Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 63068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
“You don’t like the view?” she asked in a teasing tone. “At least get a good look before you decide.”
“I’d rather you just put your clothes on.”
She giggled. “What a proper gentleman you are.”
I suppressed a comment about Maks. It wouldn’t help anything to say it out loud.
“There’s plenty of food here so eat as much as you want,” I said. “I’m heading out to look for treasure chests.”
“Happy hunting,” she said. “After I eat, I’ll be in the hammock.”
I grunted in response and set out for the jungle. I just wasn’t in the mood to talk—to anyone. Lauren could handle herself, but knowing she was alone with Maks at his camp still didn’t sit well with me.
Would he hit on her? She was beautiful and single, so I had a feeling he would. But she wouldn’t be interested in him. At least, I didn’t think so.
Damn, I hoped I was right about that. He was known as an outrageous, fearless guy who didn’t care what anyone thought of him. If he thought Lauren was a one-night stand, sex-for-funsies kind of woman, he was dead wrong.
When I’d made it about half a mile into the jungle, I looked to my left and saw a huge black snake looking down at me from a tree. Fucker was ominous looking. I pointed and turned around, showing it to Nutter.
“Fuck that,” Nutter said, going off the path to take a longer route and avoid the tree with the snake in it.
I had my machete, so the snake was welcome to start some shit with me if it wanted. Chopping it up sounded pretty cathartic, actually, and then I’d have it cooked and waiting when Lauren got back in the morning.
The snake was too smart for that, though. He stayed in the tree, not moving a muscle until I was too far ahead to mess with it.
“This game fucks with your head, Nutter,” I said.
“How so?” he said from behind me.
“It’s a one-two punch of physical and psychological challenges. This partner change, for instance. All psychological. Designed to test whether our feelings toward our exes have changed after living alone together on an island for seventeen days.”
“Have your feelings changed?”
I was silent for a full minute, because I knew he was recording everything I said and anyone who watched the show could one day hear it. But fuck it. I was going to be honest.
“That’s hard to answer. I knew who Lauren was before getting to this island. She’s strong and smart. Determined to do anything she sets her mind to. Compassionate. The kind of person any leader would want on their team.”
“Why’d you guys break up then?”
I stopped walking and turned to face him. “We were young.”
While drinking from my canteen, I tried to think of how else to explain what had happened between Lauren and me. The timing had been off, I supposed. I’d been too stubborn to get engaged and she’d been too stubborn to accept anything less.
“That’s it?” Nutter asked, sounding disappointed.
I shrugged, turned around, and continued walking, unwilling to share anything else. Before coming to the island and seeing Lauren again, the reasons we hadn’t worked out had slid off my tongue so easily. If I started dating a woman and she asked about past relationships, I told her Lauren and I were young and wanted different things.
Now, though, that sounded like a hollow excuse. The truth was, we wanted the same thing—to be together. We just hadn’t been able to agree on the details. And that was a hell of a thing, to let go of someone who felt like your other half because of simple problems that would never matter in the end.
I walked further into the jungle, not wanting to face my realizations about past mistakes. They followed me, though, heavy in my mind. Still, I walked on, marking trees so I wouldn’t get lost.
I was drenched in sweat from head to toe when I suddenly stopped, listening closely. There was a faint noise that sounded like dull static, and I knew immediately what it was from childhood hikes with my dad.
There was a waterfall ahead. I smiled, wishing Lauren was here to discover it with me. I now had a destination, and I picked up my pace, the sound of the water getting louder as I got closer.
I could see the water though the trees now, a cloud of white from where the falls hit the water below. The dirt around this area was more wet and had turned to mud, so I had to tread a little more carefully, but when I emerged from the thick trees and took in the view, it was worth being covered in mud up to my ankles.
It was spectacular. The waterfall poured over the edge of a cliff, surrounded by lush greenery. There was a pool at the base of the waterfall. It was too beautiful to be real, almost like a scene in a painting.