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“I’ll make sure this is working in the morning,” Fake Tom said. “And Ghost?”
“Yeah?”
“She seemed like a nice girl.”
I let myself smile, remembering Emily’s warm gaze on mine. “Yeah.”
He nodded, and I turned, heading to my room—the rooms Uncle Marvin used to live in. As I got ready for bed I wondered if there was a chance I’d actually get some sleep for once. I felt warmer, more grounded, than usual.
I closed my eyes to thoughts of Emily.
Chapter Five
More than Revenge
EMILY
When I got back to the room, Christine was already sleeping, which was a relief because I wasn’t sure how I’d explain the way I’d passed the last hour. But I wasn’t quite ready to lay down.
I took my laptop to the armchair in front of the big window that faced the back of the resort and pounded out my first impressions of the place. The story Archie had told me played in my head too. The treasure hunt, the eccentricities of his uncle, the love story he talked about. It was romantic and compelling. I wanted to know more.
What if there really was a treasure still waiting to be found? When my editor had mentioned the whole thing, I hadn’t known what to believe about it. It seemed fanciful, like it would be something simple, most likely concluded by now. But talking to Archie had given me a different impression. Of this place, of thescope of the hunt, of the reasons why it might be interesting to help complete it.
As much as Archie’s story had taken up space in my head, so had the man himself.
I searched myself for a reaction to him, some gut instinct that related to the accident that had devastated my family. But I didn’t have one. There was nothing about Archie Kasper that fit the expectations I’d had for years. He didn’t have an evil laugh, he didn’t seem mean spirited. He didn’t even look mean—no hooked nose or constant hand wringing like the villains in the cartoon movies. He was actually achingly handsome, and those eyes! His eyes were the kind that could pull you in and hold you there forever. I didn’t think Archie Kasper was a bad guy at all. If anything...he seemed like a good guy. Like someone to whom something awful had happened. Someone who’d been doing his best to move on from the events of his past. Weren’t we all?
The more disturbing thing was that I found myself thinking of ways to spend more time with him. Not entirely because I wanted to learn more about the resort and the treasure hunt for the article that could make my career and prevent me having to beg for work in the future. Editors would be reaching out to me instead. It was more that I wanted to see if the warm tension I’d felt between us in the elevator would come back. I’d agreed to meet him for a drink because I liked him. I was attracted to him, even.
There was something in the way my body had heated when my eyes had connected with Archie’s...something in the way it had felt to rest my head against his strong chest when I’d thought for a moment that we were about to plunge to our deaths. God, I’d jumped into his arms without a thought. But in the quiet and closeness of the elevator, it hadn’t felt like too much, and part of me was sure that if the doors hadn’t opened right then, he would have kissed me.
A blush climbed my neck as I imagined it. Would I have let him? Would I have kissed him back? My mind reeled at the thought, but every cell in my body made the answer clear. There was something chemical there that went beyond the complex connections between us that Archie didn’t even know existed.
A tiny piece of me felt guilty for the ulterior interest I had in him that had led me here in the first place, and I knew that was related to my family, but as I turned that over in my mind, it was exhausting. I was so tired of hating a man none of us even knew.
Finally, as the resort fell silent all around me and the lights outside twinkled over the empty, still patios, I put aside my computer and went to bed.
“You ready?” Christine asked me the next morning as I came out of the shower. “A full day of learning by fire hose.”
“You think it’ll be that crazy?” Though I wasn’t as interested in the content of the conference as I was in the place it was being held, I knew there were things I could learn by attending. Tips and tricks that would improve my craft, no matter what I planned on writing in the future. I was excited to find out.
“It’s total overload at these things,” she said, sitting on the edge of her bed to wait for me to dress. She was a writing conference veteran, but this was my first.
“Tips, please.” I pulled a pair of soft stretchy jeans from my bag but then reconsidered. Would I see Archie at the bar later? Or maybe around the resort during the day? I didn’t want to be dressed like the post-Covid version of me I’d been trying so long to shake—the one who considered leggings to be a perfectly acceptable stand in for real pants and who had mastered the messy bun but forgotten which drawer her round brush andcurling iron lived in. I chose a pair of dark wide-leg jeans and a cropped soft sweater instead.
“You can’t attend everything you want to hear,” Christine said. “So go in person to the ones you really want and pay for the recordings afterwards.”
“Oh, good idea.”
“And if you’re me, you have to pace yourself with the social stuff. Like—” she pulled out the program and scanned the schedule “—today I’m probably going to come back up here for lunch instead of doing this keynote. If I have to do all the small talk and smiling then, I won’t be able to do the happy hour mingle thing.”
“Smart. Okay.” I finished putting up my hair and touched my eyes with a soft shadow and a bit of mascara, and then picked up my own schedule. The cocktail mingle was out on the back patio, but I hadn’t forgotten that Archie had sort of invited me to meet him in the bar around the same time. If most of the conference attendees were out back...I already knew I was going to be in the bar.
I picked up my bag and dropped my conference lanyard around my neck. “Okay, I’m ready.”
As we made our way down the long hallway, Christine asked me about my adventures the night before.
“Oh, I didn’t even tell you! I got trapped in an elevator. With the resort owner!”
