His eyes meet mine again, and his take on an amused glow. “Sleep well?”
“Clearly, if this is how I’m behaving while meeting new people.”
“Newfamily,” his mom says. “Was I going to be invited to this wedding? Or was this going to be another thing that I found out about from your annual Christmas letter?”
“You send Christmas letters?” I ask him.
Alice snorts. “No, he doesn’t, which makes how I find out about these things even worse.”
“I send the Christmas letter detailing all of his exploits,” Vanessa says. “And if I don’t know, I make it up. Like whatever happened to his hair. I’m thinking he had a mishap when he tried to take up juggling.”
I blink at her, then begin to smile. “He started with flaming batons?”
“You know it. Men and their egos.Eat. So we can find this fu—dging treasure.”
“I brought my see-in-the-dark glasses that you got me for my birthday,” Alice says.
“Mom. You’re not going.”
Tripp grins again and pulls Lila into his lap. “She should go. We shouldallgo.”
“Who are you, and what did you do with the guy who used to tell us no to everything we wanted to do on the bus?” Beck asks.
Francie shouts in agreement.
Or possibly she’s shouting for more food.
She’s been in to see Doc too, but only once. The round of colds hasn’t hit her yet. Lucky duck.
“Request came through to shut down the preserve for a Fireballs promotional photo shoot,” Tripp tells Davis. “No one else will be there. You should let your mom go treasure hunting too if you want to go. It’s as safe as hunting treasure can be.”
Oh no, this is bad.Badbad. They’re taking pictures in the preserve today? “The Fireballs are doing a promotional photo shoot at the preserve?” I ask.
Davis shakes his head. “Cover story to get it closed.”
I don’t ask when he asked Tripp for help.
I slept like the dead last night.
Again.
For obvious reasons.
“Also, Lila and I are coming on the treasure hunt,” Tripp says.
“Ingrid says she and Levi are on their way too,” Sarah reports. “And Aspen knows a lot of cuss words. In case anyone needed to know that about her.”
“What about Ellie?” Mrs. Wilson says. “And Wyatt. Wyatt’s military smart. You should get him out here too.”
“Someone say my name?” a woman calls from the front of the house, then a door slams.
“I get bwekfast!” a new little voice yells. “Gamma wolls! Gamma wolls!”
I tense.
And then a hand squeezes my thigh, and my shoulders drop.
Ellie doesn’t hate me.
