Page 31 of Rule 4: Never Get Stranded with a Sports Reporter

I laugh.

He will be.

I quicken my speed, then my jet ski is thundering over the waves.

The sun makes everything sparkle, and the water is a deep blue, the color that’s in every child’s starter pack of crayons.

Spray hits my chest, and I lean forward.

Let’s see if he can keep up.

CAL

Jason cuts through the water on his jet ski like he’s auditioning to play James Bond.

I’ve never actually been on a jet ski before, and it takes me a moment to orient myself. I get the hang of it quickly, then follow Jason into the open water.

Waves bump and splash against the jet ski, and I tighten my grip on the handles.

Jason flicks a gaze at me. If I didn’t know him better, I would say he looked concerned. “You okay?”

“Totally.” I press onto the accelerator and hurry past him. “I beat you!”

“First one to the island wins!” He surges beside me.

Spray lands on my pants, lands on my shirt, lands on my sunglasses. The world becomes blurry, and I slow and wipe my sunglasses down.

“You’re slow, Prescott!” Jason’s voice booms, and I accelerate toward him. The sun makes his gold hair glitter.

I zoom toward him, then he swings around and heads straight toward me. He hunches his torso forward. I hunch my torso forward.

Waves spray against me. My khakis are soaked. He’s right, I should have worn trunks to breakfast. I’m not dressed for jet skiing at all.

I quicken my speed, and we’re headed straight for each other.

I laugh.

He laughs.

We zoom in the water. The ocean waves are uneven below me, and I bop up and down, side to side, clutching on because God, I sure don’t want to fall off.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” I murmur. “It’s so beautiful.”

For a moment, I let happiness swell through me. Wonder at the world. Amazement such a place exists while I was stomping through gray-tinted sludgy snow in Boston.

Jason moves ahead of me. He stands on his jet ski too, clutching hold of the handlebars, a paragon of health and masculinity.

He gets smaller, and I frown.

The speed of my jet ski is slowing for some reason. I’m just gliding. What happened to the engine? I press the button, and the engine sputters.

Shit.

I try again.

Nothing.

The waves bounce around me. The jet ski has stopped.