He was pleased to see Jessie smile sheepishly. She pressed her hand to her chest as if calming a racing heart.
“Phew,” she breathed. “And to think that I was worried about being able to wake up properly without my morning cup of coffee.”
Nick laughed. As startling as it had been, at least the incident obliterated any awkwardness that might have hung over them waking up together.
Then he looked over at Cindi and Malcolm, who had emerged from their respective shelters with the same shocked expression.
Of course, Jessie’s shriek was still going to take some explaining.
“I WAS NOT TRYING TO molest her,” said Nick for the fourth time. “Will you please stop saying that I was.” He indicated the trees. “We are on camera, you know.”
Cindi made the unconvinced and uncaring face of a cop writing up a ticket. “I’m just saying it was an awful big yell to have been caused by such a little thing.”
“It wasn’t little,” grumbled Jessie. “It was huge. It was a mutant lizard. You’d have screamed, too.”
Cindi waved a dismissive hand. “I’m not really phobic about reptiles.”
“Neither am I,” argued Jessie hotly, her voice heading for the top end of the scales again.
Malcolm interrupted the squabble. “I have a phobia of—”
Silence, punctuated by the hiss of simmering water, followed.
“Of?” prompted Nick.
Malcolm sank his head into his neck and looked unhappy. “I don’t want to say.”
Nick regarded him for a moment, then smiled in approving comprehension. “You think I’ll use it against you.”
Malcolm nodded, miserable with the strain of defying his hero.
“I’m phobic about pizza,” said Cindi with a hopeful expression. “Please don’t make me eat pizza, I’ll freak out.”
“Only two days and already you’re dreaming about pizza?” said Nick in a disappointed voice.
Jessie spoke up. “I, too, find it hard to believe that the thrill of sweet potatoes would ever wear off, having had them for both dinner and breakfast already.”
“Okay,” surrendered Nick. “Don’t worry. Our diet will become more varied. I saw some banana trees on the other side of the island and we’ll find lots of papaya bushes inland. And of course we’ll be catching fish. Best of all though, when I got those delicious potatoes I noticed that there was evidence of damage around the stems and leaves.”
“From mutant lizards,” guessed Jessie.
“Even better,” grinned Nick. “From wild pigs.”
Jessie raised a dubious eyebrow. “And that’s good, how?”
Malcolm interrupted eagerly. “It’s great. We can hunt them and have a roast.”
“You can hunt them,” clarified Jessie.
Malcolm turned to Nick. “Can I?” he said, like a child asking permission to run downstairs on Christmas morning.
“Sure,” said Nick. He liked that Malcolm’s enthusiasm was unfettered by his manifest ineptitude.
Jessie lifted her face to the sun and then took off the T-shirt that Nick had given her, handing it back to him with a smile.
“It’s so warm already,” she said. “I’ll definitely need a swim later.” She rustled in her sparkly evening bag and drew out a thin tube of sunscreen, applying some to her face before offering it to the others.
“That’s okay,” said Nick. “My skin is used to the outdoors.”
Cindi also demurred, explaining that she and the sun-bed were old friends.
“No tan lines,” she added provocatively.
Nick watched Malcolm keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the ground and then he looked at Jessie. She was smiling blandly as she held the sunscreen out to Malcolm but her foot was jiggling. With impatience, or annoyance at Cindi?
Malcolm eventually glanced up and noticed Jessie’s offering. He hesitated, as if he wanted to be macho and refuse, but then he took it and slicked some quickly over his nose.
Nick let his eyes drift to the middle distance again, before anyone realized they’d been observed.
The growl of an engine broke the morning stillness and they all looked out to the shore and slowly got to their feet as they saw the motorboat pulling up.
“Yoo-hoo!” Lois called as she came trotting up the sand towards them. Her eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses but her mouth was curved in a broad smile.
“Success!” she exclaimed, raising her hands in excitement. “Just wait until you hear.”
Whoa, thought Nick, looks like someone around here has had their morning coffee.
Her hands gesticulating madly to emphasize her words, Lois spoke to the group assembled. “We played the tapes for our test audience and, get this, Jessie, they loved you. I’m not kidding, they thought you were really fresh and feisty and then you bowled them over with how nice you were on the confession cam. Good work!”
Nick looked at Jessie. Her mouth was gaping in surprise. “Looks like you’re a natural,” he said encouragingly.
Lois turned her attention to Nick. “I know,” she said happily. “I can’t believe it. The audience even gave you some stick for rescuing her when she so obviously didn’t need it.”
Nick’s brow creased slightly. “What?”
Lois nodded. “Yeah, isn’t it cute? She’s become a sort of heroine of the people. They love her indomitable spirit and her cheeky talk-back attitude.”
It was Jessie’s turn to look nonplussed. “My what?”
Lois ignored her. “It’s better than I’d dared to hope,” she said, gazing dreamily out over the ocean. Her eyes flicked back to Jessie’s. “I’m even going to let you keep your bag of tricks.” She wagged her finger. “Bold girl. I don’t know how you thought you’d get away with smuggling.”
“That’ll teach you to mess with the gestapo,” muttered Cindi.
Lois shifted her laser stare. “Having a talk-back attitude with me isn’t going to earn you any points, take my word for it.” She flicked through the pages on her clipboard. “But I will tell you that you’ve got a lot of admirers, too. We’re hearing very complimentary things about your looks. General consensus, you’re quite a beauty.”
Cindi smiled and lowered her eyes modestly but Nick noticed that she didn’t exactly blush.
“What about me?” asked Malcolm.
“Er, yes, they like you, too,” was Lois’s lukewarm response. “Anyway,” she went on, brightening, “everyone’s really looking forward to seeing how real-life people cope with life-and-death situations. They can’t wait to see you thrown into the fray. So, Nick, what have you got planned for us?”
“I thought that the first thing we should do is see how they fare at catching some fish.”
“Fishing,” said Lois, nodding in a thoughtful manner. “Right. Okay, why don’t you just get a gun and shoot me right now? Fishing’s the most boring thing I’ve ever heard. People don’t want to see fishing. They want to see these three put to the test. Challenged. Thrust into the action. They want to see a struggle.” She caught Jessie’s anxious expression. “Because they believe in you,” she reassured her, oozing sincerity. “They think you’re all just great. They identify with you and they really want to see how an ordinary person copes with