“Well, that was a huge waste of time,” Fred grumbled, tripping over an ice chest but righting herself in time. The captain helped her onto the ramp and she stomped down it. “Not to mention breakfast.”

“We’ll keep trying,” Thomas said, white-faced with exhaustion. They had been in the water for hours. Fred was sort of ready for a nap herself.

“Perhaps I will go back later, now that I know the locations under suspicion.” Artur, annoyingly, looked like he’d just jumped out of bed after fourteen hours of sleep. Stupid full-blooded mermen.

Fred yawned. “Now who’s got a commendable devotion to duty?”

“I do not wish to cause you more distress—which the trip on the boat seemed to. And although he annoys me sometimes—I do not wish to see harm come to this one.” He pointed to Thomas. “It would not be honorable.”

“Yeah, okay, whatever.”

“Whatever is right,” said Thomas. “I’m going back to the room so I can fall on my face and die for a few hours.”

“The room?” Fred halted midway down the ramp. Behind her, the first mate groaned. She flapped a hand at him in a “don’t worry” motion and reached for her cell phone. “The room. Right. Let me just see if Jonas wants to come. I mean join us.”

“Join us taking a nap?”

“Just let me call him. Right now.”

Barb was cuddling into his side and all was right with the world. “I swear,” she murmured, “I haven’t had that much fun since my divorce. Actually, since about a year before my divorce.”

Jonas yawned. “Right… didn’t you say he was cheating on you the whole last year?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Dumbass.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Not that I’m complaining, but I can’t believe someone didn’t swoop down on you after you got rid of the idiot.”

She giggled. “Someone did. It just took them a few years to get their act together.”

“Off my case. Keeping Fred out of trouble is a full-time job, and I already have one of those.”

She was tracing circles around his left nipple, which his entire body thought was fine. “That’s my ex, too. He’s always taking on new projects, extra jobs. He built a hotel just a couple blocks away from here—would you believe he had the nerve to send me an invitation to the grand opening last month?”

“Should have told him to stick it where the sun never ever shines.” He ruffled her newly short hair—shoulder length, layered around the face. Just as he had suggested. “I love your hair like this. God, it’s like silk, it’s—your husband did what?”

Barb’s eyes were closed as she luxuriated in his touch, but now they popped open. “I didn’t quite catch that.”