The Reef by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online

piece of metal that might have been a buckle or pin of some sort. But it was the nails that interested him most.
    Marla was right. They were old. He picked one up, turned it in his fingers, imagining it once being hammered into planks that were doomed to storms and sea worms.
    â€œBrass,” Tate announced with delight as she worked off the corrosion with solvent and a rag. “It is a button. It’s got some etching on it, a flower. A little rose. It was probably on a dress of a female passenger.”
    The thought made her sad. The woman, unlike the button, hadn’t survived.
    â€œMaybe.” Matthew spared the button a glance. “Odds are we hit a bounce site.”
    Tate reached for her own sunglasses to cut the glare. “What’s a bounce site?”
    â€œJust what it sounds like. We probably found the spot where a ship hit while it was being driven in by waves. The wreck’s somewhere else.” He lifted his gaze, scanned the sea to the horizon. “Somewhere else,” he repeated.
    But Tate shook her head. “You’re not going to discourage me after this. We haven’t come up empty-handed, Matthew. One full dive and we have all this. Coins and nails—”
    â€œBroken pottery and a brass button.” Matthew tossed the nail he held back into the pile. “Chump change, Red. Even for an amateur.”
    She reached out and took hold of the coin that dangled around his neck. “Where there’s some, there’s more. My father believes we have a chance at a major find. So do I.”
    She was ready to quiver with anger, he noted. Her chinthrust up, sharp as the spikes at their feet, eyes hard and hot.
    Christ, why did she have to be a college girl?
    He moved his shoulder, and deliberately gave her a light, insulting pat on the cheek. “Well, it’ll keep us entertained. But it’s more often true that where there’s some, that’s all.” He brushed off his hands and rose. “I’ll clean this up for you, Marla.”
    â€œYou’re a real upbeat kind of guy, Lassiter.” Tate tugged off her T-shirt. For some reason, the way he’d looked at her, just for an instant, had heated her skin. “I’m going for a swim.” Moving to the rail, she dove off the side.
    â€œShe’s her father’s daughter,” Marla said with a quiet smile. “Always sure hard work, perseverence and a good heart will pay off. Life’s harder on them than it is for those of us who know those things aren’t always enough.” She patted Matthew’s arm. “I’ll tidy up here, Matthew. I have my own little system. You go on and get me that milk.”

C HAPTER 3
    T ATE FOUND PESSIMISM cowardly. It seemed to her that it was simply an excuse never to face disappointment.
    It was even worse when pessimism won out.
    After two weeks of dawn-to-dusk double-team diving, they found nothing but a few more scraps of corroded metal. She told herself she wasn’t discouraged and hunted on her shift with more care and more enthusiasm than was warranted.
    At night, she took to poring over her father’s charts, the copies he’d made from his research. The more cavalier Matthew became, the more determined she was to prove him wrong. She wanted the wreck now, passionately. If only to beat him.
    She had to admit the weeks weren’t a total loss. The weather was beautiful, the diving spectacular. The time she spent on the island when her mother insisted on a break was filled with souvenir shopping, exploring, picnics on the beach. She hunted through cemeteries and old churches, hoping she might find another clue to the secret of the wrecks of 1733.
    But most of all, she enjoyed watching her father with Buck. They were an odd pair—one squat and round andcue-ball bald, the other aristocratically lean with a mane of silvering blond hair.
    Her father spoke with the slow, sweet drawl of coastal Carolina while