Page 34 of Threat of Danger
“Vivacious young friend,” Pam corrected as she shook Eliot’s hand, maybe a second or two longer than necessary.
“Breakfast?” Zelda offered from the stove. “I’m making pancakes and sausages. And bacon.”
As they turned to the table, Pam mouthed behind Eliot’s back,If you don’t want him, can I have him?
Jess drew her hand in front of her throat in a threatening gesture.I’ll cut your throat.They were both choking back a laugh as they sat.
Breakfast was a merry affair with only slight overtones of awkward. Pam grilled Eliot on what celebrities he’d slept with. He made up some outrageous stories that had even Zelda in stitches. Miley Cyrus and a wrecking ball featured prominently.
Pam had to leave after breakfast, which she did with the drama of someone going off to war. She taught a yoga class at the gym on Sundays.
“Are you still leaving today?” she asked as Jess walked her to the door.
“Probably not. I’ll see what Eliot’s plans are.” Eliot’s presence here changed a lot of things. She was still playing catch-up.
After Pam left, Zelda strategically retreated upstairs, shooting Jess a wink behind Eliot’s back.
Jess bit back a grin. She cleared her throat and faced Eliot as they stood in the threshold between the living room and the kitchen. In his yellow shirt, he was a little piece of California sunshine. “So. Here you are.”
He watched her, not exactly wary, but not fully confident either. “Good surprise or bad surprise?”
His gaze wouldn’t move from her, as if her response was important to him.
She let the grin escape. “I’m glad you came.”
And then he was smiling too, as if they’d shared a secret. Sure, they’d been friends for years. But they both knew that more than friendship had brought him here.
“How about a walk? Show me around?”
“Sure.”
“I like the pictures you sent.” He scrolled through the images on his phone, settled on one, and showed it to her. “Can we go to these cliffs? I brought climbing gear.” Anticipation sparkled in his brown eyes. “Just in case.”
Oh.
Had he come for climbing? Not because he missed her? OK, so maybe ithadbeen friendship that brought him. Jess brushed away the pang of disappointment. He was here. He had come. She was going to be glad, no matter what.
After they got ready, she drove him to the end of the trail. They hoofed it from there, the air crisp, the temperature dropping.Snow tonight.Jess could smell it.
“How is your mom?” Eliot asked.
“Disappointed that I don’t want to stay forever.”
“Good. Not that she’s disappointed, but that you’re not staying. I’m not giving you up.”
Jess felt the lightness of the morning return. Hehadcome for her.
They walked in the back way so she could show him the river from the top of Tall Stack. The way they went, the climb was a moderate incline that ended in a sheer drop, the perfect lookout point.
The wind whistled through the pines in the valley. Gravel rolled under their boots. A couple of crows made a ruckus in the trees.
Eliot stopped to toe a metal grate in the ground, the grate the size of a manhole cover. “What’s this?”
“One of the chimneys to Silver Cave. According to legend, when the first settlers arrived in the area, the Native Americans made their last stand from inside the cave. They were massacred to the last man, woman, and child. Rumors flew that they hid all their silver in the cave before they barricaded themselves inside. People have been digging in there since.”
“That’s both seriously wrong and depressing.” He kept looking at the grate. “Anyone find anything?”
“Death. Four or five treasure hunters died in various accidents. Then some idiot had the brilliant idea to use dynamite. The cave is no longer stable. Everybody says it’s cursed.”
