I’m so thirsty.
“Yes.” He looks at me like that won’t be good enough, so I add, “A daughter. She’s seven.”
Tap,tap.
“Your mom?”
I clear my throat and blow a worthless breath up to my sweat-glued bangs. “Good.”
Tap,tap,tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“I never wanted kids,” he admits.
“Oh.” Teddy bear on a boat he is not. “Well then, I guess we can skip getting to know each other and talk about the gold.”
I chuckle; he doesn’t.
“What do you want it for?” he asks.
“Why do most people want gold?”
Silence.
Internally, I swear. Externally, I sweat.
“I’m broke,” I admit. “Our business—the antique store my mom and I have—got—” An unexpected laugh puffs out of me. “Fucked.”
At this, an amused twitch flitters across Cap’s stormy features.
“I guess I was just hopi?—”
“You won’t find it.”
My brows pinch. “Why not?”
“Letter takes you to historically preserved sites.” He points his cane at the article in my hands. “How I got busted.”
“Okay, well what if we?—”
“It won’t work,” he repeats in a more severe tone. “I tried for years.” He hacks out a cough and sets the vape pen on a small table.
Of all the scenarios I played out, him shooting me down wasn’t one of them.
“Maybe there’s a different way to look at it.” I manage to keep my voice even despite the frenzied thoughts slamming against my skull. “Maybe we could look at the clues—” I pause to let him correct my word choice, but as I’m learning is his preferred communication style, he says nothing. “Or whatever. And come up with a different plan. A plan with something else.”
Silence.
“Okay,” I say slowly. “If you don’t want to get involved—which I understand—prefer it actually—if I just looked at the letter I coul?—”
“No!” he bellows, loud enough it makes me jump. “You ever been to Charleston before?” I have a feeling my fifth-grade field trip doesn’t qualify, so I shake my head. “Then you don’t know nothin’ about this city. Won’t understand the letter even if I gave it to you right now. Plus, even if you did find it, the governmentowns it. You turn it in, they’ll claim spoils of war. You’ll never get a cent.”
“That can’t be right.” I am now fully pissed and so thirsty I might die of dehydration. “Why would you spend your whole life looking for something you’ll never have?”
He snorts. “Ain’t called hindsight for nothing. Whole point is to make us see today better.”
