“Shhhh. Head.” Lincoln put his hand to his head.
“Right. Sorry. I shouldn’t have overloaded you with so much information right out of the gate. Take some breaths. Collect yourself. A bunch more people are about to come in here and ask you some questions. Can you remember what I said? You’re Rory and I’m Lincoln. Just for the time being, until we work this through. We’ll talk more later after everyone’s gone. Got it?”
Lincoln didn’t get a chance to answer before Sasha and Mathilda burst into the tent. Rory stepped back so Sasha could examine him. He tried to stay close, but Sasha shooed him away so she could get some privacy for her patient.
Crossing his fingers and hoping for the best, Rory joined Mathilda near the tent entrance.
“How does he seem so far?” she whispered. “It must be so strange to wake up in a completely different place with total strangers. I’m so glad you were there with him. Did he say anything?”
“Not much.” He frowned as he realized that Lincoln hadn’t said much other than “Rory,” and that was because he’d asked him to say it. He’d figured that framing “Rory” as a request to repeat after him would explain why Lincoln had called him that—an on-the-spot improvised plan, but the best he could come up with.
But other than that one word, Rory himself had done most of the talking. Lincoln had said “safe,” and “head,” and that was about it. He had no idea if his boss had grasped anything Rory had said to him.
“I think his head was still hurting,” he told Mathilda. “But that’s about all he had to say. He was probably disoriented.”
Maybe he could keep using that explanation if Lincoln insisted he was Lincoln, not Rory. Or maybe he’d just give up the whole charade, admit he’d lied, and take his lumps.
“Quick question.” Mathilda edged closer to him and asked in a low murmur, “Were you about to kiss me? Before Rory woke up?”
He looked down at her upturned face. Her eyes were such a clear blue, like a morning swim in the Pacific. Her hair had dried in chaotic waves. She’d wrapped herself in a thick oversized hoodie that probably belonged to one of the guys in the camp. She looked like she’d just stepped off a surfboard, and yes, absolutely, he’d been about to kiss her.
But it would have been a mistake, because he was currently living a lie. So it was a good thing he hadn’t.
“It was a sleeping beauty kind of thing,” he said, aiming for light humor. “We kiss, he wakes up.”
She held his gaze, searching his face. He wasn’t sure what she saw there, or what she was looking for. Whatever it was, she didn’t seem to find it, because she turned her attention to the cot where Sasha was tending to Lincoln.
“What will you do now that Rory’s awake?” she asked.
He’d been thinking about that. It all depended on Lincoln. He was the boss, after all. If he wanted to get checked out at a hospital, that was what they would do. “I think it’ll depend on how quickly he gets his strength back, and what Sasha thinks we should do.”
She nodded. “Look, I know I’ve been giving you a hard time about the whole cold-hearted CEO thing, but you’ve been very kind to your pilot. I owe you an apology.”
“Oh, no, that’s really not necessary.” Not to mention awkward…he was the one who should be apologizing for lying to her ever since he’d met her.
“It is. You could have left your pilot alone here with us. You’re probably missing business deals and investment opportunities and board meetings and who knows what. You’re actually putting his needs ahead of your own, and all I’ve been doing is teasing you and making assumptions. So I hope you’ll accept my apology.”
He realized that she was saying all this because she thought he and Lincoln were going to leave. She wanted to make things “right” before that happened.
So did he. But could he? What if Lincoln wanted to continue the ruse for his own safety? He might not ever be able to tell Mathilda the truth. In fact, he might never see her again. The fact they’d even crossed paths to begin with was a complete twist of fate. When would it ever happen again? He lived in Silver Lake, California, she lived in the jungle. He liked to fly, she liked birds.
Okay, that was pretty similar, in a way.
If only he could have more time to get to know Mathilda, with all her quirks and opinions. He found her outrageously attractive, even when she was watching him with that serious expression, her hand extended as part of her apology.
Just then, Sasha rose to her feet and came toward them. Her expression was so grave that Rory’s heart sank. Lincoln must have revealed the truth before he could do so himself. He was busted. He’d probably look like an asshole for trying to pretend he was a billionaire.
“I’m afraid he’s going to need some time,” said Sasha. “I gave him a basic cognitive exam and his answers were…odd, shall we say.”
“Odd? What does that mean?” Rory’s heart was beating hard against his rib cage.
“Well, when I asked him his name, he said he didn’t know. Then he said he wasn’t supposed to say. Very confused, to say the least. I asked him the year, and he said it was next year.”
“Next year?”
“Yes, in fact he gave a very specific date. May twentieth of next year. He seemed very sure of that.”
That date must be very important to Lincoln for some reason. Rory filed it away in his brain.
