"I've seen that already." I loved teasing him. "Go for the emperor's clothes." I dashed up the stairs before he could toss the pillow at me.
I threw his clothes in the wash and started breakfast, smiling to myself. What would he show up wearing? He was too big for my things.
I'd just finished setting the table and was putting a plate of coconut pancakes on the table when he came upstairs. He should have been naked, of course. But he wasn't. He wore a clean pair of baggy shorts that hung loose on him and a button-up Hawaiian shirt at least a size too large.
I did a double take and broke out laughing. "Where did you get those clothes? They're awful." I grabbed my phone, secretly angling to take a picture.
He shrugged. "I scrounged around the closet and drawers. My buddy always leaves some spare clothes here."
I whipped my phone out and snapped his picture before he could stop me. "One for the scrapbook. And why not Instagram?"
"Give me that." He lunged for me, trying to wrestle the phone away.
"Too late! Already posted. Marooned with the millionaire. What fashion icon Eli Davis really looks like in his spare time. This should be good for some exposure for me." I laughed as he picked me off my feet and disarmed me of my phone. I grabbed at him, trying to get it back. "Kidding!"
He found the picture and deleted it before handing the phone back to me.
"You're no fun. Now I'll have nothing but my memories to remember you by."
"But what memories."
I slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "You're just in time for breakfast. Since it's our last meal together, I've gone all out with the coconut theme—coconut pancakes, coconut syrup, coconut milk—" My voice wavered as I became unexpectedly emotional. I was putting on a brave face, but I didn't want this to be the end of our time together.
"Britt." He hesitated. "About this being our last meal…"
I arched an eyebrow, my heart racing, hoping he was going to suggest we start seeing each other when we got home. He was Seattle-based, too. It wasn't such a stretch that we could continue on…
"I was thinking." He paused.
Was he trying to kill me?
"It seems a waste of time for me to boat back today, taking a valuable resource away from where it's needed in Suva, and then come right back out to get you tomorrow." He grinned, looking at me with a sweetly hopeful expression. "When we could both just go home together tomorrow?"
I had to work hard not to beam. "But what about your date?" I was only half teasing. The other half was morbid curiosity.
"Postponed indefinitely."
I nodded seriously, as if I was seriously commiserating. "That's too bad."
He grinned. "Well, yeah, given the circumstances."
I nodded again as if I was sympathetic.
"Can you put up with me another day?" He wrapped me in his arms. "I promise I'll stay out of your way and leave you to your reading. And your topless sunbathing, of course."
"Absolutely not!"
"What?" He looked startled and almost crestfallen.
"You're not leaving me to myself. If you're staying, you're going to take me out in the barracuda again and go snorkeling with me, maybe take me to the island to gather more coconuts. I used most of yesterday's making breakfast. I keep telling you. You need to earn your keep around here."
His smile brought out his dimples and lit his eyes. He took my chin and tipped my face up so that I had to hold his gaze. "This is crazy. And maybe it's too soon, but…I think I'm falling in love with you."
My heart raced. I couldn't hold down my smile. "Not crazy at all. The feeling's mutual." I caressed his bearded cheek. "My best friend went to Reno on business and came back unexpectedly married to a guy she hadn't seen since college. Compared to them, we're taking things slow."
He lowered his lips to mine.
We ate breakfast, snorkeled, took the barracuda out, gathered coconuts, napped together in a hammock, fished off the dock on the island, and generally enjoyed our last day in paradise together as we got to know each other better. That evening, he cooked our catch, poaching our fish in fresh coconut milk with lemongrass. He served it over rice with a glass of wine and finished the meal with homemade coconut ice cream.
All day I'd had the big question in the back of my mind—why had he never called after he asked for my number in the bar? We'd managed to avoid the conversation all day. If this relationship, fabulous as it was, was going to continue, I had to know. And I had to bring up Flash.
After dinner as we sat side by side on a sofa on the roof deck, watching the stars come out.
I finally worked up the courage to broach the subject. "Do you remember the first time we met?"
I felt him tense.
"You mean six months ago at the bar? Not the pier in Suva?" he said.
I nodded. "So you do remember!"
He nodded. "How could I forget?"
I swallowed hard. What did he mean? Apparently he had. Until now.