As one, the group turned to stare at the lawyer. Doc was the one to demand, “What?Why?”
Cami grimaced. “Because I’m not sure if the reef counts as land or sea. And until I can find out the answer to that, it’s best if you don’t touchanything.”
“Are you telling us two inches of exposed rock and coral might be all that’s standing between us being able to claim the treasures we’ve been after for months andnotbeing able to claim them?” Doc demanded.
“I know it’s shitty.” There was frustration in Cami’s voice. “Iknowit is. But I didn’t write the laws. I just interpret them and argue them for my clients. I’m asking you all to give me time. Even if the reefisconsidered land, in which case the federal government will claim the rights to what’s beneath it, maybe there’s a loophole. But, like I said, I need time to do some digging.”
LT chuckled and lifted his gaze heavenward. “I swear, fate really does laugh at our endeavors.”
“Don’t lose faith yet,” Olivia encouraged, wrapping an arm around his waist.
“Your profession sucks ass.” Doc scowled at Cami.
“So you remind me every chance you get,” Cami countered. “But has anyone ever stopped and told you that a good place to shove your opinions is straight up your own ass? Or, even better, how about you give that wholeif you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at allthing a shot? I bet your life would be rosier and it’d probably wipe the dour expression off your face.”
“Oh!” Doc feigned astonishment. “I didn’t realize you were an expert on my life. Please continue while I take notes. What?” He pointed at Cami’s face. “What’s that look for? Why are you smiling?”
“I’m plotting your death.”
Everyone glanced back and forth between Doc and Cami like they were watching a tennis match. Everyone except Romeo.
He only had eyes for Mia.
And he didn’t take them off her face when he called, “Hey, LT? I take it we have the rest of the day off?”
“Sounds like,” he heard LT mutter unhappily.
Mia stopped watching the Doc and Cami show and lifted her lioness eyes to meet his gaze. She proved herself to be thetruemind reader then, because the words hinged onhistongue came out ofherpretty mouth.
“We need to talk.”
Chapter 29
12:44 PM...
Is the sun brighter? The sky bluer? The wind sweeter?
Mia sat on the end of the long pier that stretched into the blue lagoon on Wayfarer Island and thought for sure the answer to all the above was...yes.That, or she’d lived under a psychological storm cloud for so long she’d forgotten what it was to truly appreciate the glory of a perfect day.
To make things even better? Spiro “Romeo” Delgado sat beside her, his hand fitting around hers like a glove. And all the reasons she’d had for holding herself back from him were gone.
Flushed down the toilet.
Thrown out the window.
Turned to dust by what she’d learned in that interrogation room in Miami.
She needed to tell him about it. Tell himallabout it. Trouble was, there was so much of it—a lifetime’s worth—that she was having trouble figuring out where to start.
She decided to begin with something easy. “How are you feeling?” She studied his profile as he watched a pod of dolphins plowing through the surf near the reef. Helookedgood.Betterthan good in green board shorts and a white T-shirt that emphasized his tan and assured her his hospital pallor was long gone. “How’s the pain?”
He narrowed his eyes as he scanned her face. “Good. Except for when I take a deep breath. Then it feels like someone jabbed me with a hot poker. Which sucks because part of my PT is to take deep breaths.” He scratched his goatee and chuckled. “But as Doc likes to point out way too often, and with way too much sadistic glee,no pain, no gain.”
Thiswas what had drawn her to him from the beginning. This easiness. This comfort. This sense of safety.
He’d never pushed her or made demands of her. He was always perfectly patient, waiting for her to be the one to poke her head out of her hard, protective shell.
And because she felt comfortable and safe around him, she didn’t think it’d hurt anything if she teased him. Just a little. Just to take the edge off her nervousness. “Deep breaths hurt, huh? I guess that means blow jobs are out of the question for a while.”
