“So do I,” she murmured, resting her chin on my collarbone gently. I rested mine on the top of her head in turn.
We stayed like that for a while, just enjoying the silence but for the sounds of the waves and the crew working behind us and each other’s presence. It was the first moment of calm I had felt all day, I realized, and I couldn’t believe that it was just that morning that we had first walked into the nautical museum, trying to figure out what was going on with that strange old manager who kept dodging our calls.
It was safe to say that this had been one of the longest days of my life, and that was saying something, given my career path.
“So, what were you up to while I was at the Carltons?” Tessa asked me after some time, pulling herself away from me again with a small groan as if that was the last thing that she wanted to do. I felt similarly, but there was still work to be done, sifting through this house, before I would be comfortable heading back to the bed-and-breakfast for a good long sleep.
“Come on, let’s sit down,” I said, gesturing for her to sit beside me on the rickety top step etched into the side of the cliff.
I plopped down there, and Tessa nestled in beside me soon after, and we looked out at the water. Man, was it a sight to behold. There was mist hovering above the water, but from this angle, we could really see the whole of the sea as the bay stretched out into the ocean. There wasn’t a single person or ship in sight, and I thought that this might rank in my top three views of all time. They were all of the water, of course. What else?
“Wow,” Tessa breathed as she followed my gaze. “How did I not notice this before? I bet it would be even better in the daytime.”
She was right, though I liked the look of the clear night sky above the ocean waves, the stars all shining down on us without a lot of light pollution this far out of the way from the rest of civilization.
“I think we were a little preoccupied when we got here,” I pointed out with a low chuckle.
“Well, you’re right about that,” she admitted. “God, I’m glad we found that kid in one piece, Ethan.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said honestly. “That would’ve been a real disaster. But you were great with him, and you really held your own against that last guy.”
“Told you I could take care of myself,” she teased, elbowing me playfully in the ribs. “You should take me on all of your missions.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, though I thought that I might like that very much. Her uncle might have something to say about it, though, and I wouldn’t want to put her in harm’s way that often, or at all for that matter.
“So what were you going to tell me about before?” she asked after a few more moments had passed of us just enjoying the view and each other.
“Oh, right,” I said, clearing my throat and then launching into a recount of everything that I had learned from Joey about the Hollands, the museum, and the Dragon’s Rogue.
“Wow,” she breathed when I was finished, echoing what she had said about the view. “Well, that really is something, isn’t it?”
“Which part?” I asked with a laugh, thinking that it was all pretty damn crazy.
“Well, all of it,” she said. “But what really gets me is how big this organization these people have built is, and how strange it is that they’re looking for the same thing you are.”
“Yes, that is something,” I agreed, furrowing my brow as all the bad stuff came back to me. I’d almost forgotten about it, seeing Tessa and being there with her at that moment.
“Do you think your boss and the FBI will be able to track them down?” she asked. “I’d hate for this whole thing to drag out any longer for you guys.”
“Oh, I have a feeling it will, though I wish it wouldn’t, too,” I said with a low, humorless laugh. “I have a feeling that we’re going to be dealing with the Hollands and their ilk for a long while yet.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Tessa said, pursing her lips. “It would be too much to ask to take down a whole criminal syndicate on one vacation, I guess.”
I laughed for real at this, deep in my belly, and so hard that it shook. Part of it was the fatigue, I think, but it was also that the absurdity of the whole situation was really hitting me then. Something about the way Tessa had referred to this whole thing as a vacation, in that droll tone of hers, had really done me in.
Tessa laughed, too, nervously at first, as if she wasn’t sure why I was laughing so hard. But then she just went with it, and we were both there laughing so loud that the forensics team looked back over at us with a combination of confusion and interest.
“So, what do you think?” I asked when I’d recovered, glancing over at her as she finished off her own laughing fit.
“About what?” she asked, wiping the shadow of a tear out of her eyes, and I couldn’t help but notice just how pretty she was when she laughed. I mean, she was pretty all the time, of course, but she was even prettier then, somehow. Maybe it was the ocean accentuating her sea-green eyes.
“About all of this,” I remarked, waving a hand lazily in the air to indicate that I was talking about the whole package of this crazy week, and perhaps even our crazy relationship as a whole. “Have I scared you away yet?”
“Oh, I
