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He carries me on his back for about fifteen minutes like this before we find a clearing—a pretty good-sized one with a large boulder for me to sit up against. Grayson gets me situated, taking one of the towels from the backpack, rolling it up and gently placing it under my ankle to keep it slightly elevated. Around us, crickets make a symphony of sounds.
He then sits down next to me and grabs one of the water bottles out of the bag, along with one of the protein bars. We each take a big swig of water, but that’s it since we need to conserve it, and we share the protein bar for the same reason. At least we have some food and water, or this would be even more dire.
“How’s your ankle?” he asks.
“Stupid,” I say, and he chuckles. I look around the clearing. “So, this is our home for the night.”
“Unless someone walks through here.”
I look up at the sky, which has now turned more purple. “I think everyone is done hiking tonight.”
“Well, hopefully someone will be out tomorrow and will find us. Or our friends will send out a search party.”
“It’s probably almost time for the rehearsal dinner,” I say. “I wonder how long it will take Nadia to panic.”
“It’ll take Shane a while,” Grayson says. “He’s too laid back. He’ll probably think we ditched them for something better.”
“Nadia might be convinced of that since she knows I didn’t want to be here in the first place.” She might also think I’m hooking up with the BILK, which would be an acceptable reason to her.
“Why was that?” he asks. We’re sitting so close, I can feel his arm up against mine.
“Why didn’t I want to be here?”
“Yeah. You seemed to want to find any excuse to get out of it.”
I hold my hands up toward our surroundings. “This is why,” I say.
He eyes me, his brows pulled downward. “Because you could predict we’d get lost in a rainforest?”
I shake my head. “No, because I’m a jinx.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t understand.”
“It’s a long story.”
He snickers. “I’m pretty sure we’ve got time.”
I slouch back against the rock, feeling resigned. I’ll probably die here with my stupid throbbing ankle. I guess I can admit my deep, dark secrets to Grayson.
“Okay,” I start. “I’m a wedding jinx.”
“A wedding jinx?”
I let out a breath, not sure I want to go down this road, but Grayson’s right: What else are we going to do with our time?
“I’ve been in seven weddings, and I’ve done something to ruin each of those weddings.”
“I’m going to need more information.”
“Fine,” I say. I start ticking them off with my fingers. “Wedding number one, I inadvertently dumped a glass of wine on the bride’s dress.”
“Your brother’s wedding?”
“Yes,” I say, remembering I told him about that one already. “The second one, the bride was bitten by a bunch of red ants.”
“How was that your fault?”
“I’d told her where to stand. It was a grand idea for some pictures,” I tell him.
