Finally, she covered the face of her watch with her hand.
Apparently, she no longer wanted the reminder of how late her date was. She held up a hand to signal the waitress. Noah leaned close enough to hear.
“I’m going to order. If my … um … friend shows up, he can order then.”
“Very good. What I can I get you, ma’am?”
“I’ll take the roasted fig and goat cheese crispini and the caesar salad.”
“Excellent choices. That’ll be right out.”
Taking his cue, Noah stepped to the table.
“Can I join you?”
Hadley flinched then recovered her surprise like a trained expert at hiding her feelings. “I’m expecting someone.”
“Stood up on your birthday? Come on. You don’t want to eat alone. Let me join you.” Please. Noah wanted an invitation to take Brad’s place at dinner.
Hadley raised her eyebrows in question marks. “You remembered it was my birthday?”
Should he lie and pretend the date had been locked in his mind forever? Nah. “Registration forms.”
Brad bounded in and strode to Hadley, turning heads as he came. “So sorry I’m late, doll. I had an unexpected visitor.” He bent down and lightly kissed her on the forehead.
Goose bumps appeared on her forearms.
Brad never glanced at Noah.
“Oh? The tooth fairy?” Hadley scowled, a hint of doubt creeping across her face.
Yes, Hadley, listen to the doubt. Listen to your gut. Noah cheered her on, begging her to see the real Brad for herself, knowing she’d never hear the truth from him.
“Very funny. Shall we order?”
“I already did.”
Brad’s eyes widened in surprise. Noah figured girls didn’t do things like that to Brad.
“Can I have your cell phone for a sec?” When Brad handed it to her, Hadley punched some buttons. “Oh, I am in here. I guess I assumed I wasn’t in your contact list, since you didn’t call when you were late.” She raised her eyebrows, and a slight grin spread across her face.
“Okay, okay. Enough. I said I was sorry.” He gave Hadley a stern look.
As fun as this was for Noah, he knew when he’d worn out his welcome—especially since he’d never received one.
As he walked away, the waitress arrived with Hadley’s food. “Would you like to order something, Brad?” She uttered Brad’s name with awe, like a fan meeting a celebrity.
“No. I think we’ll share. Thanks, doll.”
Noah glanced back just in time to see Brad reach across Hadley to snatch one of the triangle crispinis and tip it toward her. “Let’s eat.”
The refrigerator trembled when Hadley slammed the door. She regretted the outburst instantly—a good Southern woman wouldn’t do that, and it was sure to bring Norma scuffling in to see what was wrong.
And there it came, like clockwork, the flap, flap of Norma’s bedroom shoes as she came down the hallway to the kitchen. “Something wrong, dear?”
“No. I’m sorry, Norma. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“Nonsense. Nothing interesting ever goes on in this house until you get home, so disturb away.”
“Oh, it’s really nothing. Just boy troubles.” Was it a problem though? “Or not. I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know?” Norma sank into a kitchen chair. “Seems to me like trouble is easy to feel when it rears its head.”
“But I don’t know if I’m expecting too much, too soon.” Why couldn’t Brad be more like … Noah?
“Ah. Well, there are certain things you should demand from the get-go. Respect is one of ‘em. The other things, like diamonds and such—they come later.”
“Okay, doll. Let’s see what you’ve got.” Brad grabbed Hadley’s list. “You’ve found eight caches already? That’s incredible. I’ve only found three.”
Hadley shouldered her backpack. “Just be sure you’re ready for this. I plan on three today. I have it all mapped out. We can do it on foot, but it will take about six hours if we stick to the trail.”
“Okay. I’m not sure I’m as dedicated to this as you are, but I’m ready to go. Besides, six hours of following behind you … mmm hmmm. That sounds mighty fine to me.”
Note to self: let Brad lead.
“So what have you found in your eight caches?”
“Oh, a couple of fishing lures, an Osage beach postcard, a charm, a Ram’s magnet, and a flip-flop.”
“A flip-flop?” Brad looked back in surprise. His dark eyes glinted in the sunlight.
“I know—weird, right?” Hadley shrugged. “Whatever.”
“So you know right where they all are?”
“Well, sure. I know where I found them.”
“How about if you just tell me then? You know, catch me up to you so we can win together.”
Hadley glared at Brad. “No way am I cheating. Don’t be silly. You can still win. You just have to pick up the pace a bit. It’s still early in the competition.”
“Okay, okay.” Brad laughed. “I was teasing, anyway.”
Somehow, Hadley doubted that. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she looked longingly at the lake. It stood so cool and refreshing to their left, just waiting to be called upon to heal their bodies from the heat. She had a bathing suit in her pack—if Brad weren’t along, she’d have gone for a dip. But there was no way she’d wear a bathing suit in front of someone—especially him.
“How are you doing, Brad?”
“We’re getting close to the first one, aren’t we?”
“Yep, we’re almost there. Right around this corner, I think.” They rounded the bend to find a clearing for picnic tables and an area to grill food. Too bad they didn’t have a nice steak with them. Or a salad. “Okay, here we are at the coordinates. Now we need to solve the clues.”
Handle all your food with care
Hide it well from Yogi Bear
Eenie, meanie, miney mo
It’s all about YOU, you know
“Seriously. Who wrote these?” Hadley laughed. “Well this one’s pretty obvious. It has something to do with the garbage cans. In one of the cans, or buried beneath it.” She gestured to the four rusty trash cans at the edge of the clearing.
“Are you saying we have to dig in those nasty things?”
“In or under—that’s my guess anyway.”
“What about the last line? Does it identify which can it is?” Brad whispered the lines.
“Ah! Miney is the third one, it’s like you, mine—YOU … get it?”
“Good!” Brad jogged over to the can. “So assuming left to right, miney is the third can. Let’s start under it. I can’t imagine they’d hide it in the can. What if the forest service came to dump the trash?”
“True.”
Brad pushed the can over on its side and rolled it out of the way, not even glancing at the trash that dumped out onto the path. In the circle of dirt beneath where it had stood, they saw a fresh mound. “That must be it.”
Hadley pulled a spade from her pack and began to dig. Just a few trowels of dirt later, she hit metal. “There it is.”
They stuck their fingers into the dirt and tried to pry the box from its spot. Hadley couldn’t wait to see who had signed the logbook before them and when. Finally, the box made its entry into the sunlight, and Brad opened the lid.
Inside the box they found a stack of Bible tracts and a logbook to sign.
“Oh great. God stuff.” Brad pushed the tracts aside and pulled out the logbook.
Well, that answered the question of whether or not Brad was religious. Hadley didn’t mind that much if Brad wasn’t, but it was definitely good to know.
“Cool.” Brad flipped the pages in the logbook. “Looks like we’re first to find this cache. We get to sign in, right?”
“Yep. But you have to make sure you log it in on the website if you want your points recorded.”
Brad grabbed a nubby pencil from his back pocket and scrawled his nam
e on the logbook then handed it to Hadley.
Would have been nice if he let her sign it first, since she found it and led him right to it. Oh well. He must not realize the significance of being first. Not that there was any real meaning other than bragging rights. After all, they’d both get a point for the find. She reached into her backpack for a pen then signed her name and printed it beneath her signature. She added the date and a mention of the Rainbow’s End Treasure Hunt.
“Oh, are we supposed to put all of that on there?”
“I just thought it would be nice to add the information. No one said we had to.” Hadley shrugged and snapped a quick picture of the logbook.
“You’re really into this stuff, aren’t you?”
“I guess so. It’s fun. I had no idea how much I’d love it.” Hadley grinned and pulled out her GPS. “Let’s pick up all that trash and then move on.”
“Another one?” Brad groaned as he followed Hadley while she scooped up the remains of several picnics.
“Thanks for the help.”
“Sure. No problem.”
Men.
Chapter 7
Hadley’s eyes popped open in the pitch-black room. Someone was in there—she could hear shallow breathing like someone was trying not to be heard. Norma? No. She wouldn’t sneak around like that. Brad? Was he there watching her sleep? Some stranger? Noah?
What should she do? Hadley kept her breathing even, trying not to let on that she was awake, while she formulated a plan. She could freak out her attacker by jumping from the bed, flailing her arms, and screaming. Or she could just continue to feign sleep and see what happened. That seemed dumb. What if the person intended to harm her? No, her best bet was the element of surprise.
A few more deep, slumbering breaths—one, two, three.
NOW.
Hadley jumped from her bed, flipped on the light, then squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden brightness. She spun in circles, kicking like Bruce Lee—kind of—throwing her arms around and up and down, trying to fend off an attack or at least confuse the assailant. But she felt no blows. No contact whatsoever.
She pried open her eyes in the bright room. No one was there. She put her karate foot down. What was that sound? Giggling? Hadley whirled around and found the culprit now lying across her bed.
“I’ve come to suck your blood!” Ava dissolved in laughter as she rolled on Hadley’s sheets. “Oh my goodness, Had. You should’ve seen your face! Luckily I have it all on tape. This is so going on Facebook!”
“It better not! I’ll kill you!”
“What? You want to withhold this priceless piece of footage from the world? Oh, that’s gonna cost ya. Big time.”
“What are you doing here?” Hadley tried to still the drumbeat in her heart. Deep breath. She checked the alarm clock: eleven. She’d only been asleep for thirty minutes.
Ava smiled the grin of a person who felt welcome anywhere, anytime. “I’m here to visit. Didn’t you miss me?”
“Of course I did. And it’s great to see you.” Hadley put her arms around her friend and squeezed. Ava had no idea just how glad.
“You look magnificent, girl! This outdoorsy stuff is treating you right.” She looked Hadley up and down then spun her around to take in the backside. “You look like the cover of Shape magazine.”
“The cover? Not so much. Maybe one of the internal articles about weight loss …” Hadley stopped when she saw Ava’s expression. “Sorry. Thank you. That’s a very nice thing to say.”
“Much better. Young student learn much.” Ava grinned and popped the top of a cola.
“How’d you get in here, anyway?”
“Oh, that kooky lady, Norma? Is that her name? She let me in. Said I’d be good for your soul. Is she for real?”
“Norma’s as real as they come—and she’s not kooky, but I thought so at first, too.” Hadley laughed at the not-so-distant memory. “How long can you stay?” The needy little girl in Hadley wanted Ava to say the rest of the summer, but the emerging woman wanted to protect her alone time.
“Oh, I only have a couple of days—have to leave Wednesday morning. But now that you have me here, what should we do? Want to go hunting for one of those cache thingies?”
“Well … it’s the middle of the night.”
“Unless there’s some rule about finding your stuff during the day, let’s go for it.”
Hmm. “Now that you mention it, there is a cache I want to find, but don’t want anyone to see me. I guess now’s as good a time as any. Just give me five minutes to pull myself together.” Hadley padded off to the bathroom, rubbing her stinging eyes.
“According to the coordinates, it’s back here.” Hadley led Ava around Osage Beach Community Church to the wooded park in back where they’d had their kickoff rally. “Here. It’s in this general area.”
“Okay, open up the clue. Read it again. What does it say?” Hadley toggled the display to life and stared at the little poem for probably the hundredth time. First day, sat on a gazelle’s perch Those dimples made his stomach lurch Spotlight from God framed her face How long would she make him chase?
What did that mean? Hadley had a lump in the pit of her stomach. Dimples? It was her, she knew it. Oh brother. It seemed so unlikely. But if the boulder where she’d sat that first day was where the cache was hidden, then Hadley would know for sure. “Come on, Ava.” She led her friend across the clearing and stopped in front of the giant rock where she had sat for the kickoff rally.
It was obviously too big to move, so the cache couldn’t be under it. Ava felt around behind the rock, nothing.
Hadley looked from the rock to the tree. If the sunlight… “Never mind. I know where it is.” Hadley placed one of her boots on the lowest branch of the big oak tree and swung herself up into its boughs, heading toward the break in the tree from where she had felt the heat of the sun shine on her back. She continued her way up the tree until she spotted a gray metal box tucked in the nook of a branch right in front of her. She couldn’t reach it unless she climbed sideways, but there didn’t appear to be another branch strong enough to step on to.
Ava watched Hadley from below. “What are you going to do?” She pointed the flashlight beam at Hadley’s feet.
Hadley gripped the branch then dropped her body down until it was dangling much too far above the ground to jump.
“Be careful, girl.”
She eyed the branch she was aiming for a few feet away and began to swing her body towards it, gathering momentum. When she felt confident that she could swing and reach the other branch, Hadley let go with one hand and used the weight of her body to propel her to the distant bough and grabbed it as soon as she got close enough. Now what? Suspended between two secure spots, dangling over nothing, Hadley didn’t know if she could let go with her right hand and complete the swing, or if she’d fall the minute she loosened her grip.
“Do you need me to go for help?” Ava shouted from below.
“No! Shh!” That was the last thing Hadley wanted. Okay.
Now or never. She shifted her body back and forth to gather as much momentum as she could. When the time felt right, she let go and easily sailed to her target and grabbed hold. She pulled her feet up and linked them around the branch like a lemur then shimmied toward the tree trunk.
“Ava, I’m going to drop a heavy metal box down. Make sure you’re out of the way.” Hadley heard scurrying.
“Okay. Go for it.”
The box whooshed through the nighttime air then landed with a soft thud in the blanket of grass and leaves. Hadley climbed down the tree and hopped off the lowest branch, onto the ground beside the cache. She dusted off her hiking shorts and smiled at Ava. “Found it.”
Ava stared, openmouthed. “I can’t believe you just did that. That was amazing, Had.”
“Thanks. Okay, now we need to open this and sign the logbook to prove we were here.” Unlikely anyone but her would have had a chance at figuring out the clue, but there was no way Had
ley wanted to risk someone else figuring out that poem was about her.
She popped open the lid, and there it was.
The Rainbow’s End geocoin.
“What’s that thing?” Ava peered over Hadley’s shoulder. “It’s some special token-coin-thing. I get five points for finding it.”
“That’s awesome. How do we turn it in to collect your winnings?” Ava flipped it over and looked at the back.
The last thing Hadley wanted to do was show up at the church office with that token in her hand, admitting to Noah face-to-face that she’d found it. He’d know she figured out his poem. What did the poem say to her about him? What would the fact that she figured it out say to him about her?
“No. It’s not worth five points to me to turn it in. I want to keep it for … um … a souvenir.” Hadley hoped Ava would buy her explanation and not ask any more questions. She was thankful that clouds had moved in and it was too dark for Ava to see Hadley’s face, which must be crimson with embarrassment. “Plus, I don’t want to give my competition a chance to earn the five points.”
Ava shrugged. “If you say so.”
Chapter 8
Oh, quit with the mirror, Had. You look great. We’re only going for a free coffee.” Ava held the bedroom door open and tapped her foot. They made the short ride to Common Grounds in Norma’s little blue Prius. Hadley waited for a snarky comment from Ava. She sensed it was coming …
“I … uh … never had to … um, unplug a car before I drove it before.” Ava giggled.
“Don’t knock it. It saves on gas, and it’s better for the environment, I guess. Norma thinks she’s doing something good. So …”
“Uh huh.” Ava laughed. A city girl through and through. She’d rather take the el or hop a cab than own a car any day. “So do you, like, know any of these other gee-pers?” “Gee-pers?”
“Oh, that’s what I call these GPS hunters in my head. Gee-pers.”
Hadley laughed. “Yes. I know some of them.” Hopefully two of them wouldn’t be at Common Grounds that night. Ava would come unglued with all the meddling she’d been missing out on. She’d be setting Hadley up with Brad in no time if she didn’t claim him for herself first.
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