“It’s a good thing Marianne had floated after you that night and joined us inside the bat-house.” He raised an eyebrow. “Or did you somehow conjure your mom in the thick of it all?”
“I have no idea, and neither does she, but the whole thing is just …” She shook her head.
“It’s nuts, I agree,” Quint finished. “But so was the wild ride we had at the last dig site, especially down in that claustrophobic, piss-filled snake den.” He shuddered. “I can still smell that place if I think about it.”
He had a good point. “I guess as long as you’re in the picture, Parker, we can expect a blurring between reality and Maya mythology.”
“What do you mean as long as I’m in the picture?” He swirled the ice in his glass, the cubes clinking almost musically. “Am I leaving the picture at some point?”
“Well.” She paused to take another sip, building up the courage to talk to him about a worry that had been festering in her thoughts over the last week while they’d closed down the dig site and field camp. “I told you that I loved you before you fell through the floor.”
“No, you said, ‘IthinkI’m in love with you,’ which implies uncertainty.”
She glared at him. “Fine, but you didn’t get back to me since then with any declaration about your feelings at all, so that leaves me to wonder about you in the long term.”
He set his glass on the floor next to the lounge chair. “You know, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”
She scoffed. “You’ve beenmeaningto talk to me about that?” She’d taken a step out onto a ledge in the bat-house ruin, only to be left high and dry for days, fretting she’d overplayed her hand.
“Well, more like ask you something.”
Ask her what?!
Oh, crap. Was he going to ask her to marry him? Her pulse picked up speed as her thoughts began to spin. No, it was too soon for marriage talk, wasn’t it? What was she going to say if he did ask her? Sure, she loved him, but …But what?Shouldn’t they take more time to make certain that …
“Why did you lie to me?” he asked.
His question had a definite ice-water-over-the-head effect. She frowned, a bit deflated that the subject was her lying, not them tying the knot, which was something she should probably analyze later when she was alone.
“We already discussed this,” she said flatly.
“No, we discussed that you had lied and I’d found out, for which you apologized, and that was nice. But we did not cover the ‘why’ part in full.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I wanted to work at the site more than go on our vacation because Dr. Fernel was gung-ho to get there first, and I didn’t want him to discover something before I could prove another of Mom’s theories.”
And now she understood Dr. Fernel’s impatience when it came to being allowed onto the site. He was determined to live forever, and he thought he had all of the magical tools needed to make the wheel of time grind to a halt only for him. Unfortunately, the same eagerness that drove him to try to buy his way to the site ended up bungling the reincarnation ritual, and now he was gone … maybe forever.
Or maybe not.
KuTu had no answers for Angélica on that issue. But it was clear that the timing for the ritual had been wrong due to the not-quite-full moon. Plus, there’d been another monkey wrench that neither Dr. Fernel nor KuTu had anticipated—Quint. Or rather, as KuTu had said, a demon fromXibalbawith his guardians in tow.
“No.” Quint rejected her reason for lying. “There’s more to it than simply being at the site to stop someone else from stealing your mom’s limelight.”
She raised her chin. “Why don’tyoutell me why I lied?”
“It’s because you have me confused with your ex-husband.”
Wow. This had taken a turn she hadn’t anticipated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He pointed at her. “You expect me to be super controlling like he was, and you don’t want anyone ruling your life now that you’ve regained your freedom. So, when the time came to choose either Site 5 or a trip with me, instead of talking to me about it, you made the decision on your own. After all, you’re still single and in charge of your career, so why not? But then, knowing I might be upset at the last-minute change without getting to have a say in it, you took the easy way out and lied, blaming it on your job.”
Damn it. He’d pretty much nailed it.
She blew out a sigh. “Okay, here’s the deal. It’s true that while I was with my ex, he was very controlling both with my time and my career. So, yes, when that moment came in my boss’s office where I had to decide whether to take off on a vacation with you or go to the dig site, it rankled me that I felt like I needed your approval. ButI should have asked you first how you felt about hitting the pause button on our vacation, or at least been honest about my struggles before signing up for the job.”
He nodded slowly, staring out at the ocean. “There it is. Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“Does it make any difference that as soon as I told you the lie, guilt started eating me alive?” She stared at his profile, wincing slightly as she waited for him to say something. Anything. When he stayed silent, she added, “I’m sorry, Quint. I should’ve asked your thoughts about going to the site first.”
