When she caught Doc staring at her, she scowled. “Wipe that look of judgement off your face right this minute. You have no idea what it’s like to eat for two.”
As if to prove her point, she flattened her graphic T-shirt across her bulging belly. The shirt read: Don’t Make Me Repeat Myself ~ History.
“You ate for two when you were just one,” he reminded her with a chuckle.
She flipped him the bird and then, when her marshmallow caught on fire, she howled, “Now look what you made me do! Stop distracting me!” She hastily blew out the burning confection. And then she turned to her husband, “Quick! Go get Meat before he eats any more waterweeds!”
Mason carefully transferred Alex from his lap to the chair before ambling off down the beach to go save his fat, wrinkly bulldog from himself. And Doc’s eyes fell on Lil’ Bastard who, like always, was pecking in the sand next to the canine.
“How’s he taking to city life?” he asked Alex, pulling his toothpick from his mouth to gesture toward the rooster who’d moved with Meat, Mason, and Alex up to Boston.
She grinned and pushed her glasses higher on the bridge of her freckled nose. “He’s terrorizing the neighborhood. He has the stray cats on the run. He wakes everyone up at dawn with his cock-a-doodle-doos. And he’s taken to sitting on the front fence as the school kids are walking home so he can squawk and flap his wings at them. I swear he cackles in delight when they run screaming.”
“So, what you’re saying is he’s still the same ol’ pain in the ass he ever was.”
“Wouldn’t have him any other way.” She shoved the s’mores she’d built into her mouth, and then licked melted chocolate off her fingers.
Leaning back in his chair, Doc closed his eyes and thought of all the changes eight months had wrought. Besides all the tiny humans being cooked up, Bran had opened his Italian restaurant in Maddy’s hometown of Houston. And by all accounts it was a smashing success.
Wolf and Chrissy were in the process of building six additional dive shops throughout the Keys, turning Chrissy’s little business into a thriving chain. And three of Wolf’s nephews had come down from Oklahoma to work in the shops over the summer.
Alex had gotten an adjunct professorship at Boston college, teaching history to dewy-eyed freshmen while Mason spent his afternoons at the Red Sox games. Since childhood, Mason had dreamed of becoming a season ticket holder, and his portion of the treasure had finally allowed him to make that dream a reality.
Romeo and Mia had made the move to L.A. Romeo’s charity work was up and running and he gave the Deep Six group weekly email updates on the kids who frequented his afterschool programs.
And LT and Olivia were continuing on with the salvage business, splitting their time between Wayfarer Island and Key West as they took odd jobs hauling up sunken boats, abandoned drilling equipment, and all the random whatnot that found its way to the bottom of the ocean.
They’d heard tales of another sunken treasure and were beginning to dip their toes into the research. LT had asked the rest of the crew if they were interested in joining in this newest quest. But, to a man, they’d all declined, having had their fill of treasure hunting.
Funny, but a year ago, they’d all been as poor as church mice and beginning to lose faith in ever finding theSanta Cristina’sriches. And now look at them. Family men with wives and babies and businesses and days that made the time they’d spent as Navy SEALs seem like a lifetime ago.
Threading his hands behind his head, Doc breathed in the warm, moist air that smelled of sand and sun and sea life. And even though a part of him missed the endless hours of balmy weather and the gentle sound of the oceanshushingagainst the sand, he was already anxious to get back home to Montana.
The manager he’d hired to oversee the day-to-day operations at the ranch was top notch, but they were still two ranch hands short, and it wouldn’t be long before fall calving season started. Also, the little medical building Doc had rented in town was undergoing renovations, and he didn’t trust his general contractor to do any work without Doc breathing down his neck. But he was mostly in a hurry to get back out West because his wife was seven weeks from her due date, and he wasn’t exactly comfortable with her being three thousand miles away from her OBGYN.
“Don’t be silly,”she’d scolded when he’d mentioned that maybe they shouldn’t make the trip to Wayfarer.“I want to see everyone. And as high as I’m carrying, there’s no way I’ll be going into labor anytime soon.”
“Dalton Simmons!” His wife’s strident voice pulled him from his ruminations. “Get your lazy bones out of that chair and come help me!”
He opened his eyes to see her standing in the sand halfway between the bonfire and the beach house. She wore a sleeveless top that emphasized the subtle tan on her smooth shoulders and a pair of linen gaucho pants that emphasized the round wonder of her pregnant belly.
Every time he saw her, his breath caught.
She’d always been a beautiful woman but approaching motherhood had turned her into something bordering on ethereal. Of course, when she broke out her sassy pants stance, complete with cocked hip and tilted head, he thought she looked less ethereal and more witchy. Especially with her long, black hair loose and blowing in the breeze.
“You called, my sweet, loving wife?” he shot back and then chuckled when the look she sent him warned of dire consequences should he choose to keep going with the sarcasm.
“If I were you,cabron, I’d be hopping to,” Romeo said from the chair next to him. Romeo’s teeth blazed white against his black goatee when he sent Doc a shit-eating grin.
“Oh, don’t sit there smiling like your wife doesn’t boss you around too. We’re both whipped and you know it.”
Romeo shrugged and took a slow pull on the longneck bottle in his hand. “If this is what it is to be whipped, then I don’t know how I ever survived beingunwhipped.”
“That’s a good answer, lover.” Mia smirked from his other side. “Therightanswer.”
Doc watched the couple canoodle for a couple of seconds before rolling his eyes. “Keep it up and you two will be in the same boat with the rest of us soon enough.”
Mia shook her head. “Oh, no. We’ve got plenty of kids to keep us busy and happy.”
