Laguna Beach: That Gold in Laguna (Kindle Worlds Novella) (A Charisma Series Novella, The Ericksons Book 2)

by Heather Hiestand

  “Maybe it’s better that we don’t talk,” she said, wishing she could blame the margaritas on her new outspokenness, but she’d only had one sip from her glass and one sip from his.

  His mouth had been at her ear. It slid to her cheek, then hovered over her lips. “What do you want to do?”

  She couldn’t resist moving her head that half inch to touch her lips against his. His lip was salty and sweet. Instead of intensifying her kiss, though, he pulled away, his expression softening into neutrality. “I don’t want the show turning into a soap opera,” he said. “No kissing on camera.”

  “Of course,” she stuttered. “It was just an impulse.”

  He nodded and returned to the bar. She didn’t know what to do with her hands all of a sudden. Her drink wasn’t in her hand. Heck, her brain wasn’t even in her head.

  “Rachel,” Justin called, pointing to his laptop.

  “Right, the presentation,” she muttered, forcing her attention to the laptop screen. That was the point of this, after all.

  “Keep it classy,” Crowe said to Thor as they stood in front of the McHughes mansion on Wednesday morning at six a.m. They were the first out of their vehicles, which gave them a now rare opportunity to talk privately, now that they weren’t both under Justin’s roof.

  “I told her no kissing on camera,” Thor said, collapsing his empty coffee cup between his fists. Ugh. Maybe he didn’t want Crowe to be able to talk to him privately. He couldn’t explain what was going on, but he didn’t want it to affect the shoot any more than his brother did.

  “Are you actually dating her?”

  He squeezed the cup again. “After the first date from hell? Of course not, we just have that chemistry thing. Put us in each other’s personal space and we probably look like we’re about to make out even if we aren’t.”

  Crowe rolled his eyes as Thor lofted his cup into the empty dumpster they’d hired. “I don’t recall anyone saying that about Jenny and I.”

  “Maybe what you have is more subtle.”

  “Huh,” Crowe said, lifting his eyebrows at his girlfriend as she bent over the backseat of her SUV to retrieve supplies. “If you say so.”

  “I’m not saying she isn’t smoking hot.”

  “If you denied it you’d be lying.” Crowe’s grin was so self-satisfied that Thor punched him in the shoulder before walking away.

  Rachel stepped down the stairs from the stone gatehouse, her face still a little bit puffy from sleep. The sharp sunlight pricked her pupils, making her wish she’d worn sunglasses. They might have helped for more than one reason. She never looked her best first thing in the morning. So, she’d put some effort into contouring her face with the help of tips learned from a Kardashian sister’s makeup artist video, knowing she would be on camera during the day.

  “No Delilah or Jenny?” Rachel asked, clutching her cup of coffee as wind blew at her hair. “I grabbed a coffee box and some donuts on the way in. They’re set up at the bar.”

  “Thanks,” Thor said, without quite meeting her eyes. “Much appreciated.”

  “Jenny is here,” Crowe said. “Delilah decided to stay out of the way for now.”

  Rachel heard a car door shut and then she saw Jenny, followed by Beau. At fifty-five, Thor’s father was still a stunner of a man. She hadn’t seen him in a short-sleeved shirt until now, but his biceps were incredibly impressive. It gave her an idea of how Thor would look in middle age, and that image was wow-worthy.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked, attempting to compartmentalize her hormones.

  “We want to take the dumpster in by the side yard. It should fit through the gate. We’ll set out tables around the pool area with what we need. Dad is in charge of the actual demo.” Crowe pointed at his father.

  Beau raised his hand in greeting. “Good morning, Rachel. We’re going to unplug the electricity, then disassemble the spa skirt. Of course, we don’t know how that was built. Nails? Tongue and groove? We may have to break out the saws, or it could be simple.”

  “And then?” Rachel made a face.

  “Yes, disassemble the tub itself,” Beau said, laughter crinkling the lines around his eyes. “Your father wants us to disassemble it and install a newer model, so we’ll be sawing it apart and taking it out in the dumpster.”

  “Upgrade time,” Jenny said, coming alongside Beau. “Your father said he is getting an above ground, energy efficient model that seats six comfortably and has multicolor LED lighting.”

  Rachel sighed. “Of course he did. They can’t return for a visit without upgrading something.”

  “What I think is great is that the model he was mentioning does water treatment without chemicals,” Jenny said.

  Rachel nodded. “Definitely an upgrade. The current hot tub is pretty old. I suppose the new one can be a selling point.”

  “Are you going to sell the place?” Jenny asked.

  “Maybe. It’s not up to me.”

  “Rachel doesn’t even live here,” Thor said. “It’s empty most of the time, right?”

  She nodded. “Come on in and get organized. I’m sure you want to do most of the work before it gets hot.”

  After walking the team around the side of the house into the back, she hung back and watched them get ready. The show team moved into position with cameras and microphones around the hot tub. Thor set out a card table with the instructions they’d found on the spa manufacturer website and their tools.

  She felt like she was watching a home renovation show instead of a treasure hunting one.

  Beau took charge of the demolition. “Let’s make sure we’ve disconnected the electricity and heat.” He held up the instructions. “Rachel, did you turn off the breaker and the power?”

  “I did, yes.”

  “Let’s double check.” Beau pointed to Jenny. “Can you go with Rachel and look it all over?”

  “You bet,” Jenny said.

  Rachel was transfixed by the sight of Thor picking up a sledgehammer and experimentally swinging it over the hot tub. Crowe, a dark contrast to his blond brother, chose the reciprocating saw. He said something to Thor that she couldn’t hear and they both laughed.

  “Quite a picture those two make, huh,” Rachel said, nudging Jenny.

  “Even prettier in real life than on television. It’s unfair, really. So much talent in one family.”

  “You’d think, since we were both on TV back in the day, that we’d be used to all that charisma.”

  Jenny shrugged. “That was high school. The Erickson brothers are full grown men. Not the same thing. Back then we wouldn’t have known what to do with them.”

  “I still don’t know,” Rachel admitted. “I’ve been dating Lennon Lasky for six years.”

  “He’s pretty enough.”

  “But skinny. No muscle tone. Not fit.”

  “Impotent by fifty?” Jenny guessed.

  “He could use extra testosterone now,” Rachel admitted. “I look at Thor and realize there is something more out there that I’ve really been missing. Something dirty and sexual.”

  “I always pegged you as so prim and proper,” Jenny said.

  “You don’t even know me,” Rachel said, gesturing her toward the back of the house where the breaker box and electricity was. “I went to school with your sister, not you, and we only had a scene together a few times. I don’t think we ever talked.”

  “No reason to,” Jenny said as they went into the combination utility/laundry room off the kitchen.

  Rachel gestured her into the dim recesses where the boxes were. “You know I’m sorry about last week, right? What I said?”

  “I know you came by to apologize. I’ve forgotten about it.” Jenny held out her hands. “We don’t have to like each other, but we need to be pleasant in front of the camera or the show is going to turn into a soap opera, and no one wants that. You need to back off Thor when the camera is running.”

  “Wow,” Rachel said, pulling open the breaker box so roughly that th
e door banged against a water pipe. She shouldn’t have opened up to Crowe’s girlfriend. “I was honestly neutral about you until now.”

  “You know Thor isn’t interested in you,” Jenny said in even tones. “So why keep chasing him?”

  “Thor pays more attention to me than he likes to admit,” Rachel said. “I might have been in a long term relationship, but I happen to know when I’m being checked out and hit on.”

  “No one is saying you aren’t beautiful,” Jenny said.

  Her voice rose. “Yeah, just not your type. You’d rather have Delilah with Thor. Is that your fantasy? Sisters marrying brothers?”

  “Thor is a really nice guy. I’d hate to see him mixed up with a train wreck.” Jenny’s tone was carefully neutral but she made sassy quote marks with her fingers on the last word.

  “I’m not the one who dyes her hair black and rides a motorcycle like she thinks she’s a Hell’s Angel or something,” Rachel retorted. “Don’t call me a train wreck.”

  “Style doesn’t denote mental state necessarily.” Jenny ran her finger down the notations next to the breaker switches until she found the one for the hot tub and verified the switch was in the correct position. “Delilah is a completely functional human being. When we were younger we looked like twins. She wanted to make sure we were different.”

  “Because you were perfect and she was a screw up.”

  “Come on.”

  “You come on. I went to school with her, remember? She spent our entire sophomore year stoned. Not to mention her reputation for having slept with all but one member of the boy’s track team.”

  Jenny lifted a finger. “Do not slut shame my sister. You’re talking about a million years ago.”

  “I’d hate to think you’d push her on a perfectly nice guy like Thor,” Rachel sing-songed. “You may not like me, but I’m classy.”

  “You’re a rich bitch, Rachel McHughes. Nothing more. How much plastic surgery did it take to get that perfect jaw and nose anyway?” Jenny taunted.

  Rachel stepped up to her and swiveled her head. “See any scars? No? There aren’t any. No surgery. No boob job. Just me and a sensible workout regime and skin care. Because I’m not lazy. I don’t need to buy my looks, and I don’t need to be someone I’m not. It must kill you that I’m better for your boyfriend’s brother than your own sister.”

  Jenny flicked her fingers at Rachel in a “get thee behind me” kind of gesture, and turned on her heels, her red ponytail whipping behind her as she stormed out.

  Rachel put her hand to her stomach. The extra cup of coffee she’d drunk so early in the morning to get going threatened to come back up. “Why can’t I get along with these girls?” she muttered.

  It hurt enough to have an unrequited crush, but people hating her was something new. She’d always considered herself rather likeable.

  Chapter Five

  Early the next morning, the California Gold team arrived in the pool area of the McHughes estate to start their hot tub demolition. Would the missing jewelry be hidden beneath it? Thor hoped the ‘X’ they’d marked on their spot would serve them well.

  Rachel had coffee and bagels set out, a hostess regardless of the circumstances. He couldn’t tell if her efforts were self-directed or McHughes house standards. At least she was steadily lowering her offerings to their standards. She greeted them with a professional smile and gestured the cast toward two umbrella-covered tables that were near the bar area.

  “You okay?” he asked her, noting the circles under her eyes. She wore far less eye makeup than usual. Even as early as they’d started yesterday, she’d had mascara, eyeliner, and more on her face. Today she’d lost everything but the mascara.

  “Let’s get started,” she said, not smiling.

  “Don’t want to talk, huh,” Thor said.

  She touched his arm but didn’t answer.

  “Long day yesterday.” Crowe sat, not bothering to check out the food. Jenny followed his lead, sitting next to him and definitely not saying hello to Rachel.

  Thor exchanged a glance with his father and they both went and grabbed bagels and individual servings of cream cheese, as well as coffee. He could tell yesterday that Jenny was angry with Rachel and apparently relations hadn’t thawed.

  He heard a door crash open. He saw Richard McHughes come out from the rear of the house. Striding over to them, his thick gray-brown hair waved in the light breeze.

  “What went wrong?” the property owner asked abruptly, crossing his arms as he stood next to the first table.

  “Why don’t you sit with us and we’ll talk about it?” Beau suggested, opening his cream cheese packet and swiping a plastic knife through it.

  Thor admired his father’s calm attitude. Meanwhile McHughes had a vein bulging in his temple.

  “What went wrong?” McHughes repeated.

  “You wanted a new spa, Dad,” Rachel said, moving next to her father. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

  “Until we find some kind of artifact from the era of the jewelry theft at a certain level, we’ve no idea how much soil we’d need to remove to find the items,” Justin said. “Not only that, but metal detectors can only sense so far. That’s the problem with searching for treasure underground. You can go down hundreds of feet and miss a treasure one inch lower. You never really know.”

  “We didn't go wrong, we just need the entire area available,” Crowe said. “We have very little information to go on. The area where the old greenhouse was makes the most sense for Bucky’s cache, but we have no information about what the interior of the greenhouse looked like. We haven’t uncovered any pictures of it.”

  “I couldn’t find any in our records,” Rachel agreed.

  “So we need to take out the pool?” Her father grunted. He spread his hand on the edge of the table. “Get me a coffee, Rachel, will you?”

  “We’ll take out everything else first. The tiling can be easily removed,” Crowe said. “Since it’s made from individual tiles it can be removed in pieces and then restored. We’ll only discuss dismantling the pool if we have run out of other options.”

  Rachel could see how frustrated her father was, and she suspected she knew why. He kept shifting his weight from one leg to the other, then glancing toward the house. "I can have the tiles removed," she said. “We have a tile guy.”

  "What do I need you guys for?" her father said, staring at Beau. “You’re supposed to bring the expertise. Why are you wasting your time on demolition? Do your research. I don’t want my entire property destroyed in a fruitless search.”

  “Without any information about the greenhouse,” Justin said, “We need to search the entire area.”

  “You wanted this, Mr. McHughes,” Thor said. “We have to be able to do our job properly.”

  Her father’s lips thinned and his forehead went red. Rachel knew a tirade was coming, and he didn’t need the spike in his blood pressure.

  “Maybe we should take a break from the jewelry search,” she said. “I found my gold coin in dead tree roots on the south side of the house."

  "That's from 1907, not related to the jewelry we're looking for," her father snapped.

  “Treasure is treasure,” Thor said. “We could look into, I don’t know, seeing if your family brought a coin collection when they moved here, that was lost to history.”

  “Please,” her father snorted.

  “Why are you stuck on the jewelry?” Thor asked. “None of the stolen jewelry is your family’s heirlooms. Your ancestress’s jewelry wasn’t in the cabanas.”

  “I was going to tell you the good news today,” her father said, ignoring Thor’s line of questioning. “Rachel was able to contact a descendant of one of the movie stars whose jewelry was stolen. She’s going to come to the house and do an on-camera interview for you, talk about the party and all. There are diary entries and such. I cleared it with Roger Dalton.”

  Rachel saw heat flare behind Crowe’s eyes and knew that, as the show creator, he didn’t
appreciate having his plans co-opted by her father. But she also knew what her father was suggesting was good television. She’d watched enough reality TV to know that.

  Jenny put a calming hand on her boyfriend’s arm before he could speak again. Great. Her father had provided another reason for Jenny to dislike the McHughes family.

  “Fine,” Crowe said, the word clipped. “Then you’d better authorize us to start pulling up tiles and searching. We’ll only touch the pool as a last resort.”

  “It’s thirty years old anyway,” Jenny interjected. “According to Mrs. McHughes. Don’t you want to upgrade? I’m surprised you don’t want us to rip it out on the show’s dime.”

  Her father stood. “The Bennett family member will be here for her interview on Sunday. The cast can return on Monday and continue the search and demolition. But you’d better do a thorough job. My wife is being deprived of her favorite means of relaxation.”

  “We have a photo shoot here on Monday,” Rachel said. “For a shelter magazine. We’re going to have to work around that.”

  An assistant producer stepped forward. “No problem. It will give us something interesting to shoot.”

  Crowe pushed back his chair and stood, too. “Very well. We’ll be here by seven a.m. on Monday. We’ll take tomorrow to speak to your tile guy and get instructions.”

  “If you want to come into my office I’ll find that phone number for you,” Rachel said, her gaze traveling to Thor despite her better instincts. “Then you can all get on with your research.”

  “Justin, go with Rachel,” Crowe said.

  “Shouldn’t he be researching?” Richard interrupted. “He’s your expert. Let someone else work on the tile removal.”

  Crowe’s head turned toward her father, the rest of him motionless. “Nothing in our contract with you on this project gives you the right to direct my team. I’ll do what makes the most sense for us.”

  Her father stomped off toward the house. Neither she nor her father was going to be invited to dinner at Crowe and Jenny’s home any time soon.