offer she hadn’t yet accepted. I don’t know how I can be a supportive, contributing partner if I’m two thousand miles away. Her words had plagued him throughout the afternoon as he’d met with his team to prepare for the week, as well as during his meeting with Brant Remington about using the marine crane to exhume the concretion.
He finally had time to take a break. He pulled out his phone, and with the brisk sea air stinging his cheeks and the world at his back, he placed a video call to Carly. When her smiling face appeared on the screen, her entrancing baby blues cut right through his tension.
“Hi, Zev!” Her hair was in a ponytail, a few blond tendrils framing her face.
“Hi, beautiful. How are you?”
Before Carly could answer, Birdie’s voice rang out. “She misses you!”
Birdie’s face appeared over Carly’s shoulder, and Quinn’s face popped up over her other shoulder. Quinn waved. It was after hours there, but he knew they were working late.
“Hi, Birdie. Hi Quinn.” He was glad Carly wasn’t alone, but he wished he was the one keeping her company. “I miss you, too, Carls.”
Birdie leaned on Carly’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. We’re taking her out to dinner so she won’t be too lonely.”
“She’s going to eat all the white chocolate if we don’t,” Quinn chimed in.
“You guys,” Carly said excitedly, “I had the best idea. We’ve been trapped in here all day. Why don’t we pick up dinner from the Wicked Spur and take it out to the lake to eat? I can swing by home and pick up a picnic blanket.”
“A picnic?” Birdie asked with a hint of distaste.
A picnic. He knew exactly what Carly was thinking.
Quinn wrinkled her nose. “Why would we sit outside with the bugs when we could eat at the Wicked Spur and listen to a band?”
Zev eyed Carly. He hadn’t realized his heart could get any fuller. He knew exactly what Carly was feeling. She’d dipped her toes back into nature and adventures. She’d had a taste of the freedoms she used to love, and now she was restless after being confined inside all day. He knew this because he felt the same about—and without—her.
“Who are you?” Birdie asked with a quizzical look. “If you suggested eating at your place so you could watch one of your boring documentaries, I’d understand. But a picnic?” She pointed at Zev and said, “This is your fault. You broke her.”
A smile lifted Carly’s lips, and she said, “No, he didn’t. He fixed me.”
That made him feel all kinds of awesome. “You were never broken, baby. There’s just a lot more to you than meets most people’s eyes.”
“Okay, then,” Quinn said. “A picnic it is. But for the record, there’s not more to me than meets the eye. I like nice restaurants where my heels won’t get stuck in the dirt.”
“I think a picnic with a guy is romantic.” Birdie patted Carly’s shoulder and said, “Just so you know, I’m not making out with either of you under the stars.”
“Okay, peanut gallery, can we have some privacy now, please?” Carly shooed them out of Zev’s view, though he could still hear them.
“I bet they want to talk dirty,” Quinn said.
“Then let’s stay!” Birdie exclaimed.
Carly glowered at them.
“We’re going,” Birdie said, and then she yelled, “Bye, Zev! We miss you, too!”
“I miss you, too,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Sorry,” Carly said softly. “They’re out of the kitchen now.”
“It’s okay. I’m glad you’re not alone. How was your day?”
“Let’s see, my morning started out great, then you left, and I cried a river, kayaked into work, and poured all of my energy into getting ready for the festival.” As she relayed her busy day, she sounded a little flat, so different from the first time she’d told him about what her job entailed.
“Are you okay?” he asked, worrying that he’d exhausted her. The last thing he wanted was to hinder her business. “I know we had a crazy week. I’m sorry if I wore you out.”
“No, I’m good. Why?”
Her words sounded too easy for the knotted gut he’d been towing around all day. “You don’t sound as enthusiastic as you had about the festival preparations.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve done the festival for years. Prep is never very exciting.”
“What else is bugging you, babe?”
She lowered her eyes, and when she lifted them, he saw trouble brewing.