Davis stares at me.
I stare back.
I don’t think he’d go look for the treasure without me, but also, I don’t think we’re anywhere close to it, and we’re already finding skeletons and unexploded mortar balls.
He strikes me as the type who’d sneak out to investigate whatever he thinks he should look at next without me to save me from danger.
Sarah’s eyes are sparkling with mischief again. “I’d tell you we’re setting the security system and he can’t get out of the pool house without us being notified, but I think he could, in fact, bypass the security system without us being notified. So I agree. You two should definitely share the pool house.”
Ever been in a room with a trapped animal?
That’s the sensation I’m getting as I watch Davis glower at Sarah.
She’s clearly not worried though.
She tosses her wavy dark hair, crosses her arms, and smiles at him. “You can be as mad as you want, but I will always take Ava’s favorite nurse’s side over yours.”
“I’m her favorite uncle.”
“You gave her that singing computer for Christmas. Just because she thinks you’re her favorite uncle doesn’t mean the rest of us agree.”
“Womp womp,” Beck whispers.
Sarah tucks her arm through mine. “Sloane, I’ll show you how to booby-trap the pool house so that you’ll know if he tries to sneak out too.”
“I can hear you,” Davis says.
“But that doesn’t mean you know all of my tricks.”
“I wouldn’t challenge him if I were you,” Beck murmurs to her.
“He can spend his time trying to un-booby-trap the pool house, or he can spend his time resting so he can treasure hunt better tomorrow. And this is perfect. Peggy can make herself comfortable in the pool house, and we don’t need to worry about introducing the cats to each other.”
I haven’t been inside Sarah and Beck’s house before. Cooper’s up the way, yes. Sarah and Beck’s, no. I’ve only been here for a campfire. Outside. Where they have a pool house with a bathroom, which is what I used when I needed to use a bathroom.
But I’m getting too tired to be curious, and so I barely take in the surroundings as Sarah leads me up the stairs, through an open-concept main floor with a large stone fireplace in the middle of the room, and out the back and around the pool.
“It’s heated, so you could swim if you want to, but I suspect you just want to be in bed,” Sarah says as she punches a code on the door and lets me into the cute little place.
“You do have a bed out here?” I ask as I glance around. The floor is marble, the walls painted a sunset orange, and there’s a wicker furniture set with ivory cushions around a glass coffee table strewn with packs of card games. Everything from Uno to Phase Ten to normal playing card decks. The back wall has a galley kitchen, and I spot the familiar door to a bathroom.
Sarah gestures to another door. “My dad scares Beck, so we set it up so that my parents can stay out here when they visit us here in Shipwreck. We get warning when they’re coming inside. Unlike Davis, my dad hasn’t figured out how to hijack and bypass the security system. Here. Let me get you extra blankets.”
“Thank you. Again. For everything. I don’t know how I can ever pay you back for?—”
“Sloane. It’s all good. Sincerely. No repayment necessary. We all need help sometimes, and we all get pulled into situations that aren’t entirely in our own control sometimes.” She smiles ruefully. “That was basically my whole childhood, in fact. So if I can help someone else for a couple days, I’m happy to do it. Especially when that someone has always been kind to my family.”
I’d say I was just doing my job, but I’ve seen Sarah and Beck and their kids out to eat and at various festivals in Shipwreck too. I’d call them social acquaintances if I wasn’t still somewhat intimidated by Beck’s celebrity status and Sarah’s celebrity parents.
Beck was my second-favorite in the band.
“Also,” she adds in a whisper as she glances at the door, “it’s not every day that I see Davis making a new…friend. Actually, in the five years since I met Beck, I’veneverseen Davis make a new…friend.”
A girlfriend.
She’s implying I’m Davis’s girlfriend.
“My family wants me to get married and I’m never getting married, so I took not-so-secret pictures of him and sent them to my family and told them he was my boyfriend. He’s playing along. That’s why we’re getting married on Saturday. It’s fake. To get my family off my back. Because he likes to do nice things for people. Or something.”
