Page 138 of For Better or Hearse
It’s a two-hour boat ride from Maui to the island. He calculates it. How long she has, how much sugar she has. Every second counts. Once his family notices they’re missing, they still have to get back here. And how long will it take before they notice? The boat was full, their bags were with them. Maybe at dinner tonight, but…
Fuck.
Nathaniel tears a hand through his hair.
If her blood sugar gets too low, she’ll go into hypoglycemic shock. Without treatment, without sugar, she could pass out. Or worse. Coma. Seizure. Death.
This is all his fucking fault. He took her on that goddamn hike.
Ash tears out of his arms and paces across the sand. “Oh god. This is a horror movie. We snuck off to fuck, and now we die.” Her lower lip trembles. “All I wanted was a fucking coconut on this trip.”
“There’s sugar in coconuts.” He strides over to a palm tree, gives the stalk a fierce shake. Above, the coconuts sway. “See? If we run out of granola bars, I’ll climb that tree and fight it for a coconut.” That gets him a laugh. Tears sparkle on her lashes. Her full lips try to pull into a smile.
“C’mere.” He dips down and grabs the towel. Wraps it around her trembling form. “I’ve got you, okay?” he says, coiling his arms around her.
She nods against his chest, her slender frame relaxing.
Nathaniel sweeps his mouth over her dark head, murmurs, “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He’s on autopilot. Emergency mode. All his focus on Ash. Getting her what she needs. Getting her safe.
Until he gets her back on that boat, he won’t relax.
Ash pulls back, her face determined. “What do we do?”
“We make a shelter,” he says. “We get out of the sun.”
Her brow furrows as she looks around. “Should we walk?”
“No.” The last thing she should do is use up what little energy she has. “We stay where we got left.”
She inhales a hard breath. Then she turns and wanders toward the water.
“What are you doing?” he asks around the boulder lodged in his throat.
She lifts a hand. “I get one good scream a year, and I’m going to use it to full max.”
He watches as she walks down to the surf, opens her mouth and lets out a full-throttle scream.
His heart hammers as he stares at her.
He can’t let her see.
How fucking scared he is.
“Well, it’s official,” Ash says as she slips Tater’s T-shirt over her head. She holds her arms out, the huge black T-shirt hanging off her body. “I’m going to die wearing aBig JohnsonT-shirt.”
Nathaniel’s face clouds. “Jesus. You’re not going to die.” He hasn’t sounded this disgruntled with her since they first met.
“Just let me have my misery.”
He opens his arms. “Come be miserable over here.”
With a smile, she crosses the sand, then lies beside him on a towel stretched out under the starry sky. They used the last few hours to collect supplies and make a shelter. Well, really, Nathaniel did. He made her sit in the shade while he set up an abandoned beach umbrella he’d stumbled upon. They don’t need shelter, but it makes her feel better.
The Hawaiian night is balmy and as beautiful as she’s ever seen it. A light breeze makes the palm trees sway. The noises coming from the jungle—snuffling animals and crunching sticks—are unnerving, but being curled up in Nathaniel’s arms eases her fears of being devoured in the dark.
She smiles up at the stars. “This is kind of nice,” she murmurs. “You know, minus the whole stranded at sea thing.”
“Except we’re not actually at sea.” Nathaniel drags a towel over her bare legs. Holds her tight, as if he can’t bear to lose her.