“And?”
“Look.Look. It’s here somewhere… Where is it…” She fidgets with the map, clearly looking for something, and the entire bed shakes when she does that butt wiggle she does when she’s excited. “Yes!”
I’m staring at a waterfall. “Blue Lagoon Falls?”
“It was formally renamed when the high school opened eighty or ninety years ago. First time the kids from Shipwreck and Sarcasm had to go to school together.”
“What does a waterfall have to do with that?”
“It was one more thing the towns argued over, and the county officials were trying to find something everyone could agree on that felt kinda neutral. Everyone from Shipwreck called it Thorny Rock Falls, but everyone from Sarcasm…” She squeals and bounces again. “They called it Crow’s Shade Falls. And look.Look. Those are oak trees. Oak trees all over the top of the waterfall. And the journal talked about the ravens. Remember? Think about it. Crows. Ravens. People get them confused all the time. And shade. Like curtains. Curtains give you shade. Andit’s a waterfall. Andpirates. Pirates would hide treasure near water. Wouldn’t they? Or would they? Crap. Now I’m second-guessing myself. This is crazy. It’s too far-fetched.”
“It’s pirates.” I take the computer, holding it out over my knees so I don’t disturb the cat, and zoom out. Then out a little more.
Until Chicken Rock is in one corner, its beak pointing directly at the other corner, where the waterfall is.
I zoom in on the waterfall.
The wide waterfall.
That looks like curtains.
Sloane gasps softly like she’s realizing it too. “Oh my god, that really is it, isn’t it?”
I look up at her again. “You’re magnificent, you know that?”
She shakes her head. “I’m just a girl who likes history and sometimes puzzles too.”
“You are so much more than that.”
Her cheeks go ruddy, and she tucks her hands into her lap, staring at them while she tangles her fingers. “People have been hiking all over those falls for centuries. And the landscape would’ve changed some in two hundred years. If the treasure’s there—I don’t knowwherearound the falls. Where it could be that someone wouldn’t have already found it. You know?”
I set the computer aside.
Lift the cat off my lap.
And I give in to what I’ve wanted to do again all day.
Sloane excited turns me on. Sloane solving puzzles turns me on. Sloane turns me on.
Kissing her is so fucking easy.
Running my fingers through her hair—bliss.
Tasting her—heaven.
I’m falling, and I don’t want anyone to catch me. I just want to fall with this bright, glorious rainbow of a woman.
She doesn’t pull away from kissing me. Doesn’t tell me to stop.
Doesn’t push me away.
She melts into me, looping her arms around my neck and turning into my body until we’re both splayed across the bed with our feet hanging off the side. She’s half on top of me while I grip her hips like she’s every lifeline I’ll ever need.
I touch skin.
Soft cotton.
And I know what’s under there.
