Veritas (22 page)

She wanted something deeper and more meaningful than playful banter. Be it a simple hug that started too tight and melted into something softer, or a kiss that held some small fraction of the tenderness they had shared, she craved some sign that the connection she had felt with Grey the night before had been real.

The subtle darkening of Lauren’s eyes did not escape Grey’s attention, and she nodded minutely, assuring Lauren with a look that she was feeling the same thing. But, no matter how much Grey wished otherwise, now was not the time for the things she really wanted to do, and she instead focused her attention on trying to keep things between them light and playful. “So
—” she drawled, tipping her head at the oven where, as promised, a stack of pancakes was being kept warm for Lauren, “—you want to try my awesome pancakes?”

Kim, who had been watching Grey and Lauren with a small, knowing smile curling her lips, laughed. “Yeah, she would,” she muttered before Lauren could answer for herself. Her eyes went wide as Grey and Lauren turned to her, shock clearly written on their faces, and she groaned. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

“I…” Lauren frowned and shook her head. “How?”

Kim shrugged and offered the couple a small smile. “Well, I mean, come on. It
is
pretty obvious. The looks, the touches, the way you both seem to gravitate toward each other…” She chuckled at their matching surprised expressions. “You two just have really great chemistry.”

Lauren bit her lip and became intensely interested in the floor as Grey gaped at their guest. Out of everything she had expected to happen that morning, waking up alone and being called-out on what she and Grey were doing together had not even made the list.

Grey cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Okay…?” she replied, her brows scrunching together and setting deep creases in her forehead.

Kim nodded and leaned back in her chair. “Of course. I mean, I ge
t that some people are assholes—”

The twins, who had been ignoring the adult conversation up until that point, looked up and pointed at their mother with triumphant grins. “Dollar!”

“Shit,” Kim muttered.

“That’s another one!” Peyton pointed out gleefully as he high-fived his brother.

Kim smiled sheepishly at Grey and Lauren. “The boys got in trouble at school for repeating some of my more colorful language, so we made a deal that they have to give me a dollar if I hear them swear, and vice-versa. Little monsters are making out like bandits,” she added under her breath. “I’ll pay you guys later,” she told the boys in a louder voice.

“Yeah!” Max cheered.

“We’re going to the pirate beach today, right?” Peyton added, looking expectantly at Grey.

Grey nodded, grateful for the change in conversation. “Absolutely, buddy.”

“And you’ll show us skull rock?” Peyton pressed.

“I will,” Grey assured him. She looked at Lauren and sighed as she allowed herself to reach out and give
her hand a gentle squeeze. She wanted more, but the touch was enough to tide her over for the time being. “You okay if I start getting ready to head out?”

Lauren nodded, her eyes dropping to the way Grey’s fingers curled around her own. “Of course. You want me to throw the lines?”

“I can do it.” Grey shook her head and brushed her thumb over the back of Lauren’s hand one last time before letting go. “Sit. Eat. It’s fine.”

“You’re sure…?”

Grey nodded. “Yeah. Totally.”

Kim chuckled softly and shook her head.

“What’s so funny?” Will asked as he walked into the salon with Reid.

“You owe me a hundred bucks,” Kim answered her husband.

Lauren’s jaw dropped as she looked at Kim. “Seriously?”

Will’s gaze slipped from his wife, who was looking far too pleased with herself, to Lauren and Grey, who looked mortally embarrassed, and he sighed. “Fuck.”

“Dollar!” all three boys yelled happily.

Grey looked at Lauren, and shook her head as she chuckled softly under her breath. She loved the unpredictability of her job, but this morning definitely took the cake. Granted, all things considered, it went better than it could have, but still. “I think I’m gonna throw those lines and head up to the bridge.”

“Can I help?” Reid asked.

“Us too!” Max and Peyton called out, turning off their tablets and tossing them onto the couch cushions as the
y bolted to their feet.

“I’ll help supervise,” Will said as he followed his sons out onto the deck.

“Have fun,” Kim told her husband as she picked up her coffee cup and took a languorous sip. She laughed at the way Will shook his head and flipped her off over his shoulder, and sighed as she leaned back in her chair. “Peace at last.”

Lauren slid her coffee cup and plate to an empty seat at the bar and nodded. “Yeah…”

After a few minutes of companionable silence, Kim said, “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you guys. Sometimes the filter on my ‘thinking bubble’—” she surrounded the phrase with little air finger quotes, “—as the kids call it, doesn’t work too well.”

“No. It’s fine. Really,” Lauren said. After a beat, she added, “It’s just…complicated.”

“Everything worth having is,” Kim said softly. She smiled at Lauren and sighed as she slipped out of her chair. “I should probably go help with the boys before they decide to use Reid as shark bait or something.”

“I’ll take care of the dishes,” Lauren said, tipping her head at Kim’s mug. “Don’t worry about that.”

“You’re sure?” Kim asked. “It’s not hard to put it in the dishwasher.”

“I’m sure. And,
thanks.”

Kim nodded. “No problem,” she replied lightly as she spun on her heel and walked out the open doors to the deck beyond.

Grey slipped the backpack she was wearing from her shoulders and pulled a small wooden treasure chest from the largest compartment. She smiled at Lauren as she handed her the bag, and tipped her head at the skull-shaped rock in front of them that looked like it was right out of the movie
Peter Pan
. “I’m just going to hide this where I told Will and Kim it would be, and then we can go back to The Baths, if you’d like. Or, we can keep going down the trail to Devil’s Bay and have a look around there. Whichever you’d prefer.”

“No. That’s fine. We can head back to The Baths,” Lauren said. They had hustled through caves so quickly to hurry and hide the “pirate treasure” for the boys that she had only gotten a quick glimpse at the stunning natural grottoes that overlooked the sea, and she was looking forward to spending some time really exploring them.

“All right.” Grey winked at Lauren as she left the backpack in the dirt and scampered off to the side of Skull Rock to hide the treasure chest full of replica doubloons in the lush foliage that surrounded the rock. She brushed her hands off on the back of her shorts as she made her way back onto the trail, and smiled. “Done.”

“Will anyone else pick it up?” Lauren wondered aloud as she watched Grey zip the backpack shut and hoist it back onto her shoulders. While the national park was not overrun with tourists, they were certainly not the only ones there, and she was worried about how the boys would take coming back empty-handed after Grey had gotten them so hyped to find ‘real pirate treasure’.

Grey shook her head. “Nah. You’d have to know it’s there to find it. And—” she checked her watch, “—they should be on their way up here soon. They were just going to hang back for twenty minutes or so to explore the caves and give us time to do this, and then they were going to make their way down to the bay so the boys can snorkel and stuff.”

“If you say so.” Lauren fell into step beside Grey and smiled at the way the brunette’s hand slipped into her own. “Can I help you with something?” she teased as she gave Grey’s hand a squeeze.

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be able to think of something.”

“Says the woman who left me alone in bed this morning.”

“I let you sleep,” Grey pointed out. “I didn’t just abandon you to go fishing or something. I was nice and let you sleep-in while I slaved away in the kitchen making breakfast for everybody.”

Lauren chuckled and bumped Grey’s shoulder with her own. “Pancakes is hardly a ‘slaving away’ type of food.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t all be professionally-trained gourmet chefs. Some of us had to learn one burnt grilled cheese sandwich at a time.” Grey stopped at the head of a set of stairs that led from the outside trail to The Baths and waved for Lauren to go first. “Even you have to admit that those pancakes were good, though.”

“They were decent,” Lauren allowed as she started down the ladder.

“Not cool, Lauren Whatever-you-middle-name-is Murphy.”

“It’s Rose,” Lauren supplied with a smile. She hopped down to the sandy floor below, skipping the final few steps, and ran her hand through her hair as she looked up at Grey. Like herself, Grey was barefoot, wearing only a pair of shorts and a bikini to make navigating the water-filled grottos more comfortable, and Lauren licked her lips as she appreciated the subtle sway of Grey’s breasts as
she descended the stairs.

Grey smirked at Lauren as she stopped in front of her. “See something you like?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, Ms. I-left-Lauren-alone-in-bed-this-morning.”

“Oh my god!” Grey laughed
, reached out to grab onto Lauren’s hips, and shook her head as she pulled Lauren into her. “It’s not like I abandoned you,” she pointed out as she brushed her lips over Lauren’s. “I made breakfast. And, I left you a note. Doesn’t the note count for something?”

Lauren sighed and nodded as she looped her arms around Grey’s neck. She would have kept up the ruse, but the warm press of Grey’s skin against her own made it hard to breathe, let alone think. The note was cute, and she would never admit that she had carefully placed it between the pages of her copy of
Fodor’s U.S. and British Virgin Islands
that was sitting in one of the cubbies above her bed, but what she had really wanted was this. The feeling of Grey’s body pressed against her own, so firm yet soft at the same time, strong fingers curling into her sides as deliciously tempting lips ghosted over her own.

A pleased smile quirked Grey’s lips and she hummed as she rolled her hips into Lauren’s. “What was your favorite part? The drawing, or what I wrote?”

“Fishing for compliments is not at all sexy,” Lauren muttered, rolling her eyes, but she was unable to keep from smiling as Grey nuzzled her cheek. “But both. Okay? I liked both.”

“I like you,” Grey murmured softly, honestly.

Lauren smiled. “I like you too.”

“Good.” Grey tightened her hold on Lauren’s hips and kissed her again, deeper, slower, every swipe of her tongue around Lauren’s an apology for not being there when she woke up.

Lauren groaned when her back came into contact with one of the cool boulders that made up the grotto, and she threaded the fingers of her right hand through Grey’s hair to hold her close. She knew that this was not the place for them to lose control, but it was impossible for her to pull away. There was so a tenderness to the kiss that made Lauren weak in the knees, and the feeling of Grey’s breath cascading over her lips in trembling waves was nearly enough to make them buckle.

“Grey…” The brunette’s name was the only word Lauren could manage, but it was enough. She whimpered softly as Grey’s mouth descended back on her own with a gentle urgency that made her toes curl.

“Eww, kissing!” little voices cried out.

Grey groaned. She recognized those voices.

“Told you,” Kim’s voice added smugly.

“Damn,” Will muttered.

“Dollar!”

Lauren’s cheeks flamed with embarrassment as Grey reluctantly pulled away from her, and she rolled her eyes as she offered the Muellers a small wave. “Hello.”

Will smiled sheepishly and waved. “Hey.”

Kim chuckled. “We’re on our way over to Devil’s Bay.”

“Sounds good.” Grey ran her hands through her hair and looked at the boys. “You guys have that map I gave you?” It was crude, just black Sharpie on a piece of parchment textured printer paper, but she had tried her best to make it look like an actual treasure map.

Thankfully, the boys were
young enough that they did not question the authenticity of the map. “Yup!” Peyton answered, waving the page in the air.

The ‘map’ was now wrinkled, no doubt from the boys fighting over it, and a little wet, and Grey had to admit that it made it look more authentic. “Awesome. Good luck then. Hopefully you guys will come back with some treasure, huh?”

“Yeah!” the boys chorused as they took off up the stairs at a sprint.

“We’ll probably spend the day at the beach,” Kim told Lauren and Grey with a pointed look as Will scampered up the stairs after the boys. “So, you know, don’t feel like you need to hang out here on our behalf if you’d rather go back to the boat. I have the walkie-talkie. I’ll just buzz when we’re done.”