Raylene loaded a shovel and a pickax into her truck early the next morning. Between Annie and Logan, there was no shortage of tools in the garage, which saved Raylene a trip to the hardware store. Logan and Annie had taken Maisy and Nick to breakfast in town, so Raylene figured it was okay to help herself.
Maisy had turned out to be a delight, Nick hysterical, telling one joke after another. Neither seemed to hold any ill will against Raylene, despite the fact that originally she’d tried to cut Logan out of his inheritance. God, she’d been too stupid to live back then, and often wondered why God hadn’t sent down a lightning bolt to strike her over the head.
With the map tucked securely under her floor mat, she felt like a 49er, setting out to strike it rich. Nugget was a Gold Rush town, after all. She put some Garth Brooks on the stereo, turned it up loud, and headed out, hoping to find Levi’s Gold before tonight’s rehearsal dinner. Then she could tell Dana to accept Moto Entertainment’s offer and be watching a Santa Monica sunset by Monday.
Two hours later, she cursed the cold, hard dirt under her feet and flung the stupid map onto the driver’s seat. She felt a blister on the heel of her left foot. Despite the old song lyrics, her boots were not made for walking. They were made for a pair of sterling silver-studded stirrups.
She bent down and held her knees, trying to catch her breath. It was twenty degrees, but her skin was clammy with sweat from digging. Knowing her luck, if she worked without a jacket she’d catch pneumonia.
Raylene straightened up and poked at her hand where the skin had cracked. If she’d been thinking, she would’ve worn gloves.
Only one hundred and ninety-nine acres to go. I’ll be crippled by then.
She got in her truck and examined the map again, then peered out at the land. If she was reading it right, the gold was somewhere in the vicinity of the very trees she was standing under. Raylene was starting to think Levi, her great-great-grandfather’s brother, was a real dipshit. Why couldn’t he have just put the gold in a suitcase and stowed it in the attic? Or, even better, gotten a freaking safe deposit box?
According to legend, Levi had been bad to the bone. Unsatisfied with the modest—but steady—income from selling beef to the prospectors, he started out stealing horses from miners and selling them across state lines in Nevada. When that wasn’t lucrative enough for him, Levi became what the Australians called a “night fossicker.” He spent his days sleeping and his nights pilfering gold from the richest claims. It didn’t take long for the miners to catch on, and soon they gathered a posse to come after him. Ashamed, his family wouldn’t take him in. So Levi buried the gold on Rosser land, planning to excavate it as soon as the heat was off him. That day never came. He was shot and killed after drawing down on a sheriff’s deputy who’d been trying to bring him in.
When Raylene had asked her granddaddy why he’d never searched for the gold, he’d rolled his eyes and said the lore was worth more in the ground than in his pocket. But Ray swore by the story, and had even shown Raylene historical accounts of the gold in various newspapers and books. From time to time, Ray had had to shoo enthusiastic treasure hunters off the property. But most people, including Butch, thought the story was a crock, something told around the Thanksgiving table for shits and giggles.
“Sell the fucking land, Raylene, and forget that bullshit,” Butch had told her before the divorce. “We need the money to pay off your goddamn Neiman Marcus bill.”
Well, he wasn’t getting a dime of it now. Not the proceeds from the sale of the property or the gold, when she found it.
She got out and leaned against the hood, surveying the fields. The last rain had left the grass green and the river full. And she could smell pine and eucalyptus and the moss of the river rocks. She walked to the embankment, crouched down, and tried to skip a stone over the rushing water. It was so peaceful she could hear her own heartbeat. In the distance, the mountain peaks were white, covered in snow, and the sky so clear she could see to eternity.
No wonder Ray had never developed the land. Her father had been a ruthless bastard, but he knew a good thing when he saw it. She let out a breath. What if she didn’t find the gold? What if it didn’t exist? She was down to her last few thousand dollars, not even enough to cover the lease on her beach house or a first and last month’s deposit on an apartment.
Unless she could find a job training horses or giving riding lessons, she had no skills. Nothing that would earn her a living wage, anyway. She supposed she could learn to wait tables or clean houses. But there were others to consider, people who needed the money even worse than she did.
Nope, holding on to the property until someone more suitable than Moto Entertainment came along to buy it was out of the question.
Don’t stand in the way of progress.
She walked back to where she’d left the shovel on the ground and got back to work. After the wedding, she’d return on Sunday with gloves and a metal detector. Not bringing one today had been shortsighted. But she didn’t think Logan and Annie had one, and she didn’t know where to rent such things.
“Digging your own grave, or someone else’s?”
She jumped, then turned to see Gabe leaning against her truck. He looked as though he’d just walked off the cover of one those soldier of fortune magazines. He wore a green army jacket and camo cargo pants, a boonie hat, and a pair of Gatorz sunglasses. He held a thermos in his hand, and the sweet smell of coffee wafted through the air, making her mouth water.
“Why are you always sneaking up on me?”
“I wasn’t sneaking.” He pointed at her shovel. “You were distracted.”
“Well, now that you’re here, make yourself useful.” She grabbed the pickax and shoved it at him. “Start here.” She tapped the toe of her turquoise boot a few inches from where she’d been digging. From the looks of the map, the gold could be buried anywhere in the general vicinity. Or, she could’ve been reading it upside down.
“Not until I know what I’m digging for.” He took a swig of the coffee.
“Soil samples. I’ve got a buyer interested but they want soil samples. Be sure to dig deep.”
He continued to drink his coffee and survey the hole she’d dug. “Let me see the map, Ray.”
She jerked in surprise. “What map? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He didn’t say anything, just stood there, drinking his coffee, watching her dig.
“Seriously, you’re just planning to stand there?”
“Yep, unless you’re willing to admit that you’re looking for the gold.”
The man was insufferable. Logan didn’t even know about the legend. “How’d you figure it out?”
He reached in his pocket and held up his phone. “Google. I saw you digging, wondered why, and did a little research. Most of what I read said the story’s more than likely bullshit.”
Ray didn’t think it was. “How’d you know I was here?” She stood up and leaned on the top of her shovel.
“I was in the neighborhood.”
“The neighborhood, huh?” She stared out into the distance, where a mama deer and her two babies ran across the pasture. Besides being insufferable, he was a lousy liar. “Have you been following me?”
He laughed. “A little high on yourself, aren’t you, Ray?”
She noticed he hadn’t exactly answered the question. “Well, now that you know about the gold, are you at least going to help me find it?”
He put his thermos and cup down on the hood of her truck and examined the pickax. “We have a rehearsal dinner to go to.”
“Not for hours.” She searched for his SUV but didn’t see it. “You hike in?”
“Why here?” He toed the hole she’d been digging. “Why this spot?”
“Just a hunch.” Raylene shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t want to show him the map or let on that she even had one. Just because he was Logan’s best friend didn’t mean she could fully trust him.
“There’s a lot of land here, Ray. You need more than a hunch, unless you’re planning to excavate the entire parcel with heavy machinery.”
She didn’t have the money to do that, and, furthermore, it would look weird to her buyer, like she was trying to destroy something, or cover it up. “Ray said it was here.”
He held her gaze, his brown eyes assessing. “Hmm, was he around in eighteen forty-nine?”
Gabe wasn’t going to make this easy for her, which was all the more reason to dig in her heels. The prospect of money made people greedy. Look at Butch. He and his lawyer had robbed her blind.
“The story’s been passed down from generation to generation. Ray told me about the gold when I was old enough to walk. I would think he’d know, Gabe.”
“Then why didn’t he dig for the treasure himself?”
“It was his own personal savings account. An account he didn’t have to declare to the government.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Not buying it.”
“Fine! Then run along.” She shooed him away.
He didn’t budge. She picked up the shovel and started digging again. At least before her hands were numb—now they were ice cold. That’s what she got for stopping to chitchat with G.I. Joe. He thumbed through his phone while she worked, which made her grind her teeth in annoyance.
“There’s a hardware store in Graeagle where we can rent a metal detector.”
She gazed up at him over the handle of her shovel. “When we find the gold, I’ll give you a percentage. But don’t get any ideas that we’re equal partners in this.”
“I’m not worried about it.” He tugged off his sunglasses and hooked the earpiece on his breast pocket. “You know why? Because we’re not going to find any gold.”
“Just as long as you know up front: my property, my claim.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
Fine, let him mock her. What did she care, as long as she was getting a strong back and muscles out of the deal? Her own muscles were on fire.
“Why don’t you get the metal detector while I continue to dig?” No way was she leaving him alone with her gold.
“Not today.” He shook his head. “Today is rehearsal day, tomorrow’s the wedding. We’ll do it on Sunday.”
She didn’t want to wait that long. Dana needed an answer on Moto Entertainment. Raylene feared that putting them off too long could risk losing the sale.
She slipped her cell out of her jacket and looked at the time. “By my calculation, we have more than six hours. What’s the matter, Moretti, you have an appointment for a perm and highlights?”
He came toward her and yanked the shovel out of her hands. For a second she could feel herself cower, waiting for the blow that never came. Instead, he started digging, making three times the progress she had with his long, hard strokes. She watched for a while, because she needed a breather and because…he was something. Strong and efficient. For a second, she wondered what it would be like to have his big hands work her like he was working the ground. Just as quickly, she shut down the image and grabbed the pickax.
She tried to heft the thing high enough to get a good swing, but it was heavy. And awkward. Eventually, he pulled it out of her hand.
“There’s nothing here, Ray. You’re either digging in the wrong place or there’s no gold. I vote for the latter.”
“How can you know that? You’ve barely started.” But her gut told her he was right. She’d been at it for a few hours and wasn’t feeling any cosmic connection with the gold. It didn’t mean she was willing to quit, though. She wanted to study the map again, but not with Gabe peeking over her shoulder.
“I’ve got to pee,” she said.
He stopped digging and nudged his head several yards away, at a tree on the other side of her truck. “Knock yourself out.”
She crawled onto her front seat, found the map, shoved it in her pocket, and pretended to rifle through her purse.
“What are you doing?” he called.
“Looking for a tissue.” She climbed out of the cab and held up a mini pack of Kleenex. “Got it,” she said, and headed for the tree.
It was a towering oak with thick branches, and she had a sudden flash of a past Valentine’s Day. She searched the tree’s trunk, and, sure enough, it was still there. With her finger she traced the heart that Lucky had carved into the bark fifteen years ago with his penknife. Raylene + Lucky.
She shut her eyes for a second and let the memory wash over her. They’d snuck out here on horseback. Ray had forbidden her from seeing him, threatening to fire Cecelia if Raylene didn’t obey.
You stay away from that Mexican trash. He only wants two things from you: a piece of ass and your money. If I ever catch you with him, I’ll send his mama packing and make you and Lucky pay. You don’t want to test me on this, Raylene. You don’t know what I’m capable of. So find yourself an acceptable boy if you know what’s good for you.
That acceptable boy had been Butch, who, as it turned out, only wanted Raylene for her money. Not even a piece of ass, she thought, wryly. He’d gotten that from her best friend and anyone else willing to spread their legs for him. Remarkably, many women had been.
She sat on the ground with her back to Gabe and retrieved the map from her pocket. Flattening out the page with the palm of her hand, she studied it closely, even tried turning it upside down. As far as she knew, Levi hadn’t actually drawn the diagram. It had come from her great-great-grandfather, who knew where Levi buried the gold but was too fearful to dig it up, worried that people were watching the ranch. He died of cholera shortly after Levi was shot to death. The map had remained in the family over generations. Ray had made copies and had stashed them all over the house. Before he went to prison, he made sure Raylene and Butch found every last one of them before the new owner took possession of Rosser Ranch.
“Hey,” Gabe called. “You okay over there?”
She folded up the map and shoved it back into her pocket. “Coming.”
Gabe had taken off his jacket and stood surveying the hole he’d dug in a waffle-weave Henley that stretched across his chest. He rubbed his forehead against his shoulder to wipe away the sweat.
“This is insane, Ray. Let’s come up with a new plan, like grabbing lunch.”
She couldn’t blame him for wanting to throw in the towel. He was right: it was pretty insane. But she wasn’t giving up. Her father had been a lot of things, but naïve dreamer wasn’t one of them. He’d been a shrewd business man, making a fortune in the cattle industry while other ranchers scraped by. He’d always had an uncanny knack for reading the beef market, knowing when to cull his herd and when to add to it. Besides livestock, he’d profited mightily from real estate, mineral rights, and California oil. All this was to say: he wasn’t the type of guy to believe in a myth.
“But you’ll come back on Sunday, right?”
Gabe wiped his face again, pulled off the boonie hat, and scrubbed his hand through his hair. He stared out over the two hundred acres and let out a breath. “If it’ll keep you out of trouble…and we can go and have lunch.”
Just the mere mention of food made her stomach growl. She’d skipped breakfast to get an early start before Logan and Annie returned home. “Fine. But Sunday we’re renting that metal detector. Make sure the store’s open.”
He flipped out his cell and checked. “Yep. So, can we go now?”
She gathered the pickax off the ground and placed it into the bed of her truck. “As long as it’s not the Ponderosa. I’m getting sick of it.”
“That leaves the Bun Boy.” He grinned.
“There’s a good Mexican place in Clio. What do you say we go there?”
Gabe tossed the shovel next to the pickax. “I’m always game for Mexican. How about we drop your truck off at the farm and I drive?”
She had no problem with that, as it didn’t make sense for them to go in two vehicles. “You’re not afraid to be seen with me?” She smirked. “People around here might start getting the wrong idea. I wouldn’t want to hurt your reputation.”
“Too late for that.” He winked and got into her passenger seat. “Let’s bust a move, I’m hungry.”
“Where’s your SUV again?”
“Down the road about two miles.”
She started the engine and slid him a sideways glance. “You were spying on me, weren’t you?”
“Damn, Ray, you’ve got a suspicious nature.”
She sure the hell did, and for good reason.