Page 14 of Tides of Love

He sat crosslegged in the sand to fiddle with the camera. “I don’t know how much data this thing got but better to take it home and make sure the lens isn’t cracked.”

Sealing the SD card away, he made space in the bags for the camera. It took a bit of adjustment and no small amount of wishing he’d just brought a duffle bag instead of the battery bag, but he got it sorted. Lucky dusted sand from his thighs.

“How many cameras are left?” Antonio picked up the bag without him even asking.

“Just one more. I hope I’m not boring you…” Insecurity was his worst enemy. It didn’t come consistently, but when it did rise up, it was like standing in wet sand slowly sinking deeper with every lick of the tide.

“Not at all!” Antonio’s genuine surprise banished the sticky feeling. The alpha placed a hand over his head, hovering above his forehead, “Your face is getting a bit red, your shoulders too… I don’t want you to get burned.”

“The tragedy of being a red head.” Lucky huffed, smiling. “But you’re right, we should get moving before I turn into a lobster. Jackie’s gonna kill me if I go peely.”

Antonio shook his head with a laugh. “I’d hate to have him thinking I let you fry out here. At least let me make a good impression before that.”

“Oh? Already making plans to meet my family?” Lucky placed a hand on his hip, looking up at the alpha. Antonio gave him another wide smile; this one pushed his sunglasses askew on the slightly crooked line of his nose.

“Too fast?” His earlier nervous worry echoed in Antonio’s question.

Lucky raised up on tiptoe, placing his hands on Antonio’s shoulders to press a kiss to the corner of the man’s mouth. “Maybe fast works for us.”

Everything they did felt fast. From the moment he decided to go home with Antonio, to texting, and to this date, they progressed quickly. But it wasn’t scary. It felt shockingly easy to think about introducing Antonio to his family.

“Good… Because I’m enjoying this immensely.” Strong hands squeezed his waist as warm lips pressed to his forehead.

The moment was broken by his stomach growling. “Come on, let’s find the third camera and get on with eating. This one’s a hike to the end of the beach.”

“Lead the way.” Antonio lightly smacked his ass, sending Lucky into another laughing fit.

“So, what other turtle questions do you have for me?” Lucky prompted. He swung their linked hands, feeling that same buzzy joy from their first meeting.

“Hm, let me think…” Antonio scratched his chin, “I know we’re looking for nests, but how long does it take for the turtles to start breeding?”

“That’s a great question! We released a group of hatchlings here twelve years ago. Sexual maturity is between ten and fifteen years for the Paradise Leatherback, so we’re really hoping to see some new hatchlings soon. We’ve spotted a handful of turtles around Sirena Reef over the years but whether they are the ones that used to hatch in Tesoro or not, we’ll only know if we find eggs.” Lucky was so engrossed in his explanation, he didn’t realize Antonio stopped walking until he was tugged backwards. “What—?”

Following Antonio’s line of sight, Lucky was surprised to see people wearing fluorescent vests moving through the dunes. Three white trucks were parked along the side of the road.

“They don’t look like tourists.” Playa del Tesoro might seem idyllic but with its distance from the popular shops and the fact you had to drive through a residential block built around the twin rivers, tourists generally avoided it. The adventurous kind still visited. But adventurous tourists didn’t wear work vests and uniforms.

“Well unless it’s the SAR team ambushing you, I need to find out why there are people combing the dunes.” Lucky sighed. “Good thing I wore the marine center shirt.”

Antonio huffed a laugh and squeezed his hand, but the sweet mood was lost. Lucky’s feeling soured as he stared down the men in the vests. They were interrupting his date and his work. He was hungry, hot, and not in the mood.

Especially when he realized exactly who was standing on his beach. “Evan Jones, you’d better have a good reason for being on my beach!” Lucky dropped Antonio’s hands, marching through the dune grass.

“It’s not your beach, Wilde. It’s the government’s beach and we’re surveying the land… as is our job.” The older alpha sighed but his brows rose towards where his hairline used to be when Antonio joined them. “Captain Saavedra, how rare to see you out of uniform. The Lyrica Beach representative was grateful to your team for finding that child a few days ago. Your quick response time reflected well on Paradise and the Melody resort.”

“We’re always happy to help.” He wasn’t sure why Antonio sounded displeased.

“That doesn’t answer my question.” Lucky snapped, arms crossed. “Why are you surveying here? We haven’t reported any erosion or damage.”

“The Marine center doesn’t need to report damage, but that’s not why we’re here.” Evan heaved a sigh, “Tesoro is being surveyed for potential sale. Some new resort they’re thinking of building. Apparently this is the spot they want. I was asked to see if that’s even feasible before discussion can proceed.”

“Land sale—?” Lucky practically choked on the words, “You’ve got to be kidding me! We logged this land as protective status twelve years ago when we released the turtle hatchlings. Mom filed the paperwork!”

“If you have concerns or need to check the status of the land, you’re going to need to take it up with the proper departments. I don’t know anything about it other than it came up as a potential sale lot.” Evan held his hands up, practically begging Lucky to turn his ire elsewhere.

“I absolutely will!” Lucky snarled, “But you need to leave, we are also surveying for turtles and you’re disturbing the beach.”

“If we spot anything that looks even vaguely like a turtle nest, we’ll flag it. You know that. But we’re going to finish our work.” Evan wasn’t yielding.