“Not a good enough reason.” He hiked me up until my cheek brushed his.
I was tempted to say because he loved me, but I didn’t want to press my luck. “Onward, great steed.”
“That’s it. I’m dumping you into the ocean.”
I laughed and locked my good leg around his hips even tighter. “You’ll do no such thing.”
It was slow going up the rocks that made up the wide mouth of the cove. There was a steep drop off down to a little swimming hole in the semi-circle of rocks, but what I was interested was a little higher and to the left of the pool of choppy water.
“Up that way.”
“This better be worth it,” he said with a grunt.
I wasn’t really sure I’d find anything, but I had the same feeling as I did the other night. There was something here, I knew it.
I tried to hang onto his middle, but the splint on my ankle and his every movement seemed to make my ankle throb. I was going to need to down a bottle of Advil when this was over.
Maybe with a vodka chaser.
Finally, he stopped and lowered me against a rock that was in the crude shape of a chair. I held on to the side of it as my butt landed on the wet rock.
He bent at the waist and dragged in a breath.
“That huffing and puffing better not come with a dietary warning.”
“Lugging a twenty-pound bag would be hard, let alone a buck twenty.”
“Seventeen, thank you.”
“Excuse me.” He collapsed against the cave wall. “Where do you think she would hide something?”
“Check the little crevices for a small shelf or stone box.”
He felt along the walls. He was methodical and thorough. A helluva lot more patient than I would be, to be honest. I scooted around on the various rocks and did the lower sections of the cave.
“Are you sure it would be this side?”
“This is where she took me all the time as a kid. We used to hide conch shells with little semi-precious gems in them.”
He lifted an eyebrow at me.
I shrugged. “For the mermaids.”
“Of course.”
“Can’t live on the beach as a kid—especially one named Lady’s Cove—without stories of mermaids and crashed ships.”
“I suppose not.”
We kept searching. My fingers were almost numb, but I kept moving down the rocks. Finally, a piece fell away. “Blake.”
He backtracked to crouch beside me. “What’d you find?”
“A shelf. I can feel something.”
“Let me.”