Her pulse sped up. “What should I do?”
“We sift through the dirt. How deep?” Crowe called.
“Maybe six inches,” Justin said, looking at his screen.
“Grab a trowel and a handheld detector,” Crowe instructed.
Rachel trotted to the table and grabbed what they needed.
Jenny followed her and grabbed a sheet of plastic, then placed it on the grass. “Drop the dirt on this and then run through it with the little detector.”
Rachel went to the spot where Justin found the reading and dug out a shovel’s worth, then dumped it on the tarp. She knelt down with the handheld detector and Thor angled the camcorder over her.
“Nothing’s happening. Do I have this thing on?”
“Let me take a look,” Crowe said. He repeated her survey of the dirt. “No, you’re good. Dig a little deeper.”
He pushed the first dirt to the edge of the tarp as Rachel went back for more. This time, when she ran the detector over a handful of dirt, she got a reading. Thor moved closer with the camcorder. Squealing with too much excitement to care how she looked or sounded on camera, she crumbled the dusty dirt through her fingers until she had only one clump in her palm. The team knelt around her. Thor knew none of them even noticed their clothes or the dust at this point.
Crowe took a water bottle from his belt and poured it over the clump. Slowly, a round, serrated object appeared.
“Bottle cap?” Rachel said.
Crowe nodded. “Sorry. Not exactly treasure.”
“It was down quite a bit,” Justin said. “Old, at least.”
“We’ll clean it up and try to figure out what brand it came from. We might be able to date it,” Crow said, opening a plastic bag so Rachel could drop it in.
“I’m happy anyway,” Rachel said. “We found something.”
“It’s not the stuff TV shows are made of, though,” Jenny said.
Crowe stood and stretched his back. “I think that’s enough for today. Tomorrow we’ll have our crew back. Thor can help us dig again.”
They began to pack away their gear just as another pop resounded above them. Another third of their light vanished.
“Wow,” Rachel said with a laugh. “I know what I’m going to be doing first thing. Sourcing light bulbs.”
“Nah,” Crowe said. “You won’t be able to get them until around nine. I want to start digging at six, get a full day in.”
“The crew will probably be too hung over to film that early,” Thor said.
“I’ll get them in line,” Crowe said.
“I’ll have coffee and rolls here at five-thirty,” Rachel promised.
“What? You’re turning into a morning person?” Thor said. “Do I even know you?”
She laughed. “My adrenaline is going now. I’m hooked. How am I going to get to sleep tonight?”
Jenny cleared her throat. “There’s a patented Erickson remedy that I swear by.” She fingered her ponytail as Rachel’s cheeks went pink.
Thor shut off the camcorder and set it on the table. “I’ll do what I can,” he whispered in Rachel’s ear.
Rachel hovered over the table, handing everyone tools to sling into duffel bags and, in the case of electronic equipment, proper storage bags. “Do you want to lock everything into the house so you don’t have to haul it back tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Crowe said. “If your father doesn’t mind.”
“Not at all.” They followed her through the French doors into a sunroom, then piled everything into the laundry room for the night.
“All right.” Crowe lifted his eyebrows at Thor. “We’re going to run over to Laguna Gold Pizza and check receipts for the dinner rush and have a late night snack. Want to join us?”
Thor glanced at Rachel. “Rach? Want to get pizza?”
Jenny’s expression was neutral, though Thor noticed Rachel’s careful perusal of his sister’s girlfriend. She nodded. “Should I just ride with you?”
“Yeah.”
A few minutes later he had the door of his truck open. He snuck a caress in as he helped her climb into the seat, then shut the door and went to the driver’s side.
“Do you think they wanted me to come?” Rachel asked, anxiety curving a line above her nose.
“Sure, why not?”
“I have to admit I felt a little more accepted this evening.”
“You caught the same bug we all have. Trust me, Jenny was just as reluctant to get involved in the beginning. The producer forced Crowe’s hand. He wanted Jenny for her reality TV background, and let’s face it, sex appeal.”
“What about Delilah?”
“She has the actual expertise on gold coins and other artifacts. She makes sense like Justin does. They both bring something to the table.”
“That must make Jenny feel insecure, knowing her own boyfriend didn’t really want her on the team.”
He shrugged. “She’s got better things to do.”
“I know, she has her restaurant, but it just tells me how sensitive she might be, and how totally wrong it was for me to react to her like I did. You know how it is. One part of a fight is action, but the other is the reaction.”
“Sure.”
“I’d like to get along with her now.”
He patted her knee. “I’m glad to hear it. I don’t think there needs to be any gestures, just make an effort to be a friend.”
“I’m happy to come out of my gilded tower and get to know people. It’s time.” Her tone was only slightly sarcastic.
“I can’t say I understand what being a part of your family means.”
“My father stayed with me when my mother left. He became my rock when she ran off. Obviously he developed his own problems, and married someone with problems, but he protected me and I never broke away when I regained confidence. I’d threaten to, but I wouldn’t go.”
It was time. “I hope you get that job in San Francisco.”
“Yes. Twenty-nine is plenty time to find out who I really am besides a McHughes.”
“I think you know who you are inside. You just need to find a bigger place for yourself in the outside world.” Did he have a place in her life, too?
The next morning, Thor made coffee in Rachel’s kitchen while she messed around in the bathroom, waking up. He now saw how very much she wasn’t a morning person, and appreciated her willingness to work with the show team even more. By five forty-five they were on the road, heading to a bakery for pastries and a box of coffee.
When they arrived at the mansion’s gate, Crowe and Justin’s vehicles were already at the gatehouse. Thor was glad they’d been able to leave the tools behind. He and Rachel hauled in the snacks.
“Get any sleep?” his father asked, clapping him on the shoulders with both hands.
“Enough,” Thor said.
“This relationship serious?”
“Yeah, I think so, but I don’t know where she’s going to live. I think we’re both out of Laguna Beach pretty soon.”
“Would you follow her?”
Thor regarded his father. “I’d like to, yes. She’s got a sense of adventure, which I absolutely require, along with the obvious attributes.”
His father nodded. “It’s been good to see Crowe so happy. I hope you’ve found the same.”
Crowe and Justin walked behind them, loaded down with bags of equipment. Rachel followed with the metal detector cradled in her arms. Then the show crew showed up, all three cameramen and a couple of producers.
“Going to have trouble fitting all of them into the side yard,” his father observed.
Somehow they made it work. Forty minutes later Justin was following his gridlines again, closely observed by the rest of the team.
Thor let himself be pulled away to do an interview about the bottle cap that had been found. They took turns with interviews back by the bar so that only two cameras were crowding Justin.
He heard a shout go up while he was explaining that the bottle cap appeared to be
from the 1950s and that it didn’t excite him very much. The camera operator trailed him as he went to the clump of palm trees.
“It’s a good reading,” Justin said, grinning widely. “Not iron.”
“How far down?” Thor asked, grabbing a shovel.
“I’ll get the tarp,” Rachel said, dashing around him.
“Maybe a foot.” He looked at his screen again. “Or eighteen inches.”
“Good news. Lower than the wrong period bottle cap,” Crowe said. He helped Jenny lay out the tarp while Thor dug in, scooping out shovelfuls of dry dirt.
Justin followed them over, running the metal detector over the dirt piles without success.
Thor broke a sweat as the sun climbed. “Eighteen inches, right?”
Beau dropped a tall wood ruler into the hole. “Yes.”
Thor brought the last shovelful to the tarp.
“Sorry, man. Nothing here,” Justin said.
“I’ll widen the hole,” Thor said.
“I’ll come in from the other side,” Crowe said, reversing to grab another shovel.
They worked for ten minutes before their father lifted his hand. “Hold on. What’s that?”
“A root, maybe?” Rachel asked, kneeling down.
Thor saw a glint of something catch the sun. His head went back and he caught Crowe’s gaze. This was his brother’s show. He put his arm around Rachel and pulled her back so that Crowe could lay down at the edge of the hole and wipe away the dirt. Rachel gasped as he reached in and pulled out a long dangle of dirt-crusted something, something under a foot long.
“Bring it over to the tarp,” his father instructed as Crowe began to laugh.
He wiped a dirt-crusted gloved finger over one of the lumps. A golden disk was revealed, a convex worked shape. Thor and Rachel dumped the dirt on the tarp off to the side and Crowe laid the piece down reverently. Beau gently poured water over the object.
Rachel jumped up and grabbed Thor’s arm. “It’s the missing VanCleef and Arpels bracelet!”
“Six disks and a clasp, all here,” Crowe said, touching each golden piece.
“And if we can find the missing earrings that match, the set might go for twenty-five thousand dollars,” Justin added.
Thor grabbed Rachel and spun her around, her feet lifting off the lawn. The camera men closed in on them, capturing the scene. In that instant, Thor knew he’d turned the last three episodes of season one into a romance as much as a treasure hunting story arc, but he didn’t care. He bent his head and took Rachel’s lips in a fevered kiss.
Two days later, they reconvened in the McHughes dining room on the estate for lunch. Thor felt love-drunk from the weekend revelry. The crew had dined with Josh and Madison at the fancy hotel Madison worked for. Rachel had been the picture of friendliness with everyone, though she clearly had the most in common with wealthy Josh. His father though, had surprised him with a clear partiality for Rachel. He and Rachel had discussed trying to find someone for his father one of these days. He’d been alone a long time.
As the cameras recorded, Justin set the gold bracelet in the center of the table on a white handkerchief so they could all admire the freshly cleaned gold treasure.
McHughes walked into the room, Sadiki on his arm, dressed in a white shift that matched her husband’s white linen suit. He pulled a laminated list out of a file folder resting at the head of the table.
Thor recognized it as the list of stolen jewelry. McHughes took a black marker out of his pocket and ostentatiously crossed off the bracelet. Everyone at the table broke into spontaneous applause.
When it all settled down, McHughes held up his hands. “I have good news and bad news.”
“What’s that?” Crowe asked.
“I’m not going to agree to have the palms removed because of the shade they provide. That side of the house is the master wing and we like having the trees there.”
Rachel’s eyes fluttered closed. Thor wanted to comfort her. This was probably her father’s attempt to steal the spotlight in the final scene of the final episode in the first season of California Gold. It was a classic cliffhanger. Would the treasure hunters be allowed to continue?
But it also meant that McHughes was hoping to keep them on his property for season two. Also, he’d probably delay putting the estate up for sale, which would suggest he also planned to keep Rachel under his thumb and in his employ for another year.
He tuned out on the byplay between Crowe and the property owner, merely noting Sadiki’s satisfaction with the scene. He held Rachel’s hand under the table, squeezing it when her father made the suggestion that they hire his nephew Brandon onto the crew in season two.
Eventually, McHughes and Sadiki paraded out of the room. Crowe slumped into his chair and closed his eyes. Jenny leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Rachel released Thor’s hand and pushed her chair back. She brushed her fingers over her Anger Management Tour T-shirt, which he’d worn every day it was clean since they’d made their trade.
With a smile for him alone, she stood and faced Crowe. “I want to apologize profusely for my father's behavior.” Rachel said. "I don't want to hurt your show over his stubbornness. Especially when he insisted you shoot on his property."
"Don't worry,” Crowe exclaimed. “I think we found our three episodes worth, between the hot tub dig, the tile dig, the research and the palm tree find."
“Yes, but he’s making a play to keep you here.”
“That’s nothing for you to worry about,” Crowe said. “We’ll work it out, but we’re done here for now. The show is supposed to premiere in November and we’re not scheduled to start filming season two until May. Lots can happen between now and then.”
Rachel sucked in her cheeks and sat down again.
Crowe nodded. “We’ll send the raw footage to Roger Dalton and discuss it with him, but I’m sure I’m right. Dad and Thor can plan to return to Los Angeles as early as tomorrow and get going with the editing. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a wrap on season one.”
“We’ll need everyone to stay around for individual interviews,” a producer said. “We’ll set up by the bar area again and get going in about twenty minutes.”
Thor stood up and stretched. Rachel stayed in her seat, biting her lip. “What’s wrong?”
"It's not enough."
"What part of this are you vested in?"
She stared at the bracelet, still in the center of the table.
“The treasure?” he picked up the bracelet and draped it over her slim, tanned forearm.
She shook her head and stood to put it back on the handkerchief, not even admiring the piece. "You, Thor, just you. I want you to be a success on your own terms. Not my father’s."
"There are treasure shows that can build an entire season out of find of one old coin or a hunk of metal. We’re fine. Our producer will be elated at the bracelet. He may even accept your father’s grandstanding to be the last words of season one."
“That’s not fair to Crowe.”
“It’s not up to us. There are a lot of alpha males trying to out-smarm each other around here.”
"Now what?" she asked, threading her fingers together. They looked pale against the dark wood of the dining room table.
Thor tilted his neck from side to side. It made cracking noises. "Back to the editing suite in Los Angeles, then we’ll plan next year's show."
She winced at the cracking sounds. He needed a rest, not a drive into the city. As the import of his words sank in, she blinked hard. No. Not yet. “You're leaving today?”
"You knew it would come eventually. And what about you in San Francisco?"
“I’m waiting to hear about an in-person interview. I had a second phone interview this morning. But also, I had an email about a job in Los Angeles today from one of my contacts. It’s an even better fit.”
“That’s great. You must have great qualifications.”
“It doesn’t feel that important right now.”
>
“Don’t let your father take the wind out of your sails, Rach. I heard the subtext. I get that your father is going to try to keep you here another year, but you don’t have to go along with it. You’ve got choices.”
"You’ve made me feel like your girlfriend," she said. “I don’t want to choose the wrong job, the one that takes me away from you.”
"Maybe we should run away together." He rubbed gentle circles in the space between her brows until her skin relaxed.
"Maybe we should. Where?"
“I’ll have a few weeks in Los Angeles, then I’m free until May for the most part. Maybe Justin can teach me how to do research at that library in Berkeley. If you take the San Francisco job I can do that over the winter. If you take a Los Angeles job maybe I can get a temporary job on another show as a camera operator. It will work out.”
“Are you putting me first?” she asked.
“Don’t look so shocked.” He put his hands on her upper arms and kissed the top of her head. “One thing I know for sure is that I’m betting on you, the same way I’m betting on Crowe. If you have good people in your life, the adventure will follow.”
She slicked her beautiful hair over one shoulder and put her hands on his hips. “You’re good people, Thor Erickson.”
“So are you, Rachel. Nine months from now, you and I are going to be right back in this room, planning how to rip out three palm trees. You didn’t want to wear that bracelet, but what do you want to bet we’ll have picked out another piece of jewelry for you to wear by then?”
She laughed and pulled him close. “You make me so happy. I’m Team Erickson all the way.”
He let his chin settle on the top of her head, catching his brother’s gaze across the room. Jenny was curled up under Crowe’s arm, looking peaceful. Crowe glanced at Rachel then back at Thor, nodding.
Who knew? Maybe the first scene of California Gold season two, episode one would be a double wedding…
Laguna Beach
LAGUNA BEACH is a sexy modern romance series by author Kaira Rouda, set in beautiful Laguna Beach, California. The stories feature the cast of a high school based reality TV show, ten years after the show wrapped. Inspired by the original reality show, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, the LAGUNA BEACH series is beach reading at its best.
Laguna Beach: That Gold in Laguna (Kindle Worlds Novella) (A Charisma Series Novella, The Ericksons Book 2) Page 11