Commanding Her Seal (Plus Bonus Novella)(44)

Surprisingly, the shampoo bottle practically fell into their laps. At last, something that was going their way. “112 times” referred to the room number—and she had no small amount of pride to have been the one who figured that out. A race official stood outside 112, handing out little plastic bottles emblazoned with Shores Resort at Green Cay. A clue was tied to the neck via a red ribbon.

“That was too easy.” Fitz gave the shampoo bottle the evil eye.

He’d moved his sunglasses to the top of his head, and she definitely liked it better when he had them over his eyes because then she didn’t know when he was watching her. When he did that, her bones dissolved.

“Maybe don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?” she suggested.

“I’m not. I’m just thinking it means the race part of this race has more weight than I was anticipating. If the clues are this easy, they’re expecting us to be fast. Which means we’ve got to step it up if we want to win.”

Well, there was that. Lilah tucked the shampoo bottle into her shoulder bag, and they raced back to the boat. On the way, Fitz got the text message they’d been waiting on. Thora was checked into the hospital and they were running some tests; when they got some results, Jack would let them know. Lilah breathed a little easier at the news.

“Um…” She glanced over the dash and mounted navigation system. The symbols and gauges and such might as well have been in Greek. “Do you know how to drive this thing?”

“Well, that’s just insulting,” he drawled and crossed his arms to lean a hip on the driver’s seat.

Dang it. She should learn to keep her freaking mouth freaking shut. “Oh, right. Navy.”

He shrugged. “Or the fact that I learned to navigate the mouth of the Mississippi before I was ten. This thing? Piece of cake. Though I’m super flattered that you weren’t worried about Jack’s ability to be your chauffer.”

Foot in mouth again. How was she going to survive this if she couldn’t figure out how to not insult people? “That was um… different. He rented the boat.”

Fitz rolled his eyes. “Have a seat, honey, and prepare to be impressed by my mad skills behind the wheel.”

Honey. Shouldn’t she be offended by the endearment or something? She wasn’t. It was… thrilling. Almost like they were a couple and he called her that all the time. She slid into the passenger seat across the aisle from the driver’s seat and instantly saw the benefit of being minus Thora and Jack—she wasn’t wedged up next to him in the way-too-cozy bench seat at the rear of the boat.

Although that had been kind of exhilarating. And his proximity would have made it a lot easier to do any random tasting that he might elect to try. Maybe she should think of a way to get closer to him instead of celebrating that he was far away.

“Where to?” she asked and then smacked the heel of her hand to her forehead. “I guess I’ve got the clue. Ironic. Can’t even call myself clueless, can I?”

A grin spread across his pretty face. “Would it be too redundant to tell you again how much I like you?”

“I don’t mind. I can’t hear that enough.”

The little sigh that escaped sounded entirely too happy. But was it so wrong to be happy that he felt free to toss around comments that advertised the fact that he was into her? That was awesome. Dangerous. But awesome. Because she wanted to see how much danger she could handle, right? Also she liked him too. More than she was expecting.

“What does the clue say?” he asked as if she still had an interest in the game when the real adventure unfolded in her stomach as she stared at his profile. But she could play along until she could figure out how to seize the day.

The clue proved to be just as cryptic as the first one, but she had a bit more faith in her team by this point. She recited the words on the card for him. “I can be used for food or water. But don’t stand underneath me, unless you’re wearing a hard hat.”

Whatever that meant.

“Obviously the answer is a coconut,” Fitz announced instantly. “But geez, the Bahamas are covered with coconut trees. How are we supposed to narrow that down?”

“What? How is that obvious? You can’t drink coconut flakes.”

He shot her a look that could only be described as I can’t even…

“But you can drink the water inside the coconut shell. Have you never seen a whole coconut? Never mind.” He shook his head before she could tell him that she hadn’t been born on another planet; her brain just hadn’t connected the dots as fast as his because it was occupied with… other things. “Thankfully, you hooked up with me. I’ve got to be the only guy on the planet lucky enough to be able to impress a girl with coconuts.”