Tick,Tock,Trouble (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 5) (8 page)

“Why would anyone want that?” Zack asked. “There’s no benefit.”

“I think that’s the problem with all the watches. They didn’t function as intended. It’s like there are rules about time and if you mess with one thing, another thing changes to compensate. But the really big thing about the watches was this: if you owned them all you were supposed to be able to control time. You could travel through time.”

“So this guy Rumlin could travel through time?” Zack asked.

“Well, no,” Sadie said.

“He got all the watches built, imbued them with their special magic or whatever he did, but before he could use them to travel through time people began stealing them. He’d been talking in the local pub, telling his neighbors what he was doing. One of the watches was supposed to bring prosperity. Rumlin exaggerated his wealth and credited it to that one watch. So, of course, it was stolen first.”

“And that was the end of time travel?” Zack asked.

“Yes, but not the end of the story. For the rest of his life, Rumlin chased down the stolen watches, but he’d find one and another would disappear. He began to believe the watches couldn’t co-exist in physical proximity to one another for some reason. It was like the individual watches created a mitigating effect on their magic. Hang on a sec.”

Sadie got up and filled a paper cup with water from the dispenser in the hall. When she got back, Mr. B. was sitting on Zack’s lap having his ears scratched.

“So Rumlin spent the rest of his life searching for missing watches; never spending too much time in the presence of any one watch, and so never reaping the benefits of any of them. Which was probably just as well. Could you imagine coping with the side effects of twelve watches? Even if you could travel through time, you’d be so miserable it wouldn’t be worth it.”

Sadie wondered what she should do with her watch. It was too dangerous to keep. Unless maybe if she took it apart, but it was too beautiful to destroy.

“What do the other watches do?” Zack asked. “Besides bring prosperity?”

“I couldn’t find references to all of them, but supposedly one would keep the sun from setting for a small amount of time, like an hour or something. That could be handy in the time before electricity if you needed to get something done before dark.”

“Or if you were afraid of the things that go bump and needed to build a really big fire,” Zack said.

“Exactly,” Sadie agreed. “If you are trying to keep vampires and werewolves at bay an extra hour could be lifesaving.”

“Do you know any others?” Zack asked.

“Well, they all had an opposite, a balance,” Sadie said.

“There was a slow-time-down watch, so there was a speed-time-up watch. There was a watch to make the sun set faster. There was a watch that could make the sun rise faster. There was one that delays the sunset and one that also can delay sunrise. There was a watch that could briefly stop time, and one that could skip time.”

“Skip time?” Zack asked, “How did that work?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s like this: It’s eleven forty-five and you want it to be noon so you can go to lunch, so you skip the next fifteen minutes.”

“And does the rest of the world have to skip those fifteen minutes, too?”

“No. They get their fifteen minutes, but you give them up. You’d rather have lunch than your minutes so you sacrifice them. But the best watch is the one that keeps you young forever. It erases the effects of time on your body, so you always look and feel young. That’s the watch I want.”

“Sadie Barnett, you look as young as ever. You don’t need that watch,” Zack said.

“Flatterer,” Sadie said, and smiled widely. She had to love a man who lied so outrageously.

"Sadie," Zack said, leaning across the desk, "I've got vacation time coming up, and I'm wondering if you and Mr. Bradshaw would consider sailing around the Florida Keys with me?"

A warmth spread through Sadie's chest and she smiled widely. "We would love to sail the Florida Keys with you. But I think I'd better get Mr. Bradshaw a floatation device, he's not a very strong swimmer."

"By all means, get him a floatation device. I wouldn't want you to be nervous about him on the water."

Zack leaned back and put his hands behind his head. Sadie thought he couldn't smile any wider.

Two weeks later, Mr. Bradshaw was standing on the bow of a twenty-six-foot sailboat sporting a bright orange floatation jacket, his nose in the wind. Sadie was sitting in the back next to Zack. Zack's hand was on the tiller and her hand was resting on his. The wind was ruffling their hair as they sailed along the outer shore of Key West.

Sadie never had been to Key West before. The water was a clear blue and the sand on the beaches was white. It was warm here. The chill of autumn hadn't reached Florida -- and for all she knew it never did. She felt free and warm and happy, it was a perfect vacation.

Zack slid his hand out from under Sadie's, leaving her in charge of the tiller. She looked at him in surprise, her eyebrows raising.

"You'll be fine, just hold it steady," Zack said. "We aren't going anywhere in particular."

"Okay," She said. "It's on your head if we crash."

Zack looked around. "What are we going to crash into?" he asked.

"The island?" Sadie pointed to the shore of Key West, which was maybe a mile away.

"Oh don't worry I'll notice before we get anywhere close to the island."

He slid his arm over the tiller and around Sadie's waist, but the tiller was uncomfortable. He got up and came to sit on Sadie's other side.

"Uh, are you sure this is wise?" she said.

"You'll be fine," he said, sliding his arm around her waist and pulling her close.

She felt warm and fluttery inside and turned her head to kiss him on the cheek, but he turned, too, and their lips met. It was a much longer kiss than she expected and the sailboat began to list to one side. He let go of her waist and reached across to push the tiller back to center. The movement ended the kiss, which Sadie thought was a pity.

"Sadie," Zack said, and his voice cracked.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Of course I'm okay, I'm trying to ask you to marry me."

His voice cracked again, only this time she knew it was from emotion.

"You want to marry me? Are you sure you're feeling okay? You know what I'm like." She put her free hand to his forehead as if to feel for a temperature.

"Oh stop it," he said, capturing her hand and holding it between his.

"Don't string me along, Sadie, will you marry me or not?" He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose.

"You know I would only marry a man I loved, right?" She couldn't help teasing him.

"I would hope not. The question is, ‘Do you love me enough to marry?’"

He looked into her eyes and she knew he knew. He was enjoying playing the game, too.

"Or should I perhaps ask one of the dolphins to marry me instead?" He pointed to the bow where a dolphin sprang from the water.

"You'd have an interesting life," she said, "but there probably wouldn't be much physical intimacy. She might pee on you once in a while… when she's really happy with you." She started giggling uncontrollably.

“I should be so lucky as to get peed on by a dolphin. It would make a nice change,” Zack said.

“Humans pee on you?” Sadie asked, appalled. “Really?”

“That’s one of the more innocuous substances I’ve had on my shoes,” he said.

“But I’m not going to name the others. That would take the conversation in a direction I don’t want to go.”

“Where was this conversation going?” Sadie asked. “I’ve forgotten.”

She was joking but the butterflies in her stomach were making her a little jittery now.

“I asked you to marry me, Ms. Barnett, and I’m getting a little impatient for the answer.” He lowered his eyebrows at her.

“Wait,” she said.

“There was a marriage proposal in there? Because I always thought there was a certain protocol that was supposed to be observed.” She lowered her eyebrows at him.

Zack dropped to his knees on the deck in front of Sadie, her hand still in his.

“Ms. Sadie Barnett, will you do me the honor of marrying me?” To her chagrin, Sadie burst into tears.

“Yes,” she sobbed. “I will.”

Zack was beside her in an instant, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his lap. He held the tiller with his knee and dropped kisses on her hair.

“Don’t cry, Sadie, don’t cry. You don’t have to marry me if you don’t want to.” She pulled away and smacked him on the arm.

“Of course I want to marry you, you fool. I’m crying from happiness.”

He grinned at her. “I know that, but I can’t stand to see you cry. I like it much better when you’re feisty with me. I never want to make you cry.” He pulled her tight again.

“Did you really just say you’d marry me?” he asked.

“You heard me, buster,” Sadie said. “Don’t make me change my mind.”

He squeezed her tight and released her before picking her up and swinging her around, then took up the tiller again. He was grinning from ear to ear, which made Sadie grin, too.

“Mr. Bradshaw,” she called to her dog on the bow, “You’re going to have a new daddy.”

Zack choked and laughed. “I don’t think Mr. Bradshaw needs a daddy,” he said. “But I’ll be his extra human. Every dog needs an extra human.”

“Yes,” Sadie said sliding her arm through his and hugging it.

“Every dog does need an extra human, but I hope he’ll share you with me.”

And just to complete the day they stayed on the water until they could sail into the sunset.

~~~

Find out what Sadie discovers in book 6 of The Seagrove Mysteries Here:
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