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Chapter 30
When I first meet an animal, I say hello. When I first meet a person, I avoid eye contact.
Maverick
Juniper squeezes my hand to stop me before we can enter her parents’ house. “Are you sure you can handle Sunday dinner with my family? My family is kind of crazy and don’t exactly know what personal boundaries are.”
“Nooo, you’re joking. A West family member not know what boundaries are?”
“Is he being sarcastic?” Lilac asks as she opens the door.
“And they eavesdrop constantly and give you no space,” Juniper grumbles as she glares at her sister.
“You’re standing on the front porch. You can hardly claim it’s a private location.”
Ashlyn rushes forward and claims Juniper. “Good, you’re here. We can finally discuss what to do with the loot we discovered.”
Juniper growls. She told me all about how Ashlyn wanted to call the press and announce the find. There was no way my June Bug was letting the press descend on Winter Falls. She’s way too protective of my anonymity and I couldn’t love her more for it.
I trail behind them into the house and wave in greeting to everyone. I guess we’re the last to arrive since all of her sisters and their men – except Lilac as she’s currently single – are already here.
Contrary to what Juniper thinks and despite my rough start with them, I’m comfortable with her family. Everyone’s genuine. And no one is intimidated or impressed by my fame. It’s refreshing. And, yes, I realize how often I’m saying the word refreshing lately.
Aspen crosses her arms over her chest and snarls at her baby sister. “I can’t believe you finished the mystery without me.”
“We discussed this. You agreed,” Ashlyn insists.
“I agreed you could ask Juniper for help while she was down in the dumps about this guy.” She points to me and mouths sorry. “But now they’re all loved up and you still asked Juniper to go with you to the old train station where you found the money.”
Ashlyn cocks an eyebrow. “Were you going to dig a hole for thirty minutes until we found the box?”
“I could have tried, but you didn’t even give me the chance.”
“No offense, Aspen, but you’re the nerdy bookstore owner. Juniper here is the outdoorsy animal lover whose only requirement for digging the hole was water.”
Juniper flexes her biceps for everyone to see. “I could have used a sandwich, though.”
“If you’re done showing off your brawn, we do need to discuss what to do with the money,” Lilac says.
“What does the law say?” I ask Lyric since I have no clue how treasure hunting works in real life despite starring as a treasure hunter in one of my movies.
“It’s more complicated than finders keepers,” he begins. “If the money they found is considered treasure trove—”
“Which it should be,” Lilac interrupts to say. “The money was found hidden and it’s old enough for the true owner to have passed away.”
“Anyway,” Lyric continues as if he’s used to being interrupted by Lilac. What am I thinking? He probably is. “It could belong to the finder or the owner of the real property of where the trove was found.”
“Who owns the property?” I ask.
Everyone turns to Lilac as if she has all the answers to all the questions.
“The town of Winter Falls purchased the property a decade ago.” I guess she does have all the answers.
“In which case, the money should go to the town to support the community center,” Juniper states.
“But Mav is already donating the rest of the money we need,” Ashlyn protests.
Juniper’s nostrils flare as she glares at her sister. “You are not using my boyfriend for his money.”
