Page 90 of The Hermit on the Hill

I stared at Sam. What. Had. He. Done? All the times he'd insisted no one could know about the treasure and here he was just announcing it to May like it was nothing? It made no sense.

"A buried treasure?" May opened her eyes comically wide and smiled like she was showing her bite to the dentist. "That sounds amazing."

Sam rubbed his chin. "You know, that's not a bad idea. You should come with us and be there when we dig it up." He looked at me. "Would that make you feel better about going with me to look for it, Jenna?"

I narrowed my eyes at both of them. They were one hundred percent up to something. "May, if this is some sort of set up where you're going to disappear and leave me alone with Sam because you think we need to have some sort of discussion about our emotions, I will never speak to you again."

"Set-up?" May slapped a hand on her chest, her mock outrage so obviously false I almost laughed aloud. Then she got serious. "I won't leave you alone unless you ask me to."

"I won't ask you to," I said, equally serious.

"Great." Sam popped to his feet. "Let's go."

May looked at me, clearly letting me take the lead on this. I boxed up my sweet treats and got to my feet.

"I'm driving myself," I said as we stepped onto the street.

"I'll ride with you," May said. "That way you can be sure I won't abandon you to the sinister plans of this guy." She gave Sam a friendly shove.

When the hell did they get so chummy?

Sam looked at his arm where she'd touched him and scowled.

May grinned and linked her arm through mine. "Come on, sister. Let's go a treasure hunting."

***

"It's not too late," May said as I parked in front of Sam's house. "You can still turn this car around and take us back to town."

"Thanks, but I'm good. Just stay close, please."

She met me around the front of her car and linked her arm through mine. Luckily, the rain had let up, but Sam still brought an umbrella from his shed along with a couple of shovels.

"Thank you for doing this, Jenna," Sam said. "It means a lot that you're willing to speak to me at all."

I wasn't sure how to react to this humble, sad version of Sam. Mostly, I wanted to hug him. It was no longer my job to make sure he was okay, though. So I just followed him into the woods.

"It's right up ahead," Sam said fifteen minutes later.

It had been an easy walk through the woods, no incline, but I was glad to have reached the destination. Walking behind Sam, watching the way his body moved, and staring at that spot on the back of his neck that I loved to kiss, had made it hard to breathe.

"You doing okay?"

"I'm great," I said.

"I'm doing amazing," May said cheerfully. "Thanks for asking."

Sam smirked at May and kept walking. There was no trail and no obvious way to know where we were going, but Sam moved as easily and quickly as if he was walking down a suburban sidewalk.

"You have got to be kidding me." Sam stopped so quickly, I almost walked into his back. I stepped around him to see a cage on the ground about ten feet in front of us. Inside the cage was an enormous cat.

"You trapped Catrick?"

May stepped up on the other side of Sam. "That is amazing. I've never seen a bobcat in the wild before."

Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "He's got really shitty timing." He turned to me. "I'm so sorry, Jenna. I'm going to have to call your brother, and he's probably going to bring all your other brothers here with him. You can can go ahead and start without me."

"Why do you need to call Jared? Why did you catch the bobcat? I'm so confused."

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