Page 44 of Finders Keepers

Quentin ushers me inside the mushroom folly.

The darkness and the massive rhododendron bushes surrounding the phallic stone structure make it feel like we’ve entered another world, thousands of miles away from another living soul.

I wonder if this is Edlo? I think for a moment, and it sends a pleasant shiver down my spine.

“What’s this all about?” I ask, rotating in place before I turn back to where Quentin still stands at the entrance.

“Trying to fix some of my mistakes,” he says cryptically.

The word “mistakes” makes me swallow hard.

He steps toward me, his gaze intent, and gently places his hands on my hips, before he walks me back against one of the pillars, the smooth concrete pleasantly cold against the exposed top of my back, my neck, my shoulders.

“This is what I was going to do—what I’d planned to do—if you’d shown up that night.

” One of his hands drifts up, and his thumb softly lifts my chin, angling our mouths toward each other.

My eyes close as our lips meet, and somehow, even though this isn’t the first time we’ve kissed, this one feels like something new. Something different. More vulnerable.

“Nina.” His smile is small, uncertain. No facade to be found here.

This is pure Quentin, the boy, the man. The person some secret part of me has always and probably will always adore.

“When you told me the other night that I made you feel like you weren’t enough for me to want to stay in touch…

God, that broke me. It shattered me, completely.

Because it was so far from the truth, and I just didn’t know how to tell you then.

I barely know how to tell you now, but I’m trying.

I’m trying to do better this time. Even though I know it’s not enough to make up for everything we missed out on because I was too afraid, too stupid, to be honest about how I felt. ”

I reach out and run my fingers over his jaw, needing to lend my support in some way. (Also to feel the progress he’s making on that beard. It’s coming in quite nicely.) He closes his eyes against the touch, leaning into it, before taking my hand away and holding it.

“From the very first day we met,” he continues, “I knew you were amazing. Like no other person I’d ever known.

And, yeah, we were only five years old at the time, so that’s probably not saying much, but you were so pretty and smart and we laughed at all the same things.

I decided then and there I would do anything it took to make you want to be my friend.

” He stares down at where our fingers are intertwined.

“But you didn’t seem as interested in knowing me as I was in knowing you.

Not until I started competing with you. Telling you I could do something better or faster or whatever lit this spark in your eyes, and it was so much easier to get your attention.

By the time we were fifteen, I was absolutely head over heels in love with you. ”

Even though Hanako already revealed Quentin’s crush, this confession makes my breath catch. He was in love with me?

“I wanted to tell you how I felt, but I was so scared you didn’t feel the same way.

” He glances back up, into my eyes. “That’s why I was so adamant we team up and look for the treasure that summer.

Because I thought it would show you how good we could be together.

So that once I left, you might not forget about me. ”

Forget about him ? It makes no sense. “But you…You’re the one who…” I start. “You never responded any of the times I tried to contact you.”

“I know. I can never apologize enough, or express how much I regret that. First I was ignoring you because, yeah, I was a little mad. But mostly I was hurt. Heartbroken. Then embarrassed. You were the first girl I ever loved, Nina. You not showing up that night felt like a confirmation that all of my fears were completely founded. That you didn’t feel the same way.

That you were only looking for the treasure for the thrill of the competition, not because you cared about me. ”

“No, I—Quentin. I cared so much. I felt the exact same way. I just…I thought that I needed to impress you in order for you to like me . That if I found the treasure on my own, you would be so proud that you wouldn’t forget me .

And then it felt like that’s exactly what you did.

” I shake my head, and my voice goes quieter.

“I loved you too. That night we spent stargazing in your backyard, I wanted you to kiss me so badly.”

“And I wanted to kiss you,” he says.

“I know,” I whisper. I respond to the question on his face. “Hanako might’ve let it slip.”

“Ah.” He rolls his eyes and quirks the corner of his mouth.

“So why didn’t you?” I ask. “Why didn’t you kiss me then?”

“I almost did. Really. But I kept chickening out. Why do you think I wouldn’t shut up about constellations?

I was so freaking nervous. But the next night, when we were supposed to meet, I promised myself I was going to do it.

That it was my last chance, and I was going to take it.

To put it all out there, finally. Then you didn’t show, and I felt like an absolute idiot.

” He releases my hand, and I reach for him, reluctant to lose his touch.

“Kind of like I feel now, to be honest.”

“Then we’re both idiots,” I say. “It’s a perfect match, really.”

We sigh deeply in unison, and silence stretches as we stare into each other’s eyes, really seeing each other fully for the first time.

“So. Is the surprise that you’re gonna fuck me here in the mushroom folly?” I joke.

This startles a laugh out of him that I’ve only heard once before—when we were fourteen and I wore a new bathing suit to a friend’s birthday party at a water park.

I thought he was laughing at the fact that I was a chubby girl in a two-piece.

But I’m pretty sure now that it was actually the nervous laugh of someone confronted with something that’s completely overwhelmed their system.

“That is not the surprise,” he says. I reach up and place my hand on the side of his neck so I can feel his flush even if I can’t see it in the dark.

“Was it that you used to have a crush on me? Because it’s flattering and I definitely had one on you too, but like, as far as surprises go…” I teeter my hand. “Meh.”

“Maybe I will fuck you in the mushroom folly,” he says, a glint in his eye that tells me he’s joking but also definitely imagining it.

His hands return to my hips, and he presses me slightly harder against the pillar.

My heart flutters. At first I think it’s a response to his touch and that look he’s giving me, until I remember the worry that’s been plaguing me since he texted yesterday.

“You got a job offer?” I blurt out.

His eyebrows dive, and that wolfish grin fades. “Did Patti tell you?”

“Wait. You told my mom before telling me?”

“I didn’t exactly tell her so much as she overheard it. I was on the porch when the call came, and she was heading out. I asked her not to say anything to you.”

“She didn’t,” I say. “I just guessed. Anyway, congratulations. So you’re leaving, then? That’s the surprise?”

“No,” he says, lips curving again, less certain this time. “The job would be here, actually.”

“What?”

“In Catoctin. It’s a small, local firm that specializes in civil cases.

They want someone to focus on landlord and tenant stuff, which I did way back in a law school clinic and really enjoyed.

It’s an opportunity to help people, and my dad is fine with me staying in the house, if I want, instead of selling it.

Or I might still sell and find something else. I don’t know yet.”

He’s staying here. Quentin is staying. A spark ignites in my heart, and I feel illuminated from the inside out.

Because what is stopping me from staying too?

From taking a chance on this, on us? I’m still terrified and overwhelmed by the concept of getting everything I want.

What if I get it only to lose it like I did my old life?

But this could also be a sign that my luck is turning around.

That the losing streak is over. It feels like I’ve been lost in the woods for a month and have finally stumbled across a path; I would be a fool not to follow it.

Besides, no matter where it spits me out, I’ll at least know where I am, which is more than I had before.

His face goes very serious, his wide mouth a straight line as he readies himself to say more.

“But if…or when…you leave, to go back to Boston or move somewhere else entirely, I still need you in my life, Neen. Whatever that looks like to you, and whether it be friendship or something more, I will do anything. Anything it takes to bridge the distance. I meant it when I said I don’t want to lose you again. ”

His tone is firm, but there’s tension in his jaw, around his eyes, that speaks of uncertainty. As if he thinks I might deny him, even now, after all we’ve shared.

“Quentin,” I whisper as I place my hands on his shoulders. “If you were going to give me seventy percent of the reward money if we found the treasure within eight weeks, what would I get if I keep looking with you beyond that?”

“What?”

“What if I stick around? To keep looking for it.”

“For how long?”

“Well, as long as it takes. Months. Years. Decades, if necessary. Do I get more then?”

It takes him a moment to process what I mean. Finally he says, “I’ll go up to eighty-five percent, but no higher.”

“God, you suck so much,” I say, my smile giving away how little I mean that.

He grins back at me, then presses his forehead to mine. It feels like a secret world inside of a secret world inside of a magic one.