It was obvious she was more tired than she’d thought when even that little gesture made Zoey want to cry. She took a deep breath and nodded. “The good news is, we don’t have to worry about hiding a fire from any bad guy who might be following us.”
When Mark didn’t immediately respond, she asked nervously, “Right?”
“Sorry, right. You’re exactly right. And, who knows, maybe a fire in the middle of wherever we are will alert someone to the fact that people are out here, and they’ll want to investigate,” Mark said.
Zoey nodded. “I’ll gather as much wood as I can find so we can have a big fire then.”
“Perfect,” Mark told her.
Zoey turned away to start pulling her weight, but when she looked back at Mark a minute later, he was still standing where she’d left him. He was staring at her, but obviously lost in thought.
“Mark?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
That seemed to shake him out of whatever trance he’d been in. “Yeah, sorry. Everything’s great.” Then he reached into another pocket and pulled out the knife he’d shown her earlier. He said he’d received special permission to carry it since they were on a chartered flight outside of regular security channels. Though it had been in his suitcase on his earlier flight to Anchorage.
Wondering what else he had in his pockets, Zoey got to work collecting firewood. She daydreamed about him pulling out a meatball sub sandwich. Or a satellite phone, which he’d laugh about, and then say he’d just wanted to spend time with her before calling for help.
Zoey knew she was in trouble. The more time she spent with Mark Wright, SEAL extraordinaire, the more she liked him. And this was no schoolgirl crush. This was a full-on infatuation. She’d just have to make sure she never let him know. The last thing she wanted to see was that tender look cross his face again—right before he shot her down hard.
Her life was here in Alaska, and his was in California. He’d never want a homebody like her. She’d have to enjoy spending time with him now and hold these memories close to her heart if…no, when…they finally got out of here.
Chapter Five
Bubba stared at the dancing flames in front of him without really seeing them. All his attention was on the woman in his arms. They hadn’t eaten anything for dinner, except for one Life Saver each, and were now huddled together in the small lean-to he’d made in front of the fire. Zoey was shivering, and he hated that he couldn’t do more to warm her up.
She’d been a tremendous help in setting up their small camp for the night, wanting to know what else she could do after collecting wood for their fire. He’d patiently shown her how he was making their lean-to, and she’d watched carefully as he’d used the flint in his pocket to start the fire.
After he’d set up the small snare trap with some of the twine from his pocket and sticks he’d found around the camp, and after he’d set up a system to catch water from the trees, he’d scooted up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, and did his best to warm her from behind as the fire did the same from their front.
She held herself stiff in his arms, but didn’t pull away.
“Do you want me to move away?” he asked.
Zoey immediately shook her head. “No. I mean, hugging you earlier was one thing, but lying against you like this is a little…awkward.”
“No, it’s not,” he countered. “Just relax.”
“But we’re strangers.”
“No, we aren’t. I’ve known you for more than fifteen years, Zoey.”
She shook her head. “Yeah, but I haven’t seen you for thirteen of those years, Mark.”
“Then we’re just picking up where we left off,” he told her.
She snorted, and Bubba imagined she was probably rolling her eyes. “I think I would’ve remembered us doing this in the past. I had a crush on you, you know.”
“You did?”
Zoey sighed. “Shit. There goes my mouth, overriding my good sense again.”
“If it makes you feel any better, the second I saw you, I thought you were cute.”
She turned her head and stared at him. The sun hadn’t quite set yet, and he could see the way she eyed him skeptically. “Are you just saying that to try to make me feel better?”
“Nope,” Bubba told her easily. “You had just walked into the school with your mom. You looked scared as hell, and I couldn’t blame you. Being the new kid in a high school in a place like Juneau definitely would scare the hardiest soul. But when you saw people looking at you, you raised your chin and met everyone’s eyes. I thought it was brave as hell, and I was intrigued. Not to mention the way you filled out the black jeans you had on, and the shape of your…erhm…assets under the pink T-shirt you were wearing.”
“You remember what I had on when you first saw me?” she asked, still staring at him.
Bubba tightened the arm around her waist and wrapped the other around her chest, diagonally. She settled back against him once more. Bubba felt more comfortable, now that she wasn’t staring right at him. He looked into the flickering flames of the fire as he spoke. “Yeah, I do. You were wearing Chucks, and I knew right then and there you were cool.”
“I wasn’t cool,” she muttered.
He chuckled. “Seriously, from everything that I saw, you were nice to everyone you met. You didn’t think you were better than anyone else, and you didn’t care if someone was the class nerd or the jock, you treated everyone the same.”
“I can’t believe you remember what I was wearing,” she said with a shake of her head.
Bubba chuckled again. He couldn’t remember laughing this much in a very long time. He wasn’t a grouch, not like Phantom, but he wasn’t exactly jovial either. Even in this shitty situation, being around Zoey had him laughing more than was usual for him.
“Well, shit, if I’d known you even knew I existed, I might not’ve agreed to go out with Malcom when he asked.”
Bubba did his best not to tense. “Why did you go out with him?”
Zoey shrugged. “I figured he was as close to you as I was going to get.”
Her words seemed to echo around them in the waning light. She quickly continued. “But from the second we met at the mall, on our first date, I knew things weren’t going to work out.”
“Why?”
“Because he practically ignored me,” Zoey said. “He was too busy looking around to see who else was there, and who might be looking at him. It wasn’t until he saw one of his friends that he reached out and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He pulled me against him and practically strangled me as he walked me to the theater. He did buy my ticket, but once inside, where no one he knew could see us, he dropped his arm and told me if I wanted a snack, I’d have to buy it myself. Then, throughout the entire movie, he kept trying to cop a feel. It was annoying, and I didn’t want to have to deal with him anymore. He insisted on walking around the mall afterward, doing the arm-around-my-neck thing once more.”
Bubba could see the picture she was painting in his head, and he didn’t like it one bit. “Mal told me that you and him made out during the entire movie and you were all over him.”