“I am burying treasure. Like old times.” I nudged his side with my elbow. “Join us.”
“Have I finally been invited to play with Ros and Liza?” he asked Liza, who took his arm and laughed.
“Never,” she teased. “Now be a good little lad and go home to your lessons.”
“I think I’d rather play teacher. And today’s lesson,” he mused, all too willing to engage with Liza’s jests, “is on reptiles and amphibians. Shall we?” He motioned to the pond, then lowered his voice to a whisper in her ear. Then he pulled back. “Ros,” he said, eyeing Mr. Winston at my side. He’d reverted to his adult self again. “I will be close, just by the pond, should you need me.”
I wanted to look heavenward and scoff. Should I need him! But my little brother was intent on being responsible, and regardless of whether I needed his protection or not, I was proud. “Thank you, Ben.”
Charlie knelt by the flowers and seemed to be measuring where to dig his spade first. “In my experience, it is best to dig wide and deep if we wish to save the flowers. Believe it or not, I learned a thing or two from the gardener the other day.” He dragged the tip of his spade backward a touch, then pressed it hard into the earth. “Where is your treasure?”
“In here,” I said proudly, patting my satchel.
“Do I get to add anything?” he asked. He did not look up, so I could not gauge his seriousness.
“If you wish. But you cannot expect to retrieve it any time soon.”
“Or ever?” He looked up and smiled. He lifted the large clump of dirt and flowers out of the ground and set them aside.
“Perhaps.”
He continued digging, while Liza and Ben ventured toward the pond. I made a note to keep an eye on whatever they were scheming.
“How deep?” Charlie asked, wiping his brow.
I bent down beside him, tugged off my lace gloves, and reached my hand down into the hole, which was not quite up to my shoulder.
“A little more.”
He leaned inside, scraping dirt from all four sides of the square hole he’d created, then farther down, adding the excavated soil to a pile by the flowers. His firm back and shoulders tensed beneath his shirt as he worked, every inch of him focused and determined. All for me. He pushed the spade deeper into the earth, and he must have felt my gaze, for his eyes flicked to mine. He gave me a soft smile, a knowing one that said he understood what this meant to me. That he cared. Then he went back to work.
I looked over my shoulder to make sure Ben wasn’t creeping up behind me, but when I turned back to the hole, dirt smacked me in the face.
I sputtered and wiped my face and lips with my hands.
“Drat,” Charlie chuckled, rising up on his knees. He started to reach out to me but seemed to think better of it. “Forgive me, Rosalind, I hit a root.”
I squinted and licked my teeth, shuddering from the subtle taste of dirt that had managed to find its way in.
Charlie bit back his smile and dug his spade into the hole.
Liza shrieked in laughter from behind us, and I whipped around to find Ben chasing after something hopping along the ground. Some things never changed.
“Finished.” Charlie sat back on his heels and let out a heavy breath. “Does this depth suit you?”
I peered in. Then I pulled my box from my satchel and settled it deep inside the hole. “Perfect. Thank you.”
Charlie gave me a funny look, so I gave him one back.
“You still have dirt on your face.” He pointed to my cheek.
Or at least that is where I thought he indicated. I rubbed around my face. “What?”
“No.” He started to laugh. I held still as he reached out. “Just ... there.” His thumb brushed my chin, just below my lip, sending heat and sparks to my chest.
His eyes met mine, and I forgot to breathe. I forgot that we were in the middle of a field, that we were anything but alone, and that mere days had passed since we had laid on our blanket, practically a sick bed, sharing our secrets across the pond from where he’d saved my life.
His thumb was still on my chin, tracing the outline of my bottom lip, and his gaze turned serious and contemplative. My knees went weak, and I started to lean into his touch.
