the counter eating nearly all of their fudge samples, then tell his girlfriend she should skip a taste because she was getting a little thick in the hips. Marie had given him a verbal lashing. Carly had also seen her aunt eye a teenage boy who she thought was going to shoplift, only to find out after his father came into the shop that the boy was skittish because of anxiety issues, not because he was getting ready to steal. Marie had told the father about Redemption Ranch, and she’d given the boy a chocolate lollipop and a Divine Intervention journal because she believed everyone should have a private place to get things out of their head.
“What did my mom tell you?” Carly asked.
“Enough to make me think I need to hear it all myself. Start at the beginning.”
Carly told her everything, from the heart palpitations she’d had when she’d first seen Zev, to the tears she’d shed when they’d talked, and the love she felt all the way through. She set down the bowl of frosting and paced the kitchen, too excited to stand still as she shared the details of their time together, reliving it all as she told her aunt about every conversation, every unspoken worry, and how Zev noticed and addressed each of the worries she’d tried to hide. She gushed about cliff diving, sleeping on the porch at the inn, the surprise trip to Silver Island, and their deep-sea exploration.
“I wish you could have been there when we went cliff diving. It was exhilarating and terrifying, and when I jumped…” She paused to inhale deeply, as she had at the top of the cliff, remembering how good it had felt. “Aunt Marie, it was the most freeing, wonderful feeling. I had forgotten how much I loved doing it, how much I loved being outdoors and allowing myself to feel everything. I hadn’t realized how much life I’d put away, and I know I needed to, but it was…it was like finding parts of myself that I had lost. And when we went in search of the wreckage from the Pride? There are no words to explain how incredible that felt.”
Although apparently there were, because she went on to rave about it for fifteen minutes.
“That was the shipwreck you two were always going on about as kids, right?”
“Yes. He searched for years, and he found it. And then he took me there. It was one of the biggest thrills of my entire life.”
“I can hear that. I don’t think I’ve heard this Carly since…gosh…forever ago.”
“I know—that’s how I feel, too! I forgot to tell you about the concretions!”
Twenty-five minutes later, as Carly finished telling her story, Birdie flitted into the kitchen with a wave. Carly mouthed, Aunt Marie, and Birdie gave her a thumbs-up, and picked up with the festival preparations where Carly had left off.
“Let me retract my claws a little,” Marie said carefully. “I don’t know anything about treasure hunting, but from what you’ve told me, it sounds like extracting those coins and finding the other thing—”
“We think it’s a tool of some sort.”
“Right. They sound like very big deals.”
“Huge, history-making deals, and that’s not all. He offered to make me a partner in his company, which he named after our senior project—Two Treasure Hunters, One Ship—years ago. By making me a partner, I’d become a legal custodian for the Pride.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“It’s complicated, but basically it makes me responsible for ensuring that the ship and any artifacts that are found are protected. It’s a huge deal. He’s offering to legally make me part of the Pride expedition—our ship, our dream—in the only capacity that he can, since I’m here and the team and the ship are there.” Her heart raced just talking about it. “He’s giving me the chance to get my name in history books. But more importantly, he’s showing me how dedicated he is to me, and to us.”
“Okay, slow down, sweetheart. That sounds like a lot of legal responsibility for someone who’s not around the things that need protecting.”
“I know,” she said a little too sharply. “He asked me to go with him, but don’t worry, I turned him down.” She felt a pang of regret. Come with me! Take a chance, a leap of faith. Let’s do this together, like we were meant to. She forced Zev’s voice away and said, “He knows I can’t just up and leave on a whim. I haven’t accepted