Page 45 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part Two
The woman’s face changed immediately, softening. “How is he?”
Ah, crap. I didn’t want to lie to this lady.
“We haven’t seen him in awhile, but he knew we’d be coming to Reykjavik and wanted us to collect the book.”
“Such a sweet man. Such sad eyes though. The perfect house guest. I can only wish that every guest I had was like him.” Another warm expression, this one coupled with a small, secret smile.
I knew that smile. Holy crap, did Nemo bang his B&B hostess? Why did the thought of that make me weirdly jealous?
“Come on in. He did leave a book, though I thought perhaps he left it for me.”
Ah, now she felt hurt. Obviously, Timothy had made quite an impression on her too. We kicked off our shoes as she ushered us into the kitchen, and the fat cat followed behind.
“It’s in the library. I’ll just go and get it.”
The woman disappeared down the hallway, and I looked at Evan. “Do you think they were…?”
Evan nodded. I didn’t even need to finish the sentence. Well, good for Nemo. I reached out and slid my fingers through Evan’s, and he held my hand tightly. I pushed down the misplaced jealousy. I had the guys now. I didn’t need Nemo, not in the romantic sense anyway. I didn’t.
The woman reappeared with a book clutched in her hands. She looked down at the cover wistfully, before handing it over. I reached out and took it, flipping open the pages of an English translation ofJourney to the Center of the Earth.
Right there on the title page, in a script as familiar to me now as my own handwriting, was an inscription.
And into the darkness I go.
Dread settled on my chest. I looked up at the woman, who was still staring longingly at the book in my hands. Whatever she’d had with Timothy Smith had clearly meant something to her. I felt like a jerk for stealing this memento of that from her.
Swallowing hard, I handed her back the book. “This obviously means more to you than it does to him. Keep it. When we see Timothy, we’ll just tell him we forgot about it.”
The woman hesitated a moment, and I could see her at war with herself. Eventually, she took the book back from me with gentle hands. “You must think this is ridiculous, but sometimes, I wonder if the weeks he was here were merely a dream. This… It’s the only proof I have that it wasn’t.”
I nodded, my smile tight. “I understand.”
We stood around awkwardly for a moment, until Evan murmured something about getting back for a tour or something. The woman—I still hadn’t gotten her name, and now I wasn’t sure I even wanted it—showed us out.
I didn’t say goodbye, though I must have said thank you at some point. As we walked down the driveway, I couldn’t help but to look over my shoulder at where she still stood in the bay window, watching us leave.
“That was nice of you, Chaos.”
I shrugged. “She was holding on tightly to a dream. I know what that's like.”
And into the darkness I go.
What kind of clue is that, Nemo?
I should start calling him Timothy in my head, but it was hard. I lay naked on the bed in our hotel room, staring up at the ceiling. Sometimes, I thought things through better without clothes. I theorized that was why you always had your best ideas in the shower.
Evan was trying and failing not to ogle me. Eventually, he sat up with his back to the headboard and pulled me up against his body. His hands banded around my waist, but they didn’t roam. They were just a heavy, reassuring weight against my diaphragm.
“Sexiest weighted blanket ever,” I told him, tilting my head back so I could look up into his face. “You can roam lower, if you want.”
His eyes were hooded, and he had a small smirk on his face. He had bedroom eyes, that was for sure. “I can wait until you are finished working through… whatever you’re working through.”
I sighed and went back to staring at the ceiling. The problem was the message wasn’t a clue at all. It was just a message. A goodbye. It wasn’t leading me anywhere. Had he finished playing the game now?
“We’ve roughly followed the path fromAround the World in Eighty Days.” I searched Jules Verne on my phone. “But Iceland was featured inJourney to the Center of the Earth.”
Evan’s thumbs rubbed up and down my ribs, which was both soothing and erotic. If that wasn’t the man himself in a nutshell.
