Chapter 14

"Where ... are ... we going ... umph!" I asked Wolfgang, kind of hiccupping the words as the white Land Cruiser bounced up a mountain road, or a goat path more like.

"Don't worry! I have a map," he chuckled, yanking the wheel over hard to avoid a fallen banana tree. It was soft and mushy anyway.

"Great!" I laughed, finding myself pressed against Eva as we rode together in the backseat.

"No seat belts!" Eva giggled as we were thrown the other way and I just grabbed the girl, determined to keep myself wedged against the door for the rest of the trip before I hurt something.

They'd rented the vehicle from the resort and driven to Papeete for the day. After the shoot had finished that afternoon, this was supposed to be my ride back. Obviously my friends had other plans and I thought I knew why. We needed to talk and they were probably more comfortable without Sofia being with us. Not that they didn't trust her, just that it was clear she was unhappy with them. They wanted to get me alone and after that we'd talk to Sofia. We all knew I wouldn't keep anything secret from her. Not anymore.

"Oh my God!" I grinned at the view, clapping my hands as we found ourselves overlooking a waterfall in the middle of the jungle.

The falls weren't overly large, but breathtaking all the same. The water took a hundred foot plunge, easily, and we could look down at a canopy of lush rainforest growing around a tropical pond of bright blue water with a half-dozen rainbows drifting through the mist. Getting up there had been a pain in the butt, literally, but the trip was worth it.

"Here. We'll rest, ja?" Eva was unrolling a thin bamboo mat on the grass trying to grow beneath the trees.

It was cool in the shade and we were up pretty high in the mountains that formed the center of the island. Off in the distance I could see the ocean ten or twelve miles away probably and above the horizon a line of dark clouds approaching fast. It rained every day in Tahiti and almost at the exact same time, about an hour before sunset. Hawaii had been the same way and I always wondered why.

"I wish I had a house up here," I said, relaxing as Wolfgang opened a cheap, Styrofoam cooler he'd bought in Papeete. He had some Australian wine in there, something cold and white, packed in ice and probably bruised pretty badly after our ride. Luckily it was only about ten bucks a bottle, so who would ever be able to tell? Not me.

"Are you cold?" Wolfgang asked, eyeing me in the sarong I'd decided to steal from Gabby's wardrobe after the shoot.

It was the same sarong I'd been wearing earlier and I was determined to keep it. Underneath, I wore gold bikini bottoms with strings, but I'd traded my bikini top for a t-shirt, a baby blue one that said "Tuna Friendy" across the back and nothing else. I'd thought that was pretty cool and I had no idea what it was supposed to mean. Friendy isn't even a word, is it?

"No, I'm fine," I told him, watching as the man sat down beside us, moving with the same easy grace his sister did. They were quite a pair and Wolfgang smiled when he caught my eyes.

"You are fine," he agreed gently, meaning it the way most men wouldn't. He was complimenting the person I was inside, not my appearance or my success, and I liked that very much.

"So..." I cleared my throat with a small blush. "You're going to explain everything now, right?"

"Mmmm..." Eva nodded, stretching out on the blanket and closing her eyes for a long moment.