Page 43 of The Billionaire's Teacher

Wes grunted.

“Seriously.” I turned and watched as he carried an identical sandwich to the banquette and sat. The controls beeped urgently at me and I hurried to adjust our course back to the plotted line. “We’re going to be okay.”

Wes shot me a bland look.

And okay, fine. I didn’t know we’d be all right. I couldn’t promise it. But there was no reason to jump straight to the worst-case scenario. Wemightend up being just fine, and I was going to cling to that.

Even though it did seem entirely likely that an unplanned landing was in our future.

I preferred the sound of that to “shipwrecked.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Look. You might be right. But can we try to stay positive?”

“Sure.” His voice was muffled by the food in his mouth.

I blew out a breath that was half-laugh, half-exasperation. Great. I did not have time or energy to carry his emotions right now. So if he wanted to be Mr. Negativity, I’d let him.

I reached for the sandwich and took a bite. It was surprisingly good. And the churning in my stomach had, apparently, been partially due to hunger, because it settled some after I swallowed.

We were going to be fine.

I was going to assert that to myself as many times as I had to.

Right, God? You’ve got this. I’m trusting You here. Because in all honesty, I’m not sure what else to do.

I guess that wasn’t entirely true. I had a plan of sorts. Unfortunately, some of it was a lot like Wes’s prediction: find an island, land one way or another, don’t die.

As plans went, it was bare bones.

But I really liked the last part.

I blew out a breath and took another bite, then washed it down with a generous gulp of coffee.

“I’m sorry.” Wes pushed his plate away from himself. He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’m not always great in situations like this. Not initially, at least.”

“Been shipwrecked before, have you?” I lifted an eyebrow and allowed one corner of my mouth to poke up in a smirk. “That would’ve been good information to include in your reservation.”

Wes snorted. “No. First time. Sorry.”

“Hey. Me, too.” I laughed. “It’s going to be fine.”

“Promise?”

I shook my head. “No. I absolutely do not promise. But I’m praying. You should, too.”

He nodded. “Right. Good idea.”

He bowed his head right then and I turned back to focus on the controls and my food. I really needed to get to those charts and see what, if anything, was close enough to consider as a backup plan. And then I should fire up the radio and see if I could get it working, or if it was just as impeded by the storm as the satellite technology.

Theoretically, it should work better. There was a reason it was aboard as a backup. But I also knew the charter company owner and his love of saving money by playing the odds. Right now? I had a sinking feeling that he didn’t always do the maintenance like he was supposed to.

But that was borrowing trouble.

I jolted when Wes put his hand on my shoulder.

“Sorry.” He flashed a tight smile. “You said you needed me to know what to do.”

Right. Okay. I took a deep breath and walked him through the bare-bones basics. Enough that he could avoid catastrophe while I nabbed…well, an hour was probably not the wisest choice, no matter how much I wanted a full night of sleep…so twenty minutes? Cat naps were good, too.

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