“We’re going to live,” he panted as he turned to flop on his back, arms spread wide.
“Speak for yourself,” Jude grunted as he rolled to his back as well.
They were close but not quite touching. Both of them managed to get soaked through with sea and rain water. The cold leeched its way into Nally’s bones, which was never a good thing, even in the best of times. But all he could do was lie there with his friend and the near disaster that could have torn them apart.
And he wasn’t thinking about Jude’s fall.
“This was a shit idea,” Jude said at last, sounding marginally better, at least.
“In the annals of shitty ideas, yes, this one will receive a featured spot,” Nally answered.
Jude chuckled, and Nally was relieved that no moans of pain accompanied the sound. “Why did we drive all the way to a barren island in Scotland again?” he asked, turning his head to Nally.
“Because you failed to inform me that I had a deluded stalker bothering me on social media,” Nally answered, without any sort of resentment or malice.
Jude sighed as rain splashed down on his pink-cheeked face. “Sorry,” he said quietly.
“I forgive you,” Nally answered just as quietly. He reached for Jude’s hand and took it with his own frigid, scraped hand, threading their fingers together. “You were just trying to protect me. I get it.”
“I have to protect you,” Jude said, his eyes blazing with emotion. “You’re like a part of my soul. You’re my everything.”
“I know,” Nally said, not to be cheeky, but because he felt exactly the same feelings about Jude.
He smiled and Jude smiled back. If the sun had been shining and a warm, sea breeze had been blowing over them, it would have made for a perfect moment. As it was, the rain picked up, they both started to shiver with cold and with the last of their adrenaline seeping out, and Nally’s muscles were in serious danger of seizing if they didn’t get a move on.
“There’s plenty of wood in the cottage to get a good fire going,” Nally said, forcing himself to sit and then to stand. He offered a hand to Jude to help him up as well.
“I definitely need a warm fire and dry clothes,” he sighed.
Nally grabbed Jude’s other hand as they headed back to the cottage. “Those musty old blankets feel like a good idea right now,” he said.
“You know what feels like an even better idea?” Jude asked as Nally dipped to the side when they reached the cottage door to retrieve his laptop, which might very well have been ruined, and the chair. He sent Jude a questioning look as Jude held the door open for him, and once they were inside, Jude finished with, “If we went home.”
Relief so large it made Nally moan ripped through him. “God, yes!” he said. “Will Connor come out and get us this late and with all the rain?”
“It’s not as late as it could be,” Jude said, rolling his shoulders with a wince and testing his sore body as he ambled closer to the fire. “It can’t be later than mid-afternoon. And honestly, I think Connor is expecting us to throw in the towel and call for him. He’s never had much faith in my heartiness.”
“I am willing to risk proving Connor right by calling for help,” Nally said, putting the chair back where it belonged and resting his laptop on the table. “I just want a hot shower, a warm room, and a clean, damp-free bed.”
Jude groaned, which turned into a laugh. “A warm bed would be amazing,” he said. “I’ll call Connor.”
The call was made, but not until after they both stripped out of their soaked things, wrapped themselves in old blankets, and set their dry clothes out close to the fire so they would be extra warm once they put them on. Unlike that morning, Nally didn’t feel at all awkward about being naked around Jude. The pressure was gone. They were just two seriously cold friends who ended up snuggling in the middle of a pile of blankets together in front of the fire while radioing to Connor for help.
“I can be there in just under ninety minutes,” Connor told them through the tinny radio, “but you need to be ready and waiting on the dock if we’re going to make it back to Oban before dark.”
“We’ll be there,” Jude said. He and Connor said their goodbyes, and he tossed the radio onto the nearby couch. “We’ll be there,” he repeated for Nally, “but I need a few more minutes of warming up before I’ll have the energy to clean this place and pack everything up.”
“Just a few more minutes,” Nally said, shifting to snuggle closer to his friend. The cottage could wait. Settling into closeness with Jude was far more important just then. He’d almost lost the most important person in his life, in more ways than one, and it would take a lot of settling until he felt whole and safe again.
FOURTEEN
Out of nowhere,Jude and Nally had a tiny bubble of connection in the storm of anxiety and uncertainty they’d manufactured for themselves. Sitting in front of the fire, cocooned in blankets, trying to stop themselves from shivering or letting the cold settle into their bones—which was a sensation Jude had only experienced a few times but never wanted to feel again—gave them both a chance to just breathe.
Jude closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of Nally’s skin, which was mingled with sea salt and musty blanket, as he rested the side of his head against Nally’s. He matched his breath to Nally’s, sinking into a half-trance state that was just the two of them together. The fire crackled beside them, the rain beat against the windows, birds made a racket, and the sea was just barely audible in the distance, washing in and out and beating against the rocks like it had done since before man walked the earth…and had romantic drama.
“We need to get moving if we’re going to be ready when Connor gets here,” Nally said at last, shaking Jude out of his reverie.
“Yeah,” Jude sighed, pulling his sore body out of the tangle of limbs he and Nally had made.
