Chapter 8 #2
“All right.” She scooted closer, scraped away more mud, then slowly undid one clasp and then the other.
The lid creaked as she lifted it. The scent of damp earth and metal wafted up.
Inside, nestled in layers of frayed burlap, sat a substantial amount of gold nuggets.
Some as small as marbles. Others golf-ball size. Raw, gleaming, heavy chunks of gold.
Emma gasped, then clapped her hand to her mouth.
Luke’s wide-eyed gaze found hers. “Oh my,” he whispered.
With trembling fingers, she reached down and picked up one of the nuggets. Dirt still clung to the pock marks, and its craggy edges felt rough against her fingertips. “Is this real?”
“If it’s not, then why did someone bury it?” Luke shined his phone’s flashlight on the rest of the gold. “Do you think your uncle stashed it here?”
“Maybe, but why?”
“Emergency supply?” Luke said with a grin. “This is probably worth a fortune. Last time I checked, gold was sitting at almost three thousand dollars an ounce.”
What? She shot him a look. “You’re joking.”
“I wouldn’t tease you about the value of gold.”
She stared into the mud-filled crawl space, mentally calculating the potential payout of their discovery.
Was this one box of many? Not that it mattered.
She couldn’t even be one hundred percent sure any of this legitimately belonged to her.
And if it did? She rubbed at the tightness pressing against her sternum.
“There’s got to be thousands of dollars in here. This has the potential to change your life, Emma.”
“Or at the very least, pay the property taxes.” She let out a shaky laugh. “Buried treasure. In my childhood home. Sounds like something from a movie.”
Luke gave a slow smile. “Plot twist.”
She let herself bask in his smile. Just for a minute.
Then his expression grew serious, and his eyes roamed her face. He reached up and tucked an errant curl behind her ear. “This gives you options that maybe you didn’t know you had.”
Her breath hitched. Part of her yearned to lean into his touch.
Luke pulled away. “I just want you to be happy.”
Everything stopped, the past and present colliding as they knelt there on her old kitchen floor. “Who says I’m not?”
Doubt flashed in his eyes. “Call it a hunch.”
Right. She stood, brushing mud and dust from her knees. “So what do we do now? Do you think there’s more?”
He shone the light back down into the hole. “I have no idea. Maybe.”
Raucous barking filled the air, startling her. “What in the world? What makes them do that?”
“Who knows?” He stood, skirted around the hole, then scrubbed at the kitchen window with the cuff of his jacket’s sleeve. “Wow, it’s finally snowing. We need to go.”
She gestured to the metal box at her feet. “We’re taking that with us, right?”
Luke turned away from the window. “I can carry it if you want me to.”
“I don’t want to leave it here.” She looked around at the abandoned place she’d once called home. “Obviously no one’s been by in a long time, but if word gets out…”
He met her gaze, his eyes fierce. Protective. “I’m not going to tell anyone what we found.”
“Thank you,” she said. “But where will we put it? And if Hank had a house key, maybe other people do too? Who was the last renter living here before the tidal wave?”
“Whoa.” Luke held up both palms. “Take a breath. One thing at a time.”
She grimaced. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. But it’s not every day a girl stumbles across thousands of dollars in gold nuggets stashed in her old kitchen.”
“I understand.” Luke gestured to the hole in the floor.
“I don’t know who else has a key, and it’s not likely that I can patch that hole in the next five minutes.
We really do need to get going. There’s no water and no electricity, so as much as I love your company, getting stranded out here is not a good idea. ”
Flustered, she tipped her head toward the door. “Let’s take it with us.”
“You sure?”
She nodded. “I’m sure. You’re right. We’d better go. Does the resort have a safe?”
He nodded.
“Then let’s stash it there for now.”
They carefully spread the haul between their backpacks, tucked the empty box back in the hole, then jammed the floorboard into place. As they made their way back toward the door, she couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d said.
Because he was right. Finding a buried treasure could completely change her life.
His truck coughed, sputtered, and died.
Luke exhaled, then gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.
Of all the times for his reliable truck to turn traitorous, it had to be now—when he was stranded in a snowstorm with his high school girlfriend.
Somehow his heart had missed the memo that she wore another man’s ring, because he couldn’t overlook the sparks igniting between them.
He jabbed at the button again, but the engine didn’t even try this time. Only a pathetic click, then silence.
“Uh-oh.” Emma combed her fingers through her auburn curls, letting them cascade down the shoulders of her borrowed parka. He gritted his teeth, then looked away. Tucking her hair behind her ear had been a dumb move. A reckless mistake he couldn’t afford to make again.
“Timing’s not great, is it?” He managed to keep his tone light as he let his head fall against the headrest.
Emma let out a short laugh.
Outside, snow swirled around the truck, the flakes fat and slow, the kind that would stick.
At least there was that. The resort needed every single inch.
Because they were barely hanging on. And fighting the unpredictable weather wasn’t the only issue.
He harbored a sneaking suspicion that many tourists avoided Redemption in favor of something fancier than his family-run operation.
But frankly, the potential upswing in snow-seeking tourists wasn’t the first thing on his mind right now. Not with Emma sitting so close, her body still carrying the warmth from their hike, her fragrance—something light and familiar—filling the cab.
Emma rubbed her palms together. “Does your phone work out here?”
“Yeah. Barely.” He pulled out his phone and scrolled to his brother Ethan’s name. He hesitated for half a second before tapping the call icon.
Ethan picked up on the second ring. “Hey, check it out. It’s finally snowing.”
“Yep, it’s coming down out here.”
“Dude, why don’t you sound excited? This is awesome!”
Luke glanced at Emma. Her eyebrows sailed upward. He looked away. “My truck won’t start. I need a tow or a jump or…something.”
Silence, then a slow, knowing chuckle. “Let me guess, you’re out at the end of Aurora Way.”
Luke closed his eyes. Please, no lecture. Not right now. “Can you come help us?”
“Us?”
Luke swallowed back a frustrated sigh. “Just send someone, Ethan.”
“On my way.”
Luke ended the call and dropped his phone in his lap, then raked his hand through his hair. The wind picked up outside, howling around them. He reached behind Emma’s seat and grabbed a thick plaid blanket with a sherpa backing. “Need this?”
“Sure, thank you.” She shifted in her seat and spread the blanket across her lap. “Are we stuck here for a bit?”
“Ethan says he’s on his way.”
“I’m thankful you have family close by who can help out,” she said.
Nodding, Luke tried to ignore the way her voice curled around him.
They’d already spent more time together than they should have.
Long enough to unearth a fortune in gold hidden beneath the floorboards of her childhood home.
Long enough to dance around the reality of her engagement.
Long enough for him to brush a stray lock of hair from her eyes and vow he’d keep her secret.
Sitting there together in her old kitchen, it had felt like nothing had changed.
Except everything had. He flexed his fingers against his jeans, his pulse still thrumming.
He should say something. Anything. He had to steer the conversation somewhere safe that didn’t involve the past. Or the way she looked at him as if she wasn’t entirely sure she’d made the right choice building a life in Boston.
“You sure you’re warm enough?”
She smiled. “Yeah. Are you?”
He almost laughed. He was anything but cold.
She rubbed her hands along her arms and stared out the window. “I can’t believe we found all that gold.”
“Me either.” He had questions. So many questions.
But they weren’t his to ask. Why hadn’t her father ever told her about the gold?
What was she going to do with it? Her parents had divorced and her father was in prison, and her uncle was deceased.
As far as he knew, she was an only child.
So that meant she had decisions to make.
But the biggest question of all was why did she still look at him like that if she wanted to marry Nathan?
“Thanks, by the way,” she said softly. “For everything.”
He met her gaze, and once again something electric passed between them. Oh, how he wanted to reach for her. Just once. To see if her fingers still fit perfectly laced with his. Instead, he shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
“Anytime,” he said, his voice rough.
The minutes passed, thick with unsaid words.
The kind of charged silence that only existed between two people with a complicated history.
He had no business wanting her like this.
No business remembering the way she used to tuck her feet under his legs when they sat on the sofa watching movies, or the way she dropped her head against his shoulder when she laughed, her whole body rippling with happiness.
She wasn’t his to remember.
His phone buzzed and he snatched it up like it was a lifeline.
Ethan
Almost there. Had to drop Brody off at a friend’s house.
Luke typed back a quick “thanks” and set the phone down again. Another gust of wind shook the truck, and he glanced at Emma. “Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need some water or a snack?”
Her slow smile sent a spike of something warm and delicious arcing around his heart. “I’m fine, Luke. Honest.”
He nodded and forced himself to look away. His truck might’ve been dead but the spark between him and Emma sure wasn’t. And that was a problem. A big one. Because now in addition to a boatload of memories, they had something else tying them together.
A secret.
And secrets usually got dragged into the light at the worst possible time. Pinching the back of his neck with his palm, Luke blew out a long breath. Ethan’s words echoed in his head.
But I remember what it was like when she left. You were a mess…Just don’t let her wreck you again.
Yeah, well, he’d been wrecked before. Told himself he’d gotten over her. That he’d be fine. But now, sitting here in the truck, breathing the same air and guarding a shared secret—he felt it. That pull. An invisible, magnetic tug.
And if he wasn’t careful, he’d have to walk through heartache. Again.