This wasnothow I'd wanted to start off our long-awaited first date.
"I feel like anything I say right now is going to be wrong," Jack said, his voice full of suppressed laughter.
I pushed myself up, brushed my hair out of my face, and stood, clutching my passport in triumph.
"I found it!"
But Jack didn't seem to care what I'd found. His mouth fell open a little, and his eyes heated up until they almost glowed.
"Tess. Every time I think you can't possibly be as beautiful as I remember, you turn out to be even more so." His voice was low and husky, and I could feel my face heating up.
My ridiculous Irish skin blushed way too easily.
"Thanks. Right back at you." It was true.
The man was absolutely gorgeous.
He wore black pants, a white, button-down shirt, and even a sleek gray tie with a thin red pinstripe. But, Jack being Jack, the jacket he carried over one arm was leather, not a suit jacket.
"Jack. Quit kidding around. We're not really going to Atlantis, are we?" I felt silly even asking, standing there holding my expired, never-used passport in my hand, which I would not need, because we were not going to Atlantis.
Maybe he didn't even know any Atlanteans. Maybe the stories he'd told us had been made up.
But… no. Jack wasn't a liar. He might conceal things he felt were other people's tales to tell, but he wasn't a liar. But…
"Atlantis?" I prompted, because he seemed to be frozen, just staring at me in such obvious appreciation that I wanted to capture this moment to remember forever.
"Right. Sorry. You are very distracting." He took the passport out of my hand, dropped it back in the chest, and grinned. "You won't need this. Are you ready?"
"I have to be back tonight. I have to work in the morning," I warned him, still not sure what exactly was happening. "And I won't ride in a helicopter. Uncle Mike says they're death traps."
He laughed and caught Lou in midair when she launched herself at him, then put her back on the couch and scratched behind her ears. "No helicopters. And I'll have you back tonight. I just wanted our first date—that wefinallyget to go on after all these months—to be special. Also, I wanted it to be somewhere out of cell phone range. Dead End and all of its residents will have to get by on their own for the evening."
He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him. "This is going to be the best first date ever, I promise. After all, I have a lot to live up to, I hear."
I narrowed my eyes. "What does that mean?"
"Mike told me that Owen took you to the Orlando Museum of Dental History on your first date." His grin lit up the room. "That's a lot to compete with."
"I'm going to strangle you both."
"Later. Right now, we have to get moving," he said, glancing at his watch. "Our transport awaits."
But when we opened the door, I realized that he'd driven to my house on his motorcycle.
"I am not getting on that bike in this dress."
"Oh, Tess. Do you still doubt me?"
"Well, you did just disappear for weeks with very little word," I pointed out. "And there was the time you and your friends caused me to zip line upside down into an alligator pen, and—"
"Never mind," he said quickly. "Here we go."
I glanced up. Nope, no private Atlantean jet flying up. "Here we go what?"
He donned his jacket and took my hand. "Here we go this."
I blew out a sigh and glanced at my front yard again and saw… a shimmer.
