Apparently Sophie can’t keep her mouthshut.
She’s also back with Enzo. I saw themmaking out in front of the coffee shop tonight.
Aww,man!
Maisie smiled and clicked off her phone, tucking it in her back pocket. Fun fact: Rebound relationships have a dismal success rate.
Nineteen
We all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.
—Oscar Wilde, author
Scout drove the dark, winding coastal road as quickly as she dared. Now and then, she glanced at Naki, who cradled his injured hand, wrapped up in her ranger jacket. That deep cut must hurt like the dickens. But he remained calm, in contrast to Scout, who felt alarmed by the amount of blood soaking her ranger jacket. He’d already soaked through the bandages in her first aid kit. “We’re going right by my cottage. I think I should stop in for a second and grab some more bandages.”
He gave a short nod.
“Do you want to talk?” She hoped to distract him from the pain. Or maybe she was trying to distract herself from the blood dripping from her jacket.
“Depends. About what?”
“What makes you so sure we went to the right place? Just because we didn’t find gold doesn’t mean it’s not somewhere.”
“We went to the right place.”
Scout and Naki had picked their way along the jagged shoreline, the wind carrying the scent of salt and seaweed as wavescrashed against the rocks. Then he stopped and pointed. “There it is,” he said. “Weeping Rock.”
Scout could see how it might have caught a grieving woman’s attention. It was a hulking boulder jutting toward the Atlantic, slick with moss at low tide.
Carefully inching their way around the boulder, they had searched every crack, starting with the obvious ones first. Scout’s fingers slipped over moss, pushing past clusters of barnacles and into sea-worn crevices. Nothing. Just cold, unyielding rock. Fifteen minutes passed, twenty, thirty. Finally, Scout straightened with a defeated sigh just as Naki lost his footing. He caught himself against the boulder, but his palm slammed into a barnacle’s razor-sharp edge. Blood welled instantly, dark against his skin.
Scout yanked off her jacket and wrapped his hand without hesitation. “That’s deep,” she said, tightening the fabric to keep pressure on the wound. “You might need stitches.”
“It’ll be fine. There’re just a few more crevices.”
Scout couldn’t believe he wanted to keep going. “I’ll look. You keep your hand elevated.” She checked each crevice he pointed to and found nothing. “Naki, there’s nothin’ here.”
At this point, he agreed. “The gold is gone.”
Now in the jeep, Scout was taking him, despite his objections, to MDI Hospital to see if that cut on his hand should be stitched. “What made you so sure that we wouldn’t find any gold?”
“Your father’s research into the story.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Better not. He’s still working on it.”
Scout rolled her eyes. So like her dad. Always just out of reach.
As she reached her cabin, she pulled into the gravel parking area and parked the jeep. “Maybe you should come in. We can wash off your cut and get it properly bandaged.” She hurriedaround to his side to open the door for him. “Just a warning. My mother is here.”
“Do I need to be warned?”
“You do.”
He swung his long legs out of the car and rose to his feet, cradling his hand against his body. She caught the agonized grimace on his face. He was hurting.
The front door swung open with a creak, and Scout’s mother appeared in the frame, as if she’d been watching at the window. “Magnolia Pearl, where have you been? I have been calling and texting.”
