Page 115 of SEAL Summer Escape

Not that deserted islands exactly offered that option.

She watched Noah dive into the waves, getting soaked, but he stood up without any fish.Her gaze tracked to the fire he’d lit up at the top of the beach.The driftwood had finally dried out enough to catch fire, and when he’d struck a match and she’d seen the flames and smoke rise, she had a feeling their rescuers would find them today after all.

Noah splashed around some more, diving into the water, and then he finally jumped up, triumphantly holding a fish between his hands.He whooped and hollered, jogging through the incoming waves to head up the beach to her.

“My hero!”she teased, smiling as he grinned from ear to ear.

He chuckled.“I rescue you from the ocean, hold you all night long, make love to you for hours—and this is what makes me your hero?”

“Amongst other things,” she teased.

The sound ofchop-chop-chop-chopsuddenly filled the air, and Noah and Bailey both turned to the water in surprise.

“It’s a helicopter!”Bailey shouted, clapping her hands and jumping up and down.“They found us!They found us!”

Noah whooped and hollered, dropping the fish he’d just caught onto the sand as he waved his arms back and forth in the air.“Hello!”he bellowed.“Over here!”

Bailey ran over to the emergency blanket they’d weighed down, grabbing it and waving it around.The helicopter headed straight for them, and as it got closer, she could see the orange paint of the helicopter with the words “Coast Guard” written in bold, black letters.

Noah grabbed her hand roughly in his, and they waved together, watching as the helicopter circled around above them.

“Can they land here?”Bailey asked, growing worried.“I don’t think there’s enough room on the beach.”

“Not in high tide,” Noah said.“They’ll probably have to lower a basket to us.Or the rescue swimmer might be lowered down, and we’ll strap you to him.”

She gulped nervously, squeezing his hand tighter.“Are you okay, sunshine?”he asked, glancing down at her.

“Yeah, I just—I’ve never been in a helicopter before.”

“It’s perfectly safe,” he assured her.He lifted her hand to his mouth, briefly kissing the back of it as her heart fluttered.“I’ll strap you into the basket, signal them, and they’ll raise you right up.”

They saw two men peer out of the opening of the helicopter.“That’s the flight mechanic and rescue swimmer.It looks like he’s coming to us,” Noah said.He grabbed his backpack from the ground, glancing around to see if they’d gotten their few belongings.

It was kind of strange after making this their temporary home for the past twenty-four hours to just be up and leaving like this.It was an abrupt ending to their entire adventure.Bailey’s mouth dropped open as one of the men was lowered from the hovering helicopter.Noah shook his hand when the man reached the ground, shouting above the noise.

“Up you go, sunshine,” he said, helping to strap her to the Coast Guard lieutenant.Bailey nervously glanced at Noah, and then the man signaled to the guys in the helicopter, and she was being lifted into the air.

She gasped as the ground fell away beneath her, Noah and the island becoming smaller and smaller as they rose high up in the air.

Just as she was beginning to feel dizzy, a pair of hands was tugging her inside the hovering helicopter, unfastening her harness from the rescue swimmer.The lieutenant who’d rescued her unstrapped himself as well, and they lowered the empty harness down to Noah.

Bailey crouched down on the far side of the helicopter, wrapping her arms around her knees.They handed her a pair of headphones, and she tugged them over her ears.“Are you okay, ma’am?”the rescuer asked as he knelt beside her.

“I’m fine—just a little shaken up.”

“No injuries?”he asked, glancing over her with a clinical, assessing expression.

“None.I’m fine.”

In a few moments, Noah would be up here with her, and everything would be okay again.The flight mechanic hovering by the opening reached out, and a second later Noah was climbing in, a grin on his handsome face.

He probably loved that, she thought wryly.Hadn’t he bragged that he loved jumping out of airplanes?

Noah unhooked himself from the complicated-looking harness, shaking hands with the two men.He nodded at the pilot and took the headphones handed to him, crossing the helicopter and crouching down beside her.He took off his backpack and pulled her to him, enveloping her in his muscular arms.

“We did it, sunshine,” he said, kissing the top of her head.“We’re going home.”

She sniffled, her emotions overwhelming her.All the adrenaline from the rescue and the anxiety she’d felt earlier were coming to head, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks.Noah hugged her more tightly to him, hauling her into his lap as the other men shut the door, and the helicopter turned, heading back toward land.

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