His stomach lurched, but he hid his misgivings behind a veneer of his own. Joking and casual. He hoped his was less see-through.
Carol’s eyebrows drew together, but she was frowning at the water, not at him. “Some clues about where we are, maybe. A familiar trench?” The more she said, the less convinced she sounded.
He folded his arms. “How many trenches are you familiar with?”
“The Mariana Trench?” The corner of her mouth quirked, reminding him of what lay behind her soft lips. “I mean, not personally.”
“Not well enough to recognize it through the muck kicked up after a storm like last night?”
“I don’t think I’d recognize anything! But I have to dosomething! I can’t just sit around and be useless again!” The shout burst out of her, a sudden, volcanic explosion.
And behind it, a pain that lanced through her eyes and cut at the very edges of his mind.
He strode to her side, as though whatever hurt had welled up inside her was an external threat he could protect her against. By the time he reached her, she’d gotten herself under control. The volcanic explosion, and whatever pain had brought it on, were hidden behind closed lips and dark-shadowed eyes. Maggie had stopped in the middle of her explorations, peering back over her shoulder with a watchful expression on her scaly face.
“I’m sorry,” Carol said, scrubbing one hand over her eyes. “I shouldn’t have yelled. It’s just—this whole thing…”
“The last day’s been a lot,” he agreed wryly. “I reckon you deserve to shout a bit.”
She flashed him a grateful smile that didn’t show any teeth. “I could at least be shouting something useful. Like ‘Help.’”
“Save it for when Search and Rescue get their act together and come find us.”
“You really think they’re coming?”
“You don’t? You think your boss is just going to give up on you?”
She looked as though she didn’t know what to say. Or maybe she did, and just didn’t want to say it. “I mean, the circumstances—what’s he going to do, call up the Coast Guard and say a bunch of monsters that looked like they jumped out of a horror movie tore the plane apart and someone fell out? Would they even think I’d survived that? I shouldn’t have. Iwouldn’thave, except that…” She stopped, her lips parted. “I don’t know. I don’t know how I survived. It still doesn’t seem real. And—they must thinkI’m dead.” She looked over to Maggie, who was busily turning over stones. “They must think we’re all dead. If—if they’re even still alive.”
“Carol…” He leaned towards her, not reaching out to hold her, not looming, just… offering.Here’s a big, warm body,he hoped his body language was communicating.Feel free to take advantage of its presence.
To his surprise, she did. She leaned against him, and the soft weight of her took his breath away. He put one hand around her waist, slowly, gently, as though she was a mirage and might vanish.
She didn’t.
She let out a ragged breath. “I have to do something. I can’t just sit around waiting for someone else to fix this. I can’t donothing.”
“You saved Maggie,” he reminded her. “You saved those other two eggs. You saved yourself, and you dragged me out of the ocean with you. That’s more than nothing.”
She looked up at him, a half-smile on her lips. “Okay. I haven’t donenothing. But I have to do this, too.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Much as I’d love to see—” She broke off, turned bright red, and coughed. “Uh. Er. I mean, would you mind staying here and watching Maggie? I’m not going to take her with me swimming, obviously, and I don’t want to think about all the trouble she could get herself into on the island by herself, and—and, um. Um?”
Much as you’d love to see what?He wanted to tighten his grip on her, hold her chin to keep that blush front and center, and tease the answer out of her.
He let her go. She stepped back, cheeks still furiously red.
“Sure, I’ll look after the baby dragon. Can’t be that hard, right?” He grinned easily, and caught unawares, she grinned back. Her teeth gleamed like moonlight on rippling water.
“Thanks.” She pressed the backs of her hands over her cheeks, grimacing. “Oh, for the love of— Guess we won’t have to worry about lighting a fire tonight. I’ll just hold the sticks up to my face.”
“You get much brighter, we could use you to signal passing ships.”
She glared at him, amusement warring with embarrassment. “You—”
“Pree-ree! Ee-ooooo!” Maggie launched herself into the air, shrieking with excitement. Something dangled from her claws. It fell, and she darted after it, peeping at top volume. “Ee! Ee!”
