“I have tarps and some emergency bivy sacks in my backpack.”
Of course she did. Elsie was the kind of SAR worker who would be prepared for anything, and that included possibly having to stay overnight in the wilderness. The tarps they could use to make a tent, and the bivy sacks, like ultrathin, disposable sleeping bags, would keep them warm and insulate them against the elements.
“Sounds like a plan.”
She moved to her backpack and started pulling things out, and Wyatt kept an eye on the woods, not willing to let his guard down even for a few minutes. Willow, he’d noticed, was lying near Elsie’s backpack, watching the woods as well. Wyatt’s head still throbbed, a reminder of how easily someone could sneak up on them.
Less so here, but in exchange, they’d make easy targets for a gunman. Was it possible the shooter had lost his gun, and that was why he’d hit Wyatt instead?
“I’m sorry about your plane,” she said as they worked.
“It’s okay.” Wyatt was surprised at how true the words felt. “It was insured. It’ll work out. Better the plane than you.” Compared with the thought that someone could have harmed Elsie, the plane just didn’t mean as much.
“What made you want to become a pilot, anyway?” she asked, looking over at him.
His shoulders tensed. Everything related to his past made him tense, and he took a breath to relax his muscles. Elsie had shared enough about herself; surely he could return the favor.
“Well, I sort of decided college wasn’t for me. I liked what I was learning...” he started.
“What was that?”
“Psychology.” He watched her for any kind of reaction, surprise that a guy like him who hadn’t taken school too seriously would ever think he could study something like psychology. The truth was that while he’d squeaked by with several Ds in core classes in school, he’d gotten an A in psychology because he liked it. People intrigued him.
“Sounds interesting,” she said.
“It was... But I was spending too much time partying. Not enough studying. I flunked out.”
There was no surprise on her face now, but neither was there the judgment he’d been expecting. Instead she was just watching him, waiting for him to tell her the rest of it.
“I came back up here, started doing odd jobs for a friend of the family, cleaning his plane, his hangar... Eventually I decided I’d better do something with my life. I got my private pilot’s license, moved up from there in hours and certifications, and here we are.” He shrugged. “Could you hand me that tarp?” he asked, abruptly changing the subject.
Within half an hour, they had their shelter set up, and night had finished falling, dark clouds stealing the light even earlier than usual. The lack of daylight was disconcerting, even though it was well past 9:00 p.m. Wyatt and Elsie both climbed under the tarp they’d set up. It would protect them from any rain, but the sides were open.
“Kinda tight inside our little temporary home here,” Wyatt joked, poking at the low roof of the tarp.
“Definitely not five-star accommodations. I mean, look at this view. Just monotonous. Wave after wave,” she teased back, motioning to their spectacular ocean view. They’d set up a bit away from the plane, to make sure they were well past the high-tide mark. Neither of them wanted to wake up to ocean waves lapping at their feet.
He laughed at her words. “Surely you’ve slept in worse places, doing the job you do.”
“Oh, definitely.” She hesitated. “Never with anyone after me, though.”
“So this is new?”
“Yeah. New experience for sure.” Her eyes flicked to his, and Wyatt could have almost sworn he saw more in them.
He was no stranger to seeing a spark of interest in a woman’s eyes, but it had been so long. Years since he’d dated at all, since his self-imposed exile from the dating scene while he tried to get his life together. And then years of feeling like he had something to prove, like it wasn’t worth the risk of turning back into who he used to be. Was he just out of practice that he thought he saw that same spark in Elsie’s eyes?
No, he didn’t think so. Would he be out of line to tell her he cared more about her than he was trying to let on? No, he still couldn’t. She was in danger and needed to focus on that. Besides, could he really risk making things awkward when they were trapped out here alone together?
She looked away, then said, “Who takes the first watch?”
He cleared his throat, trying to ignore the way his heart was pounding. “I think I should stay awake for the night and you should try to sleep, so you’re ready to search again whenever you can.”
“That’s a no. You’ve already gotten involved in a fight that wasn’t yours and spent all day helping me search in rough terrain. I’m not going to just lie down and sleep while you keep us safe, too. You can’t do it all, Wyatt.”
See, he’d have said it was Elsie doing more than her fair share.
“Okay, we’ll take turns,” he said, agreeing to her suggestion.
“You sleep first,” she said, as he’d expected, but Wyatt was ready.
“I have a concussion, so I should stay awake for now.” He grinned at her. “You’d better go first.”
He’d never seen someone roll her eyes so cutely before.
“You’re a pilot. You must have enough first aid training to know that medical experts no longer recommend keeping a concussion patient awake.”
“Better safe than sorry?”
Elsie yawned, tried to catch herself.
“Seriously. Sleep, Elsie. You’ve worked hard.”
From where she lay curled up, Willow seemed to agree that Elsie needed to sleep. Her dark eyes were wide and fixed on Elsie.
Elsie noticed, too, because she called her dog to her. Willow obeyed and she rubbed the dog’s thick white fur. “A nap. I will take a nap. Two hours, max.”
“Fine. Two hours.”
