They soon arrived back at the cave. Jo looked at Mac. "Well, you go first," she said.

"Why?" Mac asked. "What if I drop the backpack? It could hurt you. Or what if you fall? You can fall on me and I'll cushion your fall."

Jo glared at him as she saw that twinkle in his eye and he was clearly trying to keep from smiling. "You are impossible."

"I know. I'm just set in my ways." Mac scowled. "Why do you want me to go first?"

Jo rolled her eyes. "Oh, never mind."

Mac smiled as Jo started to climb up. When her behind was even with his face, he said, "Nice butt."

Jo looked down at him. "Oh, you're going to get it."

Mac chuckled to himself. He had known exactly why she wanted him to go first. She thought he was staring at her now that he had seen her naked. He looked up at her. He had to admit he had to be careful or his thoughts wandered. He smiled as he started to climb up. He thought he had not had this much fun in years. Even if they were stranded, he was enjoying himself.

Jo got up into the cave and waited for Mac. He climbed in and stared at her a moment. "Now, don't push me out," he said.

Jo folded her arms. "I wish I had a pillow right now. We would have us a good old fashioned pillow fight that leaves feathers flying."

"Kinky."

Mac laughed as he knew he was just pushing her buttons. "Okay, I'm sorry," he said as she hit him on the shoulder. "I love playing with you."

Jo almost smiled herself. "Is this your idea of foreplay?" she asked.

Mac looked at her. "Now, I didn't say that."

"You just like to tease me."

"I do. I love to see that fire in your eyes."

Jo stared at him a moment. She did not know what to say to that. "You have a whole different person hidden under all that front you put on at work," she said.

Mac put the backpack down and unzipped it. "I'm acting in my professional capacity then," he said.

"I would like to see this side of you once in a while."

Mac smiled. "You will from now on because…" He looked at her. "Because I don't ever want to be away from you again."

"Well, now you're just being charming."

"You don't like charming?"

"Yes, I like it." Jo took her shirt off so that she was in her bikini top. She looked at Mac. "You realize that I won't be groomed for much longer, don't you?"

Mac scowled. "What?"

Jo frowned. "Oh, come on. Don't tell me that you don't know what I'm talking about. You were married once. Surely you know what all your wife did to look beautiful."

"Oh," Mac said with a nod. He shrugged. "Jo, I am probably going to become a hairy beast that you don't even want near you much less kissing you and I'm not going to think anything of your natural body form either."

Jo looked at the stubble on Mac's face. "You look rugged," she said.

"Is that good or bad?"

"Well, I don't know. What are you going to think when I have hairy legs?"

Mac shook his head. "Jo, you worry about too many things," he said. "I know you can't do anything about it." He took the mangos out of the backpack. "That's a lot of the problems today…people worry too much about appearances and all that." He looked at Jo. "You're a beautiful person inside and it shows in your eyes."

Jo stared at him a moment. "You drive me crazy," she said.

"Do I?"

"Yes. What will it take for me to drive you crazy?"

Mac looked at her. He did not even want her to know how much she stirred him at the moment. He was not sure why. There was no one around anywhere here. No one would tease him or stare at them.

Jo leaned on her elbow and cradled her chin in her hand. "What goes on in that mind of yours?" she asked.

Mac glanced at her and kept on emptying the backpack. He took the crabs and muscles out. "You're not going to tell me, are you?" Jo asked.

"Tell you what?" Mac asked.

"What you think…what you feel…how you feel about me."

Mac looked at her. "I've already told you that I love you."

"Do you really? Or do you just say it because I've said I love you?"

Mac scowled. "You think I'm just saying that?"

Jo thought about what she said. "No," she said.

"I don't just say I love you for nothing."

"I know that. I guess I just wonder why you don't want to be close to me."

Mac sighed. "I do want to be close to you. I just…"

Jo moved over to the fire and put some more sticks of wood on it. "I guess you'll let me know when you're ready," she said.

Mac sat down against the wall. "I told you what happened before with Melinda," he said. "Is that the way you want our first time to be?"

"It wouldn't be like that. You didn't love her."

"I know but…"

"There are no buts, Mac. You didn't love her and you do love me. That's a big difference."

"It's wasn't you, Jo." Mac looked at her. "What if it was you? What if some man kidnapped you and did that to you?"

Jo had never thought of it like that. People called men sexist but she thought it probably worked both ways. Women had stereotyped men too. She had not even thought of how that situation must have made Mac feel inside. Even though he had sex with Melinda willingly, it was still against his will because he was under the influence of a hypnotic suggestion. "I'm sorry, Mac. I haven't even considered your feelings."

"It doesn't matter. I haven't exactly expressed them either."

Mac put the muscles and crabs over beside the fire. Then he picked up one of the coconuts. "Well, I think it's about time we had some coconut milk," he said. "It is good for us and tastes good too."

"I have never in my life peeled a coconut like that," Jo said.

"Neither have I but I have seen it done."

Jo moved over beside Mac. "I want to see this," she said.

Mac smiled at her. He got the knife and turned the coconut around. "This is a young coconut so it is not fibrous in there yet," he said. "Some of those are older and we can use those for cups to drink water out of when we get the coconut out."

Mac pointed at the end of the coconut. "You have to start here at the flower because that is the softest part," he said.

Jo watched as Mac stuck the knife blade up under the coconut flower and cut around the top. He pulled that part off and then stuck the knife in and milk spewed into Jo's face. Jo's mouth dropped open and she looked at Mac. "Oops," Mac said.

Jo wiped the milk off her face. "That better not have been on purpose," she said.

"I promise, it wasn't."

Mac cut a hole in the top and gave it to Jo. "You can drink from that," he said.

Jo drank some of the coconut milk. "Yuck," she said. "But I'll drink it anyway."

Mac smiled and fixed himself one and drank the milk. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" he asked. He picked up one of the brown coconuts. "This one is the one that will be the monster. This one is ripe."

Mac got the knife and stuck it into the ripe coconut. He split it down the side and the pulled the knife out. He looked at Jo. "I hope I can do this," he said.

"Go ahead. I want to see it."

Mac got his fingers into the seam that he had cut and pulled. The thing was tough to say the least. He looked at Jo. "You wanta try?" he asked.

"No, you're doing fine," Jo said. "I know I can't do that."

Mac got up on his knees and put more strength into the task and finally ripped a piece of the outer covering off the coconut. He looked at Jo. "Well, there's one piece," he said and started to pull on the next piece.

When Mac finally ripped the outer shell off the coconut and had the brown ball with three eyes. "You know, I'll just bet this is where they got the idea for a bowling ball," he said.

"You like to bowl?" Jo asked.

"Yes. I go bowling occasionally."

"Me too. It's a lot of fun."

"It is." Mac held the coconut on the floor of the cave and took a rock in his hand. "Well, here goes nothing," he said.

Jo watched as Mac hit the coconut on one side and then on the other. It then split all the way around. She looked at him with amazement. "How did you do that?" she asked.

"I watched somebody do it once," Mac said.

"You just remember everything, don't you? Do you ever forget anything?"

"Of course. There are a lot of things I 'wish' I could forget."

Jo moved closer to him. "Like what?" she asked.

"Things about the war but then again, I would never want to forget."

"There are things I would like to forget." Jo sat down beside Mac.

Mac looked at her. "Well, this had changed into a somber conversation," he said. "I liked it before when we were ribbing each other."

Jo narrowed her eyes at him. "What did you see today?" she asked.

"What did you see?"

"I didn't see anything. You had your shirt over you."

Mac smiled as he was shucking another coconut. "Well, I…" He looked at Jo. "I told you I saw a beautiful woman."

"That is not enough, you scoundrel. Did you see everything?"

Mac looked up at the ceiling and then at Jo. "Well, why didn't you tell me that you were going to take a bath?"

"You 'did' see! Now, you're going to have to strip so we'll be even."

Mac's mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding? You should inform somebody when you're going to be naked."

"Well, what did you think was happening?"

"How did I know a shark wasn't trying to pull you out to sea?"

Jo had to admit he was right. "Okay, I admit that but you didn't tell me that you saw me."

"Okay." Mac looked at her seriously. "I saw you naked and I wanted to come out there with you and…"

"Okay, that's enough. I don't want to know anymore."

Mac laughed. "You're funny."

"You are too. You're just hilarious."

"Oh yeah?" Mac stood up and went over to the fire. "What does this sound like?" He took his shirt off. "Look what I have created! I have created fire!"

Jo laughed. "I loved that movie," she said. She stared at Mac. "I can't believe we're in this situation."

"At least we're not alone and talking to inanimate objects."

Jo leaned back on the wall. "What would you talk to in this cave if you didn't have me?" she asked.

Mac sat back down and started to work on the coconut again. He looked around the cave. "I don't know. Maybe I would talk to one of these coconuts. They kinda look like they have a face."

Mac set one of the coconuts up on a rock with the largest eye on the bottom. He and Jo stared at it a moment and then looked at each other. "It could work," the both said.

"Wilson!" Mac yelled and they both laughed.

"Aw, you would have to call it Coco," Jo remarked.

"Oh yeah, or I might just call it nutty."

"Oh, I've got it…it would be your nutty buddy."

Mac laughed at that. He looked at the coconut. "You're in trouble, nutty buddy," he said trying to mock Jo's Southern accent. "I'm gonna split you in half and use you for a cup."

"You wouldn't do that if you were here alone."

"I'm not though." Mac pulled the last husk off the coconut he was working on. Then he hit it with the rock and made another cup. He looked at the coconut inside the shell. "We will have to eat that first."

"I've always loved coconut. You know when I was little, my sisters didn't like the coconut popsicles and they would always give them to me. I was a baby and Mama said they couldn't get anymore until all those were gone so they would make me eat them while they ate the grape and orange and cherry."

Mac smiled. "I was the oldest so nobody ran over me," he said.

"Were you mean to your little brother?"

"No."

Jo stared at him a moment. "Are you serious?"

Mac smiled. "Okay, I guess I was a little. We drove Mother crazy running through the house chasing each other with toy guns and then we would fight and tear up the beds."

"Oh my word. Boys."

"Haha. My sister was always trying to cook. Don't blame it all on me."

Mac cut some coconut from the coconut shell and tasted it. "Pretty good," he said.

Jo ate a piece. "I would have never dreamed that I would be out here eating coconut like this."

"Me neither."

"Mac, how long do you think we'll be here?" Jo asked seriously.

Mac looked out the entrance of the cave. "I don't know, Jo," he replied. "I don't know."

When they were done eating the coconut and the seafood, Mac got one of the mangos and cut it open. "I don't think you can eat this peeling," he said.

"Peel it," Jo said.

Mac looked at the fruit. "I have never been good at peeling fruit," he said. "Except oranges."

"Oh, give it here." Jo took the mango and the knife and peeled it and took the seeds out. "Since I peeled this, I get the first bite." She bit into the juicy, sweet fruit. "Oh, my goodness. That is the best tasting mango I have ever eaten."

Mac tasted it. "Mmmm, sure is and I don't even like mangos."

"I've always liked them."

Mac ate his last bite. "I think I've had all I want," he said. He looked at the knife. "I need to go and wash this. You okay to stay here while I go do it?"

"I'll just go with you."

They climbed down from the cave and went toward the stream. "You forgot your shirt," Jo said.

"So did you." Mac looked up at the sky. "It's hot out here."

"We had humidity about like this down in Alabama and Mississippi. I guess I'm used to it."

They finally came to the stream and Mac washed the knife and dried it on his tank top. "I guess I'll have to start using this for a towel," he said.

"I wish there was a big waterfall to take a shower in," Jo said.

"We haven't seen the whole island yet," Mac said. "You never know what's over that way or that way. We're kinda right in the middle. There could be anything out there."

"When are we going to see?"

"I guess we could go tomorrow." Mac looked at Jo with a grin. "I don't have anything else to do."

Jo smiled. "Neither do I."

Jo walked over to Mac and put her arms around his neck. "Kiss me," she said.

Mac put the knife in the sheath and put his arms around Jo. He kissed her gently and then they looked at each other and then they shared a long kiss. Jo untied her bikini strap from around her neck and let it fall. Mac thought his heart skipped a beat. Jo took his hand and put it on her. "Don't be afraid to touch me, Mac," she said.

"I'm not afraid," Mac said. "I'm…" He looked into Jo's eyes and he could see her sincerity. He put his arms around her and kissed her passionately as he pulled her close to him in a tight embrace.

Mac suddenly stopped the kiss. "Jo, we can't do this here," he said.

"Why not?" Jo asked as she was kissing his neck.

"You haven't forgotten those spiders, have you?"

Jo almost jumped as she looked down. She looked at Mac and wondered if he was just making another excuse. "You have a point," she said. She looked up at the sky. "It's not dark yet. Why don't we go and make love on the beach?"

Mac knew he wanted to…and she wanted to. He took her hand in his and they headed for the beach…