“Bonnie, let the bird sing.” He said.
She gasped and spun around on the captain's chair. “David! You’re awake!”
“Work it. Work it.” Duchess said.
“I take that back,” David growled. “Duchess, quiet.”
“Thank goodness.” Bonnie abandoned the chair and dropped to her knees next to him, fingers prodding the very sore skin on his forehead. “I didn’t know how I was going to get you into the cabin if I had to. Does it hurt?”
“Yes.” He caught her searching hands and brought them together. “What happened? How’s the boat?”
“Boat’s okay. I think. You knocked yourself out trying to get to me. Your foot slipped and blam!” She tried to smack her hands together. “You conked your head on the railing.”
“Yeah. That I got. You okay?”
“I’m great!” She beamed at him. “We did it. We rode out the storm. Took a few hours and so Duchess and I covered about thirty years of musicals, but yeah.” She sighed and sank back onto her heels. “We’re okay. Me, Duchess, Blue Blood and now you.” She pulled her hands free and caught his face in her palms. Before he knew it, she pressed her mouth against his.
The kiss was quick, searing, and surprising. But just as welcome. His hand slipped down to her waist, trying to urge her closer, but she pulled back, shaking her head. “We need to get you downstairs so I can get the first aid kit.”
“Yeah, we’ll do that. Help me up first. I want to check our location.” He said.
The rain continued to fall, but the storm wasn’t nearly as tempestuous as it had been. Bonnie wedged herself under his arm and together they got him to his feet. It took him a moment to get his bearings, and to stop his stomach from churning. He was going to have a major headache , but Bonnie was right about one thing. He was alive. The pain proved it.
She helped him over to the chair and he dropped into it like a wet sack of sand. He blinked, trying to focus his vision. “I can’t read this.” He tapped the devices on the dashboard. “Read them to me.”
“Sure.” She read out the numbers and he actually started laughing.
“We barely lost any distance at all.” He sank back in the chair. “But for now…” David dropped the bow anchor and throttled down. Turned off the engine. And welcomed as much silence as he could get. “For now, we all deserve a bit of rest.”
“Good to know.” Bonnie seemed to be holding him upright in the chair. “I’ll get your bed ready. For after. Once we take care of your head, I mean.” Her cheeks went bright pink. “Wait here and I’ll come back to help you down.”
“Sounds good.” He closed his eyes, only to blink them open almost immediately for fear he’d drift off again. “Duchess?” he asked and looked over to the bird, who was still singing , but no longer at the top of her lungs.
“You good?”
“Pretty bird.”
“Geez, bird, sing a different tune.” He didn’t have a clue how Bonnie could help him down the ladder. Instead, he dragged himself across the wheelhouse and when he reached the hatch, he stopped short, finding her on the ladder returning to him.
“What are you doing?” she snapped and immediately locked a hand around his. “You were supposed to wait for me.”
“You were hurt.” He remembered now, the image of her slamming into the side of the boat almost sickening him. “Your shoulder.” He waited until he was down in the cabin before he started probing her shoulder.
“Stop that. I’m fine. Just bruised.” But she winced and pulled away.
Before he could protest, she had him sitting at the table. The boat continued to rock under the last vestiges of the storm, but after the past few hours, it felt almost soothing.
“You probably won’t need stitches,” Bonnie murmured as she wet a cotton ball with al-cohol. “This is going to sting.”
“Yep.” He nodded. “Just get it over with.” His head continued to throb and all he could think about was the bed waiting for him a few feet away. Even with her warning, he sucked in a sharp breath. “Okay, that’s not fun.”
“I bet.” She moved closer as she pushed up his head gently so she could get more light. He had nowhere to put his hands so he settled for resting them on her hips, a gesture that had her freezing. Then she looked into his eyes, and smiled. “Don’t start something you can’t finish, Boat Boy.”
He almost grinned in response until he realized what she’d called him. “That’s a weird name to call me." he said.
“Uh-huh.” Bonnie nodded and dabbed more alcohol onto his wound. “I know.”
He kept his eyes up on her face, mainly because if he looked straight ahead he’d be looking at her… He squeezed his eyes shut. It didn’t help. He was still thinking about her…. “You about done there, Calamity Jane?”
Her hand halted. “You did not just call me a horse.”
“I’m still working up a nickname for you.
After tonight I’m thinking I might have a whole bunch to choose from. Once my brain’s a bit unscrambled. Okay, that’s enough.” He caught her hand. “Bandage me up and call it over.”
“All right.” She dug out some butterfly bandages and quickly applied them. “You’ll probably want to see a doctor.”
He was going to need more than that the way his thoughts were running. There would be nothing less likely, less rational, than for him to fall tail over teakettle for Bonnie Rimmer and yet… David took a deep breath. It seemed that’s exactly what he’d done…After that night of amazing lovemaking, how could he not fall for her. But it was an Illusion, he told himself. A few days on dry land after she left, a few days in the real world and not this isolated snow globe of misadventure they’d been on, and his feelings would be back on track: the practical, non ridiculous track.
“All right.” She stepped out of his arms and gathered up her trash. “Go get out of those wet clothes. I’ll fix you tea and bring you pain pills.”
“Then you’ll let me get some sleep?”
“Some. I’ll stay nearby to wake you up every few hours.” She tilted up his chin again with her finger. “Just to be safe.”