“Oh, yikes. You know it’s probably full of parasites?”
“I’m not going to tell her that. She’s still horrified there’s no toilet paper on the island.” He grimaced. “I don’t think this was her idea of roughing it.”
“Has she ever seen the show?”
“I’m not entirely sure.” He shrugged. “We’ll get fire eventually. It’s no big deal.”
“What are you drinking?” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to look nonchalant, but I was concerned. Jendan was a big guy. Already he looked a little hollow around the eyes. If he expected to survive six weeks out here, he was going to have to eat more.
He gave me a rueful look. “Coconut juice?”
“Want me to show you how to make a fire?”
His gorgeous face lit up, doing terrible, naughty things to my hormones. God, that man had a gorgeous smile. But then he shook his head, slowly. “I wouldn’t want to impose on you, Annabelle. I know you’re playing to win, too. And you already bailed me out once, if I read things right.”
“You did,” I told him. “And I need allies in this game. You’re no good to me if you’re falling over on your feet.”
He considered it silently, rubbing the bristle on his jaw.
“Come on. Take what I’m offering. Being nice and fair in this game gets you nowhere.”
His gray eyes fixed on me. “So how come you’re being nice to me?”
I blushed. I couldn’t say that I was a nice girl, could I? And it was stupid of me to be nice to him, on some level. “Like I said, I need allies. My partner is useless.”
His mouth curved into a wry smile. “Sunnie’s not much better. Nice girl, but I wish she’d do something around camp.”
“Maybe we should be secret partners, then,” I suggested. “Work with each other to get to the end.”
He studied my face, then nodded slowly. “That sounds good to me. Shake on it?”
I spit on my hand and offered it to him.
Jendan eyed it. “Well, I wasn’t expecting that from you.”
“Spit makes everything more serious,” I told him, and then turned beet red again. Damn. Why was it everything I said to him sounded like innuendo?
But he ignored my blush, laughed, and spit in his own hand, then smacked it against mine.
We shook.
My first secret alliance. Excellent.
Something beeped. Both Jendan and I looked over to the cameraman. He picked up a walkie-talkie from his belt. “Yeah?”
“Reward challenge time and we’re missing two players,” came the tinny voice, followed by a beep.
The cameraman looked at us and spoke into his walkie-talkie. “I’ve got them.”
I looked back at Jendan and gave him a sheepish look. “Guess we’ll have to save the fire-making for another day. Television calls.”
“Come back here tomorrow?” His gaze was intense, his eyes the most stunning shade of gray I’d ever seen. “I want to see you again.”
Music to a girl’s ears. I was riveted despite myself, and nodded, trying not to smile like a loon and failing. “Yeah, okay.”
“See you then.” He waved as he turned around and left.
With a dopey grin on my face, I hustled back to my own beach. There’d be time enough tomorrow to take a dunk in the waterfall and go looking for my forked tree. Maybe Jendan could help me. The thought made me blush and giggle, and for a moment, I hated myself for having a crush on a guy while filming the show. A crush would do zero good. I couldn’t act on it, and if I had to, I’d still vote Jendan out to further my own game.
This time, I was not going home.
~~ *** ~~
“Welcome to today’s reward challenge!” Chip waved us in as we walked to our places in line. When everyone was settled in, he gestured at the set-up behind him. “As you can see, this challenge is a fun one.”
I stared up at the gigantic fake tree behind him. Big wooden palm fronds were painted bright green, and the ‘trunk’ of the tree was easily twice as big around as a normal coconut tree. Nestled in the branches of the fake tree were dozens and dozens of coconuts. Some littered the ground already.
“Your object in this challenge is to match coconuts. Each individual will have a chance to do one of two things - either throw a coconut to knock others down from the tree, or to pick up two coconuts on the ground. If you get a match, your team scores a point. The first three teams to ten points win a reward. All the other teams, I’ve got nothing for you.” He gazed at us. “And it’s an important reward.” He went to a nearby podium with a covered basket and pulled off a colored cloth, revealing the prize.
Fire-making implements. “Flint. Steel. Matches. Everything you need to make fire.”
A chorus of cheers went up from down the line. I guessed that less people had fire than they let on.
“This time, rewards are going to come with a twist. You can opt not to participate and eat instead.” He pulled the covering off of the other basket and showed us its contents - donuts and orange juice.
My mouth watered. I looked over at Kip to see if he was thinking the same thing I was, and he was wiping his mouth.
“But just be warned - if you opt not to participate, you’re sending a very clear message to the other participants. Now, is anyone confident enough in their fire to want to sit out of this challenge?”
I hesitated. Looked over at my partner.
Kip didn’t even have to think about it. He grabbed my hand and dragged me forward. “We do, Chip.”
“Us, too.” Leslie and Emilio moved forward.
“All right, that narrows the field for the remaining players. Those of you opting out, step aside so we can do the challenge.”
As I watched giddily, production set up a folding table and folding chairs off to one side and put the basket of donuts and orange juice bottles there. My mouth watered at the sight.
I glanced over at the other players. Some were looking at us longingly. Sunnie was frowning in our direction. Jendan stared straight ahead, not looking at the food.
I felt a twinge of dismay, but it disappeared when the others surged forward to sit down and eat. I pushed my way next to them, sat down in one of the chairs, grabbed a donut and orange juice, and began to feast. The sugar icing the donut melted on my lips and I moaned. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted, after five days of coconuts.
“All right,” Chip said. “Looks like we still have Teams Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six playing. Seven and Eight sat out, so that means that three teams will go home with fire. Two teams will go back to their beach, empty handed. We ready to play?” He nodded at the silence. “All right, Team Two, you’re up first!”