Page 18 of Chasing Paradise

He’d been on foot.

Right?

But as I kept waiting and waiting, seeing the group of backpackers finally making their way to the speedboats, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Could he somehow have gotten ahead of me?

Or, worse yet, turned back around as soon as I was gone and hopped on a plane back to the mainland?

I mean… I hadn’t heard a plane take off. And it wasn’t exactly a busy airport.

Chances were, he was already on a speedboat or he was behind me and about to get on one.

Decision made, I got my ticket and climbed on one of the pristine white boats that would take our small group from Isla Baltra the short distance to Isla Santa Cruz.

My stomach sloshed as the boat lurched forward.

“Oh, God,” I groaned, dropping down into one of the few seats, trying to deep-breathe through the swirling in my head and belly.

I reached again for my handbook, needing a distraction as the boat moved faster, flipping past the bits about the rainforest, focusing back on the islands instead.

“Thank God,” I murmured to myself when I learned that several of the islands—including Santa Cruz, where we were heading—were inhabited. There would be hotels, resorts, food, water, maybe a way to charge my damn phone.

As we got closer, I could see some of the luxury “glamping” tents dotting the landscape.

There were docks, canoes, other people.

I guess I’d been expecting something a lot more… I don’t know… isolated. But the guidebook did say that some islands were inhabited, while others weren’t. So most tourists rented a room at one of the resorts or luxury tents on islands like Santa Cruz, San Cristóbal, Isabela, or Floreana. Then they spent some of their time taking guided tours—or renting their own privatespeedboats—to check out the more remote and uninhabited islands.

I felt a strange little twinge of regret and longing in my belly, suddenly wishing I wasn’t chasing a skip, but rather taking a girl’s trip with my friends instead. Long, lazy days at the beach, sipping mixed drinks. Swimming in the ocean. Taking boats to the islands to check out the lizards, Blue Footed Boobies, penguins, and… everything else this place had to offer.

I could come back, I reminded myself.

Once Wick was back in custody, and I had a freshly printed check for an absurd amount of money in my hand, I could go back to Navesink Bank, I could gather my friends, and we could plan a trip.

True, we all had our own lives now that often took us away from home. No one was guiltier of that than me. So if I was the one to make the plans, I was sure everyone would show up.

Well, the ones who hadn’t already shacked up, that is.

The speedboat pulled up to a dock on the island a few minutes later.

I wanted to take it all in.

Instead, I looked around for Wick.

Honestly, I didn’t expect to see him.

But there, standing at the helm of a speedboat while a man on the dock started to untie the rope connecting it, was Wick in his damn white straw hat and sunglasses.

I didn’t stop to think.

I just turned and ran.

My feet hammered across the dock, my thighs burning in objection.

If the man who’d untied Wick’s boat was concerned about me, he didn’t show any signs as I rushed past him just as Wick turned over the engine with an ear-splitting roar.

The timing was perfect.

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