“Together,” Opal said.
“Alone,” Mavis added. “Just the two of you.”
To say subtlety wasn’t their strong suit would have been a massive understatement. He and Molly were definitely being set up.
Max’s gaze slid toward Molly. They hadn’t been alone together—properlyalone—in days. And now they were going to be spending a perfect late summer sunset walking on the beach together.
For purely scientific purposes.
Obviously.
Molly narrowed her eyes at the three older women. “Seriously? I hope you know we can see through this charade.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, dear,” Opal said. “We’ve really got to go. Hoyt Hooper is already on the way to pick us up in the senior center’s van.”
They packed up their pompons, pointed their walkers toward the beach access, and waved goodbye before Max or Molly could get another word in edgewise. Nate escorted the women off of the sand.
Max took a deep breath and glanced at Molly. The sun was already beginning its slow descent, casting a halo of hazy, diaphanous light around her hair. “What do you say?”
Ursula let out a quiet woof, and Molly’s expression softened as she looked up at Max. The glitter on her face made him think of stardust and supernovas. Somewhere underneath it all, deep down where it counted, they were the same—just two souls made from flames.
“Let’s go.”
Chapter 16
From the dog beach, they went back to the shore where their houses stood side-by-side and let Ursula sniff and paw at the sand. Once she homed in on a specific area and started digging a hole, Molly scooped her up and kept her leashed while Max probed the nesting site with a rod to see if he could locate an egg chamber.
Molly could barely breathe the first time he performed the delicate task. Max placed the tip of the probe between his feet and pushed down on it, hoping to find a spot where the sand gave way and the probe would sink down with ease, indicating the presence of a nest cavity. It was slow, precarious work. Max explained that if he went too quickly, he might accidentally damage an egg. He handled the probe so gingerly that it almost seemed like he wasn’t moving at all.
Then all of a sudden he’d looked up, face splitting into an impossibly wide grin, and Molly had known—the nest back on the dog beach was no accident. Ursula could indeed sniff out sea turtle nests.
Max had dropped the probe, stepped back from the nesting area and raised his fists in the air. Molly launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he scooped her right off of her feet while they both screamed in victory. Ursula barked and barked, running in circles around them until her leash was wrapped tight around Max’s legs and Molly’s mermaid tail, anchoring them together and threatening to topple them both. Even then, Molly hated to let go. She wanted to stay right there, with her face pressed into Max’s strong neck and their hearts crashing wildly against one another while the ocean crashed against the shore.
But Ursula had just gotten started. She located three more nests in the area where Molly and Max lived. It took them hours to probe, stake, and properly mark off the nest sites. Halfway through the project, Molly climbed the steps of her beach cottage and returned wearing her favorite gauzy white shirt and jean shorts instead of her mermaid tail and carrying a basket stuffed full of watermelon slices, torn up bits of rotisserie chicken, and pimento cheese with crackers—all the ingredients for Molly’s favorite beach picnic.
Once the nests had been found and marked, they spread a blanket onto the sand and dove into the food, famished. Ursula fell asleep in Molly’s lap, while cold watermelon juice dripped down Molly’s chin, her hands, and her arms. She was a sandy mess, but she couldn’t remember being this happy in a long, long time.
“Should we pack it in for the night?” Max stole a glance at her once the picnic basket sat empty between them.
Not yet. Please, not yet.“Already? Don’t we still need to go check out the area under the Salty Dog pier?”
Neither one of them had mentioned that particular spot, the site of their most recent near-kiss. Molly wondered if they’d been tap-dancing around it or if Max had simply forgotten. When his eyes met hers, she knew he hadn’t. Memories shone back at her from his irises, forget-me-not blue.
Then he shifted his gaze to the ocean and cleared his throat. “It’s getting late. Are you sure you want to go out there tonight?”
“Definitely. It’s the only place where Ursula possibly alerted that we haven’t checked.” She hedged, just in case he was purposefully avoiding revisiting that specific location with her on a moonlit night, mere hours after she’d thrown herself at him and clung to him like a barnacle. The only reason they were even sitting there alone together was because Nate had had a craving for chicken pot pie and the Charlie’s Angels had been up to their old matchmaking tricks. “If you’re up for it, that is.”
“I’m most certainly up for it,” Max said. The hint of gravel in his voice made her feel slightly less like a barnacle. More like a clingy wisp of seaweed.
Molly inhaled a ragged breath. She really needed to stop thinking in terms of ocean analogies. Hashtag #mermaidproblems.
Max’s gaze dropped to the puppy in her lap. “You don’t think Ursula is too tired, do you?”
At the sound of her name, the Cavalier’s ears twitched. She opened her eyes, and when she spied Max grinning down at her, she sprang to her feet, tail fluttering in the ocean breeze.
“You’ve awakened the beast.” Molly laughed. “Ursula is an extremely light sleeper.”
“I guess that means we don’t have a choice.” Max shrugged one strong turtle-wielding shoulder. “Wehaveto go to the pier.”