Page 9 of Cheyenne

“Chey, did you hear anything I just said?”

Jolting back to the present, she focused on her conversation with Porter. “Sorry. I was distracted.”

“By what? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was just looking at the view. My place is right by the ocean, and it’s beautiful. The moon is out, and I was thinking about how warm it is here.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, I hope you are paying attention to your surroundings.”

Of course Porter wouldn’t be impressed by anything like that. Sometimes she wondered if her brother was a robot. He’d served in the Air Force for so long, and now he ran the ranch. Sadie, his wife, was all warmth and sunshine, and the contrast couldn’t be clearer. He was lucky he had her. The whole family was lucky they had her.

“Please get Micah off my back,” she said. “I’m fine.”

Porter cleared his throat. “Well, how was your date?”

Cheyenne let out a light laugh. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Again, she was leaving out the name Eli Waters. Porter knew all about Eli’s proposal, her refusal, and the stalking that had ensued after. She would not let it slip to Porter that Eli was staying in the condo next to her, as weird as it was.

“Porter, listen. Put me out of your mind this week. Remember I’m a grown woman. I love you. I can take care of myself. Tell Sadie and the kids hi. And say hi to all my other dork brothers who I’m sure are going to keep tabs on me. Bye.”

She hung up before Porter could say anything else.

She put her phone into her pocket and stared at the ocean. The moon was bright, and she leaned over the railing to better soak in its light.

Noise sounded from next door. Voices. Then she heard laughter. She looked over and saw shadows spilling out onto the porch. Eli’s friends must have joined him. Well, that was fine with her. Mostly. How strange that she was a tad jealous. They had almost been engaged, but that was no big deal. It had been fun, but she and Eli would never get back together.

Once again, her thoughts returned to Micah’s molten brown eyes. His blond hair. His physical presence and how he’d reached out and caught her before she’d fallen. The smell of IrishSpring soap in their shower at home. Yes, that was what Micah had smelled like.

Sometimes her friend Samantha liked to play a little game. When they were talking about guys they liked, she would tell Cheyenne to decide who she would pick if she had to pick right then. The question flitted through her mind right now.

Unfortunately, Micah’s face flushed into her brain. She pushed it away. She wouldn’t pick Micah. He wasn’t one of her choices. Eli didn’t seem as appealing as he had before, but he didn’t matter anyway; his friends had clearly shown up.

Cheyenne moved inside and went to her school bag, which she had left on the kitchen table. She opened it out and pulled out two notebooks. One was an old journal from her father, the same one Chance had brought when he’d come down to South Port. The other was her own journal, where she’d jotted down her thoughts and observations in her own hunt for the gold.

She flipped to her own notes. Blaze had discovered that some of the conquistadors’ gold had ended up melted down by someone on the Windsong Reservation, then given back to Chance’s wife’s family, the Hamiltons. Then it had been disseminated by her grandparents, who were dead. It had been hard on her family to realize that the gold had been on their ranch and that their father, for some reason they didn’t understand, had been part of this collusion. Nash had gone to Florida to figure out if an older gentleman who’d been an attorney for Windsong Reservation had any information for the Stones and Crosses … only to find that he’d passed away, leaving the trail cold.

As Porter had mentioned, it’d been a year and a half since they’d heard anything new about the gold. Honestly, her brothers seemed relieved about that. They got on calls with the Stones periodically, but they were just living their lives, trying to keep the random reporters who came around off their backs. Sheknew they didn’t want to be thrust back into the search for gold. That was fine with her. She wanted to do her own investigation, and Samantha had given her the perfect cover.

It irritated her to think that Micah had been sent to check on her. Was he trying to prevent her from finding the gold? Determination burned through her. Nothing would keep her from checking out the gold situation. Nothing.

There was a knock at the door. Surprised, she moved toward it, taking care to check the peephole first. It was Eli.

She pulled it open. “Hey.”

His brow crinkled. “Hey, I … I know this might seem strange. Would you like to go to dinner again tomorrow? I mean, we barely got to catch up before …heinterrupted us.”

Eli looked good. It didn’t hurt that he didn’t have a girlfriend yet. Was it stupid if she’d been sort of jealous that he might?

“You don’t have to. I just … I’ve missed you.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “And I know I got a bit stalkerish last year when you told me you wouldn’t marry me.”

She said nothing but knew her face was on fire.

“I just … Today, when I saw you, it was like … and then we went to dinner, and it was … so good.”

She smiled despite herself. Dang, she did still have a soft spot for this guy.

“I’ve missed you this past year, Chey. And we were friends before everything went south, right?”

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