Too-Perfect & Stranded by Cami Checketts

CHAPTERSIX

Navy tried to not act put out as Holden took charge. He found Jorge still sleeping in his room and had everyone eat fruit, granola, and yogurt for breakfast and reassured them all over and over again that the storm would pass and they were safe. She wished he had confided in her about the storm as a trusted employee and a woman he was invested in, but she didn’t want to hold on to petty frustrations when their crew seemed to be self-destructing right in front of her eyes.

Everyone but Ryan congregated in the theater after breakfast. It was down several steps from the main level and one of the only rooms in the house without windows. Not seeing those massive waves breaking on the pool deck seemed to calm everyone down a little bit. The house still shuddered with the wind and it was impossible not to hear the wind and rain rattling and pelting the windows down the hallway. The storm couldn’t get any worse or the waves would roll right over the house.

With no power the only light was from the open theater door and the natural light from the hallway. Holden had asked them to conserve the flashlights and cell phones if they could, not that anyone had any coverage without the Wi-Fi boosters working. Navy’s eyes darted around the room. Taya and Ollie were quietly cuddled on one couch. Michael, Jorge, and Alecia were all sitting in recliners. Holden had excused himself to check on Ryan and check the security room next to the theater for any incoming communication. Nobody was talking, and it felt tight and uncomfortable in the room. They knew each other well after the last twelve weeks of filming and living in close quarters, but the fear and obvious frustration of the group was stifling.

She had a lot of nervous energy she wished she could work out. She was tempted to go to the home gym and pound through some weights. Glancing around, she realized all of them were used to being active, except Ollie. Yet that wasn’t true. Ollie was a bigger guy, but he had a lot of energy and was always moving and going and she had seen him using the gym for weights regularly.

“Who’s up for going to the home gym and getting a weight workout in?” Navy asked. It would be tight in there with this many of them, but that was okay.

Even in the dim light she could see the disbelief on their faces.

“I’m not going anywhere where I can see the waves that are going to drown us,” Alecia said sulkily.

Navy forced a smile. The workout room windows faced the bay so it wouldn’t be as scary. “We’re going to be fine, Alecia.”

The young girl gave her a haughty look and muttered something under her breath.

“Anyone else up for a workout?” Navy asked, standing. Maybe she would just go by herself.

Every person in the room gave either a slight or a vigorous shake of their heads.

“I don’t like seeing the waves either,” Taya admitted.

Ollie held her even closer. “We’ll be okay,” he said bravely, but there was a slight tremor in his voice.

Navy was tempted to leave all of them. She hated storms but she was not going to let this one make her a quivering mass of flesh. Some activity would help all of them; positive thoughts just abounded from the endorphins when you exercised. She blew out a breath and said, “Okay. There’s plenty of room in here, let’s do something in this open space.”

Again they all just stared at her but Navy wasn’t about to be dissuaded. She stepped down the platforms to the open space between the wall that acted as the movie screen and the rows of seats.

“Let’s start with some squats,” she suggested, squatting down low and then tightening her quads, glutes, and hamstrings as she straightened. She ignored their looks, like she was some crazy person as she continued to squat down and up.

Taya smiled at Ollie. “She’s got a screw loose, but it would probably be good to move.”

He returned her smile and helped her stand up. The two came and joined Navy. She smiled her appreciation, finished the squats, and then barked out, “Burpees with a pushup!”

Ollie groaned. “I should’ve stayed on the couch.” But he followed Navy and Taya into a round of burpees.

Michael made his way down and joined them.

“Crazy Americans,” Jorge muttered. But before Navy could respond, he was down in a burpee, executing a very nice pushup—body straight as a board, arms bending deeply as his chest and nose brushed the floor.

“Good form, Jorge,” she called out.

“I was champion youth wrestler before I become chef,” he informed her as he jumped into a squat then leapt in the air before squatting low again, pushing back into plank position and doing another pushup.

“Nice.” Navy hadn’t known that about their eccentric chef.

Alecia groaned something but reluctantly joined them a few minutes later.

“Jumping jacks,” Navy called out.

They all formed a loose circle and jumped in and out, their arms wide. Navy grinned at the group, feeling better than she had since kissing Holden last night in the workout room. Several of them returned her smile and nobody was quivering in fear or grumping about it anymore. Navy considered that a win.

“Use one of the steps or couches for triceps dips,” she instructed. Everybody followed her lead. Navy thought they might get through this storm with exercise to distract themselves. Holden was probably right that it would pass quickly. She wouldn’t mind kissing Holden to distract herself, but there were too many things between them to let herself wander too far down that romance pit. A pit she most likely wouldn’t be able to free herself from.

* * *

Holden went to check on Ryan and found the guy was still locked in his bathroom. Holden rapped on the door. “Ryan? You okay?”

“Fine,” Ryan spit back at him.

“You want to come out and get some breakfast or something?”

“No.”

Holden took a calming breath. This guy had played professional football, he was one of the top fitness trainers in the world, and he was acting like a baby. He had heard people’s true character came out in emergencies. Apparently that was the case here. Holden knew he shouldn’t have taken the guy out earlier but he had it coming. He guessed he should just leave him here and not feel so guilty about it.

Glancing out the suite’s windows, he was amazed at the size of the waves in the bay. The storm had to be a hurricane at this point. He couldn’t imagine any help was coming. He wouldn’t want anyone out in this storm, no matter how highly trained or what kind of equipment they had. He just had to keep praying that the storm would pass them by or calm down.

He walked toward the suite door. He’d tried with Ryan and the guy needed to find it somewhere inside to be a man. Guilt slowed his footsteps. He walked back and asked through the door, “Is there anything you need?”

Silence lasted for a few seconds and then Ryan said in a small voice, “Navy.”

Holden’s fists immediately clenched. This loser couldn’t have Navy.

“I know I’ve been too flirtatious with her, and acted irresponsible about the yacht thing with the group. I apologize for hitting you.”

Holden straightened, confused where this maturity was coming from.

“Navy and I are friends. I trust her. I want to tell her why I’m acting so crazy and I think she could help me.”

Holden closed his eyes. He didn’t want Navy anywhere around this guy and wondered if Ryan was manipulating the situation to get Navy to feel bad for him, but they were in an extreme spot and Navy probably could help the guy. On TV the trainers were equal competitors, but in real life, it was Navy who ran the show and kept the crew together. Holden knew she could help him personally feel happy and settled, if she would let him hold her again. He still needed to apologize for not sharing all of the information he had about the storm.

“I’ll …” He cleared his throat. “… ask her if she can come talk to you.”

“Thank you.” Ryan’s voice was as humble as Holden had ever heard it.

“Sure.” Holden turned and strode out of the bedroom. He went down the hallway to the main area then took the other hallway to the wing that housed the gym, theater, and control room. He wanted to go into the theater first and find Navy, but he needed to see if any communication had come through. He hurried to the control room, or security room, or whatever it was. Searching around the equipment for a few minutes he found a two-way satellite radio. He tried it but got nothing but static. Trying different stations he put out an SOS but got nothing. He didn’t know what anyone could do anyway. He’d hate to be the reason the Coast Guard sent a boat or helicopter out in this nightmare and the men died because of it. His group would be safe on the island until the storm passed.

He gave up on the radio and strode back to the theater. As he poked his head inside, he smiled. Only Navy. She was barking out orders and the entire group was faithfully doing burpees. Holden thought it was a brilliant idea to get everybody moving to distract them.

Navy glanced up and caught his gaze. She grinned at him, but then her blue eyes darkened and she seemed to close off again, as if she remembered why she was mad at him.

“Holden,” Alecia cried out, running toward him. “I’m so scared.”

Holden backed away from the young lady. “You’ll be fine,” he tried to reassure her. “I need to talk to Navy alone.”

Navy gave him a challenging look but luckily didn’t refute him. “Alecia,” she said. “Why don’t you lead them now?”

Alecia looked surprised but then she shrugged. “I guess I could.”

“Of course you can. You’ve done how many hundreds of workouts the past few months? You and Michael can take turns coming up with ideas of exercises to do without any equipment.”

Alecia’s eyes lit up. “Okay.” She hurried back to the group. “Planks,” she commanded.

Ollie groaned as he lowered into a plank position. Holden was more impressed with Navy than ever. She’d found a way to distract Alecia and keep the girl from hitting on Holden.

Navy walked past him and into the hallway. Holden hurried after her. Taking her elbow, he escorted her into the great room. He would tell her Ryan’s request, but he had some things to say first.

He focused on her beautiful face, but Navy was staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows with wide eyes. “The waves are going to cover the house,” she murmured.

Holden followed her gaze and feared she might be right. The waves that had been crashing on the pool deck now had enough force they were battering against the windows and doors. Yet no water was leaking through the window frames with each new wave that burst over the bluff. Zack appeared to be right that his house was waterproof.

“It’ll be okay,” he said.

“Will it?” Navy whirled on him. “Are you a weather expert in addition to being an athlete, a billionaire, and a woman magnet?”

Holden’s eyebrows lifted. “I’m not a woman magnet.” He hardly even dated.

“Tell Alecia that,” she muttered, folding her arms across her slender chest. “What do you need?” she asked.

“A few things.” He took a deep breath and plunged ahead, though her tight posture didn’t encourage communication. “First of all, thank you for being so level-headed and keeping them all distracted.” He inclined his head toward the theater.

“I may not be employed by you any longer but I am a natural leader.” She jutted her chin out.

“You are … and much more.” He couldn’t hide the appreciation for her in his eyes. Her blue gaze softened but she didn’t say anything. “Second, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the extent of the storm that was coming. When I got the second, more worrisome, round of warnings from the weather service, they said we’d be safe here and it would be better to stay rather than risk leaving in turbulent seas.”

Navy stared at him. “Did you receive that before or after I punched you?”

He smiled. “After we all went to bed last night. When my head was too full of kissing you to care about a tropical storm.”

Her cheeks reddened becomingly, and she swallowed before saying, “I can see why you were distracted.”

Holden brushed his knuckles along her jaw. Her mouth softened and she leaned closer to him. “Navy,” he murmured. He turned his hand over and cupped her soft cheek with his palm. She let out a quiet moan. He stepped closer to her. “I’d like to tell you my side of the story with Colt and Kim.”

She blinked as if coming out of a trance and straightened away from him. “To what end?”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses. I will always be on my brother’s side.” Her blue eyes flashed at him and his hand fell away from her face.

She had gone from soft to feisty without skipping a beat. It made her even more appealing to him. He would have to work for the next kiss, but he didn’t mind. Most importantly, it wasn’t just about the next kiss with Navy, it was about developing a relationship with this fiery, independent, and amazing woman. She might be the woman he could finally trust enough to share his past with.

“As you should be, but I think if we talked it through we could understand the situation better. We’re both rational adults.”

Navy harrumphed. “You might be.”

Holden chuckled. “I sure like you, Navy Quinn.”

“You do?” She softened and took a step closer to him.

He nodded. The storm and other people in the house were far away right now. He was finally going to get his chance with Navy. Why had he waited so long to attempt this? She was everything he wanted.

“Then why have you kept yourself so aloof? Why haven’t you tried to cross these bridges with me? We’ve known each other for years.”

Why indeed? Holden tried to think how to explain that he had to keep himself aloof and protect his parents. He wasn’t ready for that conversation yet and he wanted to ask her the same question in return. She’d always been the epitome of friendly yet detached. “I wanted to be professional, and I didn’t think you were interested, and then the thing with your brother.”

Her postured stiffened again.

“Let’s talk it through.”

Navy studied him. Her face was controlled and Holden didn’t know if he was making headway or not. The wind, rain, and waves pelted the windows around them and the wind seemed to shriek. Holden could deal with the storm and asking Navy to talk to Ryan later. Right now he wasn’t missing this opportunity.

Crack! Something slammed into the window and Holden heard the shattering of glass before he turned. Navy cried out and grabbed his arm. Holden pulled her close, in shock at what he was seeing. A small metal fishing boat had smacked into the window up high with the wave, but the more terrifying thing was its anchor’s sharp point had hit the bottom part of the window and actually broken through the thick glass. The anchor remained lodged there as the boat receded with a wave and then came back and hit the window again like a battering ram. Water rushed in from the broken spot down low. The volume of the waves slamming against the house was so great that within seconds they were standing in a puddle of water.

Holden ushered Navy back away from the windows as the metal boat hit into them again. Would the windows hold now that they had a vulnerable spot? He had no idea how to force that anchor back out to keep the boat from coming through and feared if he tried he’d shatter the entire window and flood the house even quicker. Holden had always been a believer, but right now he was praying more fiercely than he had since his sister died.

“You okay?” he asked Navy.

“At the moment,” she muttered. “If the house floods I might not be.”

“We’ve got to get everybody in that shelter and seal it off before it floods,” he decided.

“The shelter’s waterproof?”

“Yes.” He prayed that was true. Zack had told him it was and he had to trust that. But Zack had also told him his windows were impenetrable. “Ryan wanted to talk to you. Can you go get him and I’ll get everybody moving into the shelter?” He blew out a breath. “Hopefully without Alecia clinging to me.”

She nodded. “I’ll grab him and we’ll be right there.”

Holden decided at that moment that he was falling in love with her. She was tough, brave, and independent. She pulled from his grasp and headed toward the hallway. Holden wished there was time to pull her in tight, kiss her, and tell her how impressive she was. Instead he hurried for the theater to try to calm down the masses. The water was ankle-deep in the main room now and gushing through the crack made by the anchor. The boat smacked into the window again and he cringed, hoping it would hold. With waves that big, the house could be flooded in minutes if that boat punctured a larger hole in the glass.