She quickly continued her perusal of the place. Not wanting to give the guy the idea that she was interested when she wasn’t.
Not that his chin dimple and brown eyes and Superman hair weren’t nice to look at. But she couldn’t help making the comparison between what she felt when she spotted him, a fizzle of indifference, to the electricity that’d sizzled through her system the night she’d looked across the bar and laid eyes on Doc.
Dalton “Doc” Simmons, she thought with a twist of her lips. How he manages to be the most amazing and most awful man I’ve ever met, I’ll never know.
“Oh!” Mia interrupted her thoughts. “I have news. Alex and Mason finally got in to view the cipher device this morning. They cracked the code and know where the treasure is.”
Never in Cami’s life had she thought she’d be part of a treasure hunt. But she could say without a shadow of a doubt that it was just as thrilling and exciting as The Goonies had made it look.
“Where is it?” Her question came out in hushed tones.
Mia shook her head. “They’re not saying. They’re going to tell us when we’re all together. They caught the red-eye out of Madrid tonight.” She swiped her phone screen and checked the time. “Or they will catch it tonight. You’d think as much as I travel, I’d be good with the time differences, but they always confuse me. Anyway”—she waved an impatient hand—“I’m booked on the same flights tomorrow as they are. Miami to Key West and Key West to Wayfarer.”
Cami dug into her purse and pulled her phone from the zippered side pocket. “Give me your flight information,” she told Mia.
“Why?” Mia blinked.
“Because as Deep Six Salvage’s lawyer, I need to know where the treasure is. Whether or not the crew can claim all of it or some of it or none of it once it’s salvaged depends on its location.”
Mia grimaced. But as an archeologist, she probably knew quite a bit about who got to claim what when it came to antiquities. “It’d be a crying shame if they didn’t get to keep at least some of the loot after all the time and effort and money they’ve put into the hunt,” she muttered, sliding her phone next to Cami so Cami could read the flight information still shining on the screen.
Five minutes later, Cami had herself booked on the flights. Thumbing off her cell, she blew out a breath and proclaimed, “Technology. You got to love it.”
“You know”—Mia scrunched up her face—“I used to think the same thing. But after living on Wayfarer Island, I’ve come to appreciate life unplugged. I sleep better. I read more. I feel like there’s more time in the day. I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Once I leave, I may start implementing a no electronics policy once a week.”
Cami noticed how a look of utter sadness came over Mia’s face when she said once I leave. And Cami used it as an opening to ask the question she’d been dying to ask ever since Mia sat down.
After all, she didn’t have her own romantic fairy tale to moon over, so the next best thing was to moon over someone else’s.
“How are things between you and Romeo?”
Mia’s expression became unreadable. “He’s fine. Good. He was released from the hospital this afternoon. I’m sure he’s back on Wayfarer by now.”
Cami cocked her head. “That’s great to hear, but it’s not what I asked. Did something happen after I left? Last time I saw you, you were floating on cloud nine, and now my mere mention of his name has made the skin around your eyes pinch.”
Mia’s sigh was so wounded and weary sounding, it nearly broke Cami’s heart. “He told me he loves me,” she admitted quietly.
“That bastard,” Cami declared with mock vehemence. When Mia didn’t respond, she dropped the banter and asked, “And the problem with that is you don’t love him back?”
“No.” Mia fiddled with the diamond stud in her ear. “I love him back. I might love him more than I’ve ever loved anyone. But he wants a relationship. He wants to give this thing between us a shot. He wants to try for forever.”
“That bastard,” Cami swore again. Then, “Oh, wait. Why is that a bad thing?”
“Because, even on his worst day, he’s ten times the person I am.” There was a hitch in Mia’s raspy voice. “He deserves so much more than me.”
“Nope.” Cami lifted her hand. “Let me stop you right there. I know I don’t know you well, but I’ve seen you at your worst. And I can safely say that you are brave and generous and kind. Romeo would be lucky to have you.”
“No.” Mia shook her head sorrowfully. “There are things about me that you don’t know.”
Cami felt her eyebrows knit together. “So tell me.”
Mia shook her head again and Cami sighed because she recognized an uncooperative witness when she was looking at one. Before she could think of what to say next, the bartender came by with two drinks. “Courtesy of the gentleman at the end of the bar,” he said.
The good manners Cami’s mother had instilled in her made her give Chin Dimple a smile of thanks. But she was careful to keep it from edging into a smile of invitation. After turning her attention back to the newly arrived drinks, she sighed. “Do you think we should tell him he’s fishing with the wrong bait? Why do men always think we want cosmopolitans?”
“Blame it on Sex and the City.” Mia nursed her gin and tonic as she eyed with distaste the red cocktail sitting on the bar in front of her.
“Annndddd speaking of complicated love lives, those ladies wrote the book.” Cami threw a commiserating arm around Mia’s shoulders. “Why does it have to be this way, huh? Why does life have to be like a box of chocolates where we never know what we’re going to get? Why can’t it be like a bowl of cherries? All sweet-tasting and packed full of pleasure?”
“I wish I knew,” Mia whispered, and Cami thought for sure she caught Mia blinking away tears.
She felt a world of sympathy for Mia’s plight—even though she didn’t understand it—but her sympathy was overshadowed by the edginess that rippled up her spine at the thought of seeing Doc again.
She would never admit this to anyone, but she’d missed him since returning to Miami. And she couldn’t help thinking that’s what had kept her in such a funk the last few days.
Because I don’t know why I’ve missed him, she thought irritably. Anytime I’m with him, I feel like I’m dodging emotional machine gun fire...