Once Upon a Caribbean Summer by Lisa Bergren

Author:Lisa Bergren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, suspense, Christian, Caribbean, treasure
Publisher: BCG Press
Published: 2020-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE NEXT FEW DAYS PASSED easily as Christina slept long hours, slowly readapting to island life. The nightmares did not return after that first awful experience. Mitch knew this because he crept to the adjoining guest room each eve to make sure he was near to comfort her, should she wake.

The fourth night, Mitch could not sleep. He admitted to himself that he was sleeping in the nearest room to Christina just to be close to her. Her proximity both comforted and agitated him, and he tossed and turned, unable to find rest. Finally he rose, opened the doors to the veranda, and walked out into the cool night air.

He looked back at Christina’s firmly closed shutters, wishing that sleep would elude her, too, and that she would step outside and into his arms. Confess that she was feeling an attraction that might match his own. Mitch shook his head. He had to admit it. He was falling for her.

A woman I can’t have.

He looked to the sky, staring at a waning moon and its sparkling light upon the gentle seas below. The last four days had been an awakening for him. Suddenly he could see, clear as day, how important the children and Hans were to him. They had become his family, of sorts. And Christina... Combined, the weight of what he felt for them all overwhelmed him.

“Why, God?” he prayed quietly, looking upward to the stars. “I was fine on my own. Happy. Why hand me all this?”

But his words sounded false, even to himself. He knew that he was glad for his new “burdens.” Glad for the small, wiggling bodies and shy smiles of his niece and nephew, waking him up in the morning by climbing into bed with him. Glad for Hans’s easy camaraderie. Glad for the electricity that charged his body and mind when Christina was near.

He looked back at the still shutters of her room. Did she have any idea? Could she possibly ever return his feelings? Not knowing left him feeling vulnerable, an uncommon emotion for Mitch. Perhaps it was this that burdened him most of all.

“Please, Father,” he prayed. “If I’m off track here, please take away these feelings for Christina. And help me protect her and the children.” That was it. The love he felt for all of them made him feel open to attack on all sides. A man like Tate Hobard would not hesitate to use one or all of them to get what he wanted.

He went back to bed and tried to sleep, but it was to no avail. Slumber remained far from him, and he was up at five, working in his office, trying to figure out ways to keep his loved ones safe and finance the expedition to Mexico.

By ten o’clock they had their first transmittal from Meredith, retrieved by Hans from a secure fax on San Esteban, which translated the first part of the document in detail. They dared not email back and forth, fearing their computers might be compromised.

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