A Treasure Worth Keeping

“Outside with those, Ty.” Sophie returned with a plate of cookies in one hand and a pitcher of milk in the other. “You agreed not to smoke in the house.”

Tyson shoved the chair away from the desk and stalked out of the room.

“I’m sorry.” Pain shadowed Sophie’s eyes. “Tyson just lost his job last week, so he had to move back home while he looks for another one. He just got here this morning.”

Sam didn’t consider losing your job an excuse to be rude, but he didn’t want to say so. Sophie looked embarrassed enough. “Those cookies smell delicious. How many am I allowed to have?”

Sophie brightened. “As many as you want. I miss feeding hungry men now that Patrick and Jacob are gone. I hate to say this, but Tyson is a picky eater.”

Judging from Tyson’s bloodshot eyes and sunken cheeks, Sam had a strong hunch the guy preferred to drink his meals.

He took a cookie from the plate Sophie offered and hid a smile when Faith reluctantly put the puppy on the floor. With her skinned knees and her mussed-up hair, she looked twelve years old again instead of twenty. Spending the evening with Sophie had been good for her.

“Faith and Evie will get along well.” Sophie smiled at Faith as she handed her a glass of milk. “I feel like I know her already. Patrick brags about those girls of his constantly. Evie was voted Teacher of the Year last fall in their school district. According to Patrick, it was the first time a teacher at a Christian school won the award. From what Patrick says, out of the three girls he and Evie are the most alike.”

Sam remembered the cardigan. Poor guy.

“Maybe he was referring to their adventurous streak.”

Wait a second. He must have missed something. Evie McBride? Adventurous? Sam tried not to laugh. “I doubt it, Sophie.”

And as far as Sam was concerned, a guided fishing trip at a cushy lodge didn’t qualify as adventurous in his book.

“The whole trip was Patrick’s idea,” Sophie went on. “I only pray that Bruce Mullins can help them.”

Mullins. The name sounded familiar. “Is Mullins their fishing guide?”

“He is a guide there, but he’s not taking them fishing.”

She’d completely lost him. “But that’s why they went to the lodge. To go fishing.”

“Oh, dear.” Sophie bit her lip and set her glass down on the worn coffee table. “Is that what they told you?”

Every nerve ending in Sam’s body sprang to attention at the odd inflection in her voice. “Dad said they were going on a two-week fishing trip at a place called Robust Lodge, which caters to retired businessmen.”

“They’ll probably do some fishing,” she said weakly.

Sam took a deep breath. Judging from Sophie’s expression, she was trying to figure out a way to explain without incriminating the two men.

“Sophie, it’s all right. What’s going on?”

“The whole trip is for me,” she finally said. “Bruce is an old friend of your dad’s, and they need his help.”

“His help?”

“To find the treasure.”

Chapter Four

From the roof of the cabin, Sam watched Evie get out of her car. He pushed to his feet, anchoring the hammer into a loop in the toolbelt around his waist. He didn’t have time to retrieve the T-shirt he’d discarded earlier in the afternoon. It lay in a damp heap near the base of the chimney, just out of reach.

Evie lifted her hands to her hair, tucking in a few strands that had dared to escape from the sedate braid. Her slender frame stiffened as Jacob’s flock of guinea hens charged around the cabin to greet her. The birds were as tame as dogs but as noisy as a squadron of fighter planes.

Sam expected her to dash back to the safety of her car. To his astonishment, a smile tilted the corners of her lips as the guinea hens swarmed around her feet, looking for a treat. Jacob always kept a handful of corn kernels in his pockets, a ritual Sam hadn’t realized Faith had started to copy until he’d found a layer of soggy corn in the bottom of the washing machine.

Sam yanked the handkerchief out of his back pocket and swiped it across his forehead.

What was he supposed to tell her?

He wasn’t sure Evie would take the news very well that instead of fishing, their fathers had somehow gotten involved in a wild-goose chase to find a sunken treasure.

Evie took a few steps toward the cabin and spotted him on the roof. She stopped dead in her tracks, shading her eyes against the sun with her hand as she looked up at him.

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

Now he was positive she wouldn’t take the news well. Not if standing on the roof of a one-story building was her idea of dangerous.

Thanks for leaving me to clean up the mess, Dad.

After hearing stories about how overprotective Evie was when it came to her father, Sam could understand why Patrick hadn’t told her the truth behind the trip. According to Jacob, Evie had even driven up to Cooper’s Landing the previous summer, apparently suspicious of Patrick’s friendship with Sophie. No wonder the poor guy had moved to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to escape her coddling.

Keeping Evie in the dark made sense, but what Sam couldn’t figure out was why his father hadn’t confided in him. But he had a strong hunch it had something to do with Dan’s injury. As a carpenter, Jacob had spent the majority of his life after the Marines fixing things. Until he had come up against two things he couldn’t fix. His wife’s illness and…Dan. Now Jacob had been presented with an opportunity to help a friend and feel useful again.

Sam couldn’t blame his father. Jacob coped with his feelings of helplessness one way and he had chosen another.

The conversation with Sophie the night before had been quite enlightening. And frustrating. Sam had spent half the night battling his conscience. Evie had generously agreed to help him by tutoring Faith. Didn’t he owe her the truth? But if Patrick didn’t want Evie to know what he was up to, was it his place to fill her in? And it wasn’t as if there was any cause to worry. Jacob and Patrick were grown men, certainly capable of making their own decisions without getting flack from their adult children.

Sam had no doubt the men could handle themselves. It was adding Sophie to the mix that made the situation more difficult.

Her story wasn’t his to share. She hadn’t been able to provide many details because Tyson had slunk back into the living room, abruptly ending the conversation. It was obvious Sophie didn’t want her son to overhear them. From the brief conversation, however, Sam had managed to put together a few of the pieces.

Sophie had been working on her family’s genealogy when she was diagnosed with cancer. While searching through family archives, Sophie discovered diaries kept by her grandmother that exposed a skeleton in the Graham family closet. A scandal caused when a ship sank in Lake Superior and her great-grandfather, Matthew Graham, apparently saved himself and a young woman’s dowry. No one else had survived.

At that point, Tyson interrupted them and Sophie had quickly changed the subject.

Sam buried a sigh and dodged between the boxes of shingles scattered on the roof, pausing long enough to scoop up his shirt. By the time he reached the ladder, Evie stood below him, holding the bottom of it.

“They do make aluminum ladders nowadays, you know,” she called up to him. “They don’t rot. They’re splinter free. And they’re equipped with multiple safety features.”

Sam suppressed a smile. You’ve got to be kidding me. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Sam bypassed the last three rungs of the ladder and landed on his feet beside her, light as a cat.

Evie averted her gaze as he pulled the damp T-shirt over his head and rolled it down over his abdomen. As if he knew exactly why she’d looked away, his eyebrow lifted in a silent question.

Better?

He was laughing at her again. Heat coursed into Evie’s cheeks and she took a step away from him, knowing her freckles had lit up like laser dots against her skin. She took a deep breath and decided to focus on the reason she was there.