saw you, my dear friend. I am all too aware that penning this letter is a waste of time and energy. And yet I cannot seem to stop myself from writing to you, as if someday I’ll discover the truth of your whereabouts and I will have means to deliver these letters. Or perhaps it is my way of convincing myself that you are still alive, when no one else seems to believe that could be true.”
“Holy shit,” I muttered.
“My dearest Eliza, I hope that things are not as they seem. I hope you did not meet your end in tragedy, although my heart fears the worst. And deep down, I think soon I will have to face the truth of your demise. Yours truly, Sarah.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but whatever it was died in my throat. Something above us creaked.
“Is someone up there?” Sky whispered.
Another creak. It sounded like the floorboards.
“Maybe. We should go.”
She nodded.
For a second, I thought about grabbing the journal. This was fascinating stuff, and I knew Grace and Ginny would die to get their hands on it. But borrowing the key to come in here and snoop around was one thing. Stealing historical artifacts was another.
Besides, if Gram found out, she’d kill me.
I went to the stairs and peeked up while Sky covered the chest. It didn’t look like anyone was up there, but it was hard to see much of anything. We’d just have to take our chances and if someone was in the house, hope that I could bullshit my way out of trouble.
I was pretty sure I could.
With Sky right behind me, I crept up the spiral staircase. I didn’t see anyone in the kitchen, so I crawled out and helped Skylar. We quickly replaced the floor and pressed it down, hoping no one would be able to tell we’d been in here. Although the seam did look more pronounced. But there wasn’t anything we could do about that now.
I quietly shut the pantry door and took Sky’s hand. We tip toed our way to the front of the house, peeking into the rooms off the hallway before darting by. We didn’t see anyone, and there weren’t any more creaks. Maybe it had just been the house settling.
We made it outside and I locked the front door.
“See? No problem.”
She tugged on my hand. “Still. Let’s get out of here.”
I ran with her to my truck, feeling a buzz of excitement. But it wasn’t just from sneaking into the Haven House and getting away with it. Sure, that was fun, and finding actual gold coins hidden in a secret basement was pretty badass.
But it would have felt awesome to lay on her bed while she sat at her desk writing. Or to hang out with her on my couch watching a movie. Basically doing anything with Sky was great, whether or not we were doing something mildly dangerous. Or taking our clothes off.
And I found myself wishing, not for the first time, that I could actually date her.
33
Skylar
It was my second time sneaking into the Haven’s drive-in movie theater and my body vibrated with nervousness—or excitement. Or maybe both. We’d gotten away with it once, but what were the chances we’d do it again? Gavin had said about seventy-five percent, which didn’t seem so great to me. But he and Logan had been confident, and it was the drive-in’s last night of the season, which meant it was now or never.
So here I was, hiding near the fence with a view of the back of the concession building, and a walkie talkie in my hand.
Although after breaking into the Haven House the other day, this didn’t seem like such a big deal. I was getting good at this stuff.
The truth was, I kind of loved it.
We’d told Ginny and Grace about what we found in the basement of the Haven House. I wished I’d been able to at least get some photos, but they were just glad nothing bad had happened to us. Grace was going to work on getting permission from the historical society to go down there. I was excited to see what else we could find in that chest. And I really wanted to go through the rest of that journal.
There were answers down there. I could feel it.
I stared at the back of the concession building, willing Gavin and Logan to come out. I wasn’t quite sure how they were going to pull this off. They