They exchanged a smile. “But he finally got it when I texted him, “out here you just don’t abandon your partner until the two of you can make it out alive.””

“Just because it’s Rian, Jonah. So alright…”

She mustered a small smile.

He scooted closer because Rian had that look in her eye that told him she wanted to lean her head on something, preferably somebody’s shoulder. Like his, for example. She was sighing heavily. “Well, unlike you, I’m not as sure that my girl will get it … what am I saying? How can I say that she’s my girl or anything like that? We’re not even dating.”

Jonah snorted. “Quit it, Rian. Even I can tell that you love her, judging by the way you look during the few times you and I have talked about her.”

“As beautiful as you are, from the inside out, she’d be crazy not to be in love with you, too.”

He tipped the glass bottle over his lips again and swallowed. Rian hadn’t stirred, and he guessed her eyes were still staring straight ahead, likely thinking about Jade.

He said softly, “And I get it, girlfriend … I get why the flame burns even if you haven’t spoken to each other since Christmas Day …”

They fell quiet.

A few minutes later, the unmistakable ring of Jonah’s satellite phone shattered the silence in the room.

He frowned, and after Rian lifted her head from the side of his shoulder, he walked hurriedly to the work desk to unzip a side pocket of his backpack, which was as much a part of Jonah as his right arm. He’d dumped the backpack on the table when he and Rian returned to her room after the vigorous work-out they’d completed in the hotel’s gym.

Rian motioned that she was heading to the bathroom to take a shower.

She was worn out emotionally, and thought a leisurely shower would help “wash away” not only the healthy sweat she’d worked out in the gym, but also the cloud of sadness she still felt while thinking about the letter she’d written to Jade.

Twenty minutes later, she emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in the hotel’s bathrobe. “I think I should try to call her, Jonah, see if I can explain things to her, without letting her know exactly what’s going on out here …. Jonah? Jonah?”