Just when I’m about to start crying, he gives me a funny look. “Good thing we’re naked.” Then he starts to laugh, while my entire body heats up with embarrassment.
“How can you laugh right now?” I ask as we start to swim toward the shore. “We’re naked. And our clothes are all the way back at the house!”
Mac shrugs. “In the big scheme of things, having a couple of members of the Coast Guard see us in the buff isn’t really something to worry about.”
“For you, maybe,” I say as I doggy paddle. “You’re like a sculpture of a human.”
He stops swimming and puts his hands on my waist, holding me up in the water. “You still don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“How perfect you are—inside and out, Paige.” He kisses me hard on the mouth, completely ignoring the large red helicopter as it lands, spraying sand in a wide path around it. When he pulls back, the look on his face is pure intensity. “Listen to me. I need you to remember that, okay? No matter what happens when we get off this island. You’re absolutely perfect exactly the way you are and you deserve the best of everything. You deserve to be respected and loved exactly the way you are.”
A lump forms in my throat and I nod. “Okay, I’ll try.”
“Don’t just try. Believe it. I need you to see yourself the way I see you.”
I swallow hard, feeling tears fill my eyes. “I will.”
The chopper blades slow and the engine cuts, my heart already aching at the thought of what’s about to come.
He lets go of me, then says, “I’ll go get your clothes. You wait here.” He leans back in and gives me a quick kiss on the lips. “But not because you have anything to feel embarrassed about. It’s because I don’t want whoever’s in that chopper to be ogling you.”
He lets go of me, and I feel panic rising in my throat. I have to say it. It’s now or never. I have to tell him I’m in love with him. “Mac.”
He turns back to me. “Yeah?”
“I …” My words fade on my lips. I can’t say it. Not when we’re about to be hit by the cold, hard truth of our real lives. “Thank you.”
Disappointment flashes across his face, then he nods and smiles. “You, too.”
He moves quickly now as I watch him, feeling helpless and embarrassed and weak.Thank you?! Thank you. That’s what you come up with?! Brilliant, Paige. Just brilliant.
I watch as he stands in the water, completely unabashed as he strides to the beach. I stare at him shamelessly, telling myself to remember every detail in case it’s the last time I get to see him like this. Although the truth is, the memory of every moment with Mac Gamble will be forever burned into my brain.
“Paige!” my mom’s voice cuts through the air, breaking my concentration. “Paige! You’re alive! Phillip! Our little girl is alive!”
Oh, shit.
26
A Master Class in Making a First Impression
Mac
Well,this is a little awkward, no? Meeting the parents of the woman I’ve fallen for while completely nude. They both stop rushing toward Paige and stare at me, her mom’s eyes landing squarely on my midsection.
Her father, a tall, thin man whose entire being screams rich and powerful, glares at me from behind his sunglasses while his willowy blonde wife holds her mouth agape.
I wave to them, feeling an urge to say, “Eyes up here, Mrs. Chadwick.” But I don’t. Instead, I cover myself with both hands. “Excuse me. I’ll just get some clothes.”
I hear a man’s laugh from next to the chopper, then a familiar voice calls my name. I look over to see Pete Black, a Coast Guard paramedic based out of San Felipe, holding up his cell phone. Perfect. He’s definitely taking photos to send to the rest of the guys.
“Hey, Pete,” I say, trying to sound casual.
“Sorry to interrupt what looked like a pretty goodtime,” he says, then bursts out laughing again. Turning to the helicopter, he says, “Darryl, come say hi to Mac.”
Darryl hops out onto the sand. “Hey Mac, how’s it hanging?”
