Page 69 of Stranded

She nods ever so slightly. “One for every day I’ve been here.”

Everyone is silent for a moment as we glance around the room. Seeing the physical enormity of every day she’s laid in this treehouse, completely alone and scared, is almost too much to fathom.

“Was there a reason you didn’t want to tell us sooner?” King asks, breaking the silence.

“I don’t like thinking about it. But I was also afraid it would kill your hope of being rescued.”

“Tink, you don’t have to worry about that. Reece is out there right now, trying to figure out how to find us. He’s probably hired a team of professionals to search for us.”

She doesn’t say anything in response and I wonder if it’s because she doesn’t believe she’ll be rescued after all this time.

“Reece is a good man, he won’t stop until he finds us,” I tell her, giving her a little squeeze of reassurance.

“Zee, did you build these huts yourself?” King asks as his eyes scan the room.

“My dad and I built the first one, the small one I just use for old storage now. After he… died, I built the second one, and a year later, I decided to build a third one so I could use one as a sort of kitchen and storage room and live in the other one.”

“Tink, how did you possibly build this on your own? That’s incredible,” Bower says, his wide eyes looking at the hut as if he’s just seen it for the first time.

She would have had to find and cut every piece of wall and roof in here, then carry them, one at a time, up here and secure them.

“It must have taken you ages,” King says, mirroring my thoughts.

“It’s not like I had anything else to do. It gave me structure, a routine to keep me going and a goal to work towards. Wake up, get food, water, work on the hut, break for food, work on the hut, bathe and sleep.”

“Once it was done, what was your new goal?” I ask, my thumb stroking over the soft skin on her shoulder.

She shrugs as she answers. “Surviving. I tried to find better ways to hunt, working on my techniques for building furniture, making better bags, a more comfortable hammock. Anything to pass the time and make me feel like I was doing something besides just… existing.”

“We saw the old hut and can tell how far you’ve come. I still can’t believe you made everything in here by hand,” King says with a warm smile directed at her.

“You looked inside the old hut?” she asks, her body becoming tense.

“Briefly, when we got here. We could see you had many attempts at some of the furniture, but we didn’t look too much, it was a little eerie, to be honest,” Bower says, making her relax.

“You’re incredible, baby,” I whisper, placing a lingering kiss on the side of her neck.

“I probably would have starved to death by now if I was on my own,” Bower says with a quirk of his lips.

“I’d be boar food,” King says, pulling a small laugh from her.

“I’d be miserable and angry,” I admit. “Probably do something stupid to get myself killed within the first week.”

Her free hand grips my arm and she turns her head, looking at me as she responds, “You might be a little grumpy sometimes, but you’re always worried about our safety. If I had to vote, I think you’d last the longest on your own.”

I shake my head. “No. I care aboutyoursafety, abouttheirsafety,” I say, nodding my head towards the other two, “But if I was on my own, I wouldn't worry so much.”

“But you’re just as important as the rest of us.”

“Not to me.”

“Well, I guess it’s good you have us here then, huh?” she asks, a smile teasing at her lips. I stare at her beautiful face as my admiration for her blossoms even more. Laying here with an injured ankle, talking about how she crash landed here, lost her dad and has been alone for fifteen years. And she still has a fucking smile on her face.

“You amaze me, Zee. You’ve been through so much, been stuck alone here all this time, and yet, you’re still… you. You’ve got the biggest heart in the world. You should be raging at the world and falling apart, but you’re not.”

“Most of the time,” she whispers, “I feel like I’m falling apart, like one small thing could break me completely.”

“That’s not what I see,” I tell her, leaning forward to press a kiss to the tip of her nose. She licks her lips, drawing my attention there. I haven’t kissed her yet, and the need is growing stronger by the second, especially now after so much hasbeen revealed.

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