Three
Jake tried to avoid showing any emotion, but his heartbeat sped up and he had a flash of satisfaction. She was going to agree to let him on her ranch. He barely paid attention when she said she had a condition. He couldn’t imagine anything she could come up with that would stop him from accepting.
“Sure. Let’s hear it,” he said.
“I want to take a couple of my ranch hands and accompany you.”
As if cold water had been poured over him, his enthusiasm chilled. “You don’t trust me? Madison, if I surveyed your land, it wouldn’t get me any further with you on signing a lease,” he stated, sitting up straight in the chair. “I don’t intend to survey, but why would you want to go with me?”
“First of all how would I know if you found the treasure if I wasn’t along, except pure trust that you would inform me about it? That isn’t going to happen,” she said, her voice sounding cold and harsh, something he had never heard from her before.
“I expected you’d want one person to go with us—I figured one of the men who works for you. There’s no reason for you to go with us and it would be a waste of your time to have to sit and watch us dig.”
“You said nothing about someone who works for me going with you.”
“That’s your decision.”
She faced him, looking calm and composed again, the flash of anger gone. She shook her head. “That’s my condition. Take it or leave it. I go or you don’t.”
He stared at her a moment and then shrugged. “Sure, come along. If you think it over tonight and still want the same agreement, that’s fine. You have yourself a deal,” he said, holding out his hand. “If we find the treasure, you get it. I get my ancestors’ remains. We’ll just have to see if we do find a deed, what it says and who the land goes to. You go with me to search for the treasure.”
She placed her hand in his to shake while she smiled at him. “Deal.”
Her hand was warm, soft, and when they looked into each other’s eyes, he realized it might be torment to work with her beside him every day. He released her hand and the moment was gone, but it had dampened some of his enthusiasm. He didn’t want to get emotionally involved with her again and he didn’t like this constant flashback to that time in his life when she meant everything to him.
“I can go in tomorrow and clear my calendar. I don’t think we’ll search for more than a week, but I’ll clear my schedule for two weeks just in case. I can be ready to go Tuesday. What about you?” he asked.
“My time is my own. I think it would help if you would give me a copy of the map and let me study it. We need to have an idea where to go before we start. If you can send me an electronic copy of the map tonight when you get home, I can start studying it. Then tomorrow night, if you’d like, you can come over and look at maps of the ranch with me. You’re a geologist—I’m sure you can figure out some things from those photos of the ranch.”
“Sure. That’ll be good. I’ve already scanned in the old map, so I can send it easily.”
“Good. We’ll get started tonight.”
“You’re going to lose a lot of time to work on your art.”
She shook her head. “No, I won’t. I’ll take my sketch pad with me—because I don’t intend to dig. You’re the one so eager to do this.”
“You’re the one who will benefit from it if we’re successful,” he reminded her. “But you don’t need to dig so much as one shovelful of dirt.”
He stood. “I’ll go home and send you a copy of the map. Give me about an hour.”
At the door he paused. “Thanks, Madison, for agreeing to let me do this. Hopefully, it will be a productive venture.”
“I hope so. Thanks for dinner,” she said, following him into the hall.
“I’ll call you when I get home,” he said, walking away, aware she stood on her porch and watched him. As the limo pulled away, she still stood on the porch—a small figure in the moonlight.
They were going to search for the treasure together. Not what he had expected, but it was okay. The main thing was she had agreed to let him look. He hoped he succeeded in finding everything he was searching for. Again, guilt assailed him, but all he had to do was think about the day he had planned to elope with her. As he rode, he pulled out his phone to call his brother Josh, but there was no answer. He didn’t want to call Mike this late because Mike had a two-year-old son and he would be in bed.
He called Lindsay next to tell her. His sister was jubilant over his success with Madison.
After finishing his call with Lindsay, he thought about Madison. Was she looking forward to the search? He knew she hadn’t accepted because she wanted to be with him. It had been obvious that tonight had been a strain on her and she disliked being with him.
He didn’t understand the anger he had glimpsed in her eyes a few times. Why was she angry? She had done what she had wanted to do and put her career first. He shrugged, refusing to worry about it. It no longer mattered. He was honest enough with himself to admit it still hurt sometimes but he had put it in perspective and moved on.
As they reached the back door of his ranch house and his chauffeur stopped the limo, Jake opened the door. “Thanks, Chauncy,” he said, tipping his chauffeur in spite of the generous salary he paid.
“Night, Jake,” Chauncy said, following his boss’s orders for informality when it was only the two of them. Chauncy drove on to the garage to park the limo and go to his spacious apartment over the six-car garage while Jake entered his house.
In a short time he called Madison to tell her he had sent the map copy. Their conversation was brief and then she was gone.
Then he spread the maps on a table in his study and compared the ancient one with the one he had of Madison’s ranch, which was an aerial view. He had already picked out what he thought the most likely places to search, but he wanted to see what she chose. He could hardly believe it. He’d wanted to do this for a long time and now it was finally going to happen. Adrenaline pumping, he could barely contain his excitement. He had energy to burn, so turning off the light in the study, he went to the gym to work out. If all went well, he was in for some hard physical labor in the coming week.
* * *
Monday morning Jake flew to Dallas and went to his downtown office on the twentieth floor of Calhoun Energy. His office was half the floor with a reception room, his private office with its own entrance, the executive conference room, a room with a bar, a bathroom and a small workout room. On the floor above were two penthouse apartments with terraces.
Before Jake could call, Josh phoned and said he was on his way up. Jake was glad Josh was in town. Even though he had an investment in Calhoun Energy, he had his own hotel business and was gone more than he was in Dallas. In minutes his brother came striding into his office. His straight dark brown hair was neatly combed and he looked every inch the successful hotel mogul with his gold cuff links catching the light as he swung his arms. The gray suit and matching tie provided contrast for his brown eyes and dark looks.
“Good morning. How did it go last night?” he asked, sitting in a leather chair facing Jake, who leaned back in his chair behind his desk. Morning sun slanted through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him.
“Excellent. I have permission to search on her ranch.”
“Hot damn! That’s perfect. So she bought it. Any stipulations?”
“Yes, she had one. The hitch you predicted,” he said, thinking each sibling reacted in a customary way and Josh was the cynical, study-all-angles-first brother.
“She wants someone from her ranch to go along,” Josh surmised.
“She does. More than one. In fact, she’s going with me.”
“Uh-oh,” Josh said, narrowing his eyes. “Do you think she wants to renew old times?”
“Not even remotely. She doesn’t trust me and she wants to see for herself.”
“She’s going to join you if you dig for buried treasure?” Josh asked, making a tent of his fingers in front of his chest. One booted foot rested on his knee.
“No, she won’t dig. I’m guessing that she’ll watch or sketch while she waits. Whatever she plans to do, she is definitely going with me.”
“Don’t ever trust her.”
“I don’t think you need to give me that advice,” Jake answered.
“I suppose not. So what happens if you find something and she’s there?”
“The treasure is hers as we planned. We get the remains. If any remains are Milans, she can have them.”
“What about the deed? If it’s there, she’ll see it.”
Jake nodded. “If it’s buried with the treasure, yeah. If we find it, she’s going to want to see it. At that point, I’ll drop the part about the McCracken land because she’ll know that I knew all along if there was a deed to land, it was Milan land.”
Jake sat forward in his chair. “You know, I wonder if it’s a tall tale—that our ancestor won part of the Milan ranch in a poker game and the deed was buried with that treasure.”
“You’ll have to take on about the bones of our ancestors like they mean the world to you.”
“I’ll worry about Madison. If that deed exists, I want it. According to what we were told, the deed would give us Milan land all along our border and that would be fabulous.”
“I think so,” Josh said, his brown eyes twinkling. “You’d get revenge for old man Milan telling you that you couldn’t marry Madison, to never go near her again.”
“I don’t care about revenge. That’s the past. If we have a deed to part of their ranch, I want that Milan land. We’re not the only company going after leases there,” Jake said, knowing that all his siblings owned shares in Calhoun Energy, just as he had an investment in Josh’s company.
Josh ran his fingers through his hair that sprang away and curled in a tangle. “Have you called everyone to tell them?”
“Yeah, I called you, too, and no one answered.”
Josh grinned. “I got your text. When you called, I was with...a friend.”
“The redhead?”
“No, she’s gone. Sandy is a brunette. You’ll meet her, maybe. Or maybe not.”
He paused as they heard voices outside the office and he watched their oldest brother, Mike, and their sister, Lindsay, appear from his private entrance.
“Good morning,” Mike said, standing and gazing at his brothers with wide dark brown eyes. Locks of his curly black hair fell slightly on his forehead. He shed his brown leather jacket, draped it on a coatrack by the door and hung his brown broad-brimmed hat on the rack.
“Come in and sit. Where’s Scotty?” Jake asked about Mike’s two-year-old.
“Home with Mrs. Lewis.”
“Lindsay, I didn’t expect to see you this morning.”
“I had to get some supplies and Mike talked me into coming. This is great news.”
“Madison was suspicious of my motives at first, but then she bought it and said that I can look for the treasure,” Jake explained and all three siblings cheered. “You two have a chair,” Jake said and Mike sat in the other leather chair while Lindsay took a wingback.
“And Madison thinks the deed gives you land from the McCracken place?” Mike asked.
“Right,” Jake replied. “From what I’ve always understood, until now, no one outside our family knows about the deed.”
“Thank heavens,” Josh remarked.
“Madison’s going with me on the dig. That’s the only way she would agree.”
“That’s bad news,” Lindsay remarked, frowning. “You can bet her brothers will be thinking up ways for her to take advantage of this. She’ll try something sneaky.”
Mike shook his head and rolled his eyes. “She wants to get back together with you.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Jake answered. “Madison doesn’t trust me to tell her if I find the treasure. It’s that simple.”
“Watch her. I don’t think it will be that simple,” Mike said. “I agree with Lindsay. Don’t ever trust a Milan,” he said and Jake’s eyebrows arched.
“What happens if you do find the deed?” Lindsay asked.
“I show it to her and claim the land.”
“You can just act surprised there really is a deed,” Mike said. “She can’t blame you for feeling uncertain about it.”
“I won’t need to act,” Jake remarked dryly. “I will be as surprised as hell if we find a deed or anything else. I don’t really think that legend is true.”
“Something got it started and it makes sense. You know our ancestors shot and killed Milans and Milans shot and killed some of our ancestors, which is part of what started the feud,” Josh said.
“A woman got it started. She planned to marry a Calhoun and ran off with a Milan,” Mike reminded them.
“You know Madison doesn’t trust you,” Josh remarked.
“I don’t really care,” Jake replied. “If there is a deed and that deed will stand up in a court of law, then part of the Milan ranch is ours. Maybe the best part of the Milan ranch.” All were silent a moment and Jake figured the others were thinking about the prospect of owning part of the Milan ranch just as he was.
“What a deal,” Josh stated, his brown eyes on Jake. “This may get the old feud fired up again.”
“I hope we’re all more civilized today than to go shooting at each other,” Jake said. “We may start searching tomorrow. I’m going to her house tonight to look at aerial photos of her ranch and hear her theories on where to look. I sent her a copy of the map last night.”
They speculated on where the digging would take place, as they had all studied the map and the aerial photos of the Milan ranch.
“All we can do is wait and see,” Mike said. “Call one of us each night and give us a report and we’ll call the other two.”
Jake agreed.
“That old legend,” Lindsay remarked. “It would be funny if it turned out to be true.”
“It sounds likely to me,” Mike added, glancing at the others.
“I go back and forth about it,” Jake said. “I first heard it from Grandad. He said a Calhoun had a box of gold and he was trying to get away from robbers—”
“It might have been just the reverse,” Mike said. “The Calhoun ancestor may have been the robber trying to escape a posse.
“They’ve also said the shoot-out was over a Calhoun’s fiancée who ran off with a Milan and they had the shoot-out over her,” Mike stated.
“That’s what Grandad always said. He said the Calhoun got her back because he killed the Milan,” Jake said. “The deed was won by a Calhoun from a Milan and was supposed to say clearly that the land belonged to the Calhouns, and the deed was with a box of gold coins.”
“The ranch boundaries we have now weren’t clear back in the time that shoot-out happened, but that started the feud,” Mike said. “Myth or truth? Maybe we’ll finally find out with our generation.
“I’d like to come with you,” Mike added, “but I think it would cause trouble with Madison Milan to have two Calhouns.”
“No,” Jake replied. “She won’t want the Calhoun brothers going along, or our sister.”
“Frankly, I don’t want to go,” Lindsay said.
Josh stood up. “I’ve got to go. I leave for L.A. in a few hours. Good luck, bro,” he said, looking intently at Jake. “Sorry, but I don’t think you’ll find anything. If a treasure is on that ranch, it’s a needle in a haystack.”
“I’ll text all of you each night.”
“Good,” Mike said, standing with the others. “Good luck to you.”
Jake gave him a thumbs-up. He watched as his siblings left and then he sat, turning his chair to look out over Dallas while he thought about the old legend and the Milan ranch. Was it really true or was this a wild-good chase? If there was a buried treasure, was there any hope of them finding it? Actually, it might be buried on Calhoun land because to all his family’s calculations it was close to their boundary. Through the years there had been plenty of searching on the Calhoun side, but to no avail.
He thought again of Madison, remembering her perfume, the way the blue dress had clung to a figure that still took his breath away. She was a beautiful woman, poised and confident now. He hadn’t slept well last night with her filling his dreams. Memories of making love to her had plagued him, waking him, leaving him hot, sweaty and wanting her, something he didn’t want to feel. They had been kids when they had thought they were in love.
What had been a significant difference at nineteen and sixteen no longer mattered at thirty-two and twenty-nine. When he looked back on it now, he had to admit that they had been too young to marry, but at the time it hadn’t seemed that way.
Because of Pete Milan’s heavy-handed manner, Jake had never thought about the man being right until the past few years. All he could remember was her father warning him to get out of Madison’s life and disclosing that she had already accepted his offer to open art galleries for her and get her showings in the best exhibitions in the Southwest and along the West Coast—if she would call off the wedding. Her father’s promise had probably saved her several years of struggles and had made her a legitimate working artist. Evidently that was what she’d wanted the most. More than him. Jake had known instinctively that his own dad would have agreed with Pete Milan and said they were too young to marry; his mother never liked any of the Milans anyway.
He thought again of Madison, remembering holding her soft hand last night when they had the handshake on their agreement. Could he work with her and keep his hands to himself and resist flirting with her? Did he really want to resist? Was she still off-limits to his heart? Wisdom answered yes. She obviously didn’t feel kindly toward him or want to recall the past. What would it be like to be with her every day for the next week or two?
* * *
Madison bent over the map and aerial photo spread before her as she made notes. For several hours she’d tried to focus her thoughts, but too often she realized she was staring into space, lost in thought about Jake and their time together last night. She had been shocked at how handsome he looked—far more than when he had been nineteen years old. Worse, he was even more appealing to her as a man than he had been as a teenager.
She had never known if her parents had any inkling of the depth of her feelings for Jake Calhoun. It didn’t matter now.
One time their foreman, Charley, had come around the garages and seen her in her car at midnight. He had asked if her parents knew she was out and he had told her to go back inside. She had gone back, climbing in through her open bedroom window and sitting there, watching in the dark until she saw Charley disappear into the bunkhouse. She had climbed out again and taken a truck, driving across the ranch in the moonlight to meet Jake. That had been one of the last times they had been together before the night they had planned to run away and get married.
For days she had wondered if Charley had ratted her out to her dad, but when nothing happened, she decided he had not. Charley had always kept an eye on them for her dad, especially the boys, and she never liked Charley because of it, although now that she was grown, she understood why he had. She’d never even told Jake about the incident because it hadn’t seemed that important.
How in love she had been with Jake! She had thought he was the most wonderful person she had ever known. She remembered his dark brown eyes last night and her racing pulse when she had caught him looking at her lips while desire blazed in his eyes. What was it going to be like to work with him every day for the rest of the week? Could she hold up her end of this expedition?
She thought about crossing the porch with him last night when they had come home after dinner. If he had taken her into his arms to kiss her, would she have stopped him? Breathless, she thought about Jake’s kisses. Would she have been able to stop him?
Tonight he would be in her house to look at her photos and maps. Could she eat with him tonight, work with him and still resist him?
This morning she had called the man in Chicago who had validated the map. He had searched his records, finally calling her back and telling her the map was authentic. The thought of seeing the actual map that was a tie to her past was exciting.
She had sent a text to all her brothers about the search. Tony had called immediately after he received the text, which was typical because he could be impulsive. Nick’s call had come later in the afternoon after he had thought things over. Wyatt had needed the most time to think it all over, as he tended to view everything more objectively than any other family member.
Tony had started arguing instantly. “I don’t think you should go. I should. You can’t trust Jake Calhoun, or any Calhoun about anything. You should know that. I’ll call him.”
“No, you won’t,” she’d said patiently. “Just wait. I’m taking two men with me and we’ll watch all the time to see what is going on.”
“Don’t do it. The Calhouns are up to something.”
She had argued with Tony for half an hour before she finally got him to promise to stay out of it until she asked for his help.
Wyatt and Nick had been easier, but the message had been the same—they didn’t trust a Calhoun. She had promised them both she would be careful and she’d keep all her brothers informed of what was happening. She had promptly put them and their warnings out of her mind. She could take care of herself and her ranch.
She looked down at the map again, even though she had it memorized by now.
Would the map really help them? She thought of all the warnings and pushed aside her worries. Men who had worked for them for years would be with her, so there was nothing to worry about.
Except maybe falling in love with Jake Calhoun all over again.
The thought came unbidden. No, she assured herself, she would not fall in love with him again. Still, a nagging doubt tormented her. Jake still set her pulse racing and the slightest contact with him was electrifying. For the next few days she would be with him from sunrise to sundown.
Why hadn’t he married? Was he wondering the same about her? Regardless, she intended to guard her heart. She suspected he wouldn’t want to fall in love again any more than she did.
She forced herself to get back to her notes. Promptly at six, when she had told him to appear, the doorbell rang. She opened the door and looked into Jake’s dark brown eyes before his gaze drifted slowly to her toes and back up again, taking in her jeans and plaid shirt, and making her tingle all over.
“You look gorgeous,” he said in a husky voice.
She was thinking the same about him. He wore a navy Western shirt, boots and tight jeans. He had a wide-brimmed tan Stetson on his head, creased in the familiar local style. He held a brown leather briefcase.
“Thank you. Come in,” she said, stepping back. “Let’s get something to drink and then go look at the map and pictures I have. I have a casserole in the oven and we can eat whenever we want.”
“Show me the way,” he said. “I wonder how long it will take me to get accustomed to entering this house and not feeling as if I’m committing a crime.”
She smiled. “You shouldn’t feel that way now.”
“This was the forbidden palace. Any of your family around tonight?”
“No. They’re in Dallas. They’re rarely out here except at Christmas when we all get together. Even our Christmas celebration has been in Dallas the last few years. I’m sure you see my brothers some because they’re around. Nick has a home in Dallas, Wyatt has a home here in Verity and Tony lives on his ranch. We all have our own ranches now, but only Tony lives on his year-round.”
“Sure, the illustrious sheriff of Verity, Wyatt Milan. I see Tony sometimes in Verity or at rodeos. Your brother Nick is probably too busy trying to become president someday.”
She laughed. “He would like to be, but right now, he’s too busy being a state representative.”
They stopped in the kitchen to get drinks. As he helped, she caught him watching her. His gaze made her heart beat faster and she wondered again how she would get through the next few days, or weeks, working with him.
“Let’s go to the library,” she said and when he walked beside her, she was aware of him, close, almost touching her.
“Madison, I’m sorry about your sister-in-law.”
Madison nodded. “Thanks. That car wreck was a tragedy. In public Nick does fine, but he’s had a hard time dealing with the loss. He was so excited because she was expecting.”
“That must have been rough.”
“You’ve had your own losses. I’m sorry about Mike losing his wife to cancer. At least he has his son.”
“That helps, and keeps him busy. It’s been hard for him trying to be both mom and dad for Scotty.”
“That’s tough and so sad.”
“Mike’s happy with his nanny and Mom comes to stay sometimes for a month at a time, so that’s helped him. The baby is a cute little fella and that cheers him up. He tries to stay upbeat because of Scotty.”
“Do your brothers know what you’re doing?”
“Oh, yeah. I don’t think they really expect much to come from it. This isn’t the first search for that fabled buried treasure.”
“I know. It’ll probably be another wild-goose chase, but the map is fascinating. I’m anxious to see the actual map. It gives a little more validity to the legend, but finding something buried anywhere on this ranch is kind of mind-boggling.”
Carrying her tea while he carried a beer, she led the way to the library, a large room filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves of books and pictures.
She stopped at a long table filled with maps and photos. “Those are aerial photos, but over here are satellite pictures,” she said, waving her hand and moving to a computer and an iPad toward one end of the table. “You can see these photos better and move around or expand them. Look at whatever you want.”
“This is impressive,” he said as he bent over one of the aerial pictures. “I haven’t seen this one.”
“No, it’s not out there for the public. That’s one of our pictures. Look at the map and then look at the aerial photo and the satellite maps of the ranch. Maybe you can find some landmarks in them that are similar.” She glanced up and saw him staring at the open neckline of her shirt. Self-conscious, she wanted to reach up and button one more button, but she didn’t want to draw that much attention to herself. His eyes met hers and she was ensnared in his dark gaze, desire filling her as she stared at him. Realizing what was happening, she looked away. To cover the flush that heated her cheeks she pointed to the aerial photo.
“Look at this, Jake.”
He shifted his attention to the papers on the table and while he studied them, she looked at his profile. He was clean-shaven, his thick black hair combed neatly. Jake’s lashes had a slight curl over seductive dark eyes that could hide his feelings easily. The past few moments had shaken her. Desire had overwhelmed her, and he had felt it, too. She hoped that didn’t happen again during the coming week. She had to go with him. No way would she trust him even if she had her men go with him.
As she studied him, she knew the week or weeks ahead would be a strain. It would help if he hadn’t gotten more appealing through the years. He was breathtakingly handsome. Did other women see him that way, or was it just an effect he had on her?
Jake sat in front of the wide-screen computer to look at a satellite map.
She stepped closer to sit near him so she could look with him. As she did, their shoulders brushed lightly, the slightest touch, but she was acutely aware of the contact. She forced her mind back to the screen.
“These maps should help in our search,” he told her. “I’ve studied the old map off and on through the years. In my judgment, it looks as if the location is along the banks of Rocky Creek.” He picked up his briefcase to set it on his knees to open it. “I brought the original. I got it out of the vault.”
“That’s exciting, Jake,” she said in anticipation.
He removed a box with a glass front. Inside was the yellowed, torn and wrinkled map. He opened the box and lifted it slowly, gently, his well-shaped hands holding it gingerly.
“Maybe you should leave it in there and we’ll just look through the glass,” she said, though she wanted desperately to hold it herself.
“No. We can see it better this way.”
“Jake, can I touch it? It’s a connection to my first Texas ancestors.”
“Hold out your hands,” he ordered. When she did, he carefully placed it into her open hands, his warm fingers brushing hers. The contact of their hands made her forget the map for a few seconds as she looked up at Jake. He sat so close, and as she looked into his dark eyes she felt a flash of longing.
“Thank you,” she said, the words coming out in a whisper. She remembered the fragile map and looked at it, drawing a deep breath. “Jake, this feels like a tangible tie with the past.”
“I hope it’s a damn tangible tie to a real buried treasure.”
She examined the map, thinking about the ancestor who had carried it. “This is fantastic. It makes me wonder about those early-day Milans. If there is a treasure, was it ill-gotten gains, or gold that had been acquired legitimately?”
“We’ll never know the answer to that one.”
“Here. You can have it back.”
“Just place it close here where I can compare it with the satellite map that shows everything the most clearly.” Jake studied the computer and she looked at a picture that showed her ranch, all the trees, bushes, the house and other buildings and roads. He adjusted the map on the computer and pointed to a place with his finger. “I want to compare this stretch along Rocky Creek. There are some trees on the map, but trees die or are cut down. New trees crop up beside them. I don’t think we can go by the trees on the map.”
“Probably not,” she said, placing the antique map gingerly near the computer. He moved so close his arm brushed hers. He reached into his briefcase to retrieve a flashlight. “Can you hold this?”
She took the flashlight and he turned back to shift the map, moving it slowly and carefully. The additional light showed the map more clearly.
“Now look—these circles—it’s printed here, I think, ‘rocs.’ Look at this aerial picture along the creek bank.”
“There are rocks, but there are about a dozen more places along the banks where there are rocks on both sides.”
“Yes, but look. The creek curves here in the picture,” he said, pointing. “The creek curves here on the map. It looks like the same place,” he said, leaning closer to the table.
“That’s true, but then look here.” She pointed farther up on the screen. “Here’s where I thought it looked most like the electronic copy of the map you sent me. There are rocks, the creek curves just slightly around a sandbar, but in all these years the creek could have swallowed up the sandbar. You see what I mean?” She looked around to catch him studying her so intently she forgot the map momentarily. He drew a deep breath and turned back to the map.
“That’s a possibility.” He let out a heavy breath. “I never expected this to be easy. People have been hunting for that treasure all my life and probably since the late nineteenth century.”
“Maybe you should sit and study these maps while I get dinner on the table. After all, this is the first time you’ve seen these photos of the Double M Ranch.”
“Sure you don’t want kitchen help?”
“I’m sure,” she said, leaving Jake looking at the computer screen, pausing at the door to look back at him. Light shone on him, giving midnight glints to his black hair. Was she going to be able to work with him without rekindling feelings she didn’t want? Some feelings had already ignited. And that’s what scared her.
While she got drinks and dinner on the table, her thoughts stayed on Jake.
When she returned to call him for dinner he shook his head as he stood. “I’ve found four likely places so far. We’ll both look after dinner. I have the feeling the longer we look, the more places we’ll find,” he said, walking beside her to the kitchen.
“That does smell good,” he said and she smiled.
“A simple dinner—baked tilapia on angel-hair pasta with artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes. I have a sauce for the fish or lemons.”
They entered the kitchen, which had glass-fronted cabinets built in the late 1900s when the original part of the house was constructed.
“Nice kitchen,” he said, looking around.
“All the equipment is about three years old, which was the last remodeling. It is a nice kitchen. I’ve grown up in it and I love it, high ceilings and all.”
He held her chair and she was acutely conscious of every brush of his hands, every look he gave her. What did she still feel for Jake? She didn’t want to answer her own question. A week ago, she would have told herself that she had no feelings for him, but after being around him, responding to him in startling ways, she had to admit that she was still attracted to him.
“We have some fancy homemade garlic bread.”
“Did you do all this?” he asked and she shook her head.
“I’d like to say yes, but I didn’t. Jessie Lou cooks for me now and Harriet cooks for the men. Dad deeded this ranch to me. He and Mom don’t care to stay here at all any longer. I inherited the staff, too, so Ethel still cleans three days a week and her daughter comes once a week to help. Ethel and Jessie Lou still live here on the ranch and Ethel’s husband still works, too.”
“I don’t know about the cleaning, but you have the best cook possible.”
“I think so. Jessie Lou isn’t here tonight, but she was here until five. She and Harriet are still both wonderful cooks. Some things don’t change.”
“I remember some great picnics we had where you brought something Jessie Lou made.”
She smiled. “Remember her chocolate cake that got ants all over it? You said you weren’t giving your slice up to a bunch of ants and juggled the cake around to let some of the ants run off and then ate it, ants and all.”
She laughed while he grinned and shrugged. “And you were so afraid I had ants in my mouth that you wouldn’t let me kiss you that afternoon or that night.”
As she laughed, his grin widened and her heart turned over. Desire flared to life, a hot torment that made her want him badly. She should never have opened the door on memories of fun times with him. She looked down at her plate. Her appetite had fled and she tried to think about something besides Jake.
“We had fun,” he said quietly and there was silence that stretched between them. She didn’t want to look up and meet his probing dark eyes because he always saw too much of her. He could hide his feelings better than she could.
“I guess we should each pick the places we want to look and list them,” he said briskly to her a few moments later. They were back in the present and she tamped down the memories that threatened her heart.
He sipped his iced tea. “Did you get over your fear of snakes?”
“No, I did not. I still won’t swim in Rocky Creek.”
“How are you going to go traipsing around out there? You know we have an abundant snake population.”
“You said you’re bringing some men. I’ll have two, plus you and me. We ought to make enough noise to scare the rattlers away. And if we don’t, I also figured that one of you will have a pistol.”
“One of us will. I keep one in the pickup.”
“There,” she said, smiling at him. “You can kill a snake if we encounter one.”
Through dinner they discussed the search and when they had finished, they sat sipping more tea, talking about the treasure. “We better look at the maps,” Jake said. “I’ll help you with the dishes.”
“No need. I’ll just put the leftovers in the fridge and rinse our dishes for the dishwasher. You go back and keep looking.”
“I’ll do the cleaning and you go look,” he countered. “You’ve never had this chance with the actual old map and it is clearer than the copy. I insist,” he said, taking dishes from her and blocking her path.
“So I see you are as stubborn as you used to be,” she said.
He smiled. “Just as stubborn as you. Some things don’t change.”
She realized they were getting back where she didn’t want to go. Her smile vanished as she returned to the table to push in her chair. “Let me put up the leftovers,” she said, picking up the pasta bowl. He took it from her, his hands closing over hers. Startled, she looked up at him and drew a deep breath.
“It’s all yours,” she said and left quickly. Desire ignited each time they made contact. Sometimes when they were close she caught him looking at her with a gaze that clearly conveyed he wanted her.
She hurried out of the kitchen, feeling him watching her walk away. How would she get through being together with him every day for the next week or two? This wasn’t working out the way she had imagined.