He handed me a mug of coffee, and our fingers brushed during the exchange. The contact sent a jolt of desire through me, and from the way his jaw tightened, he felt it too.
"Did you sleep all right?" he asked.
"Better than I have in months. Your bed is incredibly comfortable."
"Good." The satisfaction in his voice made my toes curl. "You needed rest after yesterday."
I settled at the dining table while he finished cooking, trying not to stare at the way his shoulders moved beneath his shirt or how his large hands handled the cooking implements with surprising dexterity.
"What's the plan for today?" I asked as he set a heaping pile of eggs and bacon in front of me.
"First, we check on your car. Then we figure out where you need to look for those journals." He sat across from me, and the table suddenly seemed smaller. "Do you have any idea where this cache might be hidden?"
"The historical records mention a logging camp called Miller's Station, somewhere in this area. But the coordinates are from 1850s land surveys might not correspond to modern maps."
"Miller's Station." Neil paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. "I can get you to the old foundation I mentioned yesterday. It could be what you're looking for. I stumbled across it a few years ago while tracking a deer, but I never paid much attention to it. There's lots of abandoned old buildings scattered through these mountains."
"I’d love to see them all,” I said eagerly. Then I tried to dial back the enthusiasm. "I mean, if it's not too much trouble."
His mouth curved in amusement. "Doc, after yesterday, I'm not letting you wander around these woods alone again. If you're going to search for buried treasure, I'm coming with you."
The protective undertone in his voice sent another spike of awareness through me. I know I didn't know him well, but I was starting to really like Neil.
"I hope they're not buried," I said. "Unless they're protected. Otherwise after so many years, we might just find a bunch of rotting paper."
"Think positive."
"It's nice to have a little encouragement. Back home, they think I'm a little nuts for thinking I'm going to find something so historically significant."
"Sounds like they're underestimating you." He grinned.
I nodded. "Story of my life."
"So, let's rewrite it."
"I like the sound of that."
After breakfast, I reluctantly changed back into my hiking clothes while Neil gathered supplies for our expedition. He loaded up a backpack with water, first aid supplies, and some serious looking hiking equipment.
"Ready?" he asked, shouldering the pack with easy strength.
"As ready as I'll ever be." I had all my notes on my phone and the map I had printed out. "Lead the way."
This was going to be fun. I was glad Neil was coming with me. It was a lot less scary and lonely with him beside me.
We headed first toward where I'd left my rental car, Neil leading us down a different trail than the one he'd taken to his cabin. After about forty minutes of hiking, we emerged onto what had once been a road but now looked more like a muddy disaster zone.
"There," Neil pointed to a sad sight about fifty yards ahead.
My rental sedan sat at an awkward angle, the front driver's side wheel completely through what used to be road surface, the undercarriage resting on mud and broken asphalt. The recent rains had washed out the shoulder, creating a small ravine that the car now partially bridged.
"Oh no," I groaned, seeing the full extent of the damage. "The rental company is going to kill me."
"It’s not your fault the road washed out." Neil circled the vehicle, assessing the situation with a critical eye. "Even if we could get it unstuck, which would take a winch and probably damage the undercarriage more, you couldn't drive it out. Road's completely gone for another quarter mile that way."
I pulled out my phone, hoping for a miracle. Still no signal.
"We'll call from my cabin later," Neil said. "I've got a landline. But it's going to take a specialized tow truck, and they won't come up here until the county stabilizes the road first."
