My head broke the surface. I gagged and gasped. A sudden touch on my shoulder pulled another scream out of me, and I lost my grip on the flashlight.Crap.
“Sydney!” Hunter called, his voice urgent.
I spun around. “There’s a dead body.”
Hunter plunged his face into the ocean, his arms treading hard to keep him up float. He looked back at me. “Where?”
“Near the trunks. I saw a skull.”
“Oh,” he said, as if it was yesterday’s news. “I thought you meant like a real body.”
“It was a body at some point.” I spat seawater out of my mouth.
His mask fogged up. “You found trunks?”
“Yes. Maybe four.”
He took several deep breaths and submerged, his fins kicking up water as he swam. A minute later, he resurfaced, grinning ear to ear. “Come with me.”
We swam to the shore, and while he walked to pick up the prybar, I sat in the shallow waters, giving myself a moment to compose myself. It was just a skeleton, nothing big, but seeing it in the water made me think of Bambi and how her body probably was lost in the ocean. And my chest hurt. I took my mask off and wiped my eyes.
“Are you okay?” Hunter lowered close to me, and the sudden warmth of his body made me realize how cold I was. His mask sat atop his head, drops of water clung to his eyelashes, and red creases ran over his cheeks and forehead. No doubt my face sported the same imprints.
“Just a bit shaken up by the surprise of another…” I waved in the direction of where the cases were stored under the water.
“You’re thinking about Bambi?” he asked in a kind voice.
“I should have done more to save her.” My face creased and my eyes stung with saltwater.
“Hey, you did what you could.” Hunter pulled me in, his arm coming around me, offering me the comfort of his broad body. “She’s probably alive. Searching for you right now.”
“Then why hasn’t she found us?” I said, my cheek smoothed into his warm chest.
Hunter took a deep breath then said on exhale, “Because there are many other islands spread out over a hundred square miles. It takes time to find someone. It’s only been two weeks. If you didn’t know where you were, and she could have drifted farther in the opposite direction before someone picked her up…” He pressed his lips to my head for a long minute. And I tried not to think what this meant. He was a caring person. This was what they did. They kissed on foreheads and into wet hair. “Bambi is looking for you, but just in the wrong place. She’ll find you soon.”
I understood he said that to make me feel better, but I wanted to believe him. He held me for a long time, allowing me to calm my heart down. Today was about Hunter’s triumph uncovering the Treasure of Lima, and not about me feeling sorry about my tragic sailing trip. I pulled away from his warmth. “I’m ready to go back,” I said.
Armed with the prybar, we returned to the water. Keeping my breath in and my panic at bay—it was just a collection of bones—I examined the frozen-in-time skeleton. A trunk pinned its lower half, the remnants of his clothing long gone, only a leather belt with its corroded buckle looped around its waist. The flashlight I dropped earlier emitted a bleak light from the split in the seabed. I swam closer to retrieve it but was too afraid to immerse my hand into it. Something toothy or poisonous could be hiding there, and in any case, it appeared like it would be out of reach even if I tried to get it.
I came up for air and then went down again. Hunter took hold of a padlock on the top case, and it broke off without a fight. He passed it to me, then placed the prybar where the top and bottom had fused by time and algae. With one push, he pried it open, sand and green muck slid off the lid, and sediment stirred up, clouding the water around us.
Bubbles rushed up around my face as I briefly squealed with delight. My mind ran over the treasure list in Edward’s diary. Gold coins. Gemstones. Candelabras in gold and silver. Probably not the 780 solid gold statue of the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus, unless they’d cut it into chunks, which would be a pity if they had. Hunter took my hand, and we finned up to the surface again.
“Oh my God, Hunter. We found it.” I looped my arms around his neck, my mask hitting his, our bodies sinking for a split second. His hand circled my waist, his chest pressing into mine. Our legs knocked at each other occasionally as we kicked them to keep afloat.
I peeled myself away from him just enough to look at his handsome (masked) face. For a moment we stared at each other, breathing hard. The moment called for a celebratory kiss but with bulky objects on our faces that would be beyond clumsy and awkward. Yet, if Hunter were to grab and yank me to him, I wouldn’t fight it.
“Do you think they’re full of gold coins?”
He grinned. “I hope so.”
“Should we go see now?”
Hunter pulled the mask over his head and smoothed his face with his hand. “Give it another minute for the sand to settle.”
We grinned at each other, our chest heaving from excitement and not hard work treading waters.
“Thank you,” Hunter said, looking at me intently.
