Found at Sea - By Anne Marie Duquette Page 0,93
a thing for a while.”
He still stood and glanced at her paperwork. “No wonder you needed that shot.”
“Insurance forms,” Aurora said with a grimace. “Police forms. Health forms. Overdue bills.”
“Pretty dull stuff.”
“Yeah—easier to do with pain meds.” She shrugged. “Gerald offered to finish them for me, but I’ve got the time. I can only watch so much TV, closed-captioned or not. He said he’ll review them after I finish.”
“How are your ears?” he asked.
“Healing. Where have you been?” she asked abruptly.
“Taking care of business. Then fighting my own cowardice.”
“An honest answer. Who were you afraid to face? Me?”
He grabbed the top rail of the safety bars and held tight, noticing she held just as tightly to her pen. “Yeah.”
“Why? So you could dump your useless partner with no fuss, no muss?”
Jordan hesitated. “I thought you’d be dumping me.”
“But I made you break the law,” Aurora said.
“No, I ruined your dive career.”
“I ruined your salvage operation. The San Rafael is gone.”
“Only because I had a helicopter circle over it. And my family—Flores—was responsible for the loss of your ship...Neptune’s Bride.”
“You didn’t set the fire. You saved my sister. You saved my life.”
“You made me fall in love with you.”
“What?” Aurora’s loud exclamation caused Dorian to murmur. Both froze until she rolled over and went back to sleep.
“I did salvage something,” Jordan said.
“Forget the salvage.”
“There was this necklace...”
“You still love me?”
“...tangled up with the dead diver’s tank.”
“You really still love me? You haven’t changed your mind?”
“I found the necklace when I went back to see if he was still alive. He wasn’t, of course—”
“Jordan!”
“But then I got the idea of using his tank for your second decompression. I put the necklace in my dive jacket. The bishop’s bank has it right now. They’ve already given us an advance on its sale. I’ve sent my family money, and you can do the same, if you want.”
Aurora clasped her hands together in joy. “Your family will be okay?”
“Yours and mine. So will you marry me?”
“Wait a minute. The necklace was so valuable that you got an advance on its sale? Did I hear you right?”
“Yep. It’s full of jewels. So will you?”
“How many jewels?”
Jordan exhaled. She was torturing him, pure and simple, by not answering his question. “It’s a three-yard chain of 24-karat gold, studded with a diamond cross and fourteen emerald crystals, each carved and symbolizing the Way of the Cross.”
“Huh?”
“The story of what’s called Christ’s Passion—the Crucifixion. Each scene is carved on huge emeralds, most over fifty carats. Each emerald alone—not taking into account the historic value—is valued in the millions. We have bids coming in from all over the world, including the Vatican.”
“Wow! So you want to marry me?”
“Yes.”
Jordan watched as Aurora reached for him, then pulled back, her fingers pointing to her ears. “Like this?”
“I’ll be dive master and dive for us both. You’ll be our ship’s captain. We can still salvage. Or move to land. I don’t care, as long as our families are taken care of. We’ll do whatever you want—except plan jailbreaks.”
Aurora smiled. “You don’t have any more evil cousins, do you?”
“I hope not. Even if I do, you’ll be safe with me.”
“Are you saying I’m the best treasure you’ve ever found?”
Jordan groaned. “This isn’t the movies, Aurora. You get the guy and the gold and everything—but must you have the sappy speech, too?”
“I want a sappy speech. I demand a sappy speech. After everything I’ve been through, I deserve a sappy speech!”
“Fine. How’s this?” He lowered the bed rail, leaned close to her mouth and said, “Kiss me.”
She did. Her papers and pen slid to the floor. They didn’t stop kissing until the hospital loudspeaker came on, announcing that visiting hours were over.
“I liked your speech. Short, sweet and to the point. But you forgot the sappy part,” Aurora said. “Try again.”
Jordan bent over and picked up the fallen papers. “You’d better give this to Gerald after all. We have a wedding to plan. How’s that, my future wife?”
Aurora sighed with bliss. “It’ll do.”
EPILOGUE
Pacific Ocean, off the San Diego coast
Two years later, May
THE CALIFORNIA SUN broke through the evening haze for a spectacular burst of brilliant color. Tangerine-orange blended with guava-pink and a blush of rose to swirl across the sky, the sun a shimmering disk barely skimming the horizon.
Aboard the Neptune’s Bride Too, their day-trip craft, Jordan Castillo and his wife leaned against the railing, shoulder to shoulder. His arm encircled her waist, while the couple each held a glass in honor of their second