Chapter 18
chapter eighteen
Mia
“Do you really think that the next clue is going to be here?” I ask Luke as we carefully clamber around the rocks and look around. I just can’t imagine how another clue could be planted here and not be destroyed or taken out to the ocean with all the waves that keep coming up and then receding.
“I didn’t write the clue, so I don’t one hundred percent know if they’re here, but I just have a feeling that something is going to be around here. We just have to know what we’re looking for. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks like it shouldn’t be here.”
“But that’s the thing. We don’t know what we’re looking for.” I run my fingers through the sand and pick up shells and then head back toward the side of the water again. “Maybe there’s a message in a bottle or something.”
“That would be cool.”
“That would be really cool. One of my favorite books when I was younger was about this guy who put a love letter in a bottle, and he said that the woman who found it was likely to be his wife, and then—”
“Focus, Mia. Not time to talk about your romance books.”
“I know, it was just a really good book. That’s all.
I don’t know what I would do if I found a message in a bottle.
It would be so …” I continue to survey the area when I freeze.
“Help,” I scream. “It’s a shark. It’s a shark.
Run.” I point to something gray in the water and fall back as I try to get away.
Luke stills and then heads slowly toward the mini Jaws, and he just confirms what I already knew. The man is half crazy.
“Whatcha doing?” I bellow as I jump up from the water. I’m completely soaked again.
“Sharks wouldn’t be this close to the rocks,” he says, his eyes watching me as I stand there, wringing the water out of my hair. “Where do you see it?”
I point to the side, and he hurries over. I watch him kneel down and grab something and pull slowly. It looks like a shark head, and I think I might faint.
“Is that a baby shark?”
“No, it’s an inflatable shark. It was attached to a rock with some rope to weigh it down.”
“What, you think a tourist put it there?”
“I don’t,” he says, giving me a wicked grin. “If I am not mistaken, it looks like there’s a ziplock bag inside of this shark with a note in it. Come on. Let’s go up, and I’ll open it.”
“Did we just find the next clue?” My heart races.
“I think we did,” he says, his eyes glowing. “Let me open it. Let’s see what it says.”
We walk back up the beach, and he rips open the shark as we stand next to the bright yellow lifeguard hut.
“Rest in peace, Sharky,” I say as he tears it to pieces with the sharp end of a shell he picked up from the sand, and he just laughs.
He opens the Ziploc bag carefully, and there’s another white note card. My heart races. We’ve officially found the next clue.
“You listening, Mia?”
“No, I’m floating in the air.”
He gives me a look and continues, “Lawyers and judges spend their days here. / Convicts and jurors don’t want to be near. / You don’t have to go inside. It’s a hot day, I fear. / Cool your mouth down and enjoy the ice. / That much is clear.”
“Say what?” I stare at him for a couple of seconds, my mind scrambling to decipher a code that means absolutely nothing to me.
“Come on, Mia. I know you got this. You think you already know it. Listen to it again.”
“What are the first words again?” I ask him.
“Lawyers and judges spend their days here,” he says.
“Wait, the courthouse. Lawyers and judges spend their days at the courthouse, right? You think it’s at the courthouse?”
“No, I don’t.” I feel slightly deflated. “But listen again, Mia. Lawyers and judges spend their days here. / Convicts and jurors don’t want to be near. / You don’t have to go inside.” He pauses. “So, I think it says we don’t have to go inside the courthouse. We just have to be in the vicinity.”
“Okay, that makes sense. And what’s the rest of it?”
“It’s a hot day, I fear. / Cool your mouth down and enjoy the ice. / That much is clear.”
“Enjoy the ice. That is clear. Say what?” I stare at him and rub my forehead. This feels like some sort of puzzle or brain teaser, and then it suddenly clicks in my brain. “Enjoy the ice. That is clear,” I repeat again.
“What are you thinking?”
“The shaved ice cart that’s near the courthouse.”
“Bingo,” he says with a grin. “I’m almost positive it’s there.”
I immediately jump into his arms in excitement, and he laughs as he grabs ahold of me. I suddenly remember I’m in a skimpy bikini, and I’m wet. His hands are positioned under my ass, and I feel them sliding inward, into dangerous territory, and I freeze and push back slightly.
“Oh, sorry, I forgot I was wet.”
“And we’re not even in the bedroom.”
I lick my lips and adjust my thong, trying to not think about how easy it would be to slip it to the side.
“Shall we go now?” I need to change the subject, fast.
“I don’t know that we have time. We have dinner with Rex and Andi and the grandparents in an hour or so.”
“Oh, yeah,” I say. “This is going to be interesting.”
“It’s going to be very interesting and boring.” Luke groans.
“You still haven’t made up with Rex, have you?” I say as we walk back up to the bookmobile so I can grab my clothes.
“He’s a douche, and he’s rude, and he thinks he runs the world, so, no, I am kind of over him.”
“I’m sorry. It’s really unfair how your parents have treated you.”
“It’s fine. I don’t want to talk about it right now. Shall we head back to the hotel and get ready?” he says as we see the bookstore. “I need a shower and a little break before we head out again.”
“Okay, so is everyone enjoying the oysters?” Bitsy beams as we all sit at the large, oversize table, eating our hearts out.
“Yeah, I love oysters,” I say, licking my lips nervously.
I feel like I am being examined by everyone around me, and they’re just waiting for me to mess up and give away that Luke and I are not really in a relationship.
I look over at Luke for encouragement and smile.
“Do you remember the last time we were here at Tide and Table?”
“I do,” he says, “and I remember that you accidentally ordered a two-hundred-dollar steak, and you were panicking because you didn’t have two hundred dollars, but you didn’t want to tell me that, and so we spent thirty minutes just staring at the bill.”
“I thought it said twenty dollars. In my mind’s eye, I could never have imagined that a steak would cost two hundred dollars.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about tonight. I’m sure it’s on my parents.”
“I know, but I’m definitely not going to get the two-hundred-fifty-dollar steak.” I grin at him.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to do that and blow my parents’ bank account.”
“Exactly.” I start laughing.
I notice that Luke has been staring at me often throughout the evening, but I don’t know if it’s because Rex is here or if it’s because he just wants to look at me.
He reaches over and grabs my hand and squeezes.
“Mia, to love you is to—”
“What are you saying?” Rex booms from the other side of the table.
“I’m speaking to Mia, my girlfriend,” Luke stresses.
Rex just rolls his eyes. He turns to Andi and starts laughing.
“Do you think it’s weird that my brother keeps going on about his girlfriend? Like, Luke, is this the first girlfriend you’ve ever been able to get?”
Andi looks uncomfortable as she sits there. Bitsy gives Rex a stern look, as does my grandmother.
“That’s enough, Rex,” Bitsy reprimands him, and he looks taken aback.
“This is supposed to be my celebration. I dunno why we’re always focusing on Luke,” he mutters under his breath loudly.
I just stare at him with a blank expression on my face. What did I ever see in that blowhard?
I turn to Luke and ask him if he knows what he wants to eat, but I realize there’s a weird expression on his face.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I just saw the way you were looking at Rex,” he says in a low voice. “Do you still like him?” There’s suspicion in his tone.
I frown. What on earth is he talking about?
“I know you’re not seriously asking me that question.”
“Mia, you were just staring at Rex, and there was a sort of nostalgic look on your face.”
“No, there was not any nostalgic look on my face. I was—”
“If you say so,” he cuts me off and turns away grumpily.
“I am saying so, Luke, but let’s not have this conversation here because I don’t want to have to cuss you out in front of everyone.”
“You want to cuss me out?” His lips twitch.
“You don’t want me to cuss you out. How could you even ask me if I still like Rex? He’s a douchebag.”
“Yeah, but you—”
“Luke!”
“My bad.”
“Yeah, it is your bad.” I roll my eyes and look away from him and grab my glass of champagne and sip it slowly. Trying to ignore everyone around me.
A couple of seconds later, my phone beeps. I look down, and I see different shark memes from Luke in my text messages, and I try not to laugh.
I look over at him. “Really?”
“I just want you to smile again.”
“I am smiling. Stop sending me shark memes. We’re at dinner.”
“You are pretending you’re fine, but I can tell you’re clearly not. I take back what I asked about Rex.”
“Let’s hope so. I’m fed up with this line of questioning, Luke.”
“Well, what if I told you I have something really exciting for you to see?”
“What’s that?” I ask him, curiosity getting the better of me.
“Do you want to see photos of the new couch that I had delivered to my apartment in New York?”
When he brings up his place in New York, I suddenly feel deflated because it’s just a reminder of the fact that he will eventually be going back, and once again, there will be distance between us.
“Sure,” I say, forcing a smile even though I don’t really want to see right now.
He grabs his phone and places it in front of us so that we’re both looking at the screen. As he’s going through his photos, a text message comes through. I don’t want to be nosy, but I can’t help but read it. I see Talia’s name at the top.
Talia