Page 23 of The Bride's Secret

“Look.” His voice was low, husky, and he pointed to the shore.

She turned and leaned her back up against him. The turtles had made their way to the shore and dug about in the sand. “Oh, those must be the nests.”

“Maybe. Hidden.” They watched longer in silence until Wyatt said, “That is so totally cool.”

She nodded. Then shivered. “I need to sit in that sand and warm up too.”

“You got it.” They pushed through the waves up to the shoreline and then sat on the harder sand, letting the sun heat their shivering bodies.

Carisa hugged her knees. “One time I was scuba diving and we met a turtle under the water. He was enormous. The guy said he must have been at least one hundred years old. I was so excited to see him that I reached out and grabbed his fin.”

“You didn’t! Isn’t that totally illegal or something?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. But the turtle turned and looked at me and then kept swimming. I’ll never forget the connection I felt.”

“That’s cool.” Wyatt looked out to sea. “I don’t take enough time to enjoy life like you do.”

“I don’t even know what you do.”

“I’m a business consultant mostly. An investment firm. We buy out companies and help rebuild them before another sale.”

“Ah.”

“What do you do, Carisa? When you’re not hiding out in Hawaii?”

“I’m a paralegal at a law firm.”

“What kind of law?”

“Mostly intellectual property, patents, copyright.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“Nah, there’s a pattern. Once you know what the lawyer expects, it’s pretty easy to find what they need and format it the right way. I’m lucky in our firm because they even let the paralegals start on the opinion work.”

He nodded. “We hire a few attorneys, but I don’t think we have patent or trademark needs.”

“You wouldn’t. It’s usually the businesses that actually have a product.”

“Ouch. We have a product.”

“What are you selling?”

“Well.” He leaned back on one hand. “Our own expertise, I guess.”

She thought for a moment. And she could see it. “I’d pay a lot to borrow your expertise for awhile.”

“Oh really?”

“Well, sure.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

She choked. “What are you inferring Wyatt Jackson? Cause I don’t have a dirty enough mind to go there.”

He chuckled. “I’m just messing with you. Tell me, what use would my expertise be to you?”

“It already has, though you offered it for free. I don’t know what I would have done without you. We keep thinking it’s so awkward the way we met, but I’m beginning to think fate designed it that way to save me.” She ran a finger along the side of his face and rubbed her hand on his scruff. “So thank you.”

---