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“I am calm!” I shout. “You calm down!”
We’re just about to shore when he yells, “Fuck! Vampire fish!”
“Vampire fish?!” I scream, scrambling to the sandy beach. I crawl as far away from the water as possible before my body goes completely numb and I collapse. When I turn, I half expect Ty to be in a full-on wrestling match with some sort of massive fish with huge teeth but he’s not. He heaves himself out of the river, dropping the bags on the shore. He pauses for a second, glancing up at the sky, then says, “Never mind. I’m fine.”
“What?”
“No vampire fish. All is well,” he says, nodding at me reassuringly. I can tell by the sheepish look on his face that he’s totally embarrassed.
He flops onto the ground next to me, panting. “We made it.”
“Yeah, thank God.”
We’re both silent while we watch the remains of our canoe and one of the backpacks disappear around a bend in the distance, then Ty says, “You didn’t tell me you had the power to summon wild animals.”
I close my eyes and scrunch up my face.
Ty mimics my voice. “Pink dolphins, I command you to save us!”
We both burst out laughing. When we stop, I look over at him. “I really wanted to believe I could do it.”
“I love your optimism. Truly noteworthy.”
I grin at him, my heart pattering at the fact that he loves something about me. “Insanity is more like it.”
“It’s understandable. You were panicking, so…”
“And you weren’t?” I ask.
“No, I was busy getting us and as much of our gear as possible to shore.”
“You did,” I answer, “Right up until the bit when you thought you were being attacked by a … what was it? Werewolf fish?”
“Vampire fish,” he murmurs. “It’s just something Michael told me about on the phone. But obviously they’re not real and I’m fine. Say, was it me, or did it seem like those dolphins were totally laughing at us?”
I chuckle at him. “Changing the subject?”
“I’d prefer to, yes,” he answers.
“All right. I won’t ask, but only because you saved my life.”
“Excellent. I’ll consider us even.” He grins at me. “Now, about those pink dolphins. Who knew they were such assholes?”
“Not me, but they totally are.”
“It’s one thing for them to ignore your command, but to laugh at us? Uncalled for.”
“I actually think I prefer flamingos now,” I answer, my stomach doing that flippy thing it does when he smiles at me, which definitely shouldn’t be happening, given the fact that we capsized and are now stranded in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.
I have to say, Ty’s hair isn’t the only thing about him that’s McDreamy-esque. His natural protective instincts are spot on. He got to me in record time and held me tightly around my waist while he fought the current and got us to shore. How he did that with two backpacks on is beyond me.
We’re both quiet for a minute as the reality of what just happened sets in.
“That was crazy,” he says.
“It was. This whole thing is crazy,” I tell him. “You were amazing, by the way. You not only saved me, but you managed to keep most of our supplies too.”
“Well, we lost one of the packs, which means we’re down to one tent and one sleeping bag,” Ty answers. He sighs and shakes his head. “I really should’ve been able to grab that one too.”
