I grab it and hand it to him without a word, because there’s no sense in trying to win a guy like him over. He leaves the room and I wait for him to be out of earshot before speaking again. “What were you going to say?”
Her mom bustles in before she can answer. “I’ve got your makeup kit all packed up.” She glances around the room and sniffs. “I can’t believe you had to live like this for so long.”
Smiling at me, Paige says, “Yeah, I can’t either. I got so lucky.”
“Lucky?” her mom asks, wrinkling up her face. “Oh, well, I suppose it would’ve been worse if there was no house at all.”
I follow Paige and her mom to the front door, picking up my bag on the way, then take one last look around before I walk outside.
“No, wait. We can’t leave yet,” Paige says.
My heart picks up its pace a little, and I find myself hoping she’ll say she’s not ready and that she and I need to talk first. But she doesn’t. Instead, she turns to her father. “Dad, do you have some cash on you? We need to pay the homeowner back for all the food and fuel we used.”
He gives me a look that asks me where my money is, then nods. Pulling his wallet out of the back pocket of his pants. “Will a couple hundred cover it?”
“No need, Mr. Chadwick,” I say, irritation making my skin crawl. “I’ll be back in a few days to get my plane. I’ll bring a load of supplies and leave some cash.”
“You sure?” he asks.
“Positive. I’m not the kind of man who doesn’t repay his debts.”
“Well, that’s good, at least,” he mutters.
The four of us start back toward the helicopter, the news crew filming from a distance. Mrs. Chadwick loopsher arm through Paige’s. “Oh, you won’t believe it. Guy has been all over this whole thing since Vivian figured out what happened. She’s been amazing, by the way. She flew straight to San Felipe and got busy bothering the authorities until they finally agreed to do something about it.”
“Did she?” Paige asks, her voice cracking. “Is she still here?”
“No, she had to fly back home for some sort of shoot.”
“The Neutrogena thing.”
“Not sure, she didn’t say,” her mom answers. “Anyway, Guy has been wonderful too. Honestly, I think we judged him a little too harshly because he has absolutely stepped up and made a huge fuss, which is exactly what we needed to find you.”
Oh great, nowthey’redrinking the Kool-Aid.
When we get to the helicopter, Paige ends up sandwiched between her parents in the back while I end up in the row of seats facing them, my hands empty on my lap instead of holding hers. I slide the headphones on and stare out the window as the chopper lifts into the air, allowing me a bird’s eye view of the cottage, my plane, and the island. As we fly over the mountain, I see the flags we made and I smile to myself, thinking about us working together on Paige’s big plan. I think about how we were just getting started, not knowing where this was going to take us, and now, here we are, having done what we set out to do, falling in love in the process.
I glance at Paige, who is craning her neck to look out the window. She smiles at me. “You did an amazing job with the flags. They look better than I thought they would.”
“Thanks, I was really trying to make sure there was enough white space.”
“It’s perfect,” she tells me, her eyes shining with emotion.
“We’re a good team,” I answer.
Her dad, who clearly doesn’t want his daughter on any team I’m on, says, “It’s amazing what people can accomplish when they’re forced to work together.”
Her mom, who seems to share Paige’s belief you have to shout when on an aircraft, says, “It wasn’t the flags that worked though. It was the bridesmaid’s dress!”
Pete interjects with, “You don’t have to yell, ma’am.”
“Oh sorry,” she says, at a slightly lower volume. “Anyway, this morning, a yacht was going by on the east side of the island and they spotted the dress hanging from a tree. They immediately called the Coast Guard!”
I turn back to Paige and she grins at me. I give her a wink, feeling proud of her. “See? Told you you could do it,” I say quietly.
She mouths,we did itto me, then says, “I hope Tiffany won’t be upset that I used the dress to try to get attention.”
“She’s just thrilled you’re alive,” Mrs. Chadwick says. “She and Ethan are waiting back in San Felipe. We’ve been trying to prop each other up this entire time.”
