Page 13 of Stranded with the Billionaire
Jake Ramesly, billionaire and America’s most eligible bachelor dies on mountain. Oh, and so does tabloid reporter.
Wonderful. Or better yet,she chased him to their deaths. America mourns Jake Ramesly.
Grange would make her out to be some delusional idiot.
Sterling wondered what they were going to do.
“I have an idea,” Jake suddenly spoke. “Come on.”
He led the way back into the cockpit. Sterling followed him. She watched while he spread his blanket on the floor.
“We can’t go back to sleep and pretend it was all a bad dream and hope that we’ll wake up somewhere else,” Sterling said dryly. “I’ve already tried and it didn’t work.”
“That’s not what I’m doing,” Jake pointed to the blanket. “If you sit there, I can cut out a sort of pant pattern out of the blanket. We can use the tape to secure it and you’ll be warmer than in just that skirt.”
“Can we make socks too?” Sterling went for the blanket.
“We can try,” Jake shrugged. He pulled out a set of keys and picked one. Jake used the key on the blanket to punch through and tear it. They taped up the seams with packing tape.
“What about the waist?” Sterling asked. “It’s going to fall down.”
“Tape?” Jake held up the roll.
“And when I need to do my personal business?” she raised an eyebrow. Her bladder already was protesting at the delay.
Jake frowned. “Does your skirt have a belt? If it does, we can tape it to the pants and you’ll be able to keep them up that way. It won’t be pretty but it would work.”
Sterling undid the belt on her skirt. She helped position it while Jake taped it to the shiny material. “I’m going to make every disco club person jealous.”
“Funny,” Jake gave her a smile and took Sterling’s breath away. Oh dear, craggy turned into handsome just with a smile, Sterling thought with surprise. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and the rescue people will see the sun reflecting off your legs.”
“Dual purpose pants. We should patent these babies,” Sterling briefly debated whether to put her skirt over top or to tuck it into the pants. Without the belt, it might fall down so she decided to tuck. It probably wouldn’t look sexy.
Sexy wasn’t her goal, Sterling sternly reminded herself. Getting to safety was. She could get all glamorous off the check her boss was going to give her once she submitted her latest articles.
“Somehow, I’m not sure they’d be too popular,” Jake grinned at her transformation.
“What, you don’t like the model that comes with padding in the rear?” Sterling shrugged. “Socks please!”
“Coming right up,” Jake said.
A few mistakes and tries later, they came up with an acceptable prototype for socks. The good news was that Sterling’s feet still fit in the pumps. That bad news was that they were very tight. It had to be better than not having socks at all.
At least she hoped so.
Jake taped the bottom of the pants to the socks so that no snow would come in. They folded up the remains of the tattered blanket, taking it and the tape with in case any repairs would be needed. Sterling folded and stuffed her blanket down her shirt so that she would have both hands free. Jake did the same.
“Okay, ready to make a jail break?” Sterling questioned as she grabbed the nearly empty water bottle that had been in the cockpit. They would need water and something to carry it in. It looked like this was all that they currently had so Sterling was going to take it with. She popped it in her blouse as well, wincing at the cold.
“I think so,” Jake looked out at the tree. “I wish we didn’t have to climb down a tree to do it.”
“Only one option,” she limped past him and carefully lowered herself to sit on the plane floor near the pine.
“What’s that?” Jake asked.
“We keep going until we find shelter or rescue,” Sterling thought it was fairly clear. “Otherwise we die.”
“One option,” he agreed grimly. Crouching at the opening, Jake helped Sterling find a grip on the tree so that she could start her descent. Hopefully, they wouldn’t dislodge anything and cause the nose of the plane to come crashing down on either of them.
