Page 57 of The Billionaire's Teacher

She blinked.

My smile faltered. “Is that a bad idea?”

“No. It’s great. I just—wow.” She shook her head. “I didn’t even think—”

“Neither did I. But I went for a walk and there it was. You have our coordinates, right? So it should be doable.” I tucked my hands in my pockets to keep from reaching out to…I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Shake her? Hug her? Well, obviously hug her. I worked to keep my voice casual. “We won’t even need to hunt around for a volleyball to name.”

Sunshine laughed.

The tension between us eased.

“I don’t think swimming back out now is a good idea. Not with the sun starting to set. But first thing tomorrow, we can head out to the boat and you can make those arrangements. And I’ll let Zee know.” She closed the distance between us and patted my shoulder. “What do you say about dinner?”

“I say, ‘let’s eat.’ And also wonder if you’re up for adding some fresh produce to that meal. I found a garden bed. The plants are broken and knocked over, but the tomato I ate was still delicious.” If she wanted things to be light, I would keep them light. I was probably—no, definitely—imagining the hint of disappointment in her face when I’d mentioned a faster rescue.

“I can go for fresh veggies. Lead on.” Sunshine cast a quick glance over her shoulder toward the boat. “The water off this beach would be great for snorkeling.”

I started down the path that led in front of the house and, ultimately to the garden patch. Sunshine fell into step beside me. “Yeah? Think the diving is good, too?”

“Maybe we can find out tomorrow. After the arrangements are made. Tanks are plenty full for something short. It’d be a good way to pass the time.”

I nodded slowly. “Provided we’ll have enough non-diving time before the plane gets here. I’d like that.”

“They’d be coming from the States, right?”

“Yeah. They were going to head back to Virginia in case the other guys needed or wanted to go somewhere.”

“So we should be fine, but we can do the math tonight and make sure we keep things safe.” She brushed my side as we turned the corner on the path.

I gestured to the little garden and grinned at her expression. We gathered up everything that looked good, using my shirt as a makeshift basket. Then we headed back the way we came and up to the entrance of the house.

I wanted to grab her and pull her close. I didn’t care that she was still dripping from her swim. Now that a plan was in place, it was like there was a giant, ticking countdown timer booming over our heads.

I swallowed the words I wanted to say. There was no future here. I needed to get past that idea. No matter how much I might want to talk with her and see if there was any sort of chance, it wasn’t fair to do that.

I shouldn’t—couldn’t—put her on the spot like that. Especially not right now when we were still trapped in this space. Sure, there were other rooms where she could sleep. But it wasn’t as if she could truly get away and be alone.

So I would keep quiet and we’d continue being friendly. And if that hurt? Well, I was man enough to take it.

We made our way down the hall to the living room.

Sunshine dug into the emergency rations and pulled out some packages. “Our dinner options are beef stroganoff or cowboy stew.”

“Yum.”

She laughed. “The stroganoff is pretty good. The stew isn’t awful.”

“I’ll take good over not awful. Wait. How did you classify the eggs this morning?” I went to the fireplace and studied the logs. Once upon a time, I’d been able to do this. Maybe I’d remember the tricks.

“Not awful.” Her voice was full of laughter. “Stick with the stroganoff. I’ll have the stew, that way there’s still another of each for tomorrow.”

I lit a match and held it under the bottom log. “And we have granola bars.”

“True. You can do that instead of eggs tomorrow morning.”

“I accept.” I dropped the match and blew on my fingers. It burned for a moment, then went out. “Do we have anything that would pass as kindling?”

“I can do it.” Sunshine came over to the fireplace. She nudged the pot toward me with her foot. “Why don’t you go fill this from the rain barrels?”

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