Page 77 of Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness

And Delilah, of course, went home for a happy reunion with her daughter and a not-so-happy lecture for her grandmother regarding her alleged antics of the past ten days. Delilah took his truck with a mountain of laundry. He’d told her that it didn’t have to be done right away since they wouldn’t be returning to the site until after the storm hit and ran its course, which should last at least three days. But knowing her, she’d be at the Laundromat this afternoon. In addition, she’d told him he could have the truck back after today since her grandmother’s station wagon was available for her use. Hah! He questioned how long that big-ass gas guzzler would last.

Whatever! He wasn’t going to let anyone rain on his parade today. The exhilaration Merrill felt wasn’t unlike what he and his teammates experienced on returning from a successful mission. Adrenaline out the wazoo. Besides, despite the success of their mission, despite his busy schedule for today, Merrill had tonight to look forward to. Life was good. Can anyone say adrenaline sex?

He and Gabe spent an hour in the storage room going over the coins and artifacts that were laid out on various folding tables. Gold and silver didn’t require any special treatment for preservation, but they did require cleaning and in some cases picking away at the encrustation. Harry had been working on this himself so far, not wanting to bring in any help that might have a flapping tongue.

“Where is Harry, by the way?” Merrill asked.

Gabe laughed. “You do not want to know.”

Merrill arched his brows.

“We didn’t know for sure what time you’d get here. So, he stuck around the Patterson house this morning for a hot-cha-cha breakfast. He should be in anytime now.”

“Is that something else I don’t really want to know about?”

Gabe grinned. “Delilah’s grandmother has been leading a prebreakfast ‘Wake-Up Exercise Class’ that presumably gets the sap running on even the oldest trees, if you get my meaning.”

“Good Lord!” And that was a prayer because he knew Delilah would be all upset and too busy keeping an eye on the old lady now to have time for him. Goodbye adrenaline sex! “Even Harry?”

“Especially Harry. Supposedly, he’s had his first hard-on in five years just from slathering his body with some Avon crap before the morning happy time.”

“He told you that?” Merrill was shocked. Harry was usually more dignified in his manner and speech.

“Hell, no! But he implied it. And he’s started wearing cologne.”

“That’s no proof. I suspect everyone in town is wearing cologne these days, thanks to the Avon Lady who’s perfected ‘The Art of the (Avon) Deal.’”

“Yep.”

They grinned at each other. Good ol’ Bell Cove.

“So, are you done with the site?”

“Oh, hell no! We haven’t begun to bring up the big guns, and I mean that literally. Cannon, cannonballs, other weapons, heavy stuff. We’ll probably have to let some of the historical preservationists come down to look things over before we disturb the wreck any more than we have.”

“Weeks? Months?”

“No longer than winter. If someone else wants to salvage the site more, like next spring, they can buy the license from us.”

“And then what?”

“Man! Give me a break. Maybe I’ll go to Hawaii for a year.” He was smiling as he protested.

“I just meant, do we give up on the Three Saints?”

“No, but it will take some research . . . a lot of research . . . to see where our calculations went wrong. And then, if we have a better idea of location, go through the whole process of applying for another license to salvage.”

“Harry thinks we should dig for emeralds up in the mountains.”

“Hmpfh! I like the way you say ‘we’ and then stay all warm and snuggly back here in your McMansion.”

“I’d be glad to sell you that McMonstrosity I call home, if you’re interested.”

“No thanks.” He knew Gabe wasn’t serious anyhow. Chimes was a family heirloom, sort of.

“Now that you’re about to reap a few million, you can afford it.”

“I was a millionaire before.”