She stares at the fire.
Giselle has functionally disappeared, but I suspect she’s still listening somewhere.
“They’re family,” Sloane finally says quietly. “My grandma took in both me and my brother and raised us, even though she clearly wasn’t excited about it. Nigel’s grandfather would stop by dressed up like Santa every Christmas and bring us presents that his congregation had donated for us. Grandma helped me fill out college scholarship applications. She helped Aiden figure out how to get into ROTC in college so he could become a pilot. She sacrificed a lot for us. She did her best. And now—now, it’s like I don’t fully know them anymore.”
I curl my fingers into a fist to keep from hugging her again.
Boundaries.
Have to remember boundaries.
“Felt that when my parents got divorced,” I say instead.
“Are they still around?”
“After the money mismanagement thing, I cut my father off. Still have my mom though. She had some rough years. The other moms in the neighborhood got her through it, and she’s pretty happy now.”
“Does she support you?”
“More than I deserve.”
“We all deserve support.”
Both of us fall silent while we stare at the fire.
Sloane strokes the cat.
I angle closer to her without realizing I’m doing it until our hips touch.
She doesn’t move away.
But she does speak again. “I made a decision this afternoon.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m finding the treasure on my own.”
I glance at her.
The sun is completely gone, so her face is illuminated by the fire.
But I don’t think the light would make any difference in what I see in her expression.
It’s pure, stubborn determination.
She’s been handed some shitty cards lately, and she’s making a plan to get through it.
Got a lot of respect for that.
“So if marrying you isn’t enough to convince you to be on my team…”
“I will forever be grateful that you…helped me fall asleep last night, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a big fan of men in general. Even less so men who keep secrets. You know the treasure isn’t in Shipwreck. You somehow know it’s real. You probably have a rough idea where it is. You might even know what it is. You clearly know it has secrets that could hurt people. And if you don’t trust me to let me in on those secrets, then I don’t know why I should trust you to tell you what I know.”
I swallow.
Swallow again.
Focus on taking slow, even breaths.
