Nerd In Shining Armor Part 9

Every time she thought of Nick Brogan she wanted to punch something or somebody. But she couldn't punch Jack, because he was the person who had saved the day. He also looked surprisingly good without his s.h.i.+rt. He was pale, though, and already starting to burn. Lucky for him she had both sunscreen and lotion in her suitcase.

And condoms. Why she suddenly remembered that was a mystery. She would not be using them with Jack, that was for sure. She already had enough to live down with that incident in the sand a while ago. One thing her mother had drummed into her head was that you didn't get physical with a man unless you thought he had marriage potential.

Jack would make a sorry husband. Try asking him to bring home a carton of milk and a loaf of bread from the store and see what you'd get. Probably a case of c.o.ke and a package of Gummi Bears. Even those would arrive hours late because he wouldn't even remember to come home in the first place.

Genevieve wanted a man who would be attentive. Nick had fooled her into thinking he'd be attentive, but from the moment he'd picked her up at her house she'd started questioning that. Now she knew why he'd treated her so poorly, not opening doors or helping her in and out of places. He was fixing to kill her, so why bother?

Jack stopped wading and started swimming. His direction was a little off, probably because he couldn't see without his gla.s.ses.

She made a megaphone with her hands. "To the right!" she shouted.

He didn't act like he'd heard her, and he probably hadn't with the sound of the surf and the distance. The suitcase was farther out than she'd thought, but she was beginning to realize that distances were tricky on the ocean.

Jack stopped to tread water and look around. He must have spied the suitcase, because he set off in the right direction this time.

As she watched him head for it, her heart did a funny flip-flop. The minute she'd asked him to go after her suitcase, he'd started into the water without a single argument. He hadn't asked her what was so important in that suitcase, and he hadn't told her to wait and see if the tide brought it in.

Now that she considered how willing he'd been to plunge into the water on her behalf, she wondered if she should have asked, after all. He had a thing for her, no question, and it would be cruel to encourage him. Asking him for favors was a kind of encouragement, and she needed to watch herself on that.

About the time she was vowing not to make any more requests of him, she saw the shark fin, gliding like a toy sailboat along the water, a sailboat with a black sail instead of white. It was behind him, and he was concentrating on reaching for the strap of the suitcase, so he wouldn't have any idea what was coming.

"Jack!" Tossing his gla.s.ses up on the dry sand, she splashed into the surf, yelling his name and waving her arms. He paid no attention. She launched herself into the waves and swam as fast as she could. Yelling took too much breath, so she stopped doing that.

She switched to the breast stroke so she could see him, and here he came toward her, the strap looped over one arm and the suitcase b.u.mping his back each time he stroked. At first she didn't see the fin and prayed the shark had gone away. But then she saw it again, not far behind Jack. She tried to call out his name and got a mouth full of water instead.

Coughing and sputtering, she sculled the water with one hand and pointed over his head with the other. He must have finally figured out her signal, because he turned his head. Then he started swimming like crazy.

"Leave the suitcase!" she yelled.

But he must not have heard her because he kept the suitcase, which only b.u.mped more frantically against his back. Heart pounding, she tried to gauge whether he was putting any distance between him and the shark. And then, miracle of miracles, the shark turned and started back out to sea. She closed her eyes in relief.

Jack nearly ran her over. Grabbing her shoulder, he shoved her through the water toward sh.o.r.e. She started swimming just to keep him from manhandling her any more. She doubted that he'd understand her if she told him the shark was gone.

They stumbled out of the water together and both fell to their hands and knees, gasping for breath.

"I got"-Jack's chest heaved-"I got it." He slid his arm out of the strap.

"Oh, Jack." She glanced over at him crouching there, water running from his hair into his eyes, and she had the urge to hug him. She didn't, though, because that could lead to more of what had happened before. "I shouldn't have sent you out there."

He pushed back on his haunches and wiped the water from his face. It clung in bright droplets to his bristly beard. "You didn't know."

"I could have guessed. I know these waters are loaded with sharks." She eased to a cross-legged position and tucked her skirt around her legs. She should probably save the effort. The water had made her dress transparent again, so Jack could see about all there was to see.

He was looking, too. Fortunately he didn't have his gla.s.ses, so she'd be hazy, just like he was hazy to her. They probably both looked like dream people to each other, fuzzy and soft. But she could sort of see his belly b.u.t.ton, so he could probably identify her nipples through the wet dress. She crossed her arms.

"Where are my gla.s.ses?"

Uh-oh. "I took them off before I dived in to save you. I tossed them up on the dry sand." She uncrossed her arms and stood, facing away from him as she tried to figure out where she'd been standing when she'd thrown the gla.s.ses. "I'm sure they're around here somewhere."

Jack got to his feet. "Let's hope they're around here somewhere. Couldn't you have set them down, like on a rock?"

"How could I think about where to set your precious gla.s.ses when I was sure you were going to be gobbled by a shark?" She surveyed the fuzzy landscape and started forward, hoping for a glint of sun off either the lenses or the metal frames.

"Those precious gla.s.ses are critical to this operation. Hey, don't walk too fast! You might step on them! Jesus."

Although his tone irritated her, Genevieve paused. He had a point. "What we need is one of those metal detectors. That's how they found Granny Neville's false teeth, with one of those things."

"If you're fantasizing, you might as well ask for something really useful, like a helicopter."

She faced him, no longer caring if her nipples showed or not. "Your mood is getting downright ugly, you know that? You're acting like a pup who got his nose stuck in a knothole, and I don't much appreciate it."

"Well, I don't much appreciate that you tossed my gla.s.ses into the sand! G.o.d knows if we'll find them again, with both of us blind as bats. And even if we do, sand is an abrasive. The lenses will be scratched all to h.e.l.l."

She lifted her chin. "Oh, kiss my grits."

He stared at her. Then a snort of laughter popped out of him, followed by a chuckle and at last a full-blown belly laugh.

Watching Jack laugh was a novel experience. Now that she thought about it, she might never have seen him laugh like this, doubled over, holding his sides while tears ran down his cheeks. She wasn't sure why he was laughing, though. Maybe he'd finally cracked and this wasn't laughter but hysterics. That wouldn't be so good.

"Jack, are you okay?"

"Yeah." He swallowed and wiped his eyes. "Yeah, I'm good."

"What's so funny?''

He grinned at her. "Kiss my grits. That's what's funny."

"I think the sun is getting to you. There's nothing funny about that. People say it all the time back home."

"I'll bet they do." He continued to smile at her. "Now, c'mon. Let's get down on our hands and knees and crawl around until we find those gla.s.ses."

As Jack searched the warm sand for his gla.s.ses, he couldn't help glancing up once in a while to watch Genevieve on her hands and knees a short distance away. The woman he saw bore little resemblance to the poised secretary he'd l.u.s.ted after, but this new version was even more tantalizing than the old.

He'd thought of her as cool and regal. Instead she was spirited and warm and funny as h.e.l.l. And he'd love to kiss her grits, no matter what part of her anatomy that stood for.

"I found them!" She leaped to her feet, spraying sand everywhere as she waved his gla.s.ses by the earpiece. "And they're not broken or anything!" She slipped them on. "Well, okay, they might have a couple of scratches."

He sank back on his haunches and enjoyed his fuzzy view of Genevieve wearing his gla.s.ses. Even the prospect of scratched lenses didn't bother him as those wire rims transformed her into a studious s.e.x kitten. He didn't know if there was such a category. If there was, she belonged in it- barefoot, her clothes wet and transparent, and her hair all mussed like she'd just climbed out of bed.

"They're smudged, though." She took off the gla.s.ses, breathed on each lens, and then lifted a corner of her skirt to polish them.

"Gen, let-" He clamped his mouth shut before another idiotic word came out. So her skirt was probably full of sand and she'd only make matters worse. She might ruin the d.a.m.ned gla.s.ses. But while she polished, he had a blurred but tantalizing view of her thigh.

"What?" She glanced at him.

"Nothing." Worrying about his gla.s.ses was a reflex. It wasn't like he had a computer screen to deal with, so scratch-free gla.s.ses weren't a necessity right now, anyway.

"You were about to say something, Jack."

"I was going to say, let's go get your suitcase."

She frowned at him, as if she didn't believe a word of it. "No, you were going to say, Let me clean my gla.s.ses my own self." She walked over and held out the gla.s.ses. "Here. Clean them however you want. I'm sorry I threw them in the sand."

That reminded him of why she'd done that. She'd seen a shark coming after him and she'd leaped right into the water to try and save him, risking herself in the process. Besides that, she'd had the presence of mind to toss his gla.s.ses up on the sand first instead of wearing them into the surf where they would have been lost forever.

He stood. "I'm the one who's sorry. I should be thanking you for coming out to warn me instead of biting your head off about the gla.s.ses. That was a brave thing you did."

Her chin lifted. "You think I'd let you get chomped by a shark while you were fetching my suitcase? That would be mighty ungrateful of me."

Ah, the grat.i.tude thing. Maybe that was what made Gen stand out from the crowd-that deep sense of appreciation for whatever good things came her way. The women he'd known had grown up in suburbia where deprivation meant having their allowances docked or being grounded for a week.

He'd never thought of them as spoiled, but compared to Gen, they were. They'd had their choice of Reeboks or Nikes, while she might not have worn shoes until she was a teenager. His other girlfriends had taken their safe, middle-cla.s.s lifestyle for granted. With her background, Gen never would. Not that she was his girlfriend.

"Well, thank you, anyway," he said. "Not everyone would have jumped into the water like that."

She flushed, almost as if his praise embarra.s.sed her. "No problem. I reckon we need to take care of one another while we're marooned, right?"

"Right." G.o.d, but he loved to listen to that down-home speech of hers. He supposed once they were rescued she'd quit talking like that, and he'd definitely miss it.

"Now take your gla.s.ses." She wiggled them at him. "They're scratched, but they're better than nothing."

"No, you take them. You're the one who will be going through your suitcase, not me."

"You have a point." She put on the gla.s.ses again. "I still can't get over the coincidence that we have the same prescription. I mean, what are the chances that two people, stranded on a deserted island, would have exactly the same thing wrong with their eyes?"

"It must mean we're soul mates." He said it with a smile, to let her know he wasn't serious. Given his admission that he was attracted to her, she might think he was serious. He wanted to show her he could kid about it, so that when this was all over and they were back to being polite friends at the office, she wouldn't feel sorry for him.

"I thought Nick was my soul mate." She started walking toward her pink suitcase. "Which tells you I'm about as psychic as a jug of mola.s.ses. Mama, now, she's psychic. She told me not to go on this trip. I should've listened, but I thought I knew better."

Jack wondered what would have happened if Genevieve had listened to her mother and refused Nick's offer. Nick would have asked another secretary, if there were any left who would fall for his act. Jack could have been stranded here with someone else. He didn't really believe in Fate or premonitions or any of that mumbo jumbo he couldn't quantify. However, having things turn out the way they had seemed exactly right to him.

"Mama must be worried sick by now." Gen knelt by the suitcase and snapped open the clasp. "I promised to call when we landed in Maui. She knows I wouldn't forget, considering she was so petrified of me flying."

"Then she's probably the person who will see that we get rescued." If she had half the determination of her daughter, they'd be out of here in no time. He was happy about that, of course. They had no shelter, no water, and nothing to eat but those d.a.m.ned guavas.

Furthermore, if they wanted to go beyond this little crescent of a beach in search of food and water, they'd have to scale a very high cliff, and that scared the daylights out of him. They were in a tight spot, so he should be looking forward to being rescued. But he also knew that he couldn't expect to be this closely involved with Gen once they were saved. Logic told him they'd go back to the status quo.

She flipped back the top of the round suitcase. "Well, everything's soaking wet, of course, but we can dry this beach towel and use it."

"South Park? You like South Park!" It didn't fit that she would, but he was thrilled that they might share something as simple as a TV show.

"No, not really." She pushed the soggy towel aside. "My brother, Lincoln, loves it, though. I've watched it a few times with him and he gave me this towel, probably hoping I'd get hooked even more."

So she wasn't an addict. Too bad. He hated to admit that he'd begun weaving fantasies of the two of them cuddled in front of the television with a bowl of popcorn. Okay, he could watch South Park with her brother, then. It was a start. "How old is your brother?"

"Fourteen."

"It must be nice to have a brother." His only family was his grandmother, and he'd ended up moving away from her.

"Mostly it is nice, although sometimes he's a pain in the b.u.t.t." She rummaged through the suitcase.

"Oh, look! Mama must have tucked these in here!" She held up four energy bars, two in each hand. "She's always afraid I won't get enough to eat."

Jack's mouth watered, but they were her energy bars. "Now you won't have to depend on guavas."

"Now we won't have to depend on guavas. I say we eat two now and save two for later. Which do you want, the chocolate or the peanut b.u.t.ter?"

Chocolate. Oh, G.o.d. His stomach rumbled, but he tried once more to be n.o.ble. "You keep them. We're not sure how long it'll take for help to come, and you might need them all."

She grinned. "I heard your stomach growling, Jack. And if you think I'm eating these myself after you saved both me and my suitcase, you've got another think coming." She waved two different packages at him. "Take your pick. On the house."

"Okay, I'll take the chocolate." He did his best not to rip it out of her hands, but he had the wrapper torn open and half the energy bar gone before he thought to take a breath. He felt a little better when he glanced down and she was gobbling hers just as fast, but he'd totally forgotten his manners. "Thank you," he said.

She answered with her mouth full. "You're welcome."

He finished the bar and was ready for another one. But she was right. They needed to pace themselves. He also wished they had some water, but it looked like guava juice would be the drink of the day.

She held out her hand. "I'll take the wrappers and tuck them back in my suitcase. I wouldn't want to litter."

He smiled as he gave her the empty wrapper. "Too late. We've already dropped a big old piece of metal out in the water."

"Which we couldn't help. That doesn't mean we have to add trash strewn around on the beach." She tucked the remaining two energy bars back in the suitcase. "I sure hope my green suit will be okay once I get it washed. Everything smells offish, but that'll probably come out with a good soak."

"Probably." He thought it wasn't important what happened to her suit, but obviously she did.

"You know, it's hot sitting here in the sun." She closed the lid and latched it again. "Let's take the whole thing up into the shade and go through it. We can hang things over the rocks to dry, and I'll rub sunscreen on your back."

"That's okay. I can put on my s.h.i.+rt now."

"No, because then you'll get a farmer's tan on your arms, and when you take off your s.h.i.+rt, the rest of you will be lily white. You have a nice build, Jack. You should get a good tan to showcase it."

"What about skin cancer?" He'd noticed her comment about him having a nice build, though.

She gazed up at him, looking so earnest in those gla.s.ses. "I'll tell you something. My uncle Rufus was brown as a berry and he never had a lick of skin cancer. What gives you skin cancer is getting all burnt in one sitting. So slop on the sunscreen and work up to the tan slow and natural." She smiled. "See? This mess isn't for nothing, after all. You can get a great start on your tan, which is something that will help you get dates, especially in Honolulu."

So they were back to the makeover discussion. He didn't want dates. He wanted Gen. Obviously that wasn't a possibility if she was still h.e.l.l-bent on transforming him into 3. guy other women would want.

She stood, brushed the sand from her knees, and reached for the handle of the suitcase.

"You'd better not pick it up by the-"

Too late. She pulled on the handle and it came off in her land. "Tarnation."

"Never mind. I can carry it without the handle."

"It broke clean off." She stared at the pink leather strap n her hand. "I can't believe it."