Page 17 of Shipwrecked

“We’ll have been reported missing when we didn’t arrive yesterday,” I point out.

Seán shifts again but immediately stops with a wince. He cups his injured shoulder. “Since we decided to spend the night at the resort again, I radioed the mainland to let them know we’re not arriving until tomorrow—today. We won’t be reported missing until tonight.”

“Won’t it be the resort reporting us missing then?” I ask.

Seán shakes his head. “It was an open invitation. I hadn’t radioed them.”

“Nobody knows we’re shipwrecked?” Willow asks.

“It depends if the SOS got through,” Seán says.

A breeze rustles the leaves. There’s a flutter of wing beats as two little brown birds fly by.

Cillian leans forward. “It would be best to assume that we’ll be reported missing tonight, and that’s when the search will begin.”

“How long will that take?” Darren asks.

“I don’t know,” Cillian says.

“There’s an emergency beacon on the yacht,” Seán adds. “It should have released and activated automatically when the yacht rolled, but—”

“So rescuers do know we’re missing,” Darren says.

“I’m not certain it deployed. The way the yacht is sitting, it would be above the waterline. I don’t know if there was enough time in the roll to trigger it. Either way, we won’t be hard to find. Rescue could be here the minute the wind settles. In the meantime, Cillian and I have a lot of camping experience. We’ll get a shelter rigged up and see what food and water we can scrounge up.”

“There are coconut trees the way Cillian and I walked,” Mathieu says.

“Our way too,” Seán says. “They should be in season right about now. The shells can double up as water collectors.” He eyes the grey clouds in the distance. “The wind is bringing those right for us.”

Seán gets up, and I find myself on my feet too. Cillian lightly touches my arm. “You need to take it easy,” he says. “Wait here with Mary.”

“I can help look for food.”

Mathieu hops to his feet, and he takes hold of my other elbow. His wrist is circled by a vicious-looking bruise. “You’ve been in and out of it, and you’ve got this really big bump on the back of your head. You need to rest here. We’ll bring you back coconuts, promise.”

I’m bullied into sitting next to Mary, and everyone heads off in different directions. Making the best of the situation, I tuck myself against Mary’s side and try to get warmed up.

Her eyes are swollen and red as though she’s been crying, but her voice comes out steady. “I was scared you weren’t going to wake up.”

“I’m not the one who got stabbed with a piece of glass. Is it sore?”

Up close, I can see the wrap is the same orange and white as Seán’s windbreaker. They must have torn a strip off it. “It feels like someone punched me,” Mary says.

She rests her head on my shoulder and twines her fingers with mine. They’re cold at first, but gradually warm up. The pressure behind my eyes fades. I take a firm hold of that glimmer of good and drag it towards me.

“Did you enjoy Cillian tightening the straps on the harness?” I ask.

Mary giggles and weakly slaps my knee. “Oh stop, don’t start about that. Charles will fashion a harness out of those fronds and insist I wear it so that he can tighten them.”

I smile. “I feel bad. Cillian’s only here because I asked Seán to bring his hot cousin for eye candy.”

A giggle becomes a laugh. “Jules!”

“Darren broke up with me. I’m single. Why shouldn’t I get to ogle hot men?”

“Why shouldn’t you have them tighten straps on your body?” Mary plays along.

“I’m a rebel.”