Page 93 of High Water

“You’re a saint, Bishop.” I could just squeeze him for being willing to do this without argument. This is the kind of thing I never got from my previous marriage—a partner willing to pitch in and throw down when they’re needed. Without hesitation and without being forced to do it. That alone might be enough for me to start giving up my pillow wall at home.

“I don’t know about that.”

“No?”

“Far from it. But I’m happy to do whatever makes you think I am.”

“All right.” I laugh. “I’ll be home in about an hour. Then we can eat and get to work. Maybe try to get to sleep early.”

THIRTY-NINE

Bishop

With two math problems left to go, while I get the day’s dishes in the dishwasher, I hear a sudden yelp of surprise from Aspen’s office, followed by a little screech of what I’m hoping is celebration. Fallon looks up from the table and glances in the direction of her office and then looks at me.

“Which one of us is going to check to make sure she wasn’t abducted by a pterodactyl?” Fallon deadpans, and it sends a roll of laughter through me.

“I’ll go check on her. You keep going. You’re almost done, and then you can go watch TV in your room for the rest of the night, like your mom said.” I remind her because I’ve seen her check her phone at least five times in the last five minutes, pretending to look something up when, in reality, I can tell she’s watching fan-edit videos her friends are sending her of a TV show she’s excited about tonight.

I place the last dish in the rack and start the dishwasher before I make my way to Aspen’s office, watching her rapidly scroll through something on her laptop screen.

“Everything all right in here?” I ask, leaning on the top of the doorframe as I watch her work.

“Yes, I just think that I might have figured this out. I have a suspicion, anyway; I’m just trying to see if I can find it in the photos here, anything that might—” She glances over at me, and her brows lift. “Don’t do that. It’s distracting!”

“Do what?”

“That leaning thing you’re doing right now. I don’t have time to be seeing little sneak peeks of your abs while I’m this close to finishing something.” She scolds me, and she likes the laugh I answer her with even less, given the way her brow furrows.

“I’m sorry. I mean, yes, ma’am.” I pull myself off the doorframe and walk into the room, standing behind her to see the photos she’s scrolling through.

“I swear I’ve seen this symbol somewhere before. It looks so familiar, and then I was thinking about the rocks. It’s pyrite. Fool’s Gold Mine… But somewhere, there were maps from a survey done back when they first opened the mine. They thought there was a lot of potential in it, but then—” She pauses to study another folder and scrolls again.

“Fool’s gold.”

“Right. Until Grandpa anyway. When he came back from the war, he decided to give the mine one last chance. And it worked. He found a vein, and it led all the way back to a large deposit. It was enough to keep the ranch floating and pay off a bunch of debtors and then some.”

“So you think it’s got something to do with the mine?”

“What if it’s taking us to the next clue or maybe even the real sword? If the governor and his father were superstitious, then maybe that wore off on the others. Maybe they were superstitious and thought it could sway their fortunes. Grandpa Stockton passed away when I was little. I didn’t know him well enough to say how prone to superstition he was. But if he comes back with this object and then the mine suddenly produces gold… He might have bought into that idea.”

“Sounds plausible,” I admit.

“So I’m just trying to see where I remember this symbol from, and I think—” She stops mid-sentence and shrieks again, jumping up out of her chair and pointing. “Look! Look! Look!”

I lean over, and I see a piece of paper with the same symbol as the one she’s got scanned into the computer from the map-like clue she found today.

“Look at that. They’re the same.” I agree with her assessment, grinning when I look over to see her jumping up and down.

“What in the world is going on in here?” Fallon walks into the room.

“Your mom just solved a big problem we were trying to figure out. How are yours going?” I turn and look over at her.

“They’re done. I was coming to see if I could be excused to go watch TV and unlock my phone to talk to my friends.”

“You can. I’m sure they’ll be excited for you to respond to all those messages I kept seeing your phone light up with.” I give her a mild side-eye, but then I flash a smile. I want to give her some space to roam as we navigate things, let her know I’m not gonna call her out on every infraction so long as she’s getting things done. “And there’s some chocolate ice cream in the freezer. If you wanna make me a bowl too.”

“Really?” Her eyes widen.