Crocodile Dan D Read online

  Wow, he just looks so sexy.

  And an even bigger wow that he’s mine. Mine all mine.

  But the trip south to Sydney is going to be a quick one. My flight out is in four days.

  And what concerns me most is what happens when it’s time to go to the airport and if I can even change my ticket without having to buy a new one.

  They’re super expensive, especially last minute, and I’m not about to ask Dan for money.

  Not only that who’s to say he actually wants me to stay around.

  I mean I sure feel like he does, but I haven’t officially asked him yet.

  Part of me wants to go out there right now and get it over with. And another part of me doesn’t want to potentially put a damper on the final days of our journey. Hopefully our first of many.

  It’s ironic that before he agreed to take me on that he said I didn’t want to just be someone who was part of a fun time for a foreigner’s trip to Australia. That he would be involved deeply and fully committed and didn’t want me to just leave with nothing more than a memory when the time came.

  Oh how the tables have turned.

  Now it’s me that’s fully committed thinking ahead to how and if this might end.

  I can relate much better now to what he said back then.

  He was right. It’s a tricky situation and not one to be taken lightly.

  He’s a man and an adult. I’ve watched it in the way he does things since we’ve been together. How he treats everyone with respect. How he’s considerate, punctual, and always seems to put me first.

  I need to learn from him and grow up more than I realized.

  But the hardest part is I want to mature into a proper woman with him by my side.

  He’s a strong man who can guide me when I need it and be that rock to lean on when times are tough.

  I want him. I need him.

  The only question now is that after all our time together does he feel the same way?

  CHAPTER 12

  Dan

  I take a left at the light and look for the road the guy’s supposed to meet me on.

  It’s not where it’s supposed to be.

  Ruby’s spending the afternoon with her friends from the working holiday program and I’m supposed to pick her up at the Sydney Opera House at four in the afternoon and from there we’ll go to the airport together.

  She’s expecting me to show up in the combie, but little does she know I’m meeting this guy who wants to buy it. And the price just so happens to be the exact amount it costs to fly to the States.

  I can’t wait to surprise her and see the look on her face when I tell her I’m going with her. Unless of course she doesn’t want me too, but I know that’s not the case.

  And even if it was I’d do whatever it takes to make a future with her.

  I wouldn’t be able to take no for an answer. I’m fully addicted to her, as I knew from the beginning that I would be.

  She’s my woman and I’m her man.

  She brings out the best in me and I bring out the best in her.

  And I know if we took our traveling circus to the States it would be just the same.

  She’s ready to start looking for work and will need an apartment and enough money to get started. I’ve been fortunate enough to have invented a few things in my time and am able to live well off the royalties from my creations.

  It’s a very atypical lifestyle but I’m a very atypical guy.

  And she’s more than an atypical young woman.

  She’s absolutely incredible in every way. Every…single…way.

  And I can’t wait to see even more of her incredibleness in the days and months and years together.

  Yeah, I’m ready to show her just how committed I am.

  But first the guy who’s supposed to buy my combie is definitely showing a lack of commitment by sending me on a wild goose chase.

  I don’t have time for this at all.

  And ironically I should have brought my phone with me. All those tirades against how bad cell phones are to living a happy life and here I am without mine when I need it most.

  It’s at home packed away in my bag ready to be grabbed and out the door as soon as I finish up handing off the van.

  I pull over and ask an attendant at a shop for directions. He doesn’t know where the street is, but he’s heard the name of it before.

  I’m running out of time.

  A lot of tourists just dump their combies on the side of the road when they’re finished traveling through Aus. Not me. This thing is in my name so I’m sure I’d rack up some pretty hefty fines that would be waiting on me the day I stepped foot back in the country again.

  I’ve got to sell it and sell it quick.

  I make circles around the area this apparently invisible street is supposed to be in. Each time I go a little further out figuring I’ve got to be close.

  Suddenly I see a sign for it. I go for a quick turn and just as I do I see a bus run a red light coming right at me. A second later everything goes black.

  CHAPTER 13

  Ruby

  “Dammit! Why does this always happen to me. I thought he was different.”

  Some passersby look at me like I’m a crazy woman. And I am. At least when it comes to my luck with men, or should I say my lack thereof.

  I was sure we had something that was going to last. I just knew it, but it’s already four forty-five and he’s nowhere to be found.

  And my calls are going straight to voicemail.

  I never would have expected a guy as strong as he was both emotionally and physically wouldn’t have the guts to say goodbye to me.

  Yeah, I’m sure it hurts him, but it hurts me even more knowing I wasn’t even good enough for a final few word.

  And all this time I thought he was so mature. I thought how amazing it was that he was older and knew what he wanted and how to treat people.

  I just don’t get it. Maybe I just don’t understand guys.

  I was sure of him. Why would he go off and be like this now.

  I would almost wonder if something happened to him, but there’s just no way. It’s too much of a coincidence, plus this is the guy who jumps out of airplanes and fights crocodiles. He’s unbreakable.

  It’s a choice he made, or more appropriately didn’t make.

  Here I am in Sydney once again starting to cry because of boy troubles just like the last time I was here.

  But this time there’s no man to come in and rescue me.

  Are there even men anymore? The ones that seem to be aren’t even all they’re cracked up to be.

  The last thing I want is to be left to all these androgynous hipster guys my own age, but that seems to be my fate now.

  My mom was right. I wasn’t careful enough. I was rebound material and I got rebounded. And now I’m getting dunked.

  Slam-dunked into the wastebasket of life.

  I raise my hand and flag a cab.

  “Sydney airport, please.”

  “Heading home?” the driver asks.

  “Yeah,” I say. “Heading home.”

  “Did you have a nice time in Aus.”

  “I thought I did, but now I’m just trying to forget everything that happened here.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Ruby

  “Last call for Qantas Airways Flight 11 from Sydney to Los Angeles,” the attendant says.

  It’s a thirteen hour and fifty minute flight to L.A. followed by a long layover before I catch my flight home.

  It’s going to feel even longer now. I won’t be home for over a day and a half. A day in a half trapped in a tuna can in the sky with nowhere to go and nothing to think about but him.

  “Ma’am. I’m sorry but we really need you to board now.”

  “Sure,” I say. “Sorry.”

  I give my ticket to the attendant and do my best to flash something that resembles a smile.

  I walk down the corridor and am greeted with an airplane full of angry faces
realizing I was the one keeping this us from taxiing and taking off.

  I hunch my shoulders and try to avoid eye contact. I quickly slide on my sunglasses.

  “Ma’am, if you could just take a seat first so we can depart,” the male flight attendant says to me with a stern look.

  I go to my seat but someone’s already taken it.

  So much for looking out the window.

  Or apparently the aisle.

  I can’t have this right now.

  “Sir, I think you’re in my—”

  “Ma’am. Just take a seat or we’ll be forced to call security.”

  “But he’s in my…”

  I step over the person in the aisle seat who has no intention of moving and squeeze into the middle seat. How ironic that I compared this to a flying tuna can. I was wrong. I should have compared it to a can of sardines.

  “All clear for departure,” comes over the intercom.

  The plane backs away and we head out toward the taxiing area.

  I watch as the planes next to ours speed down the runway, each time allowing our plane to move up one spot in line.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” I say under my breath.

  Finally the plane in front of us takes off and we make that final one hundred eighty degree turn putting us next in line.

  “Qantas Flight 11 you are now cleared for takeoff.”

  Takeoff. How appropriate.

  I really thought my life was going to take off when I finished college and came here to earn some money and have fun before entering the workforce.

  Now I’m just half a year behind everyone else and broke as a joke.

  My life taking off?

  Hardly.

  And the worst part is my heart did take off like a rocket ship to the heavens but this afternoon it came to a very abrupt and unexpected crash landing.

  I’m alone, broke, shattered and heading home.

  I’m a complete failure and should be ashamed of myself.

  Time to see if America really is the land of second chances.

  I’m sure going to need one.

  CHAPTER 15

  Dan

  “He’s getting up!” a woman says as she points.

  “Back up, everybody,” a man says. “He looks dangerous.”

  “He’s probably got a bomb in there!”

  I stand trying to get my balance and putting the puzzle pieces together.

  I look over and see my combie with a huge dent in the passenger’s side door.

  I look down and see the pile of trash bags beneath me.

  I see a public bus full of tourists taking my picture.

  I do the mental math and in combination with the fuzzy memories I realize I was hit by the bus but somehow ejected through the driver’s side window and landed right in a big pile of trash outside the back of a sewing factory. Thank god for cotton.

  I stand and get back inside the van.

  “Sir, you’re leaving the scene of a crime.”

  “The bus ran the light,” a lady says.

  “I’m fine. When the cops arrive tell them I’m not pressing charges against the city.”

  “What? You could be a rich man.”

  “There’s only one kind of rich, buddy. And that’s love.”

  I floor the van and make a beeline for the airport.

  Fifteen minutes later I arrive, but I don’t park.

  I follow the perimeter road along looking for a weak spot in the fence.

  There it is!

  I cut the wheel hard to the side and put the pedal to the metal slamming through the fence and cutting through the grass right to the runway.

  I don’t know which plane she’s on, but I know it takes off soon.

  That means only one thing.

  I’m going to stop them all.

  I’m being tossed up and down and left and right inside the van as I rumble over the bumpy dirt towards the track.

  I see a plane preparing to take off and notice the markings.

  Qantas.

  They’re our big carrier so they’ve surely got a lot of flights coming and going all day.

  And I know she’s on one of them about now.

  I’m at top speed heading right for the plane.

  It’s standing still and then suddenly it starts to move.

  I cut the wheel bringing me parallel to the plane as I hop the dirt onto the tarmac.

  I honk my horn profusely, but the plane keeps moving.

  I move in closer to the plane and suddenly it starts to decrease speed.

  She’s gonna stop!

  The pilot drops the speed and a few seconds later the plane comes to a standstill.

  I hear police sirens in the distance and a huge SWAT team truck not far behind them.

  I exit my combie and put my hands in the air moving closer toward the plane.

  The door to the plane opens.

  I take a step back so I can see who’s up there.

  “Have you gone made, mate?” the captain yells.

  “Madly in love, sir. Is there a young woman named Ruby on your plane? Ruby as in the blood-red covered gemstone?

  The pilot shoots me an annoyed look before picking up the intercom.

  “Is there a Ruby on this flight?”

  Seconds later I hear the sweetest sound of her voice.

  “Dan!”

  She appears in the doorway looking as beautiful as ever. She’s so much higher than me, up on her pedestal where she belongs forever.

  I turn to my side and see the law enforcement teams are closing in.

  “Ruby. I’m sorry I’m late.”

  “I thought you were leaving to sell the combie.”

  “I was, but I ran out of time.”

  “Ran out of time?”

  “Yes, because before I went to sell the combie I had to pick out the perfect one of these,” I say dropping to a knee.

  “Beautiful, a few weeks ago the world watched as they saw me save you from that misplaced creature. But over the last few weeks I’ve realized the real misplaced creature is me. You’ve shown me the way again. Made me feel alive again. Brought a smile to my face and a feeling inside I can’t describe. Without you life is pointless. I’ve spent my entire life in the most beautiful place in the world but even with all the beauty we have it pales in comparison to you.”

  She brings her hands up to her face and I can see she’s crying.

  “Will you join me forever here in paradise, as we carve out our own little world of travel and adventure in this vast wide open land? Will you do me the honor of being my wife now and forever? Will you marry me?”

  “Yes!” she says. “Yes!”

  “Flight attendants, prepare the evacuation slide,” the captain says over the intercom.

  “Down on your knees!” the squad team leader yells as he points his gun right at me.

  I look down wondering how in the world the guy is missing the completely obvious. I am on my knees already.

  Suddenly the evacuation door pops open and the inflatable slide fills with air.

  Ruby slides down the big yellow slide looking like a kid in a playground with all her youthful joy and excitement for life.

  Once her feet hit the ground she runs toward me.

  “It’s the crocodile guy!” one man yells.

  A crowd has gathered at the plane’s open doors as they share the moment with us.

  I come up out of my crouch and to my surprise the SWAT team leader lowers his pistol.

  I swoop Ruby up in my arms and spin us around kissing her for the first time as my fiancée.

  I’ve got her in my arms and this time I’m never letting her go.

  “I love you,” I say.

  “I love you.”