immediately to let him know,” Paige’s father adds. “He’s got a private jet to fly on standby, along with a medical team to accompany you home.”
“What? Seriously?” Paige asks. “Guy is doing that?”
Her mom nods. “Yes, he says he feels partially responsible for what happened. ”
Her dad chimes in with, “I told him I disagree. We all know whose fault this is.”
Paige shakes her head. “No, you are not going to do that, Dad. You don’t know what happened out there. Mac saved my life. Without him, I’d be dead, and I won’t have anyone saying otherwise.”
“All I know is the Coast Guard Commander told us it was reckless to be out in that weather, and I’d say he knows a hell of a lot more about it than either of us do,” her father answers.
Paige gives me an apologetic look, and I offer her a small smile in return, then say, “He’s not wrong. I took a risk. The weather report was showing that there was enough time to get there and back, but just barely. I should’ve said no to Paige.”
“It’s not his fault. I was desperate to get to the wedding and he took pity on me,” Paige says.
Unable to hold it in any longer, I look back and forth between her parents, then say, “You know, while we’re on the topic of who’s to blame for what happened, as someone who cares very much about your daughter, I have something to say. She wasn’t just devastated at the thought of missing her sister’s wedding. She knew that it would mean having you all be eternally disappointed in her, even though you’re the ones who taught her there’s nothing more important in this life than success.”
Her father glares at me. “I’m not about to be lectured by the man who not only doesn’t know me from Adam, but also nearly got my daughter killed."
“No, Dad. He’s right,” Paige says. “I’ve had a lot of time to think these past few days, and the truth is, you raised me to believe I had to be hugely successful in order to be worthy. And my entire life, I’ve never been good enough for you. I’m not thin enough. I’ll never be an athlete. I can’t just walk into a room and take command of it. That’s not me. But my whole life, I’ve been trying my best to be someone you could approve of. I’ve been running myself into the ground for years to prove I’m a true Chadwick.”
“Paige, that’s ridiculous,” her dad says. “We love you just the way you are.”
“You may love me, but you don’t accept me for who I am,” Paige answers, tears filling her eyes. “I wish you did, but you don’t. I’ve never fit in with the rest of you and I never will. But the thing is, I don’t care anymore. Well, I’m trying not to care, anyway, because all I can do is be myself.” Paige gives me a meaningful look and lifts her chin. “And the truth is I’m good enough the way I am.”
I smile at her, overcome with pride, even though she’s not mine.
She smiles back. “And you know who taught me that?” She points at me. “Mac did. So when I say he saved my life, I mean so much more than him keeping me fed and safe while we were on that island.”
Her mom’s face crumples and she reaches out and pulls Paige in for a hug. Rubbing her arm, she says, “I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m so sorry. We were just trying to make sure you’d reach your full potential, but it turns out we were just hurting you.”
Her father shakes his head. “We never intended to upset you, Paige. We just wanted you to make the most out of yourself.”
Shaking her head, her mom says, “But we did upset her. We did this, Phillip. We put far too much pressure on her and it almost got her killed. We have got to do better than this.”
His eyes well up, then he clears his throat. “I suppose we do. ”
Her mom lets go of Paige and digs around in her handbag, pulling out some tissues. She dabs at Paige’s cheek, then uses it to blow her nose. “Maybe this whole thing happened for a reason. Maybe we needed to almost lose you so we could have a fresh start as a family.”
Her words hang in the air while we fly over a few more islands on the way back home. I stare out at the familiar landscape, thinking about the fact that Paige is going to be on a swanky jet while I’m taking a cab from the hospital to the dock to get my motorbike. But that’s as it should be. She’s not going to hop on my bike and wrap her arms around my waist for the trip to my little house where we’ll live happily ever after. My mind wanders to what my life was like back there. Just me and Steve. And my garden. Living the good life. And I have to be okay with that because that’s exactly where I’m going to end up when this helicopter lands.
I am, in fact, okay with it. No, better than okay. I’m happy. This is for the best. One and done. We had our fun and now it’s over, only maybe she’ll be a little better off than she was before we met.
I glance back at Paige, and our eyes meet. The look on her face is saying what my heart wants to hear, and I let myself hope, for one brief moment, that maybe she’ll stay.
Paige’s mom interrupts my thoughts. “I can’t be sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say that Guy is finally going to give you the promotion you deserve.”
“And if not, you can write your own ticket from now on,” her dad adds. “Open your own agency if you want. Or I’m sure you can buy into Prescott if you decide that’s your next move. Mom and I will front you the cash.”
“Oh, um, well, no, I don’t want your money,” Paige says. “But thank you. ”
“Why the hell not?” her father says. “Paige, we believe in you. Always have.”
Her mom cuts in with, “Phillip, maybe now’s not the time. Paige must be overwhelmed with all of this. Let’s just have the doctor check her out and get her back to the U.S. for now. All of this business talk can wait.”
I listen to their exchange, my stomach twisting while they’re making plans for a future that doesn’t include me.
San Felipe comes into view. At the rate we’re moving, we’ll be landing in just a few minutes. And then it will all be over. I can see the writing on the wall as clear as the sun in the sky. And it’s a message I told myself over and over would come, but my stupid heart didn’t want to believe it.
Well, fuck me. This sucks.