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“I’m never following a suspect into an inferno again,” I mutter. “I’ve got sticky shoes, a sticky body, and sticky hair. I never want to see this kind of heat again.”
“You’re out of luck, girlie,” Sparky says my way with a note of sass in his tone. “You’ve got a hot date with the detective tomorrow tonight, and he promised to bring the steam, remember?”
“That’s right,” I say, bringing my fingers to my lips. “It did go something like that, didn’t it?”
If I thought this day was searing hot, there’s no telling where Ransom might take it tomorrow night.
I have a feeling it will make the heat we’re putting up with now feel like a glacier in Antarctica.
And I have no doubt he will.
I say bring on the night.
CHAPTER 20
It turns out, those warning signs plastered all over Volcano National Park were there for a reason.
Sulfuric acid can and will burn the inside of your lungs. Just ask Bess, Nettie, and Sparky. But you might have to wait a bit, seeing that they’re all in the infirmary on oxygen at the moment, on this, the day the ship is docked in the waters outside of Kona.
Yes, Sparky is in the infirmary, too.
Nettie insisted he gets the medical attention he deserves—albeit she insisted that Sparky insisted. Nevertheless, threats were made, and the doctor wisely chose to provide an extra oxygen mask for the stick figure occupying his office, seeing that the ship is short one psychiatric unit.
I, however, have chosen to abstain from an infusion of much-needed fresh air, and have opted to take my chances when it comes to cutting off the oxygen supply to my brain.
I can’t help it, Ransom Baxter has sort of beat the sulfur to the punch. That man has been cutting off the oxygen to my brain from the moment we met.
Instead, I hung out by the pool and sketched the island from this distal vantage point. Kona is the second stop on our trip to the Big Island. And it’s also the second stop where passengers need to tender from ship to land.
I was sort of hoping Ransom’s meetings would wrap up early and we could start our date sooner than later but no such luck. Ransom picks me up from my cabin at five-thirty, just the way he said he would.
“This is a two-part date, if that’s all right with you,” he says, taking me by the hand as he picks me up from my cabin.
“Two dates with you? I suppose I’ll have to suffer through it,” I tease.
He turns my way as he continues to whisk us into the elevator and the doors close with a hiss.
“And that’s more than all right with me,” I say, pulling him close, but before I can land a kiss to his lips, the doors whoosh open again. “Hey, this is the atrium level. Aren’t we headed to an upper deck? I mean, that’s where all the pools and hot tubs are.”
Ransom has been more than secretive about what’s about to transpire this steamy evening. The word steamy was really the only clue he gave me—and perhaps the only one I needed.
About a half hour ago, he texted to let me know I should bring a bathing suit and a dry set of clothes, so I packed both in my beach bag. I threw on one of the gauzy dresses from my collection in mint green and did my hair and makeup even though I fully expect to be submerged in a body of steamy water soon.
I can’t help it. I wanted to look good for him.
Ransom always looks good by default. Currently, he’s wearing a dark T-shirt and board shorts and has a couple of towels tucked under his arm. Case in point, he looks equally as dashing in casual clothes as he does in his Italian-fitted suits.
“The body of water we’re heading to isn’t located on the ship,” he says coolly as he leads us through the atrium.
This deck is dazzling to say the least, as it should be, seeing that it’s the deck the passengers are loaded onto and off of. The glossy marble floors, the string of crystal chandeliers that rim the three-deck tall ceilings, the black grand piano exuding lively music at the hands of a pro, the cobbled pathway that leads to the Queen’s Mall—it’s the first thing you see when you step onto the Emerald Queen.
“But…but…” I stammer as a thousand reasons float through my mind as to why we can’t leave the confines of this floating box of iron. “Ransom, the ship leaves Kona in less than a half hour.”
“And our date starts in less than an hour. We need to make good time,” he says as he leads us to the gangway where Wes stands looking regal as can be in his captain’s attire.
“Evening.” Wes sheds a dimpled grin before nodding over to a couple of crew members. “We were just about to close down shop.” He ropes off the exit before looking my way. “How about joining me at my table for dinner?” The smile slides off his face. “I’m afraid there are things we need to discuss.”
“What things?” I ask as my adrenaline spikes because it feels as if I’ve just been called to the principal’s office.
