Laguna Beach: A Treasure in Laguna (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Heather Hiestand

  “Interesting,” Delilah said, holding up the envelope. “I have an example of their smallest-denomination coin right here.” She pointed at a shiny, octagonal gold coin with a woman’s head on one side and an eagle on the other.

  “Very nice example,” Crowe said, as she pointed out the coin’s features.

  “Want to hold it?” Delilah teased in a husky voice.

  He waggled his eyebrows. “Could I? Give me some good mojo for my hunt.”

  “I take it you’ve learned that this one payroll delivery went missing?” She took the coin out of its protective envelope and handed it to him.

  He held it in his palm. Thor zoomed in for a quick close-up. “You bet. Stolen by a group of bandits. Guns, horses, and stagecoaches. It’s a thrilling story.” Crowe held up a fist to the camera and Thor turned it off.

  Crowe turned to Josh. “This is the spot where, I hope, the editors would insert a sequence with a voice-over dramatizing a stagecoach robbery.” He nodded to Thor to restart.

  “Sounds like a bad day for the stagecoach driver,” Delilah said, clutching the collar of her shirt.

  “Yes. I’d rather be the guy who found the treasure than the one who lost it.”

  Jenny’s gaze was pulled to his smile again as if he were a magnet and she, solid iron. He was so sure of himself on camera. Her sister was holding her own, though. Not surprising, since these coins were a favorite topic and prized by her customers.

  “So let’s say I find my bandit gold,” Crowe said, flashing the coin Delilah had handed him through his fingers. “What is one of these beauties going to sell for?”

  “About three thousand dollars,” Delilah said.

  Crowe made the coin disappear. Cue laugh track. Josh and Jenny smiled at each other.

  “Hey!” Delilah said, laughing herself. “Give that back!”

  “If I must,” he said, with mock reluctance, flashing the coin back through his fingers. “I’d better find a few hundred of these.”

  “Sounds good to me.” She snatched the coin out of his hand and examined it. “You’re tricky. I’d better make sure this is the right one!”

  “Thank you for showing me what I’m looking for,” Crowe said. “I hope someday you can sell my finds in your shop.”

  Delilah stuck out her hand. “Let’s make a deal.”

  Crowe shook her hand then put up his closed fist again, ending the scene. Thor set down the camcorder and stretched, his T-shirt riding up, displaying impressive abs. As Viking-beautiful as he was, though, he didn’t send her into a hormonal attack like his younger brother did.

  All three men moved toward Delilah, praising her. She soaked it up like a cat in the sun, somehow bestowing attention on each man individually. Her sister had inherited every last molecule of Craft charm, leaving none for Jenny. She cursed her own awkwardness as Delilah ran a long, manicured finger across her clavicle. Jenny’s stomach lurched.

  She couldn’t stand to watch. The first man she’d found attractive in ages, one who admitted he had had a crush on her, and he had to meet her sister. She bunched her foil into her fist and pivoted, slipping back into the room behind the sales floor. Her awkward self belonged at her restaurant anyway. Even if she didn’t know how to sell herself, she knew how to sell pizza. Small comfort.

  The next day after lunch rush, Taylor came running toward the pizza oven where Jenny was removing a family-size sriracha chicken pizza on her famous whole-grain crust.

  “There’s a fight outside,” Taylor gasped as Jenny set down her pizza peel. “You’d better come and see. Should I call the cops?”

  Jenny pointed to the pizza, then to a hovering waitress. “Table three.”

  The waitress echoed her and reached for a slicer as Jenny pulled off her apron and followed Taylor, her cell phone in her hand.

  “Any idea what the fight is about?”

  “That hottie camera guy from yesterday is being pushed around by one of the booze hounds who are always hanging out around the fire pits at Aliso Beach,” Taylor reported, tucking a skinny blond braid behind her ear.

  “Lovely,” Jenny muttered. “Where is Thor’s brother?”

  “Oh, he’s in there,” Taylor said.

  “Then I’m not going to call the cops,” Jenny answered. “If he gets arrested, his television dreams are probably dead.”

  Taylor’s brow creased. “Huh? You know him?”

  “I heard enough of the conversation yesterday. No producer is going to pick up his show if he’s considered unstable.” She had tortured herself the night before by downloading the second season of Treasure Hunters from Amazon and binge watching it. The final episode was edited to make it seem like Crowe’s foolhardiness had caused Thor’s accident. He couldn’t afford to appear out of control now. Memories were long when shows were endlessly streamable on the Internet.

  Taylor pressed her nose against the glass door leading to the street. Jenny came up behind her. On the sidewalk in front of her window was a girl with long blue dreadlocks and a lit roach waving her finger in Delilah’s face. Jenny swore. What was her sister doing mixed up in this?

  “Stay inside,” she told Taylor. “Try to discourage patrons from leaving.” She pushed open the door and went after her sister.

  “You do not take pictures of my girlfriend!” the guy screamed at Thor, dirty brown dreadlocks waving in the light breeze, absolutely fearless despite the six inches and considerable muscle the cameraman had on him.

  Thor was hampered by his camcorder, though. Jenny could tell the expensive machine was ever present in his thoughts from the way he cradled it. Crowe stepped between the two men.

  “He wasn’t focused on her,” Crowe said, crossing his hands in front of his chest and fanning them out again. “He’s establishing the scene. We’re making a television program.”

  The tendons in the drunk’s throat stood out in sharp relief as he continued to scream, a liquid nonsense sound. Two middle-aged women in cheap Hollywood T-shirts stopped to stare as the profanity flew, followed by another slurred demand that they not tape his girlfriend. Jenny grabbed for Delilah’s arm, pulling her away as saliva bubbled from the drunk’s mouth.

  “Look,” Thor said. “I’ll erase that part of my recording. It’s easy to do. See?” He tilted the camera toward the angry man and began to reverse.

  Instead of looking at the screen as Thor must have intended, the other man reached around Crowe and punched the camera.

  “Back off!” Crowe shouted, using his greater bulk to pressure the other man to step back a foot, away from the camera, without touching the man.

  Thor stared his machine in dismay. He pushed some buttons, pushed them again. Jenny put her hand to her stomach, unsure if the rumblings there were a sign that she’d missed lunch, or fear. She knew that machine must have cost a fortune.

  “You broke it, you stupid f—” Thor growled. He thrust the camera at Delilah and lunged for the guy.

  Jenny jumped in between the two men, flanking Crowe. She held up her hands. “Stop it! You’re on a public street.”

  “Call the cops!” Thor yelled, putting his hands on her shoulders as if he were going to move her aside. “Vandalism! Assault!”

  “I can’t do that if you guys are going to take swings at each other the second I step away,” Jenny said in her calmest voice, widening her stance. Crowe stared, eyes narrowed, at the drunk, who kept his distance even as he opened his mouth again.

  “We’re even!” the drunk screamed. “You violate my girlfriend’s privacy and, and I’m gonna shove that camera up your—”

  “Gentlemen,” Jenny said her most authoritative voice. “You need to take this off the street. Someone is going to call the police.”

  “I’m done with my joint anyway,” the girlfriend drawled, smirking at Crowe. “What’s the problem, Lucky? Let’s go to the beach.” She tugged at the drunk’s arm. “Give him money for the camera and let’s go.”

  Jenny saw Crowe’s eyebrows go up as the guy pulled out a r
oll of cash and finger-licked his way to five bills before handing them to Thor.

  “A hundred bucks?” Thor said, his mouth not completely closing. He let go of Jenny to take the bills. “A hundred bucks? Do you know what this camcorder costs?”

  “It’s fine, Thor.” Crowe stepped closer to his brother as if to prevent him from lunging at the drunken guy again.

  “You can buy a nice camera for a couple hundred bucks,” Lucky said with a shrug. He pulled off five more bills and threw them on the sidewalk, then strode off with his girlfriend, chuckling.

  Thor shook his shaggy head at Crowe. “I cannot believe that just happened.”

  Delilah handed the camcorder back to Thor. “I’m hoping the battery pack is dislodged or something easy like that. The screen isn’t busted and none of the casing is damaged.”

  Jenny knelt and picked up the rest of the cash. “If it costs more than this, those two are easy to find.”

  “Great,” Crowe muttered. “At least the police haven’t shown up. That’s something positive.”

  “Sorry.” She stared at his face, for the first time close enough to see his perfect, stormy blue eyes.

  Crowe’s lips quirked. “No, I appreciate the help. You stopped the fight.”

  “I couldn’t stay away,” Jenny admitted, appreciating his ability to see the humor in the situation as she handed him the unpleasantly greasy cash. “Not when you’re trying so hard to get something going. Any friend of Josh’s is a friend of mine, too.”

  Crowe ran his hand over his tightly cropped black hair. “Thanks.” He took the money and tucked it into his board shorts.

  Jenny’s attention drifted south. The low-hanging acid gray shorts could slip even lower down on his lean hips, as far as she was concerned. Ugh, she was torturing herself.

  Just then, she heard a strange noise, like a big truck coming down the street. A car alarm went off, and she saw, behind Crowe, an SUV rocking. The front door of Laguna Gold Pizza opened and closed, seemingly on its own.

  “Earthquake,” Thor exclaimed. “Ah, sunny Southern California.”

  Chapter Two

  Crowe instinctively stepped closer to Jenny, strategizing how to protect her in case of aftershocks. He stared at the rocking cars and confused tourists who hadn’t been through an earthquake before. One little girl was crying. She’d dropped her ice cream. Her mother picked her up to calm her down. Thor cradled his camcorder in his arms, protecting his damaged equipment. Jenny gazed intently at her Laguna Gold Pizza storefront. The door had settled back into its frame.

  Crowe heard a metallic scrape against the sidewalk. A couple of stores down, a bike that had been leaning against a trash can fell over, clattering to the ground.

  Jenny took a step toward her restaurant. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back. “Wait a minute. What if there’s another one? We’re safer out here.”

  She stopped moving. Somehow, her T-shirt had ridden up. He had his hand tucked into the curve of her small waist. Her hipbone, covered by smooth, warm skin, rubbed against his little finger. Was her skin there untouched by the sun? Or was she wearing a bikini? Suddenly, he was desperate to find out.

  “We’re used to these little tremblers,” she said. Her hair, frizzier now than when she was a teenager, brushed his cheek when she turned to look at him.

  He smelled strawberries. Just what red hair should smell like.

  “Why are you smiling?” she asked.

  “I like how your hair smells,” he said without thinking.

  Next to him, Thor guffawed. “Such a way with the ladies.”

  Jenny glanced from one brother to the other. “Umm, thanks.”

  “So now what, O captain, my captain?” Thor eased his grip on the camcorder. “I don’t know if I can rescue today’s footage, much less the camera.”

  “Do you have insurance?” Jenny asked.

  Crowe was afraid to move. She might realize he still had his arm around her and pull away. Given that the earth hadn’t shuddered again, he had no reason to hold her any longer, but her curvy hip felt so perfect under his fingers.

  “Yes,” Thor said. “Sort of.”

  “I think there’s a repair place in Anaheim.” She turned a few degrees, her fingers sliding across Crowe’s chest. Reluctantly, he let her go, regretting each inch she moved away from him.

  “I know a guy down here, actually. I did my research.” Thor licked his lips, his tongue lingering over one spot in the center.

  “We’ve been out here for a while,” Crowe said, recognizing that his brother was thirsty. “We should rehydrate and get out of the sun.”

  “Your nose is looking pink,” Jenny said, her finger lightly brushing his nose. “It’s almost summer. Take care of that pretty face.”

  He rubbed his nose against it, liking the feeling of her slightly sandpapery fingertip. “Great. And me, the on-camera talent.”

  “I’m going to head to my truck,” Thor said, his mouth turning down in mock shock as he witnessed the nose-rubbing. “Try to find my camera guy and figure this out.”

  Crowe handed him the rest of the money. “Might as well take it.”

  Thor folded the money into a tight wad and crammed it down one of his front pockets. “The cash will buy pizza for my bud, at least.”

  Crowe flexed his hands. “I need to work off some tension. Man, I wanted to deck that jerk.”

  “Rehydrate first, Crowe,” Jenny urged. She moved out of the range of his arms.

  He missed her closeness immediately. As he followed her into her restaurant, he considered the feel of her skin, the scent of her hair, the fight, the earthquake. Women versus work. Anything to get his mind off that camera.

  They walked past framed shots of local beach scenes in the reception area, then ducked around the counter and headed into the kitchen. Jenny directed him into a tiny office stacked with dry-goods boxes. He saw overflowing containers of straws, cups, lids waiting to be used. “Not much space.”

  “No, but I usually have someplace better to be.” She took chipped mugs from a shelf and filled them with water from a dispensing machine in the corner behind her door. After she handed one to him she drank deeply from the other. “Drink it down.”

  He complied, enjoying the way drips of water landed on her lips before she licked them off. She was a messy drinker. A drop splashed on her chest, then slid down into her cleavage, probably meeting that mysterious necklace.

  When she saw he was staring, she put her hand over her breastbone. “What? I’m not melting, you know.”

  He shook his head. “Sorry. You know I think you’re beautiful.”

  She shook her head, a minuscule motion that expressed her shock. “Did you get punched in the face without me seeing it?”

  “No. Sorry.” He refilled his mug at the dispensing machine. “You don’t like being told you’re beautiful?”

  She glanced down, then lowered her voice. “It’s just, you know, awkward.”

  He didn’t like that. Awkward. He wanted to know her. The real Jenny Craft. “I’m free this afternoon. What with the camcorder being broken. Do you have a bike? I’ve got mine in my truck. We could go check out Aliso Canyon.”

  “That’s tough terrain.”

  He let his gaze slide down her body, not hiding his perusal. “You’re in good shape.”

  She blushed. “I do bike. Are you sure? This is the wrong part of the day to be doing something that athletic.”

  He grinned. “You have something less athletic in mind? Something air-conditioned?”

  “Did you seriously just proposition me?” she asked.

  Her blushing was adorable. The rosy cheeks and freckled nose went perfectly with her hair. The truth was, she’d set herself up. He pushed it. “You do have a great mouth. And I can’t take my eyes off of you.”

  “Oh, come on,” she said. “I get you had a crush on me, but that was more than a decade ago.”

  “I like tough girls,” he said quite sincerely. “You broke
up a fight. That’s bad ass. I’m feeling admiration, not merely attraction. You’re okay with that, right?”

  She worried her lower lip, perfect upper teeth rubbing against her lip gloss. “I guess.”

  He could still feel the buzz from the fight and the earthquake, in contrast to her coolness. She wasn’t one to seize a moment, but maybe he was missing something else, something that made her unwilling to flirt with him. “Are you seeing anyone?”

  “No.” She glanced away. “I’m busy.”

  Great, she was single. But what did she mean? “Right now?”

  “I should be here. Lunch rush. It’s Tuesday.”

  “Tuesdays are busy?”

  She blinked hard. Her words slowed. “I’m having a hard time thinking straight.”

  “It’s all that adrenaline from the fight. And the quake.” He stepped up to her and set both hands on her waist. “You need a hug.”

  She stood about five-eight to his five-eleven. Her eyes stared almost directly into his. He could see they were almost completely clear. Just one little dark spot in the left eye marred the perfection. She closed them, as if to block him out, then rested her cheek on his shoulder. He slid his arms around her, not losing skin contact.

  Wow, he had his arms around Jenny Craft. He hardened, but if she felt the change beneath his board shorts, she didn’t care. Or maybe she was impressed. Either way, she didn’t pull back.

  He liked the way her hands slid up his biceps before she draped her arms around his neck. She tilted her head so that her mouth rested against his neck. Closing his eyes, he breathed in her strawberry scent.

  “Maybe I need this hug,” he murmured.

  “I know you do. It cools the adrenaline.”

  “And increases the oxytocin,” he said without thinking.

  “You’re trying to love-hormone me?”

  He heard the humor in her voice. “Umm, err.”

  She changed the subject. “I can understand wanting to get on a bike and go, but not to Aliso. It’s too hot.”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  She considered for a moment before responding. “Serrano Ridge? It’s a four-mile fire road. Easy but pretty.”