Apple of My Eye (Tiger's Eye Mystery #7) - Alyssa Day Page 0,25

stood glaring up at me.

"You're blocking the pickles, and I need pickles for my digestion," she informed me at the top of her lungs.

"I'm sorry." I hastily moved my cart out of the way.

"Wait! Since you're here, you may as well reach those pickles on the top shelf down for me," she commanded. "You're tall enough."

"Yes, ma'am." I got her pickles, accepted her grudging thanks, and headed for the checkout.

Atlantis.

No. He had to be kidding.

He wasn't kidding.

I was so anxious and, honestly, stressed out of my mind, that I was completely ready to go by five thirty. I'd tried calling Jack back, but it had rung through to voice mail, which meant either that he was busy or that he didn't want to answer any more questions.

It was driving me nuts.

I was wearing the green dress and my best pair of black patent heels that weren't too high but were still totally gorgeous, and I suddenly realized I didn’t have a current passport. I'd applied for one when I was sixteen and had dreamed dreams of Europe, but they expired in ten years, didn't they? Would I even need one to enter Atlantis? Was this really happening to me?

Would my 'gift' work on Atlanteans?

I didn't know the answer to any of the questions buzzing around my mind like bees on a caffeine overload.

This is why, when Jack knocked and opened my door, I was kneeling on the floor in front of the open wooden chest that usually served as my coffee table, bent over, head and shoulders deep in piles of paper, photographs, and all sorts of scrapbook-worthy keepsakes that I kept meaning to go through and sort out and never did.

Unfortunately, this meant that my butt was up in the air and pointing toward the door.

This was not how I'd wanted to start off our long-awaited first date.

"I feel like anything I say right now is going to be wrong," Jack said, his voice full of suppressed laughter.

I pushed myself up, brushed my hair out of my face, and stood, clutching my passport in triumph.

"I found it!"

But Jack didn't seem to care what I'd found. His mouth fell open a little, and his eyes heated up until they almost glowed.

"Tess. Every time I think you can't possibly be as beautiful as I remember, you turn out to be even more so." His voice was low and husky, and I could feel my face heating up.

My ridiculous Irish skin blushed way too easily.

"Thanks. Right back at you." It was true.

The man was absolutely gorgeous.

He wore black pants, a white, button-down shirt, and even a sleek gray tie with a thin red pinstripe. But, Jack being Jack, the jacket he carried over one arm was leather, not a suit jacket.

"Jack. Quit kidding around. We're not really going to Atlantis, are we?" I felt silly even asking, standing there holding my expired, never-used passport in my hand, which I would not need, because we were not going to Atlantis.

Maybe he didn't even know any Atlanteans. Maybe the stories he'd told us had been made up.

But… no. Jack wasn't a liar. He might conceal things he felt were other people's tales to tell, but he wasn't a liar. But…

"Atlantis?" I prompted, because he seemed to be frozen, just staring at me in such obvious appreciation that I wanted to capture this moment to remember forever.

"Right. Sorry. You are very distracting." He took the passport out of my hand, dropped it back in the chest, and grinned. "You won't need this. Are you ready?"

"I have to be back tonight. I have to work in the morning," I warned him, still not sure what exactly was happening. "And I won't ride in a helicopter. Uncle Mike says they're death traps."

He laughed and caught Lou in midair when she launched herself at him, then put her back on the couch and scratched behind her ears. "No helicopters. And I'll have you back tonight. I just wanted our first date—that we finally get to go on after all these months—to be special. Also, I wanted it to be somewhere out of cell phone range. Dead End and all of its residents will have to get by on their own for the evening."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him. "This is going to be the best first date ever, I promise. After all, I have a lot to live up to, I hear."

I narrowed my eyes. "What does that mean?"

"Mike told me that Owen took you