Isle Be Seeing You (10 page)

She didn't finish, but that was okay. Nobody needed to
draw me a picture to make my options clear. I could sneak around behind Josh's back, hope we could pull it off in time and that he wouldn't be mad at me when he figured it out. Or I could do the right thing and talk to him.

He's a sensible guy,
I told myself.
He'll see that this is the best way to go. Won't he?

I took a deep breath. “Okay. I'll go talk to Josh right now?”

Macy smiled. “Great,” she said, sounding relieved. “Thanks, Dani. We'll get to work up here until you report back. Right, Ken?”

I left them gathering sticks at the edge of the ridge. Even though the trip back to the beach was all downhill, I moved a lot slower than I had going up. I was looking forward to this conversation about as much as a pig looks forward to becoming pork chops. Maybe less.

Deciding to practice a little, I cleared my throat. “Listen, Josh,” I said to a passing choo-choo bug. “I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything, but your raft idea stinks. My eight-year-old twerp of a brother came up with a much better plan…. Wait.” Taking a deep breath, I started again, this time addressing the lizard that was scurrying frantically down the path ahead of me. “Okay, Josh, I need to be honest with you. You know that raft
you're building? You' be lucky if it makes it as far as the coral reef. So here's an idea that might actually work….”

I shook my head. Maybe it was better not to practice.

When I reached the beach most of the others were gathered at Raft Central. Josh was helping Ryan tie pieces of wood together, while Ned and the twins busily ducttaped the life jackets. Angela, of course, was standing around being useless.

None of them had noticed me approaching yet. I watched them work, trying to psyche myself up for what I had to do. How hard could it be? All I had to do was tell them what I'd just seen up on the ridge, then convince them to ditch the raft thing and help build the fire.

Taking a deep breath, I hurried forward. Josh was the first to spot me. He looked up at me and smiled.

“Hi, Dani!” he said, sounding really happy to see me. “Where've you been? We were all just wondering.”

“I—I—,” I stammered lamely. I'd been all ready to blurt out what was on my mind. But that first look at Josh's open, happy face stopped me in my tracks. If I said what I needed to say in front of all those other people, it would embarrass him half to death. I couldn't do that to him.

Angela wrinkled her nose at me. “Yeah, we were wondering
if you were planning to do any work today at all.”

I glared at her. She was the last one who should be complaining about other people being lazy. But I didn't have time to point that out to her. Instead I turned back to Josh.

“Listen,” I told him, trying to sound casual. “I just found a new spot with a big bunch of wood out in the jungle. It looks like it might work for the raft. Want to come see?”

Ryan immediately jumped forward. “I can go with her and check it out if you want Josh,” he volunteered eagerly.

I gulped. “Er …,” I began.

“No!” Cassie blurted out. As everyone glanced at her in surprise, she smiled sheepishly. “I mean, don't go, Ryan. Stay here with us.”

“Yeah, its okay, Ry,” Josh added calmly. “I'd better go look myself. You can keep working on the rudder, okay?”

Ryan looked a little disappointed, but he shrugged. “Sure.”

I saw the twins exchange a relieved glance. Angela didn't look quite so pleased, but she didn't say anything as Josh and I headed up the beach toward the jungle.

We stepped into the shade of the trees side by side and made our way down the trail. Within a few minutes
we were well out of sight and sound of the beach. That was when Josh reached over and took my hand in his as we walked.

He glanced over at me, suddenly looking a little shy. “So is there really a pile of wood out here?” he asked.

“No.” Taking a deep breath, I tried to Figure out how to proceed. I decided maybe it was like ripping off a Band-Aid—better to do it quickly. “Listen, Josh, I have to talk to you. It's important.”

He stopped and turned to face me, grabbing my other hand as well. “I want to talk to you about something too.” His deep brown eyes suddenly looked all sincere, and his voice sounded a little choked up as he continued. “When we got stranded on this island, I thought it was the worst thing ever, you know? But now I'm glad it happened. Otherwise I might never have figured out how cool you are, or had the guts to tell you. You know?”

“Wow!” I wasn't sure what to say to that. Talk about being thrown off track. “I—well, yeah. Me too.”

He smiled. “Its also totally cool how we've working on this raft together. I mean, I know everybody else is helping too, but I'm sort of thinking about it as our project, you know? You've been, like, so supportive and helpful
and stuff, and it's really cool. In fact”—he paused, looking shy again—“I wasn't going to tell you yet, but … well, I already decided I want to dedicate the raft to you when its finished. People always give girls names to boats and stuff, so I thought we could call it, like, Dani's Dream or something like that.” He shot me an apologetic look. “Oh, but I haven't told the others that, of course. It'll be, like, our secret.”

Of course,” I murmured, totally confused by now. Somehow, what I'd meant to be a serious talk about switching over to the fire idea had turned into a rah-rah session for the raft. And for me.

While I was still puzzling over that one, Josh took a step closer, his hands tightening on mine. I blinked at him stupidly, not sure for a moment what he was doing.

Then he leaned forward, his eyes drooping half closed. My heart raced as his face loomed closer and closer. I finally snapped my own eyes shut as his lips touched mine, feeling surprisingly soft and warm….

And this time there was no Angela around to interrupt.

I guess most girls probably spend a lot of time imagining what their first kiss will be like. For instance, my best friend Tina always says she wants hers to take place in a
pretty flower garden under the moonlight. And even though she already kissed this one guy on a dare last year, my other best friend, Michelle, thinks it would be cool to have her first
real
kiss on a train platform. Don't ask me what that's about, but hey, it's her fantasy, not mine.

As for me, well, I'd never really put a lot of thought into it. But now that it was happening, I knew that I couldn't have imagined anything more perfect than the reality. I mean, what could be better than standing in a sundappled little clearing in a tropical jungle while the coolest guy in the world gives you your first kiss? Okay, so maybe I wouldn't have chosen the sweat dripping down my back or the large choo-choo bug buzzing around our heads. But the rest was pretty amazing. Oh, and not that I had any basis for comparison, but Josh was an awfully good kisser.

Finally we pulled apart, both of us a little red faced and bashful, but happy. “That was nice,” Josh whispered.

I nodded, still a little stunned about what had just happened. Happy stunned, of course. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh!” Josh blinked. “Sorry, I forgot you wanted to talk to me about something too. What was it?”

I gulped, reality crashing down on me once again. After
what had just happened, there was no way I could say what I'd meant to say No way I could risk ruining this moment. No. Way.

“Erp,” I blurted out. “Uh, I mean, its nothing. That is, I just wanted to tell you the same sort of thing. You know?

Oh, okay? Josh smiled at me. “Cool.”

Luckily he didn't; seem suspicious at all, as he leaned in for another kiss.

I guess maybe all the kissing must
have immobilized part of my brain, because I managed to completely forget about reporting back to Macy and Kenny. It wasn't until I saw their faces, wearing matching anxious expressions, that I remembered. Actually, only Macy's face looked anxious. Kenny looked more annoyed, and maybe a little constipated. Then again, he often looks like that.

“Hey, Dani. There you are!” Macy called, hurrying toward me with Kenny on her heels. I was standing at the fire pit carefully pouring a bucket full of water into our
metal water-boiling pot to start lunch. Brooke and Ned were over at the food-prep area debating whether to boil or roast today's coconut course.

I looked up at Macy with a guilty smile. The lost part of my brain kicked back into gear instantly, and I realized it had been more than two hours since I'd left them up at the ridge. “Oh,” I said lamely. “Er, there you are. I was looking for you before.”

That was a bald-faced lie, but Macy seemed willing to let it slide. Kenny, however, was another story.

“Where did you look?” he demanded, his hands on his hips. “We've been up at the ridge all morning!”

“Shh!” Macy cast a worried look toward Brooke and Ned. “Never mind that. Did you talk to him, Dani?”

“Not exactly' I pretended to be very busy pouring so I wouldn't have to look her in the eyes. “Er, I sort of changed my mind about that.”

“What are you talking about?” Kenny exclaimed.

Brooke glanced up curiously. But I guess she figured the commotion was just me and Kenny arguing as usual, because she shrugged and turned back to Ned almost immediately.

“Quiet, Kenny, please” Macy murmured. “Maybe we
should all go somewhere more private and talk about this a little.”

I shrugged, carefully kicking the pot of water a little farther into the fire. “There's really nothing to talk about,” I muttered. Not anything I felt like discussing with the two of them, anyway. I wasn't about to admit to them that I was wussing out because I didn't want to risk messing things up with Josh. I could barely admit that even to myself.

“But, Dani …,” Macy began uncertainly.

“Dont be a dork, Danielle,” Kenny added.

I rolled my eyes. “Look, I just decided it was better to do both things. Two plans have got to be better than one, right? It means twice the chance of success.”

Macy looked dubious about that one. “Well, maybe. But we still should tell Josh that we—”

“Look, I'll still help you guys with the fire and everything,” I interrupted, noticing the others approaching from the direction of Raft Central. Josh was leading the way, with Angela hovering right around his left shoulder like a hungry choo-choo bug. “But only on one condition. We have to keep it a secret from everybody else. Especially Josh.”

Macy blinked and opened her mouth. Then she shut it again. Then she said, “Huh?”

“Take it or leave it,” I said firmly, crossing my arms over my chest. “The fire plan stays a secret, or you two are on your own.” I figured that was the only way to go. Then I could work on both plans, and Angela wouldn't be able to turn it against me.

Kenny glared at; me and opened his mouth, ready to argue some more. But Macy had spotted the others coming our way too, and she grabbed him by the arm and shushed him.

“Do we have a deal?” I asked her.

She nodded, looking a little confused. I turned away to check on the water, but the next time I glanced back at her, she and Kenny were whispering together urgently.

I shrugged. Let them whisper. What did I care, as long as they kept their mouths shut? The only one whose opinion mattered to me was Josh, and as far as he knew, I was still totally on his team.

“Lift!” Brooke cried urgently. “Come on, Dani. Put some muscle into it, girl, What's wrong with you?”

“Sorry,” I panted, doing my best to hoist the end of the
log I was holding a little higher. It wasn't easy. I'd just spent two hours in the midday sun hauling firewood up to the ridge, and my muscles felt like Silly Putty. Of course, everybody at Raft Central thought I'd been taking a nap that whole time, so they weren't too sympathetic to my plight.

Angela watched critically as Ryan and I moved the log into place. “Careful, Dani,” she snapped. “If you drop that thing, you'll wreck the part beneath it.”

“Gee, thanks for the advice.” I was so busy trying not to drop the log on the raft—or my own foot—that the words didn't come out quite as sarcastically as I'd intended. But Angela shot me a sour look anyway.

Josh stepped forward to help as the log settled into place. “Great job, guys,” he said with a special, though all too brief, smile just for me.

“Okay, let's get the next one.” Ryan was already reaching for an even bigger log. I swear, that boy never runs out of energy. He could probably finish the raft on his own, swim back to the mainland, run a marathon, and still be ready to jump up and dance a jig. Not that I know what a jig is, exactly, but it sounds sort of energetic, just like Ryan.

“Give me a minute,” I mumbled, rubbing my aching
arms. If I kept going at this rate, I was going to have muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger by the time I got back to civilization.