Chapter 20
twenty
A s Elisa led the way back through the side door and into the designated dressing area for baptisms, her father’s words echoed in her head. Would you like to go to lunch?
Leave it to her dad to make a casual question hold about a million pounds of subtext. His not extending the invitation to Noah was pointed and rude, if not surprising.
“Sorry about my dad.”
Noah followed her through the doorway, catching the door before it could slam. “He’s like a pop-up book.”
“No kidding.” At least the unnamed project they were working on had given her a viable excuse as to why she declined—and why she was with Noah after church ended.
Elisa navigated around a small couch toward the back of the cluttered dressing room, used partly for storage. The baptistry had yielded nothing except a bit of leftover water from the depths of the drained tub. The stairs leading up either side were solid. No cracks or crevices, no accessible underside for a clue to be taped to like at the lighthouse.
They were back to square one.
Noah stopped beside a row of white baptismal robes, dangling from sturdy hangers atop a portable cart. “Your dad doesn’t know about this treasure hunt yet, does he?”
“He doesn’t need to.” She hated how her father could throw off her emotions so easily…and how hard she had to work to hide that fact lately. To be a good girl. “Though I’m a little surprised he hasn’t heard from someone else yet.” Though to be fair, the entire town would draw straws before volunteering to tell Isaac Bergeron anything unpleasant about a Hebert. “Regardless, there’s only two more clues to go, then all this will be done and?—”
“And what?” Noah waited, one hand resting on an empty clothes hanger.
She crossed her arms over her dress. “And then you leave. You move back home.”
Noah’s eyes flickered. “Maybe I won’t.”
She scoffed. “You’ve changed your mind on that in the time it took to cross the sanctuary and check a staircase?”
“You have a very convincing walk.” He edged closer to her, a hint of a smile on his lips.
She backed up, only to find a wall. There he was, flirting with her again. Catching her off guard before she could do it first. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to be the one in control.
She lifted her chin as her heart raced. “Noah Hebert, we can not make out in a church.”
“Who said anything about making out?” He stopped a respectable distance away, then reached out and skimmed his knuckles down her cheek. His voice deepened. “I’m just here looking for clues.”
Good gravy, but the room was warm.
How did this man manage to kiss her senseless when he was still standing an arm’s length away? Elisa’s hands trembled as the push-pull began, beckoning her toward Noah’s patient gaze and somehow pressing her back into the wall away from him, all at the same time. Mistake, mistake, mistake. The word echoed like an alarm.
His face sobered. “I could do better this time, you know.”
Her gaze slammed into his, and her breath hitched at the gravity in his eyes.
“I realize the future is uncertain. But we’re not kids anymore, Elisa. I was young and dumb back then. Kind of a hot-head.”
She raised her eyebrows at the kind of .
“I know it’s hard to trust me.” Noah took a few steps back, returning to the cart full of robes. He absently ran one hand down a thick white sleeve. “After I found out my dad had cheated on my mom with your Aunt Rhonda…”
Elisa flinched.
“…when it felt like everyone knew but me—I didn’t handle it well.”
To put it mildly. He’d left Elisa standing on her front porch, crying as he stalked away and never looked back. She stiffened. “You bailed.”
Noah ran a hand through his hair. “I didn’t know what to do. You were hysterical over the fight you and your dad had. And there had already been so many years of whispers and judging stares. I felt stupid for not knowing—for making things worse by being me.” He swallowed. “By being a Hebert.”
The heat that had flooded her moments ago waned, leaving a chill in its wake. Elisa hugged herself, rubbing her bare arms with her hands. “I had no idea you didn’t know the connection, or I’d have tried to break it to you a little more gently.”
“Sometimes I wondered how I hadn’t known, too.” He fiddled with an empty hanger on the cart, eyes averted. “I think my parents tried to keep the details of their issues from me at first. Then Mom moved us to Shreveport so suddenly, the rumor mill didn’t have time to reach me. I was a middle-schooler, more focused on how all of this affected me—not nearly as concerned about who else was affected, you know?”
He didn’t seem to be expecting an answer, but she nodded anyway.
“And when I came back every summer after that, I stayed close to the Blue Pirogue. Fishing, reading, doing chores around the inn. In hindsight, Grandpa kept me pretty busy—maybe on purpose.” He met her gaze, a season of memories filling his eyes. “Until that one summer, anyway.”
The warmth was back.
Noah crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring her posture. “I know the fight with your dad that day was about me.”
“He was upset we were hanging out. I tried to tell him the full story, help him see you weren’t who he thought you were.” Elisa closed her eyes. Even now, twelve years later, she could see the fire in her dad’s eyes. The betrayal radiating off his face. A glimpse of the inevitable choice she would have to make. It’d been one of the only times—the last time—she hadn’t calmed down like a good girl.
But Noah hadn’t left her with a choice, after all.
Elisa opened her eyes, hugging herself tighter. “I’d been emotional that day—really stuffing a lot down. When you came to pick me up, I…I don’t know, I finally felt safe enough to let it all out with you. Be honest and vulnerable, for the first time since Mom died.”
Noah’s eyes softened. He reached for her, but she edged backward.
“Being real hadn’t gone over so well with my dad. He didn’t appreciate how I felt or what I said about you. And then it seemed like being vulnerable with you went even worse.”
“I handled it poorly.” Regret filled Noah’s eyes. “But I knew your dad was jaded, after everything that happened with my dad and your aunt. I guess that’s why I thought it better to walk away. Take myself out of the equation.” He dipped his chin. “And then there were the letters.”
Elisa frowned. “What letters?”
“Someone sent threatening letters to the inn that summer, warning me away from you.” Noah shook his head. “They were pretty intense.”
Her mouth opened. She scrambled for words through her surprise. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Your dad had made up his mind about me. I knew how much losing your mom affected you—I sure wasn’t trying to get in the middle of you and the only parent you had left.”
The information absorbed slowly, filling the cracks of her memory. So much was starting to make sense, like the last pieces of a puzzle finally coming together. “Noah…”
He took a ragged breath. “I had planned to talk to you when I came over that day. Tell you that we were obviously at a dead end…that your dad was too hung up on this old feud to ever give us a chance. Then he was sitting there cleaning his hunting rifle, and you dropped that bomb about your aunt…” He shook his head. “It was too much.”
How well she remembered the explosion. Then her breath hitched. “You’re saying my dad sent those letters?”
She didn’t need to wait for Noah’s confirming nod to realize that was exactly something her father would do. Controlling, passive-aggressive—getting the final word without causing a public scene.
Being the master puppeteer.
“Now I’m the one who feels stupid. I had no idea.” She reached for Noah’s hand, her thoughts churning. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”
“Well, you didn’t deserve for me to walk away.” He turned his palm so their fingers threaded. “But as I was saying…I know I can do better.”
Resolve, along with a surge of frustration Elisa struggled to hide, flooded her veins. She might have been eighteen and dependent on her father back then, but now—like Noah said, things could be different. She just had to trust him.
It was as simple—and as impossible—as that.
Elisa tugged at their joined fingers, pulling him a step closer. “Sign me up for that whole ‘do better’ thing, too.”
“I’ve got a permanent marker right here.” Noah smiled, lowering his head so his forehead rested against hers. Then he eased back. “But if your dad doesn’t sign off on the inn after this mitigation, I’m going to have to sell the Blue Pirogue. Which means I’ll most likely not be able to stay in Magnolia Bay.”
Elisa reached up with her free hand and pressed her fingers into the crease forming between his eyes. It relaxed beneath her touch. “I won’t let that happen.”
His gaze expressed his doubt that she had that power with her dad, and honestly, she doubted it too.
But she couldn’t stand to see him worried. “I guess it’s only fair you know the whole truth, too.”
He tilted his head. “About?”
“The treasure hunt.” She tightened her grip. “I never told you—but I’m hoping to use my part of the inheritance to help Delia.”
Understanding lit his eyes, followed by gentle admiration. “No wonder you’ve been so fired up to finish this hunt.” Then he chuckled softly. “You know she’ll never let you, though.”
“I’m going to cross that bridge later.” Elisa arched her neck. “She’s not the only one who can be stubborn—even if I have to make an anonymous payment to the hospital.”
She exhaled as her gaze roamed the room behind him, bouncing off the baptismal robes and the old wooden table holding a stack of towels and a slightly warped mirror. “That is, if we can finish in time.”
“Right. We should probably start looking for a new lead, since my baptistry stairs idea flopped.” Noah held up their entwined fingers between them, a magnetic grin splitting his face. “But what about this?”
She grinned back. “I can search one-handed if you can.”
He pulled their joined hands to his lips and pressed a kiss against her knuckles. “I’ll never be able to focus.”
Whew, same. What treasure hunt, again?
Noah’s teasing tone reminded her of sunlit waters and pastel skies. Of that summer she’d claimed his sole attention for months straight and neither had complained. She traced his stubbled jaw with one finger.
He turned his chin into her touch. “Remember, you’re the one who said we can’t make out in a church.”
“Did I?” She squinted at him.
“I’ll make you a deal.” He slowly slid his fingers free, letting his hands come to rest on her waist. The imprint of his touch left a fiery hot brand, emphatically replacing her earlier chill. “A kiss now…” He tugged her an inch closer, his hand coming to cup her cheek. “And one after we find the clue.”
She searched his gaze, seeing a dozen promises inside. This was her last chance to back out, to keep her heart safe. Swimming in Noah’s eyes felt like that first time that she’d jumped off the dock into Magnolia Bay as a kid. She’d been absolutely terrified of the water sure to rush over her head.
But she also couldn’t fathom not jumping.
Elisa drew a fortifying breath, then took the leap. “Deal.”
And oh, what a jump.
Noah took his time kissing her, lips moving gently, intentionally, as if he had all day. As if the treasure hunt and black mold and angry fathers and time itself had stopped to give them another chance.
A chance to do better.
* * *
Last night, when he’d been tossing and turning in bed, Noah had imagined they might find the next clue in their hunt.
In his wildest dreams, he never imagined he’d find Elisa again.
Now, as Elisa’s hands pressed into his chest, wrinkling the collar of his shirt he’d spent ten minutes ironing that morning. He didn’t care. He also wasn’t worried about messing up her silky hair as he cradled her head in one hand.
That kiss at the courthouse might have been hose-worthy, but this one was Noah’s favorite. Slow. Savoring. Steady. Good grief, Elisa and her vanilla scent and coconut lipgloss had him thinking in alliteration.
There wasn’t any urgency to this kiss, as if either of them were afraid the moment might end before it started. No, there was a security here that Noah hadn’t felt in…well, maybe not ever. He’d been too immature to notice it during their one summer together. And no one had ever come close to bringing that assurance since Elisa.
It’d always been her.
Suddenly, the door near them opened. Noah stepped back, giving Elisa space as a gray-haired man wearing dark coveralls strolled inside, humming off-key. Elisa quickly wiped her lips with her hand.
The familiar-looking gentleman stopped his tune short when he saw them, the loaded key fob jangling from his utility belt. “Uh-oh.” His eyes twinkled and he adjusted his hold on the folded towels he held. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Hey, Mr. Bolding.” Elisa smoothed her hair before tucking it behind her ears, that familiar flush Noah loved being responsible for working its way up her throat. “No, sir. We were just looking for something.”
Her eyes darted to Noah’s and he fought his grin. They’d certainly found it. He cleared his throat as he adjusted his shirt collar.
“A lost Bible, I’m assuming? We got a whole stack of them over in the lost and found.” Mr. Bolding pointed back toward the direction he’d come from. “That’s in the closet in the foyer, though.”
“We’re actually looking for something else.” Noah had a hunch as he studied the man’s mildly stooped posture. He used to see Mr. Bolding tending the churchyard when Noah was a pre-teen, while he’d been out running Grandpa’s errands on his bicycle. “You’ve worked here a long time, haven’t you?”
“Only thirty years, give or take.” He lifted his chin with pride as he set the towels alongside the others. “I do a little bit of it all. Cleaning, stocking, groundskeeping. Whatever and wherever I’m needed.”
Elisa smiled. “No one could imagine this congregation without you.”
“Well, that’s mighty kind of you to say, Ms. Bergeron.”
Noah relaxed. If Mr. Bolding had taken sides during the feud, he wasn’t letting it show. Zero judgment clouded the older man’s eyes.
“I can imagine you’ve seen a lot over the years.” Noah shot Elisa a look. If anyone at the church would know what they needed to know…
Mr. Bolding’s bushy eyebrows rose as he turned back to face them. “I’ve had to stay overnight in that cemetery out yonder, son.” He let out a belly laugh. “You’ve got no idea what I’ve seen. What are you two looking for, specifically?”
At Elisa’s encouraging nod, Noah continued. “This might sound weird, but is there a staircase around here?”
Mr. Bolding frowned. “There are the entry steps out front. And the stairs here, going into that big ol’ tub.”
Noah shook his head. “Not those. This staircase would be bigger.”
“And maybe hidden.” Elisa’s voice trailed off and she shrugged at Noah’s look.
“A secret staircase?” Mr. Bolding scratched his throat. “Sounds like something out of a crime novel.”
Disappointment draped over Noah. Maybe they had the wrong church, after all. “I figured it was a long shot, but had to ask.” He gestured for Elisa to head toward the door first. “We appreciate your time.”
“Now hold on a minute, son. I didn’t say there wasn’t one. Only that it sounded like a book.” Mr. Bolding chuckled. He pointed toward the cart full of robes. “This church used to have a bell tower, years ago.”
Noah’s heart thudded. Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, To the belfry-chamber overhead… The words of the clue rushed back at him as he shot a glance at Elisa. Her eyes widened big as the dessert plates at the Magnolia Blossom.
Mr. Bolding gripped the handles and gave the cart a shove. The wheels, which probably rarely ever moved, creaked in protest as they reluctantly obeyed. The sudden lack of robes in the space revealed a door that had been painted over, though recently cracked as evidenced by the dark ribbon running along the frame.
Elisa joined Mr. Bolding at the door before Noah could even tell his feet to move. He’d been standing right there mere minutes ago, with absolutely no indication the stairs they were looking for were on the other side of the wall. His hope soared.
“It’s locked.” Elisa turned from the painted knob, casting Mr. Bolding’s key ring a pointed glance.
“Of course it’s locked.” Mr. Bolding crossed his arms over his broad belly. “Some decades ago, there was an accident. A staff member got hurt tending to the bell, and then a few months later, some kids got curious about it, started playing around up there. The church didn’t want the liability.” He waved one hand in the air. “Don’t rightly blame ’em. So, they had the bell removed, repaired the roof, and locked this all up.” He tapped the door with one knuckle. “Only us old-timers know it even existed in the first place.”
Noah stepped forward. “Can you let us in?”
“We won’t tell,” Elisa quickly added.
Noah caught her eye, shared a smile. Between the three of them in the room, they’d be keeping all kinds of secrets. The blush started back on her neck.
“I’d love to.” Mr. Bolding patted the bulky ring on his belt, then shrugged. “But someone borrowed that particular key a few months back, and I don’t believe they ever returned it.”