Chapter Thirty-Two
ELI
Jules whirledaround with her eyes wide and filled with awe. My heart did something ridiculous as I took in her flushed cheeks and the wisps of dark hair escaping her silver clip. Lurched. Soared. She looked like sunlight breaking through the clouds, alive and radiant.
I wanted to capture this moment, etch it into my mind forever. God, she was beautiful. I crossed the room, each step deliberate. Not my usual lazy, easy saunter, but something more purposeful. Something that saidthis matters.
“Eli,” she breathed, a smile blooming across her face.
My hand found her cheek of its own accord, thumb brushing over her soft skin. “Hey there, green eyes.”
I’d watched from the front door of the dive shop as she found the message in a bottle I’d placed on the dive boat, then hurried to the dive shack. When she’d reappeared to race toward the dive shop, I’d tiptoed to hide in a storage closet. Finally confident she was in the classroom, I’d moved to watch from the shadows, delighted beyondmeasure as she read my note before looking everywhere for the next clue.
“What? When? How…” I smiled as she glanced at the box on the table, then turned back to me. “You talked to Helen?”
I nodded, unable to keep the grin off my face. “I did. Yesterday. And we’ve got her full approval now.”
Jules’s mouth dropped open. I wanted nothing more than to kiss those perfect lips, to show her exactly how much this moment meant to me. But I held back, savoring the way her eyes searched mine.
“Really?” Jules clutched the coral heart like a precious jewel, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “How did you… I mean, she was so adamant before. What changed her mind?”
I shrugged, but my trademark casual gesture couldn’t hide the emotion I was feeling. “I just told her the truth. That I couldn’t live without you.” The words hung between us, stripped bare and honest.
My fingers brushed her wrist, tracing the line where professional Jules—the buttoned-up accountant who’d challenged me at every resort budget meeting—gave way to something more vulnerable. Something real.
“I poured my heart out,” I continued, my voice low. “Told her how you challenge me. How you make the resort better. How you make me better. Mom realized pretty quickly how much you mean to me.”
Jules blinked. Once. Twice. And then she laughed—that rich, unexpected sound that so few people heard. The laugh that said she was more than spreadsheets and careful calculations. The laugh that said she was alive. “This is the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I grinned, the kind of smile that had to show everycomplicated, joyful thing I was feeling. “I have to confess that Brenna helped me plan the scavenger hunt.”
Jules swatted my arm. “Please. This is pure you. Completely, ridiculously you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Ridiculous, huh? I’ll have you know, a lot of thought went into this little adventure.”
“I know it did,” she said quietly, her smile fading as she dropped her eyes to the heart still held in both hands. “I still can’t believe it’s all real.”
I gently lifted her face with my knuckle. “Believe it. All of it.”
Taking her hand, I led Jules back to the table. The remnants of the scavenger hunt lay tucked inside the box—my dive slate, the bottled message, my dog-eared copy ofTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and, of course, the coral heart, which she placed on the table.
“So,” Jules said, her voice soft with wonder as she removed the other items and lined them up next to the heart, “walk me through this masterpiece of yours. I can’t tell you how incredible this all is.”
I picked up the worn novel, running my thumb along its cracked spine. “Well, I wanted the whole thing to be Jules Verne–themed. Seemed fitting, given your nickname and all.” I winked at her. “And this book? The adventure, the mystery… kind of reminded me of you from the start.”
Jules grinned in pure delight. “Smooth talker.”
I laughed, setting the book down and reaching for the bottled message. “I got this parchment from Brenna’s shop. Thought it’d add a nice touch of authenticity to the whole message in a bottlething.”
“And the dive slate?” Jules asked, running her fingers over the plastic surface.
“Ah, well, that was just practical—I had to startsomewhere. Though I’m glad to get it back. Can’t imagine teaching without it.”
She laughed, the sound warming me from the inside out. “Heaven forbid.”
I grinned and lifted the coral heart. Its familiar weight settled in my palm, but now it felt different. Charged with new meaning. I pointed with my chin at the tall oak bookcase at the front of the classroom. “I found this years ago on a dive in the middle of a sand patch. Don’t worry—I’d never take anything live out of the ocean.” My chest swelled a little at the pride in her eyes as she smiled. “I kept it in the bookcase there in the corner. Always thought it represented my love for the ocean.”
Jules’s eyes softened as she looked at me. “And now?”
