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Chapter 10
Liberty stood at the door of the Stone Family inn and felt … nervous. Holy smokes, she hadn’t thought she would feel this nervous just from coming to Trent’s house for dinner and catching up on the treasure hunt. That’s all this was: treasure hunt talk. It sparked a different excitement. She’d loved looking for the treasure when she’d been young. They’d make a whole day of it, going to the lighthouse or the shoals or Bird Island. The summers of her youth had been truly magical because of that.
She put up her hand to knock but hesitated, smoothing the pink silk shirt she’d worn with black slacks and nicer heels. She was wearing a black leather jacket too, because it was in the mid-fifties and she was freezing in this weather.
The day had been crazy for her. The roofing guys had shown up at eight, and she’d woken to banging on the front door. Ollie Lemons was the guy in charge of the project. When she’d opened the door, he’d looked her up and down and said, “Tough night?”
She’d nodded but hadn’t explained. Ollie hadn’t needed an explanation; he’d just started into all the things they’d need to do to get her roof looking brand new. He was part of Matt Townsend’s construction crew, but Matt hadn’t been able to come, which disappointed her. He’d been one of their beach crew friends.
At ten, just as she was cleaning up the kitchen, the cement guys had arrived. She’d spent the next couple hours painstakingly going around each part of the exterior of the house and talking about what needed to be ripped out and redone, and what they would put in its place. She found herself actually caring about how it would look.
Liberty drifted back to the present. She put her hand up again, bracing herself to ring the bell, but the door opened first. “Oh,” she said, surprised.
Trent held up his phone. “Sorry. I have major security around this place, and I was notified someone was on the porch five minutes ago. I was waiting for you to ring, but …”
“I was freezing up a bit.”
He smiled and reached for her hand. “You look amazing, by the way.”
She hesitated, then told herself to chill out; they were only having dinner. They were friends. She’d known Trent most of her life—well, except the last twelve years, but all the years before that. She took his hand.
He pulled her in for a hug. “Glad you came. No need to freeze up.”
She inhaled some sort of masculine scent. Something that smelled like leather and cinnamon and an image of a commercial with a guy in an expensive car with a huge watch and talking about “luxury” and the “fine things in life.”
He searched her face. “You smell good,” he said, leaning in and sniffing deeper. “Is that a lemon tart lotion or something?”
It flustered her that she’d been smelling him, too. This wasn’t good. You didn’t smell people that you weren’t dating, did you? “Uh, yeah. It’s some lotion I like. But we discussed the fact that smelling is weird.”
“Did we?”
She nodded.
“Then how come I caught you getting a whiff.”
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t deny it.
Trent winked at her. “Hey, Lucy has been on me about making sure I ask you to go to her party. Will you just come? We could go together if you want.”
She froze. “Um … I don’t think so. It just … I think it would be pointless. I mean, I’m selling the place and then—”
“Getting on the trail, right.”
She nodded.
Trent reached for her hand again, guiding her down the hallway. “Well, maybe you’ll change your mind, but we’ll have to pause this conversation because we have to check the meat.”
She rushed with him, almost tripping over her shoes but catching herself.
“Oh, sorry,” Trent said, looking back at her. “I’ll let your hand go because I have to sprint to the smoker, okay?”
“Okay.” They walked into the main family room next to the kitchen. So many memories flashed through her mind. She noted the changes that had been made to this area.
Trent opened the doors to the deck. “Be right back.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the very casual, though nice, beach clothes he wore, complete with khaki shorts and a blue shirt that had a surfboard on the logo. His blond hair was gelled and messy. All of the nervousness from earlier assaulted her. Breathe in. Breathe out. She was just here with a friend. She was just here to eat, which they had to do anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal. Plus, she wanted to hear about the treasure. Yes, that was her focus.
She faced the wall and admired the huge display of plaques and pictures that hung there, depicting the Stone family history and the story of the conquistador’s gold. It included the map they’d always used as kids, which had pictures of their family from way, way back and up to the present day.
