Chapter 25

Dane grabbed Zoe and put distance between them and the man's boat before the Coast Guard arrived with their questions and forms. When they returned to the boat he'd rented, he first unlocked the glove box and checked his phone. Six missed calls from a blocked number. He called Miriam, reassuring her they were okay and giving her the condensed version of what made them take so long to check in.

Zoe was better with people than any other person he knew. She moved to the bow of the boat and lay on her back, likely contemplating what had just happened down there. He opened the box that held the phone and took out some drinks. He crawled up and lay next to her. The waves rocked them as the sun warmed and dried.

Distant sounds of laughter and hoots of successful dives carried on around them, but they were alone. Alone on their boat island for some well-needed R & R.

"How is she?" Zoe asked, referring to Miriam.

"Spooked that we didn't call. She's starting to act motherly."

Zoe lifted her brows. "Which is creepy since she was dating my brother."

A small moment of silence followed her light mention of Seth. It was the first flippant comment he could remember about him since... well... since he went missing. "You were amazing down there."

She didn't deny it but didn't agree either.

A look of deep concentration came over her face. She rotated and sat, crossing her legs and facing him. "Thank you for this," she said and gestured to the water around them. "But it's not Australia. I'm keeping you from what you love. From what you want."

Frustrated, he sat and faced her. "Babe." He looked from one of her eyes to the other, searching for something. He wasn't sure what. Taking both of her hands between one of his, he reached in his pocket. "You are what I love. You are what I want."

He took the ring and held it out to her. "I want to love you forever. I want to share a home with you. I want you to have our children. I want you to say you'll marry me."

"I can't breathe." Tears ran freely down her flushed cheeks. She shook her hands like she'd just burned them. But she wasn't holding out any fingers and certainly not the one on her left hand.

"Will you marry me?" he said, no longer relieved.

"Yes," she said and tackled him to the fiberglass, nearly making him drop the ring. Her lips were soft and eager, and they were his. Forever. He pushed the cowboy hat from her wet hair and laced the fingers from his free hand through the waves of brown. Only Zoe Clearwater would forget about the ring, he thought, as fervent lips found his and strong arms wrapped around his back.

He pushed away and lifted, propping himself on an elbow. He held out the ring and turned his head, keeping his eyes on her expression.

The green sparkled as she studied it like a treasure unearthed from deep in the sand. Pointing to each of the smaller diamonds, she said, "These are you and I." Then, she tapped the larger stone in the middle. "This is us when we're together. Bigger. Stronger. It's beautiful. Thank you." Her tears dripped on the back of his hand as he slipped it on her finger.

He groaned and lowered himself over her.

* * *

"Other than the Tiki Bar, Show Me's is the only other place on the island with dancing," Zoe said to Raine. She didn't want to have an engagement announcement party without one of her sisters. And the Tiki Bar was out of the question. The owners had found a federal loophole and broke every turtle-safe law on the island. "Mom and Dad are coming. Come on. It's a Monday night, and we're meeting at eight. What else do you have to do?"

Raine sat on her heels in the sand, her knees resting on a towel. "Maybe I have a date."

Zoe let out a long laugh.

Since federal and state laws require nest excavations seven days after hatching, Raine had an arm nearly shoulder deep in the hole she'd dug. Since this was a green nest, the hole would need to go deeper yet. Zoe vowed to get her excavation and relocation permit this winter when Raine offered her courses for the island volunteers.

"All right, I'll go, but if Blake Eaton is there, I'm not making any promises about keeping my mouth shut."

"Dear sister, we wouldn't expect any less of you." There was good reason Raine was the way she was. She devoted her life to the conservation of a species only to pull in adults that had been drowned from fishing nets or ropes. She'd peeled hatchlings off the road from disorientations that took them inward toward illegal lighting. She'd saved grown turtles with boat propeller cuts so brutally deep, she didn't see how they survived. Often times, they didn't.

Zoe looked around as Raine pulled out the first dead hatchling. Yes. She knew why Raine was the way she was. It was hard to watch, so Zoe forced her gaze outward. The water was choppy, but it didn't seem to scare the children or the birds. The children rushed the waves, diving fearlessly into them. The birds ran in and out like the water was moving lava.

She could spot a local, and she could spot a tourist. She appreciated both. The former gave the island roots and TLC. The latter provided life to Ibis.

The man she spotted didn't fit either description. It wasn't Chief Roberts. She would recognize him even out of his uniform and uncharacteristically out of his office. The man wore new sandals much too expensive for trudging through the sand. His Bermuda shorts still held the seams from sitting folded on a shelf in a clothing store. Regardless, she rubbed the spot on her arm where Roberts had bruised her even though the mark was long gone.

"We've got a live one," Raine announced.

Sure enough, tenderly, Raine pulled out a tiny, squirming hatchling. She held it between its back and underside as its flippers tried to swim away in the air. Placing it in the box top Raine had prepared next to the nest, she reached in and found another. And another. Soon, she had five piles. Dead turtles, live ones, unfertilized eggs, shell fragments, and full shells for tallying data. All would be recorded on the nest's data page on her tablet and eventually reported to the state.

Soon, Zoe vowed. She would no longer be the only Clearwater sister who couldn't hold one of those little guys.

* * *

Matt sat at his desk staring at Zoe and Dane like he was analyzing them. He had yet to say anything other than empty introductions.

"You're engaged," he said as a statement, then glanced over his desk at her left hand.

So he could get a better view, she lifted her hand and wiggled her ring finger. "I don't wear the ring in public. We aren't seen together in public."

"Except Show Me's."

"We were the only ones in the parking lot that night."

"And Luciana's."

"We were the only ones in the entire bar. Are you worried someone else from Ibis might have been in the Florida Keys at the same time we were, too?"

"Yes."

Zoe sighed. Cops were thorough. "Why did you bring us here?"

"I'm moving Miriam."

Her shoulders fell. "Why?" It was a dumb question. He'd basically told her why, but she still couldn't believe it. She'd failed her. She was supposed to watch out for Miriam, for her brother's lover. And she failed?

Matt had already been painfully right once. He'd told her she may have wanted it to be murder. It might have been easier for Seth's disappearance to be solely someone else's fault rather than a diving accident that would have been prevented if she were with him. If someone wanted him dead, they would have done it with or without her. She wasn't about to let her conscience do anything like that to Seth again.

"If she's safer somewhere else, so be it."

"What?" Dane interrupted. "Who could possibly think she's at my house? What would they find if they did? The blinds are all drawn, just as they've been for weeks, no, months."

"I have connections in Reno and Chicago. She'll be safe."

"Will you send her to Reno?" Zoe asked, knowing it was petty. "She would like Reno. But Chicago? No offense."

Matt shook his head but said, "I can probably have that arranged." He stood and held out his hand. "Congratulations on the engagement."

Dane shook with him before Matt held his hand out to her. He shook like a man, but Zoe was a Clearwater. She pulled him across his desk and gave him an a-frame hug.

* * *

Eli stood at the entrance to the bar section of Show Me's. He looked down at little Chloe and scowled.

"It's a party, Eli," Zoe begged. "We'll only be a short while."

"I can't let her in. You know that." He looked around, then leaned to Zoe's ear. "But if you go through the dining area and take some family pictures of the sunset, you might just end up in the bar from that side of the beach." He stood back up, stone-faced like a heartless bouncer.

The place was nearly empty. They were the first ones there from their group. Only a few small clusters of forty-plus men and women out for an early drink.

And Dane.

He sat with one hip on a bar stool, sipping from a bottle. He wore faded jeans with real shoes. His shirt was probably a size too small, and hugged the muscles in his shoulders. This was her man... her fiancé. It sent chills from her head to her toes. He winked as soon as he spotted her, lifting his bottle in an imaginary cheer.

Then he turned to Chloe. "Look who showed up to crash the party," he said as he approached them. Chloe blushed. He called to the bartender and ordered her a ginger ale with a little paper umbrella.

They started trailing in. Her father, her mother, Willow. Liam came later with Raine close behind. The ring rested safely in the tiny pocket of her sundress. Tonight, she wore her cowboy hat out of celebration versus necessity.

They sat around the large group of tables Dane had already moved together. Her family sat on one side with the two of them on the other. He looked at the hands of each of her family members, Liam's, too. Checking their hands to see if they had drinks? He must have been satisfied because he curled his hand around her waist and lifted. It was firm and strong and took away any nerves that threatened to creep up her spine.

"Thank you for coming out tonight. We have an announcement," he said.

They'd discussed this. As a couple. As a team. Each set of eyes lifted toward them in unison. He dug his thumb and forefinger in the tiny pocket of her cotton dress. "I realize there's a lot going on right now, but I want you to be the first to know—well, first after Miriam who was sort of there—Zoe has agreed to marry me."

She had no idea if he had more to say. And it didn't matter since her family erupted in cheers so loud, they drowned out the music. Glasses were lifted and clanked. Everyone hugged everyone, including the men. You would think they'd won the Lotto. Each abandoned the cluster of tables and pulled one another out to dance in celebration. Her father with her mother, Liam with Chloe, Willow alone, much like she used to do around their childhood firepit, dancing to fictitious sand gods.

"This is the second best day of my life," Zoe said as his hips seduced her to the beat of island bongo drums and snares.

When the song finished, he dipped her dramatically and kissed her long and hard. The silence was sudden. It took her a moment to escape the imaginary bubble she'd placed herself in with Dane. When she opened her eyes, Dane was looking toward the door. Stone-faced. Defiant. He pulled her up and twined his arms around her.

Moving her gaze in the direction of his, she spotted them standing in a line. The Sun Trips crew. In a quick head count, she thought it might have been every single one of them. Each of them staring at their embrace. And the ring that glittered in the dance lights.

"I told them to come," he said stoically without moving his glare from them. "Mandatory staff meeting over a few complimentary beers."

Zoe nearly fell over herself as she straightened her dress. The same looks ensued, Greg looked to Lilly elbowing her in the ribs as he leaned over to gossip in her ear. In fact, each one of them seemed to hold some sort of silent communication.

It was the damnedest thing. Before she could lift her hands in an effort to explain, the group lifted their arms and cheered louder than her family. Her eyes darted to Dane's, his to hers. Rounds of firm pats on the back and shoulders followed congratulations and comments of, "It's about time, man."

She could hardly get her mouth to open, let alone speak any coherent words. Relief flooded her. Closure fulfilled her. It was a good night. A great night.