“If you’d stopped me in the street, even if you were totally broke… I’d go anywhere with you Michael Parker, anywhere in a heartbeat.”
I kiss her again, and then again, but I can feel her attention elsewhere. Opening my eyes, I can see her eyeballing the coffee.
“What matters more right now, is coffee,” she tells me, matter of fact and I reach over for it laughing quietly to myself.
“If you’re going to be with me, Mr. Parker, you’ll need to understand that Zoe is rubbish in the mornings without her coffee… Now, tell me again how much you love me so I can think about whether to stay mad at you or not.”
I want to laugh, but I’ll take every chance I can to tell her how special she is, just how much she means to me.
The sound of the helicopter’s getting closer and I know that sooner rather than later is a good time to get all this behind us. I had my night alone with Zoe, I claimed her and made her mine. Now I have to keep her. And the first step towards that is getting off this island, which will be swarming with media choppers within the hour.
“As soon as we’re home, Zoe…” caution her. “I’ll do more than just tell you how much I love you. I’ll show you and then you can tell me if you think I mean it, deal?”
She gulps her coffee hard, her eyes wide as she scalds herself, “Deal!” she exclaims loudly.
“Hey, where are you going?” she asks me as I get up, heading for the door, to those baskets with our clothes in them.
“You can keep your robe on if you want, but I have to go hail our ride home. But finish your coffee first, we can have breakfast on the way…” I call over to her as I dress, and I mean it.
I’m in no real hurry. I could stay here for a thousand years, but now the world knows, or thinks it knows where Michael Parker is or might have met his demise… it’ll be a gun fight to get the story of the century. I hope to get us out of here unseen before any of that happens.
The sunlight is so bright off the sand I have to cover my eyes. I hear the helicopter, which sounds more like a jumbo jet flying so low, as it makes another pass around this side of the island.
I can make out Scotty, my pilot. I give him a casual wave and the thumbs up. I can’t see his eyes through his visor, but he dips the bird towards me in greeting. I can feel his relief at having found me, although I can’t exactly share the feeling.
I know where I’d rather be.
Ah well, Michael Parker, get your Parker face back on and go deal with it…go finish it.
The chopper finds a good spot, right on the edge of the manicured lawn, and as it whines down the side door opens, Shawn’s rushing towards me, he looks like hell and I tell him so.
“We thought… I’m sorry, Sir, we had to leave yesterday… the storm… the passengers… It was a category three warning and when we saw your speedboat…” he’s trying to get a year’s worth out in two sentences, but it’s alright. He’s done me a solid without even knowing it.
“It’s all good Shawn, just give me a minute to get some things.”
“We can grab anything you need, Mr. Parker, if you’d like to step this way.” he says, eager to get me on board and off the island, but my hand’s up, silencing him in a friendly way.
“I’ll be along in a minute, Shawn.” I tell him, “And thanks for the clothes… how did you know?” I ask him, I just have to know, was it so obvious, about me and Zoe?
“Oh, I could just tell Sir, I could just tell…”
And I’m glad he could.
Chapter Nineteen
Zoe
Adding helicopter ride to my list in a twenty four hour period, Michael gently reminds me through the headset when we’re on board that we can ditch the helicopter if I want once we’re on dry land.
“We can ditch everything if you want. I’m done. Happy to find our own island somewhere just the two of us.”
I think he’s joking for a second, maybe just being romantic, but there’s something in his eyes that tells me he’s deadly serious.
I squeeze his hand, and kissing it I tell him not to make any rash decisions.
“I don’t know where home is for you, but I’ve got a worried dad and a cranky boss to contend with, I’ll bet.” I tell him.
I can’t help it, but the worry’s creeping back in and the higher in the air we get, the closer to land we fly, our little island paradise seems to get further and further away with each second, threatening to become a blurred memory.