Page 26

I pointed to the creek. “What about this?”

“Moved east years ago.”

My pulse jumped. “So the map is accurate.”

His finger followed the pencil line north until it reached the caves. “Some of it.”

I watched his face. “You know them. You’ve been there.”

“Yeah.” He flipped back to Grandma’s drawing. “Cold water. Limestone.” He returned to the map. “But this one’s wrong.”

“Wrong how?”

Barrett tapped one of the circles. “Too high. No limestone either.” His finger moved to another. “This one…”

I leaned closer. “What?”

“Might fit.”

My breath caught. “You think the plant could be there?”

“I think your grandma’s notes could describe the ground around it.”

I stared at the circle beneath his fingertip. All the months of applications, the grant that barely covered my expenses, every person who had smiled politely when I explained what I hoped to find.

Suddenly there was a place. Not proof, but a place.

“When can we go?”

Barrett looked at me, caution settling into his expression. “Not yet.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he rested one huge hand on my knee.

“We’ll check the landmarks first,” he said. “Make sure we’re reading the map right. Then we talk about the caves.”

His hand remained there after he finished speaking, warm and heavy through my jeans. His fingers flexed once, as though he’d only just realized he was touching me.

“Okay,” I said.

Barrett looked at me. “Okay?”

“Yes.”

A slow smile appeared.

I frowned. “What?”

“Nothing.”

I bumped my shoulder into his and bounced off. “I can be reasonable.”

“Sometimes.”

His hand finally left my knee, and I missed it immediately.

I closed Grandma’s journal and tucked it back into my bag. Barrett stood and gathered the remains of our lunch while I sat for another moment, trying to understand what had happened to me.

Nothing, technically. He’d held my hand. Touched my knee. And for one breathless moment, I’d been certain he was going to kiss me.