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“I, um.” He glances back over his shoulder like he’s expecting the woman to sneak up on us and beg him for sex. “I teach about, um, plants and trees and stuff.”
“You’re a botanist?” Caught him. That was way easier than it should have been. If he’s a criminal, it must be something that doesn’t require lying to anyone’s face.
I could push him for the truth now, but I’m more interested in finding out what he’s hiding and there’s no way he’s going to admit to it.
More fun to watch him twist himself up in his own lies. And it might give me something I can use when he inevitably lets me down or betrays me.
Because as much as I’m starting to like the guy, I’ve learned the hard way that no one is self-less or completely trustworthy. No one.
He whips around so fast I’m worried his fake head might pop off. “Huh?”
“A botanist. A person who studies plants?”
“Right.” He clears his throat. “I’m a botanist. Most people don’t know that term, so I just tell them I study plants.”
“Well, I know it, because my mom’s a botanist.”
“No fucking way,” he mutters.
I stifle a laugh at his obvious dismay. He’s got no poker face at all, not even when he’s wearing an actual mask. “I know. Small world, right?”
I could absolutely have some fun with this, but he’ll catch on that I know he’s lying if I ask too many questions, and I’m not ready for him to know that yet.
I’ll wait and see what Levi can dig up on him first.
“Where should we start?” He asks.
“Let’s look for small caves or divots in the boulder. Then, we’ll look for anything X-shaped.”
My hope of finding this treasure is already diminishing. We can’t dig up the entire forest and it’s been sixty years. What are the odds the clues are still aboveground? Or that the treasure hasn’t already been found by someone else?
“It seems overwhelming.” Mac looks at me through Bert’s eyes. “But this is just the first stop. We’ll narrow down the possibilities and figure this out.”
I don’t know where he’s found so much confidence, but I like the sound of it. “Okay, let’s get started.”
CHAPTER NINE
Jaxon
I spend too long changing out of my alter ego, Bert. I take off the furry mask that has protected me from thinking too hard about what I’m actually doing. Lying to a woman I’ve asked to give me honesty.
It’s wrong. I’m a selfish person. And the furry costume was a shield from admitting that, because she’s right, I put that shit on Bert instead of myself.
Taking off the suit, the shit all lands on me.
I sink down to sit on the edge of the bed and drop my head into my hands. She’ll find out how I’ve lied about the most vital parts of who I am, my name and my career, and she’ll be too mad to see that I gave her the more valuable part of me, my personality separate from my career and my identity.
That probably won’t be enough in the end. Not that it matters. As soon as she sees the latest tabloid news about me and my ‘cheating’ ways, she’ll want nothing to do with me.
Sitting up, I rub my hands over my face. I don’t go into the bathroom and primp. I change my clothes and put on deodorant and head downstairs, because if her hatred is the price I have to pay for being with someone for the first time in my life without them knowing me as famous first and human second, I’m going to take it.
I want to find out who I am when I’m human first and a rock star second.
Downstairs, she’s got the map laid out on the table. She looks up when I walk into the room. Her eyes don’t light with manic excitement like so many fans’ eyes do when they meet me. Hell, she doesn’t even smile.
I’ve caught her mid-thought and I’m just the guy who’s helping her find something lost.
I’m just the weirdo who dresses like Bigfoot. “What do you think about having a wedding for Barley and Begonia?”
