Don't Tempt Me (38 page)

"I don't know. Just thinking, I suppose."

"About ... ?"

"What you said last night. You know, about Jack wanting us to find the horn. While we were down there I guess I started expecting ... never mind."

"That he'd guide us right to it?"

"Something like that." She blushed.

He tipped his head to see her face better. "Maybe you should listen harder."

"Maybe I should stick with searching my pattern like I've been trained to do."

"Jackie, sometimes you have to stop listening to your head, and listen to your heart. Like sailing or cooking; half science, half instinct. Follow your instincts. What can it hurt?"

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "It's going to take long enough doing this the right way. Let's not get sidetracked."

"All right. We'll do it your way."

On the next dive, Chico pestered both of them nonstop, swimming in close like he wanted to be petted, then darting off if they reached for him. Jackie tried to ignore him and concentrate on the metal detector. Like the first dive, though, the hour ended all too quickly.

They surfaced with the sun already low in the sky. "Dammit," she said, after inflating her vest. "I really thought we'd find a coin or button or something. Anything."

"We'll search more tomorrow." Bobbing beside her, Adrian wiped a hand over his mouth to clear away the salt water.

She looked at the sun, which hung low in the sky. "Actually, let's go down one more time today."

"Three dives in one day? That's a lot of time at sixty feet. Besides, we'll be pushing nightfall."

"I know. I just want something to go on tomorrow. If you're willing."

He gave her a look that was part fondness, part impatience. "I told you, woman, I'm with you on this all the way to the end. If you want to go back down, we'll go back down."

She looked at him, smiling as love filled her. "Okay, then." She nodded. "One more dive."

Shortly before dusk, with the family gathered once again on the dock, they slipped back into the water. Chico was waiting for them by the ship, but the minute Jackie turned on her metal detector, he raced off toward the mouth of the cove. She shook her head, amused even though his game had started to annoy her.

He returned a few minutes later, watched her for a while, then swam in and goosed her with his nose before taking off. Incredulous, she turned and exchanged a look with Adrian.
Did you see that?

He just shrugged, but his eyes were laughing.

She glared in the direction the dolphin had gone, wondering what the point was to playing keep away when he didn't have anything he was keeping away.

Or did he?

A tingling started along her skin, like a faint echo of what she'd felt all those months ago. She looked at Adrian again, and found him patiently watching her.

Listen to your heart.

He was right about so many things, maybe he was right about this, too. Dredging up some shred of faith, she gazed off toward the mouth of the cove and opened her heart.

Jack, are you out there?
As if in answer, the tingling intensified.

She looked back at Adrian and reached for her light. In perfect understanding, he handed it to her and motioned for her to lead the way. She swam slowly through the murky water, quickly losing sight of everything but the brown haze. A part of her scoffed at the stupidity of what she was doing, but the farther she swam, the more compelled she felt to continue.

Without warning, they hit a pocket of cold water and the haze cleared as if they'd entered a dome-shaped chamber that the silt couldn't penetrate. In the center of the pocket, Chico swam in a tight circle. She exchanged a look with Adrian, saw her own excitement reflected in his eyes.

Together, they swam for the spot directly beneath the dolphin. When they reached it, she waved the detector over the area. It registered a small amount of gold close to the surface. She looked at Adrian, her heart racing. He took her light and nodded for her to dig.

She waved her hand, fanning away surface silt, until she uncovered a mud-caked object. Cleaning it off, then stared in wonder at what she held. The powder horn completely intact. She looked at Adrian, stunned. He gestured toward the surface.

They swam in tandem, her heart racing the whole way up. They broke the surface to find full night had fallen. Adrian raised a light and waved it toward the inn. His family came charging down the hill as they swam to the pier.

"You found something?" Rory called.

"The powder horn!" Adrian called back. Hooking one arm about the ladder, he motioned for Jackie to precede him. "Jackie found it!"

She lifted her metal detector for Chance to grab. "I need a bucket of fresh water."

"I got it." Scott grabbed a bucket from the storage bin and filled it from the hose.

When Jackie scrambled up the ladder, everyone gathered around her, trying to see the powder horn in the faint light. She submerged it in the bucket, though, so it wouldn't dry out and crack.

"Let's get it to the inn," Adrian said. "Where we have light."

"Do you think the necklace is inside?" Allison asked as they moved in a tight group up the path to the inn with Scott carrying the bucket.

"There's something inside it," Jackie said as they reached the veranda. "My metal detector says it's gold."

"Here, have a towel." Allison handed them each one for a quick rubdown before they went inside.

Still chilled from the water, Jackie shivered as the air-conditioned air hit her. "Should we take it to the kitchen, clean it off and open it up?"

"No," Allison said. "I want to open it in the office."

Jackie looked at her in surprise, but noticed Rory and Adrian were nodding.

"The office, definitely," Adrian said. When Jackie sent him a questioning look, he smiled and turned to Allison.

"We've never felt Marguerite in the back of the house," Allison explained. "Only in the areas that face the cove. We thought she might want in on this."

"Okay," Jackie conceded, no longer one to scoff after what had just happened in the cove. She motioned to Scott. "The office it is."

Rory hurried ahead and spread papers over the desk. Scott set the bucket down on the paper as Chance flipped on the floor lamp. Her hands shaking, Jackie into the water, hope shimmering through her. Keeping the horn submerged, she gently cleaned the surface, then lifted it out long enough for them to have a look.

"Well?" Chance asked Scott. "Does it match the horn in the drawings you found?"

"Absolutely." Scott grinned broadly. "See, there's George Washington's initials."

"But is the necklace inside?" Allison asked.

"Let's see." Holding her breath, Jackie gently eased off the leather end. It resisted, then came away, intact, thank goodness. She looked inside and smiled, then glanced at the expectant faces before reaching in to lift out the object inside.

A gold chain dangled from her fingers, sparkling in the light from the lamp. And hanging from the chain was a large pearl in the shape of a teardrop, with a ring of diamonds resting on top like a crown.

For a heartbeat, no one moved.

"I can't believe it," Rory finally whispered.

"I can," Adrian said as Jackie returned the horn to the protection of the water.

"It's so beautiful," Allison breathed. "More so than I imagined."

"Can we hold it?" Rory asked.

Jackie held it out to them, enjoying the look of awe on all their faces. Rory took it, and gasped the moment the pearl nestled into the palm of her hand. "Allison, feel this."

Wonder filled Allison's eyes when she held it. "It tingles like ... magic."

Adrian held out his hand, accepting it. He studied it a long time. "No. Like hope. I think that was Marguerite's magic. She never stopped hoping and dreaming. Her love for life was infectious. She made people believe in possibilities. Even Henri. But he didn't understand it. He just tried to possess it, control it, keep it to himself. But you can't own hope, any more than you can own someone's heart."

"Yes," Allison agreed softly. "Which was why she gave the necklace, and her heart, to Jack."

"And in doing so, she gave him back hope," Adrian said. "Hope for himself. Hope for their future."

"No wonder he couldn't leave it to sink with the ship," Rory added.

Jackie stared at the necklace resting in Adrian's palm, marveling at how it gleamed in the soft light of the office. "Too bad you have to give it to the state."

Allison smiled at her siblings. "We never told them about the necklace. Only the powder horn."

"That's true." Scott nodded gravely.

"We'll have to tell them," Chance said, earning a scowl from the others.

"I agree." Jackie nodded. "It's the only honorable thing to do."

"But" ---Rory looked at all of them ---"why should they get it when we found it?"

"For Jackie's sake," Adrian said firmly. "We're doing this completely aboveboard."

"You're right," Rory sighed.

Jackie stared at them, grateful, but hardly believing they'd give up something that meant so much to them for her.

"Don't look so glum," Chance told Rory, draping an arm over her shoulder. "We might not have to give it up. I've heard of cases where the state has relinquished a find to living descendants. Maybe we can prove the necklace belongs to the three of you."

"Actually," Rory said, looking at her sister, "it doesn't belong to us."

Allison nodded and turned to her brother. "Marguerite gave it to Jack."

"That she did. So ..." He undid the clasp and moved toward Jackie. "It belongs to Jack's descendant."

"Oh! No!" Jackie tried to back away. "Don't you dare! It belongs to the state."

"Until they claim it, then." He silenced her with a look, then moved his hands behind her neck to fasten the clasp. "For all the hopes and dreams they shared, as well as the love."

She looked about and found all of them smiling at her. A lump rose in her throat as she turned back to Adrian. "I ---I don't know what to say."

"Say you'll marry me, and be part of my life and part of this family. Be daring enough to grab hold of your chance for happiness."

"Oh, Adrian!" She flung her arms around him as tears filled her eyes. For once she didn't care. If people thought her weak for crying, let them. "Okay. I will. God, I love you so much." Lifting her head, she smiled at the others. "I love all of you so much."

Rory and Allison, both with one arm around their husbands, reached out to her with their free hands, telling her they loved her, too.

Overwhelmed, Jackie covered the pearl with her hand ---and felt the tingling warmth fill her body in a rush. Startled, she glanced around, all her senses alert to a sound that wasn't quite heard, a light not quite seen.

She looked at the others, and found them glancing around as well. Their eyes wide. They felt it, too. "What was that?"

"Marguerite," Adrian whispered.

"And Jack," Allison added.

"Do you think .." Jackie swallowed. "They're finally together?"

"I do," Adrian said without hesitation, then arched his brow at her. "Do you?"

"Believe in magic and ghosts?" Her hand tightened about the pearl as she searched the room with her senses. Marguerite and Jack were gone, she somehow knew that, but they'd left behind something that had the strength to endure. She turned back to Adrian, smiled into his eyes. "I believe in love. Which is the strongest magic of all."

Epilogue

"Stand by for action."

Jackie heard the producer's words as she and Adrian stood perfectly still in the music room of the inn, each holding a bite of wedding cake to the other's mouth. The gauzy veil that hung down her back from a circlet of white flowers had been fluffed, her cheeks dusted with a hint more blush, the designer gown checked for the slightest blemish, and Marguerite's pearl straightened so it rested above a hint of cleavage. As they waited for their cue, she saw mischief flash in Adrian's eyes, an all too familiar sight.

Don't you dare
, she warned him with her eyes, knowing it was useless. Whatever he was planning, he'd do, and she'd be the hapless straight guy to his jokester; all of it caught on tape for their growing number of fans. At least here, surrounded by people, he couldn't get nearly as risque as he did during their private kitchen encounters.

"Three. Two. One." The producer signaled the cameraman. She and Adrian opened their mouths and took bites of cake as the wedding guests cheered.

"Not bad, Jackie," Adrian said after swallowing his bite. "You actually pulled it off."

"You sound surprised." She gave him an arch look. He may have baked the cake and done the actual decorating, but she'd made the icing.

"I'm impressed." He nodded. "Really."

She flushed with pleasure. "So I finally mastered one culinary feat?"