“I know,” I say, “but you don’t have to be scared. You shouldn’t live your life in fear.”
“I know, and I try not to. I mean, it’s hard sometimes, right?”
“Yeah,” I say, nodding slowly because I, more than anyone, know how hard it is to be open and honest about everything. I haven’t ever told Mia that I love her because I was in fear that once she knew that information, our relationship would be forever changed, and I was not willing to risk that. Not at all.
Though a part of me wonders if I already have.
chapter eighteen
Mia
“Do you really think that the next clue is going to be here?” I ask Luke as we carefully clamber around the rocks and look around. I just can’t imagine how another clue could be planted here and not be destroyed or taken out to the ocean with all the waves that keep coming up and then receding.
“I didn’t write the clue, so I don’t one hundred percent know if they’re here, but I just have a feeling that something is going to be around here. We just have to know what we’re looking for. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks like it shouldn’t be here.”
“But that’s the thing. We don’t know what we’re looking for.” I run my fingers through the sand and pick up shells and then head back toward the side of the water again. “Maybe there’s a message in a bottle or something.”
“That would be cool.”
“That would be really cool. One of my favorite books when I was younger was about this guy who put a love letter in a bottle, and he said that the woman who found it was likely to be his wife, and then?—”
“Focus, Mia. Not time to talk about your romance books.”
“I know, it was just a really good book. That’s all. I don’t know what I would do if I found a message in a bottle. It would be so …” I continue to survey the area when I freeze. “Help,” I scream. “It’s a shark. It’s a shark. Run.” I point to something gray in the water and fall back as I try to get away.
Luke stills and then heads slowly toward the mini Jaws, and he just confirms what I already knew. The man is half crazy.
“Whatcha doing?” I bellow as I jump up from the water. I’m completely soaked again.
“Sharks wouldn’t be this close to the rocks,” he says, his eyes watching me as I stand there, wringing the water out of my hair. “Where do you see it?”
I point to the side, and he hurries over. I watch him kneel down and grab something and pull slowly. It looks like a shark head, and I think I might faint.
“Is that a baby shark?”
“No, it’s an inflatable shark. It was attached to a rock with some rope to weigh it down.”
“What, you think a tourist put it there?”
“I don’t,” he says, giving me a wicked grin. “If I am not mistaken, it looks like there’s a ziplock bag inside of this shark with a note in it. Come on. Let’s go up, and I’ll open it.”
“Did we just find the next clue?” My heart races.
“I think we did,” he says, his eyes glowing. “Let me open it. Let’s see what it says.”
We walk back up the beach, and he rips open the shark as we stand next to the bright yellow lifeguard hut.
“Rest in peace, Sharky,” I say as he tears it to pieces with the sharp end of a shell he picked up from the sand, and he just laughs.
He opens the Ziploc bag carefully, and there’s another white note card. My heart races. We’ve officially found the next clue.
“You listening, Mia?”
“No, I’m floating in the air.”
He gives me a look and continues, “Lawyers and judges spend their days here. / Convicts and jurors don’t want to be near. / You don’t have to go inside. It’s a hot day, I fear. / Cool your mouth down and enjoy the ice. / That much is clear.”
“Say what?” I stare at him for a couple of seconds, my mind scrambling to decipher a code that means absolutely nothing to me.
