Elisa? His gaze darted back to the spoons. Had his being wrong somehow sent an invisible radar pulse to alert her? “How did you get this number?”
“That’s not important.” Her breathy tone indicated excitement—unless she was jogging. “Are you ready to go?”
“Go where?” He peered cautiously out the front window to make sure she wasn’t running across his yard again.
“To get clue number two.” Victory crackled through her tone. “I figured it out.”
Of course she had. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Be ready in ten.” Her voice pitched higher. “No, five.”
He headed for the library door, flipping the light switch, and pulled the door shut behind him. “I’m ready now.”
“Good, because I’m here.” He could hear tires crunching the Blue Pirogue’s gravel drive. “Bring some cash.”
What was she up to now? He patted his pocket for his wallet. “Got it.”
Her voice wavered. “And maybe some lavender oil.”
He tensed. “That’s oddly specific.”
“You’ll see when we get there.”
Oh, brother.
nine
The lighthouse on the southern end of Magnolia Bay had been a staple in Elisa’s life as far back as she could remember. And yet, she didnotremember the drive there taking this long.
She gripped the steering wheel with both hands, having long abandoned her nervous run of chit-chat and settled for awkward silence instead. The extended proximity with Noah made her hyper aware of his masculine scent, the warmth of his presence, the way he tapped a steady rhythm on the passenger door handle—like maybe he was nervous, too.
“I think we’re at an impasse.” The words blurted free before her lips could catch them.
Noah shot her a sidelong glance, his dark hair falling across his forehead. “The turnoff to the lighthouse should be another few miles up the way.”
“I didn’t mean geographically.” She waved one hand in the air before returning her death grip to the wheel. The road carved a gray path toward the horizon, the lighthouse still much too small in the distance for her liking. The late afternoon sun teased the clouds, casting long shadows across the water lapping on either side of the concrete bridge. “I meant…us.”
“Whatus?”
That honest question shouldn’t sting, but a prickle ripped down her spine anyway. Elisa shifted in the driver’s seat as she checked her side mirror. There was hardly any traffic, but it gave her something to do with her gaze while she felt Noah’s fixed on her. “It’s weird, you know? We’re not friends. But we’re not really enemies, either, now that we’ve called a truce.” She shrugged as she needlessly glanced into her rearview at the dotted white lines blurring behind them. “It’s like we’re in the void.”
He laughed, a small sound in the back of his throat that reminded her of slow dancing on the beach, with fireflies and the moon as their only light. “That’s one way to put it.”
“And how would you put it?” She braved up enough to meet his eyes, briefly, since she was driving. And also briefly because she sure didn’t want to be responsible for steering her car straight into the bay if he happened to be looking at her like he had during those summer nights.
He wasn’t.
They were safe.
He stretched his long, jean-clad legs against the floorboard as she slowed down to make the turn to the lighthouse. “I’d say it’s complicated.”
She pressed her lips together as she clicked on her blinker. “Like a social media status.”
“Hopefully less drama than that.”
She cut him a look as she turned right. “We have a personal history and an entire family feud, sugar. I think we’remoredrama than that.”
“Why do you do that?” He pulled at his seatbelt, turning slightly to face her. “The whole sugar thing.”
