“Do you mind if I sleep here? My eyes are closing. I just need a few hours.” He eyes looked heavy. And strange. He looked loopy.
“Wait! No.”
His eyes opened wider. “What?”
“What if you have a concussion?” She pulled out her flashlight and shined it into his eyes.
“Ah!” He covered his face. “Enough. I’m going to be fine. I’m going to sleep this off so that I have a better perspective in the morning.” He laid his head down on his rucksack, closed his eyes, and was so quiet and still that Gianna thought he really had drifted off.
Then he opened one eye. “It is good to see you.”
“You too.”
He closed his eyes again and soon he was snoring. The air was never exactly chilly, but after the rains they’d had, it felt clear, less humid. She pulled the blanket up tighter at her chin, eyeing his warmth across the way, wishing she could curl up at his side.
The next morning, coals in her breakfast fire glowed. She laid two fish over the heat. Their sizzling sounds made her stomach rumble. The ceiling hatch was open, and sunlight streamed into her small hut. Dex had hardly moved all night.
Chapter 5
Dex cracked an eye open. Sun poured in from an opened hatch in the roof. He shifted so that it didn’t hit his face. Crackling cooking sounds and a delicious smell filled the air. Gianna poked at the fish and what looked like two whole potatoes. Her hair fell in front of her face. It hung in a silken sheen. Her nose lifted at the end, and her tongue escaped in concentration. Before he could stop himself, he chuckled.
She lifted her eyes in surprise and, for a moment, just studied him. “I’m trying to be angry with you. But this is nice.” She pulled her hair into a knot on top of her head.
“You can be angry with me. I’m sure you have better things to be doing than cooking me breakfast. If it makes you feel better, I’ll cook tonight.” He sat up on one elbow, pain ratcheting through his head.
She handed him a cup with six Advil. “Take these.”
“Oh, thank you.”
“How are you feeling?”
‘“Once the Advil kick in, I’ll be good as new.”
“I should change out your dressing.”
He reached a hand up to his head and felt the gauze that wrapped around his head. “I’d forgotten.”
“You’re kind of a mess.” She laughed.
“You look fantastic.” He drank her in.
She scoffed and opened her mouth.
But he held up a hand. “No, I mean it. You’ve never looked better.”
The gaze that studied him was wary. And she had reason to be.
He sat up and scooted closer to the food. “This smells like the best food I will ever eat.”
“Okay, enough with the charm. I’m Gianna. Not some woman you’re trying to convince to like you. I’ve seen you pick your nose.”
He snorted. “You have not.”
“On numerous occasions.”
“That just…that’s unfair.”
“I’m sure you have similar memories of me, so you can cut the hot, irresistible routine.”
“Hot?” His eyebrow rose. “Irresistible?” His smile grew before he could stop it. “I’m liking the sound of this.”
“Oh, you’re the worst.” She looked away and then back, smiling. “Come on. Let’s eat.” She scooted the metal grate out from over the coals and then handed him a fork. “Bon appétit.”
“Just like this?”
“Yep. Just scoop that food onto this plate.” She pulled one out for him and her. “And dig in. It was caught today.”
“Wow. I’m starving, and it smells amazing. Remember when we tried to do this?”
She shook her head. “Do this? Like cook fish over coals?”
“Yeah, remember? At the house in the Shenandoah.”
“From the stream at the bottom of the gulley.” She nodded. “Yep. And we never caught a thing.”
“We’ve come a long way, baby.”
She picked apart her fish and then gently lifted the head and bones.
“What! That’s incredible.” He handed her his plate with his most charming smile.
She dug through his fish a bit and took off the head and bones. “So, Dex.” She handed back his plate. “Why are you here?”
“I told you. I was up there doing a flight training mission with the Pacific Oceanic Alliance and scaring off some Mantukese presence when I heard you were down here.” He shrugged. It was a lot to admit. But he was sitting in her bamboo hut with a gash in his head. Admitting things seemed like the right thing to do, given the circumstances.
“So you jumped? Just like that?”
“Yeah, my copilot finished our flyby, and my team has the situation under control in Tandora…”
“They sounded less than pleased.”
“Well, it wasn’t ideal, I admit, but after I was here last time…” His throat tightened. He’d never really talked through his Panau experience.
“Wait, you were here before?”
“Sort of. I was part of a mission here. And we pulled our teams out too soon. I knew it. But I was following orders. And…” He looked away. The hollow looks on the children’s faces when he went up in his helicopter still haunted him. “I just didn’t like leaving.”
He felt her eyes on him, but he kept his gaze trained on his food. And then he said. “This is the most delicious breakfast I’ve had in a long time.”
She laughed and the musical carefree sound of it lightened his heart. “I’m a terrible cook, and you know it.”
He lifted his fork. “This proves otherwise.” He swallowed some more of his water. “Though you could learn a thing or two about cooking eggs.”
She leaned back against the opposite wall. “Not this again. Some of us like our eggs dry. That soggy mess of an egg you eat is disgusting.”
“But there you see, a true egg chef knows there is a middle-of-the-road egg that is not soggy, nor is it dry. It’s full of air and tastes…” He brought three fingers to his mouth. “It tastes like heaven.”
She looked skeptical, but there was a fun twinkle in her eye. And he decided he loved this time with her before they had to really face what would happen next.
“So you jumped down here to help me, but now we’re both trapped?”
“Maybe. No. You heard the team. They’re gonna get us out.”
“I heard you tell the team they would, and then I heard a lot of resistance on their part.”
He waved away her concern, though he shared it. “They will figure it out. If not, we can always take a canoe.”
She laughed. From her expression, he wondered if she took him seriously. Truth is, he was dead serious. A middle of the night escape in a canoe was better than nothing.
“In the meantime, it seems like the villagers’ lives are mostly unaffected.”
She shook her head. “But they’re hungry. We’ve been cut off from all aid and supplies. I’m working on methods for them to get food when storms wash away their rice. And they need protein. They need other sources.”