Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
M icah
If an earthquake happened at that moment—or more logically a tsunami, since they were by the ocean—Micah wouldn’t have been more surprised. “What? He asked you to marry him?”
Cheyenne didn’t meet his eyes. “Yes.”
Every part of Micah felt like it was vibrating with this new information. “And you’ve been to dinner with him twice?”
Cheyenne said nothing. She moved over to the rail, looking out at the ocean.
Micah followed her, feeling something akin to betrayal, though he had no reason to. “I guess it’s none of my business,” he said, trying to shake the feeling. “I mean, it seems you are betrothed. That would have been nice information to know.”
She finally turned to him, her gaze steady. “I’m not … betrothed. And what kind of word is that?”
Micah moved closer to her. “Two dates with an old boyfriend is on your way to being betrothed.”
“Oh my gosh, would you stop?”
He put his hands in the air, feeling defeated. “Never mind.” He turned away from her. “Not my business.”
But if he had to tell the truth, he felt pretty annoyed by this whole situation.
For a long time, she didn’t say anything. Then she sighed. “What would you say if I wanted it to be your business?”
Micah turned back to face her.
“But it doesn’t even matter. Twenty times over, you’ve told me your future life plan doesn’t include dating, because you’re becoming a SEAL.”
“True.” He couldn’t help but smile, feeling his cheeks grow warm. He peered into her aqua-green eyes, the ocean reflected in them. He felt like a man about to fight, but he had his hands tied behind his back.
Cheyenne leaned in and gently put her hand on his shoulder. Dang, her touch did all kinds of things to him. Her smile turned wistful. “So, I guess we are just friends, looking for gold together.”
Micah wanted to argue that they could be more, but she was right. “Okay, friends looking for gold. I like it.”
She pulled her hand back and stared into the water. “When Samantha told me she couldn’t come, I decided to use my time digging into my theories about this gold. The ones I’ve shared with you.” She turned to him again. “I wasn’t expecting Eli to show up, but it doesn’t matter that he’s here. I don’t want a relationship with him.”
Taking a chance, Micah reached over and placed his hand on top of hers. “I’m glad. Because like you said, we are friends looking for gold. And we’d better get it done before your family or my family finds out about it.”
“Agreed.”
Micah wanted to lean in all the way and kiss her, to feel the softness of her lips against his, but he stopped himself.
“What?” she asked, her lips so close to his.
He pulled back slightly, giving both of them some distance. “Why didn’t you want to marry Eli?”
A long pause. “We wanted different things. It would never have worked with us.”
Micah wanted to dig deeper into that statement, to understand every nuance. “What different things did you want?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yeah.”
She seemed to mull it over. “Okay, but first you need to tell me about any recent relationships you’ve had.”
He didn’t like the turn of the conversation but dove in anyway. “Fine. Her name was Lila. She broke up with me three months ago because she didn’t want a military lifestyle.”
Cheyenne frowned. “That … stinks.”
“It’s probably for the better. She wants to be an off-Broadway dancer. She’s good. But I don’t know if her life is the kind of life for me.”
“That’s interesting. I broke things off with Eli because he didn’t want children and I can’t see my life without them. I want to be a mother, and he just wants to have careers, travel, and run for office.”
Micah already didn’t like Eli, and this revelation only deepened that dislike. “I can understand why you broke up with him.”
Cheyenne’s expression turned thoughtful. “Do you want kids?”
“That’s a big question.”
She lifted her shoulder in a half shrug. “Well, I don’t want them right now, but I want them eventually. And I don’t want to waste time in a relationship if the other person doesn’t want them.”
Micah’s mind raced. “I don’t know if this is a good time to mention that I want to be a SEAL, and it’s a hard lifestyle.”
She gazed into his eyes. “I think that’s twenty-two times you’ve mentioned it.”
“It seems like I can’t say it enough, because I need to keep reminding myself.”
She looked embarrassed. “So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I do want kids. I want marriage. I want all of that, but probably later on in my life.”
The tension between them was palpable, and what he really wanted to do was pull this woman in and kiss her.
“That makes sense,” she said. “I mean, I don’t want a relationship or anything with anyone right now either. I want to focus on getting through law school first.”
“That makes sense.” He couldn’t help but grin. “Okay, so we’ve agreed we have stuff to do with our lives, but then both of us want marriage, children, family.”
“I guess we do agree on that.”
He pointed at her. “First things first: find the rest of the conquistador gold this week.”
She flashed a grin of her own. “Just that little thing. And return the amulet.”
“I told you we will.”
“Good, because remember that nightmare I told you about? What I didn’t tell you was that I was getting arrested, and I was holding the amulet.”
“Sheesh. That’s intense.”
“It was. I don’t want to be haunted by it any longer. It gives me a weird feeling.”
“Okay, we’ll return it soon.” Micah gestured to the dock as they were approaching. “We’re almost back to shore. If you don’t mind riding with me, we can stop by your place, grab the amulet, and then head back. I’ll buy you pizza, and we can check the things we need to check.”
“That sounds good to me.”
When they got back to shore, they gathered their belongings and headed toward her condo. As they pulled up, Micah noticed Eli sitting on her doorstep.
Cheyenne noticed too. “I made it pretty clear I didn’t want to see him again.”
“Maybe he’s decided he wants children.”
She let out a light laugh. “Maybe.” Then she sighed. “I really don’t know what he wants.”
“Cheyenne, the guy still likes you.”
“But I told him?—”
He squeezed her hand. “I don’t think he got the message.”