Lifting my brow, I tilted my head and stared at her. “Really? Not at all.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she said, “Nope.”
“You know, he told me he thought you looked cute in his sweatpants and sweatshirt.”
Her upper lip twitched as she forced herself not to smile. “He’s delirious from the pain of his broken leg.”
“Uh-huh. And your excuse?”
Giving me a scowl, she asked, “My excuse for what?”
“Jase! Tess!” William called out.
We both turned and rushed back to the plane.
Nate was standing next to William with a huge grin across his face.
“It’s working! He got the damn thing to work!”
Tess turned to me and hugged me before turning and doing the same to Nate and William. “You did it! I knew you would!” she cried out in glee.
Reaching my hand over, I shook William’s. “Good job, dude.”
He glanced down at it and nodded. “Let’s hope they pick it up before our batteries die out.”
My body rushed with adrenaline. We were going home. I could feel it deep in my bones.
“I promised Taylor I was coming back to her. And if it I have to start walking out of the fucking desert to find a way out, we will be going home.”
William’s eyes pooled with tears. He looked away and softly said, “I’ll be home soon, baby.”
It had been five hours since the emergency beacon had started. Nate and Tess were asleep as William and I sat there watching the damn thing. Waiting for the batteries to go dead and the thing to stop working.
There was no doubt in my mind we were thinking the same thing. Where was the search team?
“I swear it feels colder tonight than any night we’ve been here,” William mindlessly said.
Wrapping the blanket around me, I agreed. “I’m going to add more wood to the fire. If they do fly over this area, they’ll at least see the fire going.”
“Need help?”
Motioning with my hand for him to stay seated, I shook my head. “Nah. Stay off your ankle. It looks worse today than it has all week.”
“Hurts like a mother fucker too.”
I walked out and over to the fire. Earlier that day I had hiked back over to the tree line to get more wood.
Grabbing a hand full of sticks, I threw them into the fire. Glancing up, I got lost in the vast amount of stars that lit up the black sky. If I didn’t hate this place so much, I would totally be lost in the beauty of it.
After warming myself up, I decided to head back into the plane, but stopped when I heard something.
Not moving at all, I stood perfectly still.
A plane. That’s a fucking plane I hear!
I quickly ran back to the plane and grabbed two flash lights. “What’s wrong?” William asked.
“It’s a plane. I hear a plane!”