Chapter 10
“No worries,” Dylan said. “Truly. It was very enlightening. It was probably better to go ahead and get it out of the way.”
“Good,” Sophie said. “Now on to business. Whatever you’re thinking about tomorrow, stop overthinking it.”
“How do you know I’m overthinking?”
“Because you didn’t come to book club last night, you’ve been avoiding Main Street, and Aidan looks like someone stole his favorite socket wrench.”
Despite everything, Dylan felt her mouth twitch. “It’s complicated.”
“Love always is. But Dylan? That man has been half in love with you for years. The treasure hunt just gave him an excuse to do something about it.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because I’ve watched him watch you. The way he lights up when you walk into a room. The way he finds excuses to be wherever you are. The way he’s never seriously dated anyone since you arrived, despite half the valley throwing themselves at him.”
After Sophie hung up, Dylan stood in her restoration shop, surrounded by the future she’d carved from nothing but stubbornness and skill. Tools hung in neat rows like promises she’d made to herself. Project cars waited under white covers like sleeping possibilities.
And for the first time since she’d fled Aidan’s house, Dylan allowed herself to remember what it felt like when he looked at her—not like she was convenient or available or the solution to someone else’s puzzle, but like she was exactly what he’d been hoping to find.
Saturday morning, she’d climb that mountain.
Not for the ring.
Not for the hunt.
But to find out if love was worth the risk of believing in it.