“A little.”
“Here,” he said, reaching over and massaging his fingers through her hair. His fingertips danced along her scalp, sending a tingling sensation throughout her body. “Better?”
“Mm-hmm,” she purred, not realizing how dreamy she sounded. “I mean, yes. Yes, it’s better. Thank you.”
He smiled at her, then tucked his arms underneath his head as they lay on their sides staring at each other.
“So,” he said.
“So.”
“What are you thinking about?”
What was she thinking about? She was thinking about theway his fingers felt between the strands of her hair. How dangerously close his body was to hers and the fact that he wasn’t doing anything to expand that distance. How this was the third time today their bodies had made contact.
All those things swirled through her mind, though lingering in the back of it—and in her peripheral vision—was Dr. Quinn’s pack.
“Do you think Dr. Quinn was up to something?” she asked.
He tipped his head a bit to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. Anissa said something about how he was looking for his phone and was going to lose his house. I know he has a concussion and all, but something isn’t sitting right with me.”
“I’m not sure. Personally, I didn’t know anything about Quinn before this trip. It does seem a little strange, though. Maybe this is all a sign or something,” he said.
“What do you mean, a sign?” Miri asked.
“Like that we shouldn’t be out here. Maybe this is the Moon City’s way of telling us it doesn’t want to be found.”
“What?” Miri said, shaking her head. “No, that’s not what I’m getting at.”
“Let’s face it, Pringles. We’re not exactly off on the right foot here.”
“We need to get to base camp is all, and then everything will be back on track.”
Rafa opened his mouth in an apparent protest when the hum of a vehicle in the distance caught all their attention.
“Do you hear that?” Miri asked.
No way. No way could they be that lucky.
They twisted and turned to pull themselves out from thevan—though not without Miri noticing how firm Rafa’s abs were when she wriggled out from the tight space—and they walked up to the road to see where the noise came from at the same time Logan and Felix emerged from the forest. A white pickup truck caked in mud came barreling along the road right toward them.
They waved their arms to get the truck’s attention, as if it could miss them. Four people on the side of the road deep in the Amazon wasn’t an ordinary occurrence. Thankfully, the truck slowed down and pulled up beside them. Miri prepared to butcher her way through some Portuguese to explain their situation, when the tinted window rolled down to reveal two white guys in baseball caps—one Red Sox and one Nationals.
Odd.
“Everyone all right?” Red Sox asked.
Americans.
“Um, yeah. I mean, no, not really. Our van,” Miri said, thumbing back to the van as if it wasn’t already obvious. “It got stuck.”
The men craned their necks to peek. “Anyone on their way to get you?”
“Not until tomorrow,” Miri said.
“We’re stuck out here,” Logan chimed in.
