Friendship established. He relaxed into a smile before tapping her with his Bible. “Get moving, then, Sherlock. You’re wasting daylight.”
Laughing, they turned into the aisle.
Straight into Isaac Bergeron, wearing a pale blue tie and a scowl.
twenty
As 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. Tobe 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 cannotmake 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 thekind 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.”
