Page 33 of One Last Chance

Maybe it was the desperation of his situation. Or maybe . . .

Maybe she just longed for someone to have a happy ending. To be found and not lost. She found her voice. “You escaped the ship.”

“It went down like a rock. I rode the raft up and it inflated right there in the ocean. Managed to get inside it and zip the covering shut. I might hurl, though. I strapped myself in, but . . . oh, yep, I’m going to . . . Hold please.”

She scowled. Waited. Her own appetite had vanished over the past few hours.

He came back. “That’s better. But gross. The ocean is wicked out there. Please tell me you got ahold of someone.”

“No. Sorry. I . . . maybe I should try to scan the channels?”

“Yeah. Maybe. But I don’t know if anyone is up—what time is it?”

She checked her watch. “Two a.m.”

“It’ll get light soon. Maybe . . .”

“I’ll keep trying, Axel.”

“Good, because I can’t feel my legs. There’s water on the bottom of the life raft, and I think I have a hole in my dry suit.”

Which meant he was slowly freezing to death.

“Don’t go to sleep.”

“Yeah. I get that.”

“No, seriously—you have to stay awake.”

“I’m throwing up. I don’t think I’m going to sleep.”

She ran her hand across her face. “Okay, tell me—tell me about your brother. What’s his name?”

“Moose. Except that’s not his real name. His real name is Arlo, and he hates it. For a while, people called him Arlie, but he’s always been a big guy, so around fifth grade someone dubbed him Moose and he grabbed hold of that.”

“No nickname for you?”

“Oh, I had a few, but . . .”

“C’mon.”

“Moose used to call me Lugnut.”

She laughed. “Really?”

“He thought it was funny. I didn’t. I tried to get people to call me Phoenix.”

“Really? Like, you rise from the ashes?”

“Naw. There’s a guy named Phoenix from Alaska who plays in the NHL. I wanted to be him for a while. Actually, I just wanted to be like Moose.”

“And then he called you Lugnut.”

“The jerk."

“So, have you risen from the dead?”

“Huh?”

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