Chapter 12 #2
“Let me see if I can figure it out.”
He scrunches up his face, and I know he’s in deep thought. He runs his fingers along the top of the card, like he’s feeling for some extra clue. I can’t help but notice how neat and manicured his fingernails are.
“Let me read the clue.”
A treasure awaits on an island.
The island is big; the island is small.
A treasure awaits somewhere rocky.
Don’t trip, or you’ll fall.
Gold, silver, bounty aplenty.
Do your very best to come and find me.
“I have absolutely no clue what that is meant to tell me,” I admit with a hearty laugh. I’m not embarrassed to admit that none of those words are resonating with me in any way.
“No clue whatsoever?” He heads to the dark gray linen couch and takes a seat, adjusting the fluffy cream throw pillows behind him. He stretches his legs out and leans back. “Wanna have a seat?”
I head over to the couch and take a seat next to him, careful not to sit too close.
I don’t need his legs pressed up against mine.
I don’t need my body reaching one hundred twenty degrees because it gets too excited.
I also don’t need to find myself in the middle of a therapy session, questioning why I’m all of a sudden thinking of my best friend naked.
“I’m kind of wondering if this is like some hidden bounty somewhere or something.” He taps his fingers against his thigh. “Or something that relates to riches.”
“What? Like missing gold?” My voice sounds far too excited. “Like hundreds of millions of gold bullion bars that were hidden by pirates and now it’s our opportunity to find the missing treasure?”
“Mia, you watch too many movies.” There’s warmth in his gaze as he shakes his head. “You’re not Mikey, and I’m not Chunk.”
“I’m not talking about The Goonies, though that would be cool. Man, we watched that movie so many times in sixth grade.”
“Only, like, two hundred times.” He shifts on the couch and faces me. “What do the Goonies never say?”
“Die.” We both whisper at the same time, sharing a smile that takes us back to our childhood.
He holds his finger up, and I press my finger against his, like we did when we were younger.
Suddenly, I’m eleven years old again, sitting with Luke on his grandparents’ couch, eating popcorn, watching a movie, while our grandmas sit at the dining room table, playing cards and gossiping with the other busy Bees.
A memory of him pausing the movie, turning to me, and asking me if I would ever want to go on an adventure with him hits me.
I can clearly remember my answer. “Anytime of day.”
And I can remember his responding happy grin.
Warmth hits me as we finally move our fingers back.
“I wasn’t talking about The Goonies,” I say finally. “I was talking about that show on Netflix about those kids who were looking for gold.”
“You’re going to have to give me more than that.”
“Outer Banks. You didn’t watch it?”
“Outer what?”
The expression on his face tells me he’s never heard of the show, and I vow then and there that I will make him watch it with me.
A twinge of despondency hits me when I realize it will likely have to be over the phone.
We don’t have enough time with all the festivities to watch the show in its entirety. Not if we want to sleep.
“Outer Banks. It’s set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and it’s about these kids—”
“You’ll have to tell me another time.” He frowns as he looks at his watch and jumps up.
“We should get going. Sorry, I have a call in an hour. Let’s go to your place first. I’ll have a look, and then I’ll head to Salty Sirens.
They still have that spot in the back to work in quiet, right? I can’t miss this call.”
He pulls his phone out and starts typing something rapidly. I’ve lost his attention.
“You have a call in an hour, Luke? Really? This is your first day here.”
I’m annoyed. We haven’t even finished discussing the treasure hunt clue.
“Technically, it’s my second.” He looks up from his phone. “You’re headed to work today as well, right? We’ll both get shit done.”
“I know, but I’m not on vacation. I live in Coconut Beach.”
“And I used to live on the island too.”
“But you’re on holiday, Luke. You haven’t been back home in ages. We haven’t spent real time together in years. I thought you’d want to see what I do at the bookmobile, catch up with Juni in a meaningful way, check out our old spots again.”
“I wish I could, but I still have a job.” His voice sounds pained. “I’m working on a really big deal, Mi-Mi. This is the deal of my life. I close this, and I am officially a big deal. I close this, and I can show everyone that I—”
“I know,” I sigh as I cut him off.
I don’t want to continuously go on about him having to work, but I really wanted to spend some quality time with him.
I wanted him to say that he’d left his job back in the city and was once again on island time.
I just wanted us to hang out by the beach.
I wanted him to sell books with me. I wanted him to take me up on the offer of finding him a romance book.
I wanted us to read steamy romance scenes together and laugh at some of the crazy sex positions that authors wrote about.
I just wanted to spend time with him in person, doing nothing and everything.
And more than that, I wanted him to want that as well.
But I overestimated his ability to walk away from his job for even a day.
“So, this looks like an old map of Coconut Beach,” he says, his eyes narrowed as he holds up the card. “Notice that the mark appears to be the waterfalls at Hidden Cove.”
He points to the right of the card, and I nod. He’s good at changing the subject when he doesn’t want to argue or is just ready to move on from a topic. It irritates the heck out of me, but I don’t want to argue with him. Plus, I’m not sure if I’m being unreasonable or not.
“Where the big X is?”
“Yes, and you notice there’s a number one, two, three, and four on the map?”
I grab the card from him again and survey it. “I didn’t before, but now I do. What do you think it means?”
“I think it means that we go in order. We have to find whatever’s at number one first, and I think it will give us a clue how to get to number two.”
“But how do we find where number one is?”
“That I don’t know.” He shakes his head. “I’m curious who sent this to you though.”
“Do you think I should even bother trying to figure it out or just forget it, seeing as we’re already super busy?”
“No, we have to do it. We’ve always loved a challenge. It’s fun, right? Plus, we have two weeks. We’ll find the treasure.”
“Yeah, that would be cool.” I don’t remind him that he was always the one that loved a challenge and I was the one who just went along with them because our adventures were always fun.
Being with Luke was always exciting and we always had each other laughing.
Our temperaments just seemed to fit each other.
“I mean, if you can take time away from your job.”
“I’m sure I’ll find some time. Can I hold on to this?” he says. “I feel like there has to be a clue in the actual message at the back. It’s not just a fun poem. I want to study it a bit more.”
“Sure, maybe we can also talk about it tonight at Cocktails & Chaos with the girls. Maybe one of them will have some ideas.”
“Sounds good to me. Shall we get going? We just need to pick up my rental car. I can get the keys down in the lobby.”
“Ooh. What did you get? A Mercedes, Lambo, Rolls-Royce?”
“No, Mia, a Jeep.”
“Oh.”
“Disappointed?” His eyes crinkle as he bends down to grab his leather satchel and places his laptop into it.
“Jeeps are fun.” Not as fun as Lamborghinis though.
“Yeah, they are. Especially if we go off-roading.”
“We’re not going off-roading, Luke.”
We head back out of the hotel room and toward the elevator, and I can’t help, but notice that he moves with such a confident gait. He’s really grown up. He is all man now. I swallow hard at the thought. He’s all man in all ways.
Not that I care. Or even really notice.
“Not even once? I promise I won’t feed you to any gators or snakes.”
“You’re not fooling me again, Luke.” I giggle as we step into the elevator and head down to the lobby.
It must have just been cleaned because it smells like Lysol, and I rub my nose.
“I still remember when we were in high school, and we used to spend our days together doing every harebrained idea you came up with. It’s really good, having you back here, but I’m the big boss now. You’re my sidekick now, hon.”
“I’m meant to be your sidekick?” He chuckles, like he knows that I know there’s no way that’s going to happen. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying that it’s nice, having you to do things with.”
“You mean, like you’re the boss, and I’m just your manservant to do what you want with?”
“That’s not what I’m saying, Luke.” I giggle. “But, yes, I’m the boss.”
“I see. So, is this some sort of subservient relationship? Am I your sub, Mia?”
“My sub?” Cue my racing heart. These conversations are different from when we were younger.
But then we never explored in this way before.
Even if it was for a performance. “You mean, my submissive?” I burst out laughing at the quizzical look on his face.
Luke always knows how to make me laugh. “In what world would anyone think that you were my submissive?”
“Maybe in the world where everyone knows that you’re a bossy boots who wants to have her wicked way with me while also—”
He stops as the elevator beeps again, and Rex and Andi enter, looking like they were just arguing.
“Why, hello, Mia.” Rex immediately steps next to me, then glances over at his brother in disdain. “Hi, Luke.” Then he looks me up and down like he’s trying to undress me with his eyes. “Where are you guys off to?”
Andi stands to the front, looking uncomfortable.