Mary Lou sank into the sand. “So … you don’t have any way of calling in for help? You’re stuck here?”
“ ’Fraid so,” Ahmed, the ship’s boatswain, said.
Adina appealed to the sky. “We asked for rescue and you sent us incompetent rock-star pirates with a broken ship and perfect abs?”
“Thank you, God,” Petra said.
“Don’t you worry, superfoxy babes,” Sinjin said, putting his arms around Petra and Miss Ohio. “I know it’s been rough. But we’re here now. Everything will be okay.”
“Actually,” Adina said. “We’re doing fine. See those huts, the irrigation system, fishing lines, the rain-catching tarp, and desalination still? We built all of that.”
“Really?”
Nicole crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah. Shocker.”
“Cool!” Captain Sinjin St. Sinjin inspected the huts, finally choosing to lie down on Tiara’s soft palm frond bed. He made himself comfortable. “Very nice. Can I get something to eat?”
Adina glared. “That’s Tiara’s bed.”
Tiara backed away. “Oh. It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
“She doesn’t mind,” Captain Sinjin said. He winked at Tiara. “Thanks, luv! You’re gorgeous. Something to eat? Mangia? Yum-yums?”
“You didn’t even ask,” Adina said. “You just sat right down.”
Captain Sinjin took off his boots and tossed them in the sand.
“Can I get you something to drink, too?” Tiara asked. “We have rainwater or coconut milk.”
“Fantastic. I’ll take the coconut milk. Ta, luv.”
Tiara turned to leave. Adina stopped her. “Stay right here, Tiara. If he wants it, he can get it himself.”
“But …” Tiara seemed torn. “I don’t mind.”
“She doesn’t mind,” Captain Sinjin said. He batted his lashes at Adina.
Tiara looked from Adina to Sinjin and back again. She jogged in place like a kindergartner who needed a bathroom.
Finally, George raised his hand. “I’ll go with you to get it. I get him stuff all the time since he’s the captain.”
“Thanks!” Tiara beamed, and she and George walked hand-in-hand toward the coconut storage.
Adina threw up her hands. “Right. Just forget everything. Hey, maybe they have some laundry they need done, too,” she grumbled. “I’m going to go check the fishing lines.”
“Great idea, luv. I’m crazy about fish,” Captain Sinjin called after her.
“Unbelievable,” Adina muttered.
Good God! All you had to do was introduce the scent of testosterone and perfectly capable, together girls were reduced to giggling, lash-batting, hair-playing idiots. She hated it when girls did this. When they got all goo-goo-eyed over Y chromosome–carrying creatures instead of taking care of themselves. It’s what her mother had done her whole life, cater to some man instead of looking after herself. Or Adina.
She thought about this as she walked toward the lagoon to check the fishing lines. She was still thinking about it and muttering to herself as she bumped headlong into one of the pirates.
“You should watch where you’re going,” she snapped.
“I was,” he answered in a raspy voice that tickled her insides and made her look up. “I was afraid you’d miss me, though, so I had to maneuver at the last minute.”
He was grinning. He had the audacity to grin. It was a hell of a grin, too — slightly naughty, with teeth that were just crooked enough to give his mouth character. He was tall and lanky with a bronzed, sharp-boned face; his green eyes were twinkly, like he’d just gotten a joke someone had told him earlier. Tawny, sun-streaked hair fell in waves to his tanned shoulders, which were bare and freckled. There was a small star tattoo on the left one.
Adina had the disconcerting feeling that the ground beneath her was not as solid as she imagined. “I-I have to check the fishing lines,” she said, squeezing past him.
“I’ll come with you,” he said and fell into step with her as she marched toward the lagoon.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.” He flashed her that grin, the one that made her borders feel unprotected. “I’m Duff, by the way. Duff McAvoy.”
Adina didn’t answer.
“This is usually the part where you tell me your name.”
“Why?”
He nodded, thinking it over. “Interesting name. Were your parents overly inquisitive people?”
“No. Why should I tell you my name?”
“You don’t have to.”
“Adina. Adina Greenberg.”
“Nice to meet you, Adina.” He stuck out his hand and Adina shook it warily before turning her attentions to the tangled fishing lines.
“It’s pretty amazing what you’ve done here.”
“What, did you think we’d lie down and die?” She waded into the water, untwisting the lines as she went.
“Um, that was a compliment.”
“Crap,” Adina said.
“It was a crap compliment?”
She cupped a hand over her eyes and looked out at the water. “No, I mean, crap, the line’s stuck on something out there. It took forever to get these working. This one’s probably going to break from the strain and we’ll have to start all over again.”
“Let me help you with that.”
“I don’t need your help,” Adina called, but Duff was already wading into the water. This was the problem with men. They just assumed. They just took action. It was infuriating. And reductive. And slightly thrilling.
The wet clung to Duff’s pants as he strode into the surf, and she could see the curve of his ass. Man, he was fine.
“Stop it, Greenberg,” Adina said. She walked back to shore and busied herself with rearranging the HELP stones.
Duff took a deep breath and dove under. He was under for a count of ten, and Adina found herself worrying. Another few seconds went by and he popped up. “Got it! Give it a try!”
Adina tugged on the line and it moved easily. Duff trudged back through the waves. His body glistened in the sun. Why was her heart speeding up? It was an autonomic betrayal. Stop it, she told her senses. Stop being so dumb.
“All better?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“No problem.” He shook off the excess water like a big dog and sat down in the sand. “It’s brilliant here. Peaceful.”
“I’d trade it in a heartbeat for a night at a hotel with room service.”
“Understandable. But it is kind of romantic. Like the island version of Waiden Pond.”
“You’ve read Thoreau?” Adina managed.
“Surprised?” He gave her that smile, which was both sweet and a little dangerous. “I’ve been watching you. You’re not like the other girls, are you?”
Adina made a show of looking down at her body. “Really?”
“Oh. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that you don’t seem like the typical beauty queen type.”
“Gee. Thanks.”
“No! I didn’t mean … wow. I’m really striking out here.” He took a deep breath. “What I meant was that you don’t seem like someone who would go out for a Miss Teen Dream Pageant. You seem like someone who’d be, I don’t know, playing in a band, hauling your equipment to gigs.”
“I … I do play in a band,” Adina said, unable to keep her cool. “I’m the bass player.”
“Bass players are brilliant! John Paul Jones, Flea, John Entwistle, Tina Weymouth …”
“Seriously? You just named all my favorites in one breath.”
“I have more breath. I could try to say more things to make you like me.”
His eyes were very green. Adina got up to check the fishing lines even though she’d just checked them not five minutes before.
“So, rock-star pirate,” she said, with a bit of sneer. “What instrument do you play on the show?”
“Well, I don’t like to brag, but I am a virtuoso at the spoons.”
“Really.”
“Yes. My musical cutlery skills have landed me in the top concert halls of Europe. The Queen yelling out, ‘Spoon solo!’” Duff played a mock spoon solo against his thigh, then made crowd sounds. “Of course, there was that tragic spork incident at the Hollywood Bowl. We don’t talk about that.”
“You don’t play anything, do you?”
“Not a thing. I am completely and utterly useless.”
Adina could feel herself starting to warm to Duff. “So, what, they just hired you for your good looks?”
“You think I’m good-looking?”
He gave her a shy smile, and Adina’s cheeks pinkened.
“That’s usually a requirement for being on TV,” she said, dodging the question.
“Well. Maybe when we get back, you can teach me to play the bass.”
“If we can fix your ship, we can get out of here. Oh my God. Do you know what I would do for a burger and a bed?”
“Hey — you fancy a trip to the ship?” Duff laughed when Adina raised an eyebrow. “No. Nothing like that. There’s food on board. It’s mostly pretty naff — soy protein bars and freeze-dried noodles and whatnot. But it’s a change from coconut and fish for you.”
“It’s not a burger, but I’ll take it.”
When the morning fog burned off and the sun was high, the beauty queens and the accidental pirates trudged through the waters to the beached ship to assess the damage. She had taken on quite a bit of water and listed to one side. A big, jagged hole snaked along the starboard side near the bow.
“We’re going to have to drag her ashore if we have a hope of fixing her,” Ahmed said.
“How do we do that?” Nicole cast a glance upward at the tall sails.