I Married a Billionaire: Lost and Found(4)

I wasn't sure how long I stayed there, with Daniel floating near me, periodically gesturing me over to look at some new creature the likes of which we'd never seen before. I kept smiling around my apparatus and giving him a thumbs-up, which he returned jovially.

The guides herded us out of the water so we wouldn't get sunburn - or maybe just to make room for more tourists, I wasn't really certain. As we walked barefoot back towards the lobby of the hotel, I wondered if I ought to say something. That was nice, thank you. Did honeymooning brides characteristically thank their husbands for planning activities? Why did this whole thing still feel so strange?

As I walked, I felt my foot scrape against something that definitely wasn’t sand. I stopped, turning around to look at what it was. Daniel was still going; he hadn’t noticed that I’d stopped.

I knelt down on the hot sand, poking at the little white object I could see poking out of it. When I pulled it free, I saw that it was a perfect nautilus shell. I blew on it, gently, sending the particles of sand flying in all directions.

I held it gently in the palm of my hand. Somewhere ahead of me, Daniel was looking back, shading his eyes with his hand.

"You coming?" he called out.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, jogging over to him. "Look what I found." I extended it to him, still cradled in my palm.

"It’s a shell," he said. "On a beach. Imagine that."

"Don’t be an *. I thought you’d like it."

"I do like it," he said, his forehead just slightly creased. "But it’s - it’s a shell."

"All right," I said. "Then I’ll keep it, if you don’t want it."

"Was it for me?" he said, in mild surprise. "Of course I want it. I didn’t - sorry, I didn’t realize. But you might want to consider that I’m pretty sure taking shells off this beach is actually illegal."

I closed my hand around my tiny treasure. "Well, if I get tackled by security, you’ve got my back, right?"

He was smiling. "Always."





CHAPTER TWO





"Horseback riding," Daniel announced, proudly. I raised my arm to shade my eyes from the brutal midday sun. There were, in fact, horses standing a few feet away - a palomino, and a bay. They both stared at me, placidly.

"Have you ever ridden?" he wanted to know.

"Yeah," I said. "Don’t we have to have a…guide or something?" There was absolutely no one else around, and unless he’d impulse-bought the horses, that struck me as a little odd.




"Not if you put down a big enough deposit, it turns out," he said, with a boyish grin. "Should I give you a leg up?"

"Boots," I said. "I’m not riding in flip-flops."

"Come on, where’s your sense of adventure?"

"Did they really not give you boots?" I looked at him skeptically.

"That didn’t strike me as very romantic or spontaneous."

Yeah, well, neither is a shattered fibula. "I really think we should go back there and get some boots," I said, smiling. He was trying so hard, after all.

He rolled his eyes, but he did lead me to the rental hut just up the beach. The horses were lashed to a post, so they certainly weren’t going anywhere - although something about their dispositions made me think they’d stand there motionless until the tide came in, no matter what.

When we were properly outfitted, I walked up to the palomino and tucked my foot into the stirrup, hoisting myself up onto his back. Daniel was already turning the bay around, holding his reins like an expert. "So what’s your story?" I wanted to know. "You didn’t grow up rich, so I know you weren’t going to riding camps as a kid."

"No, that came later on," he said. "There was this girl."

"Oh, of course," I said. "Of course there was."

He cantered up beside me. I tapped the sides of my horse with my heels, and he started to make his way down the beach; Daniel and his bay followed.

"I’m not proud of it," he said. "Although knowing how to ride does come in handy, from time to time."

"I’m not judging you," I said. "I spent two entire winters trying to learn how to snowboard for a guy."

Daniel laughed. "I always thought that must be harder than it looks."

"Well, it is if you’re me," I admitted. "I felt like one of those toy soldiers, you know? Once you fall down, how the hell are you supposed to get back up? You can’t move your legs."

"Well ideally, I suppose you have a strapping young man around to pull you back onto your feet."

"I guess that was the idea. But he just got really, really impatient with me after a while."

"This is much better," said Daniel. "Let the horse do all the work."

Before long, we reached a little copse of trees that marked the end of the private beach. I thought for sure we would have to turn around, but Daniel just kept going, and I figured it couldn’t hurt to follow him. I considered asking if we were allowed to take the horses off of resort property, but I imagined he’d have some answer related to throwing piles of money at everyone, like usual.