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Chapter Twenty-Six

JACK

W e’d had a moment in the rainforest, but it wasn’t our first moment . Our first moment was when I pulled Ava from the falling bridge. But Ava chose to ignore it, so I had no choice but to do the same. Still, the moments happened, and there was no way to erase them.

Ava had rehydrated chicken soup for Norm, and she stood over his cot checking his ankle. There was no ice, and Norm refused to be packed with cold mud, so Ava placed pillows from the other cots under his foot to elevate the ankle. I’d found a sturdy branch that was shaped somewhat like a cane, and Norm used it to get to the outhouse and back. It was hard to know just how severe the injury was because Norm was not exactly stoic. Still, a sprained ankle was never fun and eventually getting him out of camp and across the river was going to come with its own challenges.

I decided to make myself useful by starting a fire. The sun was setting, and the storm had left a slight chill in the air. Finding kindling dry enough to start a fire wasn’t easy, but some of the lighter branches and leaves had dried enough in the sun that I managed to get some weak sputtering flames going. I’d moved the sitting logs back into place, and I sat down to keep working the fire with a stick. An hour later, there were wavering flames in the pit, and the sun had disappeared off the horizon. Ava had avoided me, but the camp was small, and we were bordered on one side by a raging river of water that was only starting to recede and on the other side by an untamed rainforest made even less passable by the storm. It seemed the warm fire had been enough to coax her outside. She’d pulled on a thin sweatshirt over her tank top and shorts. She dropped her long, tanned legs over the sitting log one at a time, and I found myself staring at those legs until she sat down next to me.

“Getting hungry?” she asked.

“Yes, but for real food, not the powdered stuff in the mess tent. Somehow Hollywood makes being stranded on a tropical island far more glamorous.”

Ava laughed. “Guess this pile of mud we’re on isn’t exactly glamorous. But at least we got the tropical part right.”

We both stared at the river. The last bit of light reflected off its rippling surface. “How long do you think it’ll take before we can wade across?”

“Sure doesn’t seem to be receding quickly. As long as there’s no more rain, I’d say another full day at least. And I was thinking about how we’re going to get Norm across.”

“Just leave me behind. I’ll die and get eaten by the ants,” Norm grumbled as he hobbled around the end of the log on his makeshift cane. He sat down with a plunk that made the log roll back.

“Swelling’s down,” I noted.

“Yeah, but the pain isn’t,” he said. It was the answer I expected from Norm. He wriggled the toes on his foot in front of the fire. “That feels good. My foot was getting cold.”

“That’s from the elevation,” Ava said. “Do you have any dry socks? We can slide one on carefully.”

“This fire will do the trick,” Norm said. He sighed so loudly it was more of a moan. “Professor Lovely, don’t be too disappointed, but when we get back—if we get back,” he added with his usual pessimism, “I’m leaving science. I’m going to start a graduate program in software development.”

We both looked at him to check if he was being serious. It seemed he was.

“But you’re a good scientist,” Ava said with only a touch of conviction.

“I like science, but my heart has always been with technology. I’m a big gamer.”

Ava turned slightly toward Norm. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yep, won some championships, even.”

I was utterly confused. “But why did you major in science?”

Norm grew quiet as he stared down at his toes wiggling in the heat from the fire. “My dad was a botanist. He wanted me to follow in his footsteps. He used to buy me all kinds of science kits and books and …” He sighed, this time a real sigh. “He died when I was twelve. Cancer.”

Ava reached over and patted his hand. “You didn’t want to let him down.”

“Yeah. There wasn’t ever any question that I’d go into science, but this week has proven that it’s not for me. Oh, I enjoyed collecting and cataloging the mushroom samples well enough, but pretending that my heart is in something that it’s not is making me miserable.”

“Your dad would be proud of you no matter what you decide to do,” Ava assured him.

“Professor Danvers, the head of the software engineering program is a friend of mine,” I said. “I’ll let him know you’re interested in moving over. It’s not a guarantee, but it’ll at least get the door open for you.”

Norm smiled, and I realized then that I’d never actually seen the guy happy. “That’d be great, Professor Sinclair. See, I told Ian you weren’t such a big grump.”

Ava was working hard to hold back a smile all while pretending to be interested in the fire.

Norm took a deep breath and picked up his walking stick. “I guess I should continue on my journey. I was headed toward the outhouse, but the fire looked inviting, and I needed a quick rest.” Norman stood up and looked at both of us. “Huh, maybe Ian was right about one thing after all.”

Ava smiled up at him. “What was that?”

Norm chuckled. “Oh nothing.” With some effort he got around the seating log and hobbled toward the outhouse.

Ava shrugged. “No idea what that was about.”

I knew, but after the awkwardness under the cecropia trees I decided not to push my luck. “I’m not a grump,” I said in the grumpiest tone imaginable.

Ava patted my hand and snickered. “No, of course you’re not,” she said in the most condescending tone imaginable. “Seriously, Jack, that was kind of you to offer. You have no clue whether Norm is even qualified for a program like that, so I know it’ll mean sticking your neck out a little.”

“It’s not that big of a deal. I’ve been to Las Vegas with Danvers, and well, let’s just say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so Danvers is very lucky.”

She peered sideways at me. “Are you going to resort to blackmail?”

“Wouldn’t call it that, but Danvers owes me. And you will, too,” I added.

Her hand flew to her chest. “Me? Why me?”

“Uh, I’ll be helping to nudge Norm out of your lab. Just think—no more whining and complaining.”

“Hadn’t thought of that.” She paused. “Nope, that’s a lie. Nonna would have withheld dessert from me for that one. It would be a relief to have him out of the lab.”

I picked some kindling off the pile next to me and tossed it into the pit. The flames had a temporary burst of energy before settling languidly back over the wood pile.

“So, the big punishment you fretted about in your childhood was having dessert withheld? Not getting grounded or spanked or sent to bed without supper. Just no after-dinner brownie?”

Ava stretched out her legs to get her feet closer to the heat. “Hey, don’t underestimate the mystical powers of one of Nonna’s brownies.”

“My parents didn’t spank or send us to bed without dinner, but I spent more than a few weekends being confined to the house.”

Ava shook her head once. “Never took you for a rambunctious type, Sinclair. I sure am learning a lot about you out here.”

I looked at her, and it happened again, that crash-and-hold gaze. “I’m learning a lot about myself, too, Lo.”

This time she wasn’t anxious to pull her gaze from mine. We stared at each other in a silence that felt filled with electricity until the spell was broken by Norm swinging open the outhouse door.

Ava looked away first and leaned back to call to Norman. “Everything all right? Do you need help getting back to your cot?”

“I’m fine.” Norm sounded less miserable. It seemed he’d gotten a big weight off his shoulders, and even though it was a metaphorical weight, it seemed to relieve some of the pain in his ankle. He was moving better.

Norman made it back to the shelter.

Ava turned back around. “I feel bad for him. I feel guilty for always rolling my eyes when he was complaining. All this time he was sitting in a science lab, not wanting anything to do with science. He was just there because he thought that was what his dad would have wanted. I guess as disastrous as this trip has been, at least one good thing came of it.”

I stretched my legs out, too. They didn’t look nearly as good as hers in the glow of the fire. “I don’t think this trip was a complete disaster. I mean there were some good days of research and this is”—I circled my gaze around once—“ was a beautiful place to camp. We got to ride down a river in a raft. I mean, that part almost ended with you and Norm being eaten by crocodiles, but before and after that part, it was pretty cool. We helped Buster find his mom. Who knows what his fate would have been if we hadn’t been stuck here after the storm.” I looked at her again. The magnetic pull was there, but Ava avoided direct eye contact, so I made a bold move and took hold of her hand. She didn’t pull it away, which I considered a win. She finally looked at me. Another win. “And I think we’ve grown less contentious. I’m glad about that … Ava. I didn’t realize how much I would miss not being your friend.”

She pulled her amazing green gaze down to our clasped hands. “Jack,” she said softly.

I so badly wanted to kiss her, but I kept my boldness in check this time. I was a little rusty on the whole romance thing because the signals I was getting were all over the damn place. That was Ava. She was so complicated and hard to read. My own feelings were complicated, too. I had no idea why I’d taken an instant dislike to the woman. She was incredible in every sense of the word, and everything I’d heard about her backed up that assessment. Had my attitude toward her been a defense mechanism? Had I been fighting off the inevitable—my feelings for Ava Lovely?

Ava shook her head. “It’s our situation,” she said suddenly and pulled away her hand. “We’ll get back home, back to the university, and you’ll remember that I irritate you. You’ll scowl and grumble things under your breath as I pass you in the hallway. It’s only because we’re out here in the middle of a lump of mud with powdered food and mosquitoes that seem a lot hungrier now.” She smacked the side of her neck. “It’s just the circumstances,” she repeated, and I got the feeling she was telling herself that more than me.

“What if you’re wrong, Lo?”

Our gazes met and locked again. “It’s impossible,” she said quietly and got up from the log.

I stayed behind, staring into the fire and listening to her footsteps walking away.