Nerd In Shining Armor Part 19

She wondered why it mattered whether she knew his habits. The only reason she could think of was that he intended to keep on with her after they found Genevieve. Unfortunately, nice man or not, he could be trouble. A man coming off a divorce wasn't a good bet. Either he wouldn't want to get serious or he would, but it would be too soon. And Lincoln was already getting stuck on him, which was dangerous.

He hesitated. "Maybe you wanted to be alone out here. I should have thought of that, instead of barging in on your privacy." He turned to go.

"No, wait. I'd like some company."

He glanced back at her. "You're sure? Because I can take my evil doughnuts and disappear. Poof."

There was something to be said for a man who could make a body smile even in the midst of heartache. "I'd even like one of your evil doughnuts."

The sparkle returned to his eyes as he swung around and came back toward her. "Each one shortens your life by twenty-three minutes. They've done studies." He held out the box and flipped it open with his thumb.

It was a snappy gesture, and she was a sucker for those. She'd first noticed Genevieve's father because of the smooth way he'd vaulted a fence. "You sound like Lincoln. He makes up studies all the time." She picked a doughnut from the box.

"You think I made that up?" He pretended to look hurt. "I'll have you know I'm a font of useful information, a waterfall of statistics, a roaring river of-"

"Baloney?"

He grinned. "That would be the delicate way to put it. And I already know you don't like swearing, so we'll leave it at that." He set the box on the hatch and plucked out a doughnut for himself. When he bit into it, powdered sugar drifted onto his navy polo. "Messy, too."

"That's okay." But she leaned over when she took a bite of hers, so the sugar would fall to the deck instead of on her pink s.h.i.+rt. She hadn't brought a lot of clothes, thinking that packing too many would seem like they would be out here for days. She wanted to be back home by nightfall, with Genevieve.

"d.a.m.n, but this really is good coffee. Oops. I mean, golly gee, but this is one fine cup of coffee, Mizz Terrence."

She licked the sugar from her mouth. "The doughnuts are fair to middlin'. And they're perfect with the coffee. But you're making me out to be a fussbudget, and I'm not."

"Aw, I'm just teasing you a little." He gazed at her mouth, then brought his attention back up to her eyes. "I think it's great that you're setting such a good example for Lincoln. He's one smart kid. A world-cla.s.s gin rummy player, too."

She wondered if telling him how Lincoln won would help or hurt. Finally she decided it might help.

"I can tell you how he wins."

"He cheats? Because if he does, he's d.a.m.ned-doggone-good at it."

"I guess you could call it cheating. If he really concentrates, he knows what cards everybody has and what's coming up in the deck."

Matt stopped chewing his bite of doughnut and gave her a long look. Then he finished chewing, swallowed, and took a sip of his coffee. "He told you this?"

She nodded. "A long time ago, when he was six. He thought everybody could do that, and he finally asked why Genevieve and I would make such dumb plays and let him win all the time. After I told him that it was kind of unusual, what he could do, he kept quiet about it. You know how kids hate to be different from their friends."

"Wow. Well, after last night, I can't dispute it. I've never taken such a sh.e.l.lacking in my life."

"I told you that for a reason. When we head out today, I want you to take us in the direction Lincoln says. He can find her." She held her breath and waited.

Matt gazed at her silently for several seconds. "Okay," he said at last.

She sighed in relief. "Thank you, Matt. I know you don't hold with such things, but where I come from, it's natural as can be. And Lincoln has the gift."

"If I hadn't played cards with him, I might give you more of an argument, but anything's worth a try."

He paused. "Where are you from, Annabelle?"

"Tennessee."

"Whereabouts?"

"You wouldn't have heard of it."

"And you don't want to tell me, do you?"

Annabelle looked into his eyes. Then she glanced down the line of boats. "I guess it doesn't matter. I used to think that if I closed that door once and for all, nothing bad was going to happen to my children. Stay in the Hollow, and all kinds of bad things could happen to them. But Genevieve is missing, so keeping a lock on the past didn't guarantee anything."

"I just... I'd like to get to know you better."

She felt more than saw that he'd moved closer to her. "I'd like to get to know you better, too, but I can't." She met his gaze. "Lincoln's never had a daddy. You can see he's hungry for one. If we started seeing each other, he'd start making plans for you, plans that might never come true. I won't put him through that kind of misery."

Matt studied her for a moment longer. Then he stared into his coffee mug and swirled the contents. "I can see your point. This is all new territory for me. All I know is that some carefree young thing like Celeste is fine for a night or two, but I don't intend to make a career of twenty-something women. Logically, most of the single women my age are going to have kids. And you're absolutely right that kids shouldn't be p.a.w.ns in the whole dating game." He glanced up at her. "Any suggestions?"

She didn't want to make suggestions. She didn't want him to move on and find some other lucky woman, but she wasn't free to take a chance on him. "You could look for a person who doesn't have kids. Put an ad in the personals."

Matt groaned.

"I have customers who do it." And she could probably find Matt a bushel basket full of dates in one week of doing nails. But there were limits to this helping business.

"Okay, but aside from being phobic about the personal ad thing, I like kids and wish I'd had some. If I date women without any, that probably means I'll never even have step-kids. At least now I have a shot at that."

"Then make sure you don't meet the kids or get involved with them at all until after you're convinced that you and this person are right for each other."

"Meaning it's too late for you and me?"

The cabin door opened. "Hey, like, where is everybody?" A head of red, white, and blue hair appeared.

"I woke up and I was all, They've left me all by myself on this boat, abandoned like that kid in Home Alone, and-hey, dude, are those doughnuts? Cool." He leaped the rest of the way up die steps and snagged one out of the open box. "Totally my favorite. I know Mom didn't buy these, so thanks, Matt. You're awesome." Then he shoved half of it in his mouth.

Annabelle glanced over her son's shoulder at Matt. "I think that answers your question."

Genevieve stood by the edge of the surf and used a sh.e.l.l to scoop water and wash off the sand sticking to her. Her heart rate was nearly back to normal, but she still got cold chills whenever she remembered looking over Jack's shoulder and seeing that dark fin coming toward them.

But even taking the shark into consideration, she was having a heck of a good time being marooned. She was also beginning to figure out why. The very skills that branded her a hillbilly back in Honolulu were exacdy the skills she needed to survive out here. For the first time in eleven years, she could be herself, all of herself and not just the more civilized parts. What a relief.

Even better, Jack didn't think less of her for her backwoods raising. He seemed to get a charge out of it. Maybe diat was another reason die s.e.x between diem had been so outstanding. She wasn't afraid of forgetting herself and revealing her roots. Jack already knew about her, so she had nothing to hide.

She wondered if she had the courage to stop covering up her background once she got back to Honolulu. Mama would advise against it and tell her she'd never attract the right man if she reverted to countrified ways. But Genevieve was thinking that if she felt free enough to have great s.e.x with a man, he might not care whether her voice tw.a.n.ged when she talked.

Maybe she should ask Jack his opinion. Then again, maybe not. She was a little worried that all the s.e.x they'd had was giving Jack ideas about a relations.h.i.+p when they got home. But it would never work. During the night she'd asked him about his horoscope sign and sure enough, he was a Taurus. Besides being a genius who would make a very forgetful husband, he was the wrong sign for her. She'd find his steadiness boring and he'd find her wild imagination irritating.

She appreciated his steady tendencies at the moment, though. He'd found his gla.s.ses and stationed himself right beside her to keep an eye out for Jaws.

"I don't think he'd leap out of the water to get us," she said, although she didn't mind having Jack nearby as a precaution.

"I'm not taking any chances. And we're not going back in that water."

"That's hunky-dory with me. But it means we can't have fish for breakfast."

"Fish?" He frowned at her. "We don't have anything to fish with."

She splashed a sh.e.l.l full of water over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "We have my curling iron. I'll bet if I waded out in the water with it sprung open and moved really fast, I could snap it shut on a fish." That was the kind of thing she never would have thought about if she hadn't grown up in the Hollow.

"Eeww."

She laughed and scooped up another sh.e.l.l's worth of water. "I can tell you never caught crawdads down by the crick."

"Fortunately not. Gross."

"You'd sing a different tune if you were starving to death."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I like my food unrecognizable. I was thrilled when they came out with square hamburgers, because they don't look like anything that ever used to be alive."

"Well, don't worry, because I'm not going wading in shark-infested waters with nothing but a curling iron to protect me." She washed off her thigh. "You know, I'll bet it was all that churning around in the water that got him interested. I didn't think of that."

"I just didn't think, period. No blood to the brain." She glanced at him and couldn't help smiling. "I liked your pirate imitation."

"You did, huh?" He shot her a quick look before going back on sentry duty with a cute little grin on his face. "I liked your little maneuver, too."

"It didn't turn out too bad. Except for the shark." "Next time we'll have to try a private swimming pool." She started to agree with him, but then she realized what he'd said. In order for them to have s.e.x in a private swimming pool, they'd have to keep dating once they got home.

Besides the obvious problem of continuing a doomed relations.h.i.+p, she hated to take this magic time and try to transfer it to real life. Having s.e.x in somebody's swimming pool wouldn't come close to what had happened out there in the ocean. Even the shark coming along had added to the thrill. She could say that now that they hadn't been chomped.

He cleared his throat. "Then again, maybe not." She looked over at him. His jaw had tightened up and a cord stood out in his neck. He looked . .. das.h.i.+ng. Then she remembered how he usually presented himself in the offices of Rainbow Systems, with his mismatched clothes and distracted look. "Jack, I just don't know if it's a good idea to think beyond-"

"Exactly." He gazed out to sea. "Forget I said anything. I lost my head."

Now the mood was ruined, but she was afraid to say anything encouraging about what might happen after they were rescued. She didn't want him to get his hopes up.

"You know, I've been thinking that they may not even be looking for us way over here," Jack said.

She was more than willing to change the subject. "Why not?"

"Because Brogan was scheduled to go to Maui, so unless somebody was tracking us on radar for some reason, they'd have no idea that he abandoned the night plan and headed off in the opposite direction. He sure as h.e.l.l didn't announce it on the radio before he smashed the devil out of it."

"You might be right." She'd gotten rid of most of the sand. "I'm pretty much cleaned off. Want me to be on lookout duty while you wash the sand off?"

He brushed at his arms. "I'm fine."

"Jack, you still have a ton of sand on your arms, and your back, not to mention your b.u.t.t. You should-"

"Just don't mention my b.u.t.t from now on, and I promise not to mention yours, okay?"

Stung, she stepped back a pace. "You're mad at me."

He turned, his expression fierce, a lot like the pirate he'd pretended to be earlier. "You're d.a.m.ned right I am. First you make it seem like-" He stopped and stared at her. Gradually the anger left his eyes. "Ah, don't look like that, Gen."

She swallowed, surprised that she'd be so bothered that he was upset with her. "What. . . what were you going to say?"

He shrugged. "It's not important. This is my problem, not yours." Leaning down, he picked up the beach towel she'd tossed aside when she'd jumped into the water with him. "Come on. Let's go back to the hut and split the last energy bar. Then we'll figure out our next move."

She held her ground. "First I want to get something straight. What's happened between us meant something to me. I wasn't just playing around because you were the only guy available."

He looked at her, his face expressionless.

"Okay, Jack. Do you honestly think that's why I had s.e.x with you, because you were convenient?"

When he didn't say anything, she marched right over and gave him a good punch on the arm.

"Ow!"

"Serves you right, if that's what you think of me, that I would have slipped those condoms on whoever's noodle was handy!" She pulled back her arm to punch him again.

"No, you don't." He caught her wrist. "I'm not going to stand here and let you beat up on me. I have a feeling you could do a pretty good job."

"Then take back what you said!"

"But I didn't say anything!"

True, he hadn't. "Then take back what you were thinking!"

His mouth twitched, like he was trying not to laugh. "First I'd have to find out what you thought I thought."

"You know good and well. You're making me madder than a treed polecat, standing there smirking!"

"Smirking? I don't smirk."

"Oh, yes, you do so smirk! You're a first-cla.s.s smirked" She wound up with her free arm.

He looped the towel around his neck and grabbed her other wrist before she could land a blow. There was a pirate's gleam in his eye. "I'll tell you what I'm thinking right now. You brought up the subject of condoms, and I'm thinking that there are two left. No matter why you had s.e.x with me, I can see that once we leave this island, that will be the end of Gen giving Jack a little nooky. So I say let's use up the supply."

"Oh, that's so romantic."

"Isn't it?"

"See? Now that's a smirk if I ever saw one. And I'm not going to cooperate, so there."

"I think you are." With one quick lunge, he lifted her over his shoulder, her head hanging down and her bare bottom pointing up at the sky.

She struggled and kicked, but she was careful not to kick him anywhere that she'd do damage. The more she struggled and wiggled against him, the more she liked his idea. But she didn't want him to know that yet. "You put me down, Jackson the Smirker Farley!"

"The name is Jack, and I've always wanted to do this." He started to move.