Nerd in Shining Armor (Nerds, #1)(35)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

"It’s about time for us to turn around and go back, isn’t it?"

"Yeah. I know you don’t want to, but—"

"I’d feel better about it if we tried to talk to the people on that boat. At least they’ve been as far as that island."

Matt gazed at the boat as it rapidly closed the distance between them. "Okay, but I’m keeping my distance. They’re probably fine, but I’m not taking any chances. Pirates still exist, you know."

"They do?"Annabelle’s heart beast faster as she studied the boat through her binoculars. "I don’t suppose they fly the skull and crossbones to warn a person about their intentions, either."

"Not if they’re smart pirates."

"Pirates?" Lincoln pulled off his earphones and stood next to Annabelle. "You think that boat might have pirates on it?"

"I thought you couldn’t hear us with your earphones on," Annabelle said.

"I can’t, but I can read your lips." He glanced at the oncoming boat. "I don’t think they’re pirates."

"I hope not." Her heart quieted after he’d said that, though. She probably counted on Lincoln’s intuition more than she should, but he was so often right that it was hard not to rely on it.

Matt slowed the engine and tooted a signal on the boat’s horn. At first it seemed that the green and white boat wouldn’t answer, but then it tooted back. As the distance closed between the boats, Annabelle sized up the two men through the binoculars. Lincoln had better be right, because they surely looked like pirates to her. All they needed was a patch over one eye and a knife between their teeth.

With the engine on idle, Matt called across the water. "We’re looking for three people! My partner, a guy about forty, left Honolulu in a private plane yesterday morning, and now the plane is missing."

"That’s too bad!" a guy with a beard yelled out. "You looking for them?"

Annabelle felt relieved that the guy sounded reasonably normal. He hadn’t waved a gun and told them to prepare to be boarded, or whatever it was pirates said.

"Yes, we’re looking!" Matt shouted across the space between the boats. "My partner had two people with him, a young woman, light brown hair, pretty, and a tall guy with dark hair and glasses."

Annabelle had to admit it sounded crazy to be out in the middle of nowhere asking if folks had seen so-and-so, like you were strolling through a friendly neighborhood. But she held her breath and waited for the answer, anyway, even though she didn’t expect to hear anything promising.

"Sorry," the guy with the beard called across the space. "We ain’t seen nobody." Then he tugged on his ear. "Sorry about that," he said again.

"Thanks, anyway." Matt gave a wave and revved up the engine. Then he let out a breath and turned to Annabelle as the other boat took off. "We might as well turn around."

She gazed at him, hating to agree with him, yet knowing he was right.

"Mom, she’s still out there." Lincoln’s plea was quiet, but there was a desperation about it, too.

Annabelle turned to him. "I know. But it’s too dangerous to stay out on the water looking."

"I don’t care! She’s here! I can feel it!" Lincoln’s eyes filled with tears.

Annabelle put a hand on his arm and fought to control her own tears. "Lincoln, try and understand." Her voice shook. "I can’t risk you to try and find her."

Chapter 22

Jack wished he believed that Frick and Frack would actually notify somebody to come out and pick up a couple of castaways. As he and Gen kept guard over Brogan, occasionally taking out his gag to give him some water, Jack watched the light fade and tried to tell himself help was on the way. He wasn’t convinced.

The seals had started communicating from wherever they were, but this time Jack didn’t mistake the barking and bleating for human laughter. Last time he’d heard the seals, he and Gen were on the brink of a wild sexual adventure. Tonight neither of them had mentioned the one remaining condom. Jack had pocketed it, not wanting anyone to find it. If nothing else, he’d have one hell of a souvenir.

They were down to a half-bottle of water each, including Brogan. They’d eaten the guava, giving a little of that to the sleazeball, too. Jack figured Gen had to be starving, since he was ready to start munching on sand himself. They’d decided not to go after more guavas, though, and risk being on the wrong side of the island when help arrived. If help arrived.

Gen, however, was the eternal optimist on that subject. On most subjects, come to think of it.

"Those guys gave us water, so they’ll also send help," she announced with confidence. Then she gave Brogan another sip of water before stuffing the makeup bag back in his mouth and tightening the belt to keep it in place.

Jack was glad to see that Gen had no sympathy for Brogan. She just wanted him alive so Matt could maybe get his money back. Jack pretended Brogan wasn’t even there, so he could try to enjoy the rest of this time alone with Gen.

"Are you going to be okay getting on a helicopter if that’s what they send?" he asked her. "It’s even scarier than the Sky King."

"I would climb on the back of an albatross if that’s what it took to get home again."

Jack smiled. "That bird sure showed up at the right time."

"Sure did. I’m really glad Nick didn’t kill it, though. I would have felt terrible about that."

"Yeah, me, too." Jack took another drink of his water. "I seem to remember reading about an albatross in school. A guy with one around his neck or something like that. An albatross was bad juju, at least in that story."

"Birds are never bad luck for me." Gen stretched her legs out in front of her. "In the Hollow folks think an owl hooting means somebody will die, but I don’t. I used to love sitting on the porch listening to an owl. Or a whip-poorwill."

"Tell me more about what it was like back there."

"You’re sure you’re not bored?"

"Positively sure." As she described the backwoods area where she’d spent the first fifteen years of her life, Jack couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He’d asked to have the glasses again, making up some excuse about wanting to see if he could spot the seals. All he’d really wanted was a clear view of Gen before

they lost this intimacy, maybe forever.

He’d taken a gazillion mental pictures of her sitting on the sand, her skin brushed with light from the setting sun, her hair loose around her shoulders. He’d made love to this goddess. He, Jackson Farley,

had held her in his arms and made her moan.

"I’m through being ashamed of my raising, Jack," she said at last.

"Good. Because you shouldn’t be."

"I realize that now." Then she fell silent and gazed off into the distance, as if talking about the Hollow

had put her back there.

Jack liked hearing about her childhood, but he didn’t want her drifting away from him. He decided to broach the subject nearest and dearest to his heart. "Gen, you’ve said you don’t want to take a chance on hav**g s*x once we get back because you think it wouldn’t be as good as it was here."

She turned to look at him, her gaze cautious. "That’s right."

"You’re so optimistic about everything else, why not be optimistic about us?"

"It’s one thing to be a positive thinker. It’s another to ignore reality completely."

"You don’t know what the reality would be. You won’t even give it a chance."

She sighed. "I’ve watched you for months at Rainbow. Once you get excited about a project, you forget everything else, and don’t tell me you don’t. You’d stand me up, Jack. You think you wouldn’t, but you would."

Jack didn’t believe for a minute that he’d stand her up, but this didn’t seem to be an argument he could win. "How about if we test that theory with something really small? What if right now, we make a date to go out for ice cream?"

She licked her lips. "Ice cream sounds wonderful right now."

Brogan moaned, but Jack ignored him. "It does, doesn’t it? Two scoops on a sugar cone. Double fudge and strawberry cheesecake."

Gen closed her eyes. "Fresh peach and cappuccino."

"We’d have to eat fast, because it melts quick in the summer."

She kept her eyes closed. "But I’d try to eat it slow. I’d want the cappuccino on the bottom and the peach on top. But even if the peach drips on the cappuccino, that’s okay. Those flavors go great together." She licked her lips again and sighed.

"So, is it a date?"

Eyes still closed, she smiled lazily. "Oh, yeah." Then her eyes snapped open. "Wait a minute. You tricked me into that."

"You said it. You said yes. This is just for ice cream. Nothing else. No big deal. If I can’t even show up for an ice cream date, then you’re right, I’m hopeless. I won’t bother you ever again."

She shook her head. "This is ridiculous. You’re setting yourself up for failure. Once we get back, you’ll have tons of work. If we had a really big date, and you thought we’d have sex afterward, you might remember, but not just a little ice cream date."

"Then it’s a perfect test. Three nights from tonight, I’ll be at your house at seven-thirty."

"No, you won’t."

"Yes, I will."

"I tell you, Jack, you won’t. But if you want to think that you’ll—" She stopped talking and grew very still.

"What?"

"Shh. What’s that noise?"

Jack listened. Was that a motor?

Gen’s voice shook with excitement. "I think it’s a boat."

Jack stood and gazed at the ocean. With dusk coming on, visibility wasn’t very good, but the chugging grew louder, and then he saw it. "It is a boat!"

"The same one?"

Heart pounding, Jack squinted to make out the shape and color of the boat. If it was those two goons coming back, that wasn’t a good sign. Not a good sign at all.

"Is it the same boat or not, Jack?" Gen made a grab for the glasses.

He held her wrist so he could keep them. "Just a minute. Let me make sure it’s not those guys. If it is, we might need the gun."

"It can’t be them. It just can’t."

"Well. . . it’s not! Definitely not! There’s no green on this one! And it’s shaped all different. It looks newer." He clutched her arm. "God, Gen, this is it. I’ll bet they’ll have a working radio. This is it, Gen."

"Let me see, damn it!" She jerked the glasses off his face and almost poked his eye out. "What a beautiful boat. Bless my soul, what a beautiful boat." She started to laugh, but her laughter turned into sobs. "Oh, Jack."

He put his arm around her and drew her close to his side as they watched the boat, Gen sniffing and Jack’s heart pumping like crazy.

"C’mon, c’mon, c’mon," Jack chanted softly.

"Do you think they can they see us?"

"Oh^He’d forgotten it was getting dark. "Maybe not!" Releasing her, he ran back to Brogan, snatched the towel off him, and began waving it like a giant flag. "We’re here!" he shouted. "We’re here!"

Gen started yelling and jumping up and down, and between the two of them, they made enough racket to fill a football stadium. Jack carried on until he was hoarse.

Then the boat’s horn blasted through the twilight.

"They see us!" Gen’s voice had become a croak. "They see us, Jack!"

Dropping the towel, Jack ran back down and stood beside Gen as the boat came closer still. "Can you tell who’s on board?" Between the shadows falling and having no glasses, he was barely able to see the boat, let alone any people.

"There’s somebody on the front of the boat, holding onto those guardrail things. He’s . . . oh, Jack." She gulped for air. "He has red, white, and blue hair. It’s Lincoln. It’s my baby brother, Lincoln. He found m-me." Then she dissolved into tears.

"It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay." Gently Jack took the glasses from her. She was crying too hard to make use of them. With a lump the size of Nebraska in his throat, he watched as Matt Murphy lowered a small dinghy from the back of the boat. Then he helped a woman down, a woman who looked like Gen’s older sister but had to be her mother. Then Lincoln climbed into the boat, and Matt started the small outboard motor.

As they headed toward the beach, Lincoln made a megaphone of his hands. "Gen!" he shouted. "You’re it!"

* * *

Three days later Gen sat at her desk at Rainbow, typing invoices. It was her first day back at work, and nothing about being here felt real. But it was real, she told herself. She was using her same keyboard, the one where she’d nearly worn off the T, and she had her same chair, blue upholstery that was slightly faded in the seat and casters on the bottom that squeaked.

So if sitting at her neat little desk was real, then the events of the past week must all be a dream. No matter how hard she tried to blend one with the other, they kept separating like oil and water. She couldn’t hold both in her mind at the same time.

At least Nick was locked away. While they were still on the island, Matt had radioed for a helicopter to pick him up and haul him to a hospital, where he’d stayed for the past two days, under guard. She hoped he was being guarded real good.

She hadn’t seen Jack since Matt had dropped her, her mother, and Lincoln off at their house in the wee small hours two mornings ago. She hadn’t had a chance for a proper good-bye, with Matt eager to head off for Jack’s house. She wasn’t even sure what a proper good-bye would be, under the circumstances. A handshake hadn’t seemed like the way to thank a person who had saved your life, and a kiss would have caused too much speculation.

Right before Matt had driven away, Jack had told her that he’d see to getting her suitcase repaired. That reminder of what they’d shared had choked her up so badly she hadn’t been able to say another word.

She’d taken that day and the next off because her mama wouldn’t hear of anything different. Lying on the couch and eating the food Mama kept bringing in, she’d enjoyed an elaborate manicure and pedicure, watched Lincoln’s taped collection of South Park, and played endless games of gin rummy with Lincoln and Mama.