Chapter 7 Willa
WILLA
Willa heard his voice before she was properly awake.
Low and unhurried, and for one disoriented moment between sleep and waking, Willa didn’t know where she was.
She knew the voice. That much her mind supplied without effort, the way it supplied breathing, automatically and without having to be asked.
She knew the voice, and something in her chest responded to it before her eyes were open, a warmth that moved through her like the first proper breath of a morning you hadn’t expected to be so good.
Then the limestone ceiling came into focus above her, gray and faintly amber from the fire’s last light. The weight of Grace pressed along her side, while the sound of rain against rock brought back the memory of where they were, as everything came back to her at once.
“Hi.” Ace’s voice again came from just above her. “You need to wake up, princess.”
Willa blinked.
Ace was crouched beside her, close enough that she could see the tiredness around his eyes and the way his hair was still damp at his temples. He smiled down at her, and even still half asleep, her heart lurched, waking up the butterflies in her stomach.
“I fell asleep?” Willa asked, her voice rough with sleep.
“You did,” Ace confirmed. “You’ve been out for about two hours.”
Willa pushed herself carefully upright, trying not to disturb Grace, who stirred once and then settled back into the deep, even breathing of someone still a long way under.
Willa’s body registered the night’s events the moment she moved.
There was a comprehensive ache across her shoulders and down her arms as well as through both hips from the cold, the water, and the cave floor.
Willa bit down on the sound that wanted to come with it and made herself move anyway.
“What’s happening with the storm?” she asked.
“It’s still going, but it’s pulled back from the worst of it.” Ace kept his voice low, his eyes moving to the sleeping bags and back to her. “The outer bands are still pushing through. There are still intermittent gusts of wind and heavy rain in stretches. It’s not safe to move yet.”
“Has there been any word from the Coast Guard or emergency services?” Willa asked him.
“I got through to Zane,” Ace told her. “They are sending a helicopter as soon as they can. Dean’s piloting it.”
Willa nodded slowly, absorbing it, her chest filling with relief at that statement. “Oh, thank goodness.”
“There’s one more thing,” Ace said, and the corner of his mouth moved in a way that wasn’t quite a smile but was doing its best. “Your mom wants to talk to you.”
Something in Willa’s chest unknotted at that.
“My mom?” Willa looked at him in confusion.
“Yes,” Ace said with a nod and held up the phone. “She’s holding on the line right now.”
Willa’s brow shot up as she took the satellite phone and moved carefully through the sleeping bags toward the cave entrance, stepping over outstretched legs and around the edge of the fire ring with the practiced quiet of someone who had spent years navigating a house full of sleeping children.
“Mom?” Willa said into the receiver. “Mom? Are you there?”
“Willa.” Her mother’s voice came through, and she could hear how frantic she’d been. “Honey. Oh my word, honey, I’ve been so worried.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” Willa assured her. “I’m okay. Everyone’s okay.”
“Don’t ever do that again,” June lightly scolded her. “You know better than to stand on a dock in high seas.”
“I know, Mom,” Willa said with a sigh. “But right then, it was the only place I could get a signal on the phone, and I had to call in our location.”
“I know, sweetheart,” June told her. “But still, next time let someone else do it.” There was a pause. “Wait, I don’t think there should be a next time, as I’m sure you’ve shaved a few years off my life.”
Willa gave a low chuckle. “Don’t worry, I think I did that to my kids and Ace, too.”
“Are you at least dry?” June asked her. “I hope you didn’t go to sleep wet?”
“No, Andy and Tyler thought to bring mine and Ace’s emergency packs with them to the cave,” Willa told her.
“Good,” June said, relief resonating in her voice. “What about Margo and Rad? They must’ve been soaked too. I know they had those yellow rain covers on, but still.”
“Don’t worry, between all of us here, we managed to get them some dry clothes too,” Willa told her mother.
“Thats good,” June said. “Well, it’s so nice to hear your voice, sweetheart. But I won’t keep you as you need to preserve the battery on the phone.”
“You’re right,” Willa agreed. “We’ll see you soon, Mom. You should go home and get some sleep.” She glanced at her wristwatch. “You’ve been up for two straight nights.”
“I got a few hours in earlier,” June told her. “And I’ll sleep when we’re all home safe and sound together.”
They ended the call, and Willa sat for a moment with the phone in her hand, listening to the rain against the rock outside, breathing in a few moments of quiet peace.
“Willa.” Ace’s voice came from right behind her.
His voice sounded strange. The kind of strange someone has when you’re about to step on something, and they’re trying to warn you.
Willa started to turn.
“Don’t move,” Ace said.
She froze realizing she was either about to step on something or… Willa’s eyes widened, and she tried to keep as still as she could, realizing something was on her.
“Ace,” Willa said carefully, trying not to freak out. “What is on me?”
“It’s fine,” Ace hedged. “It’s completely harmless.”
“That’s not the reassurance you think it is.” Willa suddenly felt something. It was a faint, light pressure between her shoulder blades that her skin was sending extremely urgent messages about. “What is it?”
“It’s a lizard,” Ace said.
“A what?” Willa breathed in utter fear. She hated the slick, wiggly things.
“A lizard,” Ace repeated, and she could hear the smile in his voice. “A small one. He appears to have mistaken your back for a comfortable rock.”
“Get it off me,” Willa said, suppressing the urge to start Kung Fu chopping the air as she freaked out like someone caught in a spider web.
Instead, she kept her voice down with an effort that required everything she had.
“Ace, I am asking you very calmly and very sincerely to get it off me right now.”
“I’m going to,” Ace promised. “Just don’t move quickly or it will run in the wrong direction, and by that I mean over your shoulder, then down the front of you.”
“Ace… for the love of…” Willa hissed through her teeth. “What is taking you so long?”
“I’m trying to urge it to turn so it runs down your back if I can’t flick it off,” Ace explained.
Willa stopped breathing entirely. She felt Ace move closer. Then his hand moved to cup her one shoulder. The contact sent something entirely separate from lizard-related panic through her nervous system that she was absolutely not going to examine right now.
“I’ve got him,” Ace said, very quietly, and she could tell he was directly behind her now. “I’m going to pull you back slightly and rotate you to the left. Ready?”
She nodded as Ace’s arm came around her from behind, his free hand moving to her other shoulder, and he drew her gently backward, then turned her in one smooth movement.
She felt the absence of weight between her shoulder blades and heard the small, dry sound of something being deposited on the rock near the entrance.
Ace’s arm was still around her shoulders, while Willa was standing with her back against his chest, and the lizard was gone.
“Done,” Ace said.
“That,” Willa said, with a shudder that started at the base of her spine and worked its way thoroughly upward, “was on my back.”
She pointed to the lizard. It was huge.
“It was,” Ace confirmed.
She could hear that he was trying not to laugh, which under the circumstances she found only partially forgivable.
“It was sitting on me while I was talking to my mother.” Willa shuddered again.
“It was,” Ace said with a nod. “Only I thought it best not to attempt to get it off you while you were on the phone to your mother.”
“That was wise.” Willa turned to face him.
He was close, closer than she’d registered while he was behind her, and his arm was still loosely around her shoulders because neither of them had moved it.
His expression was doing the thing it did when he was genuinely amused but was making a reasonable effort not to show the full extent of it.
“Don’t laugh,” Willa warned him. “You know how I feel about those unevolved snakes with the squishy wiggly bodies, swishing tails, and creepy little legs.”
“I’m not laughing,” Ace said, very seriously, in the voice of a man who was absolutely laughing internally.
“You are laughing on the inside, and I can see it,” Willa accused.
“I would never laugh at your entirely reasonable response to a small and completely harmless lizard,” Ace said innocently.
“It was on my back, Ace.” Willa pointed to her back. “Just sitting there absorbing my body warmth because it’s cold-blooded.”
“I know.” Ace nodded patiently, but his eyes still flashed with amusement. “Now that the lizard panic is over…” This time, he smiled. “We need to start getting the camp packed up as we’re being rescued soon.”
“I’m going to need therapy,” Willa stated. “And not from what happened with that…” She turned to look, and the lizard was gone. “Where did it go?”
“Probably ran out and braved the storm as you were rather mean to it,” Ace told her, his chest jiggling as the laughter came.
They moved to the front of the cave where Ace peeked outside. “It’s still quite bad out there.” He shook his head. “I hope Dean can fly in this.”
Willa stared at Ace for a moment. Her heart squeezed as she did. He truly was a remarkable man who had been there for her and the kids. Ace was actually always willing to help anyone and lend a hand. He was truly one of a kind. On impulse, Willa reached across and took his hand.