“Like I said, Andy was the storyteller. And I don’twantthe money.” When he frowned at the shadow that moved through her eyes again, she was quick to add, “I wantyouto have it. Will you take it?”
Five million dollars! Holy fuck!
She mistook his continued hesitation for rejection and pleaded, “Please, Spiro. Iwantyou to have it.”
“Mia...” A knot had formed in his throat. He had to swallow it down before he could continue. “Of course I’ll take it, if that’s what you want. I’ll doanythingyou want.” And he realized he’d never spoken truer words in his life. “On one condition.”
A little line formed between her eyebrows. “What’s that?”
“You let me name the program after him.”
For a long time, she said nothing. And he thought maybe she was somehow offended by his request. But then her chin trembled, her lips puckered, and she hiccupped on a sob.
“Oh, Spiro.” She dragged him into a hug. Her warm breath tickled his ear. “Why are you so wonderful?”
“Me?” He pressed up to find tears had left shiny streaks down her temples. He used his thumbs to brush away the wetness. “You’re the one who wants to give away your entire inheritance to charity.” When she only sniffed and blinked as more tears filled her eyes, he asked softly, “Did Andy have a nickname?”
Her brow pinched. “Why?”
“Because sometimes nicknames are more meaningful.”
Shaking her head in wonder, she whispered, “You really can read minds. I swear.” Before he could ask what she meant by that, she continued. “His nickname was BeeBee. I kept manglingbaby brotherwhen he was born, and those two words got shortened to the first letter in each, which eventually became BeeBee.”
“That explains this.” He drifted his fingers over the tattoo on her rib cage.
She nodded. “That way I always have a reminder of him close to my heart.”
“That’s it, then.” He dipped his chin. “It’ll be the BeeBee Foundation, and the logo will be two bumblebees. Which”—he smiled—“is kind of perfect. You’ve heard it said bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly, right? That their wing to body mass ratio is all off? And yet they fly anyway because theybelievethey can? That’s the program I want to build. I want to take kids who have all the odds stacked against them, and I want to make them believe they can fly.”
In fact...it wassoperfect he couldn’t help but feel like there were larger forces at work. Like maybe Mia coming to Wayfarer Island had been serendipity. Like them becoming lovers had been inevitable. Like himfallingfor her had been...fate.
He realized he was smiling when she pressed a cool fingertip into one of his dimples. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Your charity will be a more beautiful tribute to Andy than I could ever have imagined.”
“No. Thankyou,” he countered. “Because if Alex and Mason don’t find the cipher device, now I’ll still be able to open the program.”
“Alex and Mason are going to find the cipher device,” she insisted staunchly. “I can feel it.”
“You know what? Me too.” For the first time since they’d begun to search for the treasure, he honestly believed they were close to locating it.
Of course, once theydid—and after it was hauled up according to Mia’s exacting standards—she would be off to her next job, andthathad a sense of urgency expanding in his chest. “Mia, I...”
He drifted off because...What? What did he want to say?
Oh, right. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he wasinlove with her. He wanted to ask her to take a chance on him even though neither one of them had any idea what it took to make things work. He wanted...her.
Just her.
All that was her.
Always.
Maybeshewas the mind reader, because she cleared her throat and patted his shoulder, indicating he should roll off her. When he did, she sat up and glanced at the black waves that turned silver when they broke against the beach. “It’s too early to go to sleep. What do you say to more P.J. Warren?”
He didn’t give a fuzzy fuck about Lazarus Luxido at the moment, but he could tell she wasn’t ready to hear all the things he wanted to say to her. Not yet.
Glancing at the moon riding low in the sky, he murmured, “It’s too dark, isn’t it?”
“I can use the light on my cell phone until the battery runs out.”
