He nodded, realizing that she would probably travel more than he would now. His job was generally at the compound these days. He’d traveled more in the last four months, chasing leads looking for Bullard, than he had in years. And now he was starting a relationship with Katie, somebody who could end up traveling far away from him.
It was something he’d have to deal with. But he wouldn’t dare choke up about it because that was a sure-fire way of making her feel like she had no space. And he wasn’t up for that. He’d do a hell of a lot to keep her in his life right now. She was a very special woman.
He smiled. “Breakfast sounds great.” He looked at her. “You want me to cook?”
She rolled over onto her back again. “Sure, if you want to. I certainly don’t have to cook every meal just because it’s my job.”
“Plus, you’ll get busier with everybody headed this way,” he murmured. “But maybe we’ll do that in a few minutes, since this is pretty great as it is.” The two of them floated gently on the ocean, and he couldn’t find anything to dampen his mood. At this moment, things were pretty damn perfect.
Chapter 6
Katie rolled over with a sad sigh. “Come on. Breakfast time. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got to get moving.”
Up on the deck she quickly put on the blue dress and headed down to the kitchen. She quickly whipped up eggs benedict with some smoked salmon on the side, with a little bit of greens, and carried it up for the three of them.
As she arrived, both men were on their phones, both looking very serious. She immediately realized something was up. She set up the food on the trolley and poured coffee for everybody, then sat down with hers, waiting quietly for them to tell her what was going on.
When Dave finally got off the phone, he looked at the breakfast, then smiled. “Ah, you cooked. This looks delicious.”
“I ended up making it. Sorry, I completely forgot about your offer. Force of habit, I guess.”
“There’s time for me to cook other breakfasts,” he noted. “I’m a decent hand in the kitchen, but I’m certainly not a professional chef.”
“A lot of good cooks out there never had any training.”
“Maybe. I think I’m probably one of them.”
She smiled. “It would be nice if we shared a passion for cooking.”
“Absolutely.”
“So, enough of that. What the hell is going on?” She motioned at Dave and the captain, who was still busy on the sat phone. “Are there problems?”
“A couple connecting planes got missed, due to delays at an airport,” he explained. “The usual logistics of moving that many people. The guys will be here soon though.”
“And our prisoner?”
“I think they’re planning on having a serious talk with him, then probably letting him go.”
“Interesting,” she murmured.
“Are you okay with that?”
“I’m okay with that,” she acknowledged. “I’d rather that than giving him a beat down, especially if he is someone Leia has tried to help.”
“It’s the other guy we want,” Dave said, “but, with the boat gone, it might be a little harder to find him.”
“Have you checked the hospitals on the mainland?”
“Yep. The word is out, so it’s just a matter of time to figure out where else he could have gone.”
“If Leia were here, she would be the logical choice. But she’s not here.”
“So, in other words, the old medicine woman?”
“I would think it would be worth checking out anyway.”
He nodded. “We’ll take a walk around to her later.”
“You don’t think she’ll tell you?”
“I don’t know. I think the islanders are fairly tight.”
“Is there anything to worry about?”
“I hope not,” he said.
They finished breakfast quickly, and then Katie stood. “I want to go back to Leia’s place, so I can take a better look and take some more measurements.” She held up a pad of paper and a tape measure, ready to get down to business.
“Good enough,” Dave said. “Let’s go.”
As they got into the small skiff to make their way to the island, she noticed he was well armed. “Are you expecting trouble?” she asked quietly.
“Expecting trouble, no. Ready for it, yes. I got caught by surprise yesterday, and that’s not happening again.”
She nodded. “Is it okay to leave the captain alone with the prisoner?”
“He’s fully armed,” he said confidently. “I don’t think that kid wants to tangle with him. Honestly, I don’t think that kid wants a part of any of it.”
She didn’t say anything because there was absolutely nothing to say. They were short on men, and she really needed to take another look at the venue, so she could be well prepared to feed a large crew.
As soon as they landed, they tied up in the usual spot, realizing that part of what she needed to do was figure out how they would get items off the small skiff onto land. “We’ll need a better transport system here for sure.”
“Once the men get here,” Dave added, “they’ll be bringing and pulling together parts of a floating dock immediately.”
“Are some coming by boat then?”
“They are,” he confirmed.
She left it at that, and, before long, they were measuring and discussing options. “So we can get a maximum of ten of our folding tables up here.” She thought about what all she needed. “That would leave one spare.”
“If you can get away with nine, we’d be better off,” Dave noted, “because we’ve got to have room for people to walk around.”
“I guess it depends on how quickly we can get something of a platform or a deck made here,” she murmured.
“There will be a ton of building going on as soon as the team gets here, but you’ll see that within a few hours.”
“I hope so,” she said, “because, at the moment, it just seems like an idyllic holiday mixed in with moments of terror.”
He looked at her and smiled. “Oh, I hope those parts with me aren’t idyllic terror.”
She burst out laughing. “Absolutely not, but what a great way to look at it.”
“I don’t think so,” he protested. But he was smiling, and generally he felt just a sense of peace in his heart that he hadn’t felt for a very long time.
The good news was that she didn’t feel like she was part of the equation where the trouble was concerned. Whoever it was who had shot at them before had apparently been after Leia, not Katie, so she was happy to let Dave look after that problem.
By the time they were finished with their plans, and she’d wandered up and around again, trying to figure out how much of Leia’s space they could make use of, she turned to Dave. “It’s really hard to finalize plans until we know what access we’ll have here.”
“I know,” he said. “That’s all part of the larger scheme too.”
“So, isn’t this wedding rushing it a bit?”