~Lena~
If I thought the flight earlier today was bumpy, I was mistaken. That was mild compared to the flight we’re on now.
“Seriously, are they aiming for the rough air?” I ask and hold onto the armrest for dear life.
“This is a smaller plane,” Mason replies. “It can’t fly as high as commercial flights. So, yeah, we’re going to hit more air.”
“It’s not a good time.” I swallow hard and wipe the sweat from my forehead.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He kisses my cheek and just takes my hand in his. We’re both seated with our belts on, and he’s not offering to do me on the floor of the plane, so it’s definitely a rough ride.
“We’ll be landing soon. Sorry for the bumpy ride, folks,” the pilot says over the sound system.
“Ugh.” I shut my eyes, but that just makes it worse.
“Have you always had motion sickness?” Mason asks.
“Yeah.” I shrug. “It’s gotten better as I’ve gotten older, but I avoid theme parks. Rides aren’t fun for me. Do you like the big roller coasters?”
“I haven’t spent a lot of time on them,” he says, shaking his head. “But I do love things like the Eye in London, or a ferry ride around Seattle.”
“Big kid rides,” I reply with a smile. We’re descending, and the plane isn’t bouncing around quite as bad now. “I wonder where we’re going now?”
“I think we’re headed east.”
“How do you know?”
He tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Just a hunch.”
Just when I think the plane is leveling off and I might catch a break from the turbulence, it starts again, but worse this time.
The next thirty minutes are the worst of my life. Finally, when we’re on the ground, all I can do is breathe in and out through my nose.
“Are you okay?” Mason asks. I quickly shake my head no. “No more hunting today. We’ll go to the hotel and regroup.”
“It’ll be okay.”
“No.” The tone of his voice makes me turn to look at him. “This isn’t a race, Lena. We can take the rest of today to relax and get back at it tomorrow.”
“I could use some down time,” I admit. Even though I’ve done a lot of sitting in planes or cars between the actual events, I’m exhausted. “Traveling is exhausting.”
“Absolutely.” As soon as the plane stops and the pilot opens the cockpit door, Mason takes my hand and helps me stand. The pilot hands him an envelope and when we deplane, there’s another car waiting for us.
“Welcome,” an older woman says as we approach the car. “I’m not supposed to tell you much of anything except here is an envelope with your hotel information. Just let the hotel know when you’re finished and ready to leave and the plane will be ready for you.”
Mason nods, but all I can do is scowl.
More flights.
Yuck.
We get in the car, but before we can read the clue, my phone pings with a text from Mallory.
Are you in North Carolina yet?
I frown and call her, putting her on speaker phone.
“Hey,” she says. “Are you and the sexy Captain America in North Carolina?”
I smirk. “I don’t know, but the sexy Captain America, aka Indiana Jones, can hear you. You’re on speaker.”
“Hi, Mason,” she says.
“Hello, Mallory.”
“I think you look like Chris Evans with darker hair.”
“I will take that as a compliment.”
“Oh, it is,” she insists. “Pretty much every woman in America wants to do Captain America.”
Mason laughs, and I slap my hand over my eyes, mortified.
“So are you in North Carolina?”
“I don’t know,” I reply. “We just landed. How do you know where we might be?”
“Uh, psychic, remember?”
“Right.” I giggle and Mason checks his phone.
“We’re in North Carolina,” he confirms. “Charlotte, to be exact.”
“Okay, well, you guys have fun.”
“Love you,” I reply. “Good bye.”
“Bye!”
I hang up and sigh loudly. “She’s brutally honest.”
“Do you want to do Captain America?” he asks, his lips twitching with humor.
“I mean, I probably wouldn’t turn him down.” I shrug. “But I don’t think you look like him.”
“No?”
“No.” I shake my head and decide, what the hell? I don’t have anything to lose. “I think you’re better looking.”
“Now you’re just feeding my ego.”
“No. You’re pretty sexy. You always were.”
He kisses the back of my hand. “Thank you.”
I open the hotel envelope and am relieved to see on an included map that we don’t have far to go to reach our accommodations. “This is nearby.”
“Excellent.”
Once we’re checked in and we arrive at the room, all I want to do is order room service and pass out. But when we walk inside, I can’t help but notice that there’s only one bed.
“Was this your doing, or a mistake by the hotel?”
“It’s no mistake,” he replies easily, setting our bags by the closet. “I don’t plan to sleep without you again in the near future.”
But then you’ll leave and I’ll be sleeping alone again.
I don’t say that; I simply raise a brow. “What if I don’t want to sleep with you?”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Would you prefer your own bed?”
“No.”
He advances on me, slowly, those grey eyes still narrowed. He looks quite menacing, but I don’t move an inch. I raise my chin as he gets closer, maintaining eye contact.
“Are you being sassy?”
“I don’t know if you know this about me,” I reply, “but I am quite sassy all the time.”
“Are you still feeling ill?”
“A little. But now that I’m on the ground, it’s not so bad.”
“Good. Because I’d like to get you naked and make you moan under me.”
“Can we get food too?”
He smiles now. “Yes. Moaning is first.”
“Food first,” I reply sternly. “I’m hungry. I need the calories.”
He shrugs. “I can compromise.”
“Good.” I nod and turn to walk away, but he catches my arm and spins me back to him, pressing me against him. He cups my cheek and kisses me long and slow, making my whole body hum.
“There is no one else I’d rather be on this adventure with,” he says softly. “Thank you for agreeing to come. You’re amazing.”
“I’m amazingly hungry,” I reply and kiss him again. “And you’re welcome.”
***
“The hills are as green as what you’ll find inside them.”
Mason reads the clue the next morning and frowns.
“Emeralds,” I reply.
“How do you come to that?”
“Well, we’ve done nothing but chase precious stones, and I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that stones are our theme. Emeralds are green.”
“Makes sense,” he says with a nod. “I’ll bet there’s an emerald mine nearby.”
Google is my friend, and doesn’t disappoint. “There’s a place called Emerald Hollow Mine not far from here.”
“Let’s go,” he says. Once in the car, headed down the highway, I slide my sunglasses on and reach over for his hand.
“I wonder how many of these she’s going to have us do?”
“No idea,” he says. “But I’m having fun with you.”
“Me too.” I grin and roll my window down to enjoy the sunshine. The air smells fresh. “It’s a beautiful day.”
Before long, we arrive at the public mine and walk into the small office. We’re greeting by a man with kind eyes and permanently dirty skin.
“We’ve been expecting you,” he says with a smile. “Come with me.”
We follow him out to a huge field of nothing but dirt. He passes us each a shovel and a bucket. “All you have to do is fill your buckets and then meet me over at that covered area and we’ll sift through it. You might get lucky and find some emeralds.”
He nods and walks away.
“He’s a man of few words,” I mutter. “And we get to dig in the dirt. Again.”
Mason chuckles and sticks his shovel in the dirt. “A little dirt never hurt anyone.”
“No, but you’re used to digging around in it. I’m not.”
“Do you want me to fill your bucket?”
“No.” I follow his lead and scoop dirt into my bucket. “I didn’t say I couldn’t do it.”
He nods and waits for me to finish with my bucket and then leads me over to the covered area where several people are sitting, sifting their dirt through contraptions very similar to the one we used at the opal mine.
An hour later, and five emeralds richer, we leave the mine, headed toward the airport with a new clue envelope.
“I’m gonna open it.”
“Do it,” Mason says.
I scan it and frown. “Your last clue was your last clue. You’ll be flown to your final destination, and all will be revealed to you there.”
“We’re almost done,” he says and glances my way.
“Time sure flies when you’re having fun.” My voice is light, but I can’t help but feel sad. We have one more adventure, probably just one more night together, and then we’ll go our separate ways again. I’ve known from the beginning that it would end like this, but saying goodbye is going to hurt.
If I didn’t know better, I’d say that I was falling in love with Mason Coulter all over again.
But I’m not. I can’t.
Because he isn’t going to stay.
We’re quiet as Mason drives us back to the airport and we board the plane. Our bags are taken care of.
“I’m going to miss being pampered like this.” I grin and grab a bottle of water on my way to my seat. “A girl doesn’t get to fly in a private plane every day.”
He smiles softly as he watches me uncap the bottle and take a sip.
“What are your plans for the rest of the summer?” he asks as we begin to taxi to the runway.
“Mallory’s talked me into using her husband’s home in Italy for about a month.”
He cocks a brow. “Who is Mallory married to?”
“Beau Boudreaux. His family owns Bayou Enterprises.”
“Yes, I’ve heard of them. You’ll love Italy.”
“I’ve never been off of North America,” I reply with a smile. “So it’ll be fun to explore somewhere new. How about you? What are your plans?”
“I left a job in Chile to come here and take care of Aunt Claudia’s things. I’ll head back down there to finish the job.”
“How much longer until that one’s finished?” I ask.
“About two years,” he replies and laughs when I cough, choking on the sip of water I just took.
“Two years?”
“Yes. We’ve discovered a new Mayan burial place, and we’ve found several mummies. I’m quite sure there’s more to discover in the caves, but it’s a process, and it takes a while to get permission from the government. Every time we want to explore a new cave we have to apply for a permit.”
“Wow.” Two fucking years. “And then what?”
“The next dig,” he says with a shrug. “There’s always something new to find.”
I nod, feeling defeated. Now that I know our trip is almost over, I feel overwhelming melancholy. The trip to Italy was absolutely the right decision. I’ll need the distraction from missing Mason all over again.
“Get comfortable, folks,” the pilot says over the loud speaker, “we have a four and a half hour flight ahead of us.”
I kick my shoes off, and reach for my carry on bag. I packed some yoga pants in case we had a long trip ahead of us today.
I stand and shimmy out of my jeans, then slide the yoga pants on and settle in my seat again.
“You’re prepared,” Mason says.
“Hell yes. Jeans are not comfortable to travel in.”
He nods and pulls his iPad out of his bag, but before he can wake it up and do whatever it was he was going to do, I climb into his lap and lean my head on his shoulder.
“You okay?” he asks softly.
“Yeah. I’m just going to enjoy you while you’re here.”
He sighs and brushes his fingers up and down my arm.
“You can sit here for as long as you need.”
I can’t reply. I simply nod and settle in closer, listening to his heartbeat.