“Depends on how confident you’re feeling about this latest clue.”
“What do you mean?” Zoey returned from the kitchen, and Cade stepped up to join their huddle, paper towels still in hand.
“We’ve been given a deadline.” Noah’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “We have one week to finish the hunt.”
“Oneweek?” Elisa sputtered. “But we still have another clue to find after this one—and zero leads.”
“I know.” Noah took off his hat and ran one hand through his hair. “He apologized for calling so late, but today was the date specified in the will to let us know, and he almost forgot.”
Leave it to Mr. Bowman to be more worried about propriety than the bomb he was dropping. Elisa drew a tight breath. “Okay, we can do this.” She nodded as she tried to wrap her mind around it. “We’ve already come this far in less than a week, so it’s doable. Right?”
“I think so.” Zoey linked her arm through Elisa’s. “You’re brilliant, Elisa. This will be no sweat for you.” She gestured in Noah’s direction. “No offense.”
Cade tossed the napkins on a table. “I agree—not with the offensive part.” He chuckled. “More like the ‘you guys totally got this’ part.”
“I don’t think y’all understand.” Noah tugged his cap back into place and crossed his arms. His gaze found Elisa’s, and her heart dropped in her chest at the graveness in it. “If we don’t complete the hunt, we get nothing.”
“Nothing?” Elisa’s mouth went dry. Delia…the café…
“One week—or August will be legally obligated to donate the treasure to a charity Grandpa has picked out.”
eighteen
The Magnolia Blossom on a Saturday morning was, as Grandpa used to say, “busier than a church fan in July.”
Noah hesitated in the doorway of the crowded diner, giving the yellow tables and shiny countertops a quick scan. It was hard to tell a fire or flood had ever happened. If anything, the place just seemed cleaner.
He wove around the clustered tables toward the serving counter, where he assumed Elisa would be helping pour coffee or any other task that wasn’t in her job description. But she was nowhere in sight. Maybe the kitchen? He wanted pancakes, but more than that, he wanted the conversation that had yet to occur between them.
After August’s phone call, Noah had driven Elisa back to her car at the park, and neither had discussed the elephant between them. Granted, it was hard to focus with the new ticking time bomb looming. That had taken precedent.
But the longer they stared at the clue in the pool of light provided by the lamppost, the more Elisa rubbed her red-rimmed eyes, and the more he’d raked his fingers through his hair until it stood on end like he’d been electrocuted. They finally agreed to sleep on it and Elisa drove away, leaving Noah kicking himself for not initiating the much-needed conversation.
Now, he rerouted toward the kitchen, lifting one hand in a reluctant wave to Peggy, August’s secretary, who waved back so big she almost knocked over her water glass. Farmer Branson was back at his usual spot, frowning at a folded newspaper next to his plate of bacon. Owen’s father, Pastor Todd, sat at a table in the corner, hunched over his Bible and a mug of coffee, while Peter devoured a cinnamon roll at the counter, pants still stained with slate blue paint splatters. The clank of silverware and the hum of conversation washed over Noah as he continued on his path…until suddenly it didn’t.
He reached the kitchen door and paused, glancing over one shoulder. A dozen pair of eyes stared back, some accompanied by grins half-hidden behind coffee mugs and others accompanied by furrowed brows.
Oh, boy.
Before he could escape inside the kitchen, Trish sidled up, hair tied back with a ribbon. She cast him a searching look as she cocked one hip to the side. “Is it true?”
“Is what true?” But he already knew. And judging by the pointed gazes directed his way, so did the rest of the town.
“That kiss everyone is talking about.” She arched a brow. “You guys stayed in the courthouse all night?”
Noah’s eyes widened. “Definitely not.” Was that what people thought? He released a tense breath. With him being a Hebert—no, more than that, with him being Russell Hebert’sson—that wasn’t going to look good.
Trish prattled on. “I know you and Elisa used to be together once upon a time, or something.” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, her eyes curious. “But she also said all that was in the past…”
A burning sensation filled Noah’s throat. “Is that right?” It wasn’t like Elisa to be gossiping with co-workers. But if the kiss last night hadn’t meant anything, if it was all in the past…
Maybe that was the cause of the awkwardness last night in the parking lot—Elisa regretted kissing him and didn’t know how to say so. After all,she’dkissedhim, after having been the one to go on and on about her “shoes.” Of course it’d be hard to tell him she had messed up by launching herself into his arms.
And launched she had.
“There are a lot of rumors this morning.” Trish shifted the coffee carafe to her other hand. “No one knows what to think.”
Including him. He glanced between the kitchen and the front door, debating his options.
