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“Oh, just counting the ways.”
“What ways?”
I toyed with my fork and looked up into those blue eyes that mesmerized me. “The ways I adore you. The ways you make me happy. The ways I count myself lucky that I met you here. Those ways.”
He leaned forward and took my hands. “I do that too, Nickels. More times a day than you can comprehend.”
The words spread warmth through me.
Diego returned with our drinks and the bottle of champagne, which he opened with a flourish before pouring flutes for each of us.
“To us,” Josh said raising his champagne glass. “To us as a team.”
I lifted my glass and clinked with his. “To us as a team.” As I took in the man in front of me, I knew we’d become a team, both in and out of work.
We sipped and went back to our meals.
I thought about how we’d progressed from antagonism to lovers in the truest sense of the word. I loved everything about this man, from the way he danced as he cooked, to the way he made me feel with every look and every touch, and the little two-line poems he left for me.
I lifted another bite of my penne marinara to my mouth. “How long are they going to hold that table?”
Josh looked over and shrugged. “Who knows? Diego said it was some large family event.”
Right next to us, in the direction of the beach, they’d put several tables together for a large group that so far was a no-show.
Josh chewed a mouthful of his steak. He’d fallen behind in the food race while recounting how many times he’d noticed me watching him those few days here before the night where I fell into the pool.
He checked his watch. “It’s time.”
It was three hours earlier in California, and Ernst was due to be sentenced in the late afternoon. He’d been charged with four murders and had pled guilty already.
It turns out Daddy had uncovered his scheme to siphon money out of the company and confronted him. That started the chain of events that had devastated my family. Ernst had killed Maro, and even Lara’s boyfriend, Vern, to keep people away from the trees that hid where he’d buried my parents. And he’d recruited Stephanie Quantell into his scheme after the money he’d stolen from my parents ran out.
Stephanie hadn’t been found yet. Her trail had gone cold.
My neighbor Hugo Lenz had been the one to plant the note Lara found. He’d put it in the almond trees, expecting Ernst to find it. Lenz had seen Ernst kill Vern, but he hadn’t come forward back then because of his immigration status. Instead he’d left town.
He’d recently gotten a green card and returned. But his plan to trap Ernst had been thwarted by Ernst planting the bloody glove on Lenz’s property and calling in a tip to get him arrested.
I ate as Josh watched his phone.
Finally, it dinged.
“It’s done,” he said. “Twenty-five to life.”
To me, it seemed too little. “I should have shot him.” I sighed.
“No,” Josh said forcefully. “You did the right thing by not letting him pull you down to his level.”
I knew Josh was right. I’d traded regret over that one moment for a lifetime of possibilities with the man across from me.
I pushed my plate away. “I’m full.” Even after a full lunch, Josh had insisted I join him for chicken satay and spring rolls mid-afternoon, along with a mai tai. With the mimosa at breakfast, my liver was getting a workout on this trip.
Josh waived Diego over again. “One tiramisu to share, please.”
“I’m stuffed,” I complained.
“Last time you jumped into the pool to avoid it.”
