Chapter 9
Paige reluctantly snuck out the next morning while both Cooper and Brandon were still asleep. She knew that it would be days, maybe longer before she and Cooper had any time alone again, but she didn’t want Brandon to catch her in Cooper’s bed. He already had ideas in his head that she just wasn’t ready to consider, although she had a feeling that Brandon might be right about Cooper’s feelings for her.
She had no doubt about her feelings for him, she thought as she stirred the fire and got a pot of coffee going. Falling in love had never been part of her plan, like everyone she’d always hoped to find that special someone, but with Justin in her life she knew that it might be a long time before that happened, but suddenly here was Cooper. And she’d fallen head over heels in love with him.
Pouring herself a cup of coffee, she settled down by the fire letting the heat soak into her bones; she was surprisingly sore this morning. Her muscles were protesting every movement she made. Cooper had taken her places she’d never knew existed last night and she was paying the price this morning. But it had been worth every twinge.
Trying to get her mind back on the dig, she got slowly to her feet and dug out her notes. It would only be a few days until she’d be able to get into the cave and she’d been trying to decipher the entry from the journal again, so anxious she felt like she had to do something. But soon the camp began to stir and the day began, and although Cooper was never far from her mind, she was able to make it through the day without being too distracted.
That night she collapsed onto her air mattress not even noticing that it was lumpy and bumpy, she’d pushed them all hard today and it had been worth it. Tomorrow they only had to remove one more tree and she’d be in the cave. She fell asleep thinking of all the wonderful things she might find tomorrow.
But her expectations were nothing compared to what they found once the debris crew had moved the giant tree. Calvin, who had come down from the upper field for the occasion insisted that he should be the first on inside. Paige had to concede that he was right and reluctantly let him climb the ladder first while she waited anxiously at the bottom.
When he stepped into the cave, Paige heard him let out a startled exclamation, then he poked his head back out of the cave. “Cooper I think you better come up next.” He said, his face red with excitement.
Paige opened her mouth to disagree, but Cooper shot her a look so she shut it. She watched as he climbed the ladder and stepped into the cave so anxious she was hoping from foot to foot. When Cooper poked his head out and motioned for her to come up, she couldn’t quite read the look on his face, but it was clear that they’d found something up there. Heart pounding, she climbed the ladder, frustrated when she got to the top because Cooper was blocking her view.
He held out his hand and helped her off the ladder, then pulled her forward a few steps. She could see some brown shaped back in the darkness of the cave but nothing else, but then Cooper stepped out of the way. Calvin swung his flashlight to the back of the cave illuminating the narrow cave, its walls lined with piles of Indian artifacts. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light she saw baskets, pots, clothes, and even jewelry piled almost to the roof of the cave, only a small walkway between the walls.
With a strangled cry, she sunk to her knees, the tears running down her cheeks. She couldn’t help but let a sob escape her lips. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight that greeted her in the cave. Cooper knelt down on the floor of the cave next to her and wrapped his arms around her and let her cry for a few minutes. When she’d finally gotten herself under control, she looked up at Cooper and then at Calvin and laughed.
“Sorry, but I couldn’t help it… this is just too much.” She said, slowly getting to her feet with Cooper’s help.
Her legs shaky, she stepped up to the first pile of artifacts and reached out her hand, touching the basket with all the reverence it deserved. Cooper stepped up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders and gently asked, “Is this stuff worth a lot of money?”
Paige looked at him as if he’d spoken in a different language, then looked at the contents of the cave. “Probably, Cooper no one has ever found anything like this before. Artifacts of the Western Mono are few and far between, we always just assumed that there wasn’t anything left. It happened a lot with these small tribes, they were either completely wiped out or moved onto reservations and took everything with them.” Her brain was finally starting to function again.
“So then what’s this?” Calvin asked.
“I’m not sure. It could be burial goods or it could be a stash. I’ll have to look at it all.” She said, with a whoosh of breath when she thought about how long it was going to take.”
“But is it valuable?” Calvin echoed Cooper’s question, not sure if they’d gotten an answer.
“Yes, definitely. What you see might be the only cache of Western Mono artifacts ever found, so there are collectors who would pay big bucks for this stuff, including quite a few museums and universities.” She said, rubbing her hands together, the urge to start digging through the piles so great.
Cooper and Calvin exchanged a look over the top of Paige’s head. “Paige.” Cooper said, to get her attention. “We can’t leave this stuff in here. We have to get it to a safe location and the fewer people who know about it the better. Do you understand me?” He said, making sure she was listening.
She thought about what he said, and nodded. “You’re right, but this has to be done right. I can’t just start pulling things out of here. It has to be documented, photographed, and packed up piece by piece. I’ll need help too.” She said, ticking the steps off on her fingers.
“How long is all that going to take?” Cooper asked, already thinking about security until they could get it all moved.
“At least three days I would guess and that’s working practically around the clock.” She said, mentally beginning to make a list of all the things they would need.
“We’re going to need some help.” Cooper said, pulling out his phone. “Paige, you’re going to have to come up with some kind of story to keep everyone out of this cave. We need to keep this a secret as long as we can.”
Paige nodded her head and stepped to the front of the cave. She looked down to find that most of the inhabitants of the canyon had heard the news and were gathered at the bottom of the hill looking up at her expectantly. With a big smile, she waited until she had their attention.
“I’ve got good news and bad news.” She said, then paused. “The good news is that we’ve found a few artifacts in the cave. The bad news is that the cave isn’t as stable as we’d like so no one but senior staff is going to be allowed inside for now.”
The crowd cheered, then a little disappointed began to return to their duties. Paige breathed a sigh of relief, then motioned for Scott, Marissa and David to come up the ladder. Paige couldn’t help but laugh at each of their reactions as they stepped off the ladder and into the cave. David was the last one up and his reaction wasn’t that much different than Paige’s, minus the tears, but still very emotional.
Once they’d all recovered from the shock, they began to form a plan to keep the artifacts safe until they could be stored securely. Scott went back down the ladder to call Donovan Terrell, his cousin and the CEO of Terrell Industries in Colorado, knowing that he’d be able to provide what they’d need. When he came back up the ladder he looked satisfied.
“Donovan is not only going to send us a security team with experience in the mountains, but he’ll arrange for anything you need to move and store the artifacts. I’m also thinking that we could use one of the outbuildings at Honey Hills for storage. David, maybe you can help me with that? I’m assuming we need some kind of climate control.” Scott reported happily.
“If Paige doesn’t need me then I’m all yours.” David said, looking to Paige for her approval.
“That’s fine. I won’t need you until it’s time to pack this up.” She said, already making a list on her tablet to send to Donovan.
When Scott, Marissa and David disappeared down the ladder, Paige couldn’t help but throw herself into Cooper’s arms, so happy she could barely contain herself. There was no longer any doubt about the fate of her career. Thanks to this find, she would be published as soon as her thesis was done. She wanted to call Professor Morgan right away, but she knew it had to wait until they had some security at the site.
“It’s a good thing you all were here; I don’t know how I would have dealt with all this on my own.” Paige said, looking around the cave again. “But for now, I think we should get out of here. Calvin, maybe you could stay behind for a while, then come down and tell everyone how dangerous the cave is. Make a big deal about it.”
“You think we should just walk off and leave this stuff?” Calvin asked, surprised at her plan.
“Well, if we act like the cave is too dangerous and I downplay what’s up here, they’ll stay out at least until tonight.” She said. “They won’t dare try during daylight. We’ll figure out what to do tonight later. We may have to take turns guarding the cave.”
“Okay, you’re the boss.” He said, getting out his equipment. “I’ll do some scans for real, I wanted to anyway. I’ll see you guys in a couple of hours.”
“We’ll wait for you at the bottom, then we can take the ladder with us. That will help keep them out.” Cooper said, gesturing for Paige to go down the ladder first. She looked once more at the artifacts, then went down the ladder.
Once they were at the bottom, they followed through with the plan and Paige went back to work on the debris from the hill since there was still plenty of sifting to do before the students left the next week. She’d been lucky to get as much accomplished as she had in the short dig season; next year summer there would still be plenty to do, but they’d cleared the hill and recovered the bones.
Several hours later Calvin came down the ladder shaking his head, then proceeded to give dire predictions about how long it would be before the cave collapsed. Paige called a halt to the day’s work and cleared the dig, hoping no one would come back for a secret peek before they could secure the site. Once back in camp, everyone seemed happy enough to spend their extra few hours off sleeping or relaxing around camp, everyone a bit disappointed in the cave.
Only a few hours later, Scott came driving up to the camp followed by two SUVs, each holding four men. When they parked and got out of the vehicles, Paige knew immediately that their security team had arrived. Cooper came out of his house and hustled them inside, but not before a few of the students noticed.
Luckily, David came pulling up, gravel flying, and parked in front of the SUVs blocking them from the view of the camp. He made a big deal of getting a case of beer out of the back of his truck and carrying it up to camp. Paige pretended to be upset by the beer, then made a big show of giving in to David’s request for a celebration. When the students were suitably distracted, she breathed a sigh of relief and crossed the road to Cooper’s house, leaving David to deal with the students.
When she walked into the kitchen, the men stopped talking. “Well, that wasn’t very subtle.” She said, hands on her hips.
“Sorry, I didn’t think.” Scott said, then introduced her to the men who’d been hired by Donovan.
He explained that guarding artifacts in just this kind of situation was their specialty. They usually operated in foreign countries, but they’d been in California on a break and agreed to come help. Looking at the eight men standing in the little kitchen, she was sure the artifacts would be completely safe.
“We’ll set up camp at the dig site and stay there until the cave is cleared. I understand that this find hasn’t been made public yet.” The leader said to Paige.
“No. I’m hoping to keep it quiet as long as possible, but someone’s going to get suspicious eventually and that’s why we need you.” She said to the leader, relieved that he was treating her with the respect she deserved instead of deferring to the men.
“Well, then for now our job will be easy.” He said, then gestured to his men who filed out of the room one by one. “We’ll go get set up.”
Once they were gone, she looked around the room, then said, “Wow, Donovan doesn’t mess around, does he?”
“Not when it comes to family.” Scott said. “Or money.”
By the next morning when Donovan’s truck with all their supplies arrived, including the supplies Scott would need to convert one of the barns into a secure holding facility for the artifacts, Paige had everyone assembled and assigned new jobs. The student’s looked at her strangely when she gave them instructions, but when they got to the dig and saw the guards there was a flurry of questions.
She avoided direct answers as much as possible, but her students weren’t fools and soon were whispering that the find was much bigger than she’d led them to believe. Refusing to answer any more questions, she helped David get their supplies up into the cave and finally put on a pair of gloves and began the daunting task of sorting, cataloging, and packing the artifacts for storage. They were soon joined by Cooper and Marissa who’d volunteered to help, and would be in charge of photography.
It was after midnight when Cooper finally called a halt to the work, knowing that Marissa would work all night given the choice. “I think we need to call it a night. I can barely keep my eyes open.” He said, setting down the camera he’d been operating.
Paige looked at her watch, shocked to see what time it was. “I’m sorry, I just lose track of time. Let’s call it a night.” She said, getting to her feet from where she’d been sitting sorting through a basket of beautiful turquoise and silver jewelry.
Once they were all out of the cave, they checked in with the guards, then headed for Cooper’s house making plans for the next day as they walked. Paige’s parents and Justin would be there in the morning, and once they were settled in they’d go back to work. Her parents had agreed to stay for a few days to help with the kids while the work on the cave went on, her mother was thrilled at the prospect of taking care of a baby.
Scott and the baby had been at Cooper’s with Justin who was sound asleep in bed, so it was only minutes before they were gone. David had already set up his tent across the road and only waved to them as he walked away. Paige started to go to her camp, but Cooper stopped her and pulled her into his house.
“You need a shower and a real bed tonight.” He said, pulling her into the little makeshift bathroom at the back of the house. “Get in there and take a shower, I’ll find you something to wear, then you can sleep in my bed. I’ll sleep in Brandon’s room.”
“But...” Paige tried to protest.
“I’m not going to argue with you. Go.” He said, shoving her toward the shower. As much as he would have loved to join her, the shower wouldn’t hold both of them.
When she got out of the shower, feeling much better but definitely exhausted, Cooper was waiting with a big fluffy towel. He dried her off, then slipped one of his T-shirts over her head, then sat her down at the kitchen table and brushed her hair. She was half asleep as he led her to his bed and tucked her in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Falling asleep with the scent of his cologne teasing her nose, she realized the only way she could be happier was if he was lying next to her.
Cooper woke the next morning with the sun shining right in his face. He was disoriented for a second until he realized he was in Brandon’s room. Looking at Brandon’s bed he noticed that it was empty, then taking a deep breath got a delicious whiff of bacon. Getting out of bed, he stretched, his muscles protesting a bit. Working in the confined space of the cave was difficult since he had to spend most of his time stooped over, but it was worth every sore muscle to see the things that they’d uncovered.
Making his way into the kitchen, the first sight that greeted him was Brandon shoving a huge bit of pancakes into his mouth. They both looked at him and even the sight of Paige standing at the stove in his tee-shirt, her bottom barely covered, could hide his displeasure at the size of the bite Brandon was shoving into his mouth.
Paige quickly grabbed a cup of coffee and handed it to him blocking his view of Brandon. She stood up on her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek, and whispered, “Good morning, I would have slept better if you’d been with me.” In his ear.
Distracted, Cooper forgot about Brandon long enough for him to grab his knife and cut up his pancakes into smaller pieces. He allowed himself to be distracted, liking the fact that Paige had come to Brandon’s rescue and he had let her. He sat down at the table and accepted the plate of food Paige handed him with a smile.
“So, you two are up early.” He said, taking a bite of his breakfast, then understood why Brandon had been shoving them into his mouth so quickly.
“I couldn’t sleep. Justin and my parents will be here soon and I’m excited to see them.” She said, shrugging her shoulders.
“She made cinnamon rolls and pancakes.” Brandon said, carefully swallowing the bite he’d had in his mouth first. “And she said that Justin and I can go to the top of the ladder if we’re very careful.”
When Cooper looked at her she said, “That’s right, but you have to remember the rules. We’ll go over them again when Justin gets here. And your dad has to give you his permission.”
She left them in the middle of a big discussion about ladder safety to get ready for the day, earlier she’d snuck across the road and gotten her things from her tent deciding that getting ready at Cooper’s house wouldn’t be any worse than spending the night. She and Brandon had already had another discussion about what it meant that she’d slept there that night.
By the time she’d gotten herself ready for the day, Cooper and Brandon had cleaned up the kitchen, proud of themselves for not eating the cinnamon rolls while she was gone. As she walked around the corner into the kitchen she overheard Brandon say, “Dad if you eat one of those Paige will kill you.”
She walked into the kitchen laughing and said, “He’s right. Hands off Mr.”
“Told you.” Brandon said, heading for the front door. “I’m going to go wait on the porch for them.”
Cooper waited for the door to close, then crossed the room and pulled her into his arms, “Do you have any idea what it did to me to have to watch you prancing around here in that shirt this morning?”
“Hmm, was it anything like what I feel when I see you with your shirt off?” She asked, running her hands up and down his chest.
“It must be.” He said, and lowered his mouth to hers.