Page 86 of Off Plan

“His wife’s garden.”

“Yep.”

“But it wasn’t there.”

“Nope. And when Jacob’s relatives heard this tale of missing money, and looked around at the zero dollars they had in the bank and the fact that many of their father’s personal papers were missing, they put two and two together and got twenty-two. They concluded that Resolute had stiffed them. They even claimed that Jacob’s ghost hadhauntedResolute and driven him to his death for stealing their father’s part of the treasure.”

Mason looked oddly outraged on behalf of a man he’d never met. “Based on nothing?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes people need someone to blame when they’re unhappy with their lot in life, right? I personally think it’s ironic that Resolute nearly died to get that treasure, and in the end, it drove him crazy.” My hands moved lower, my pinkies coasting beneath his waistband. “Anyway, most of the Godfrey heirs were capitalNNotgonna keep living on an island with the Goodmans after that, so they spread the legend of the treasure far and wide, sold off their land—”

“In direct violation of their father’s wishes!Pfft. What a bunch of hypocrites.”

“You’re catching on. And the new owners by and large were speculators or folks who leased the rights for treasure hunters to come in and turn the island into swiss cheese to find the treasure anywhere it might remotely be hidden and lots of places where it couldn’t possibly be. It was a huge draw for tourists, which started up a whole secondary business for the island. You know how some people want to stay in haunted hotels and that kind of thing?” I traced patterns up Mason’s spine, making him shiver.

Mason nodded.

“I guess it was sort of like that. Families would come on vacation because of the beaches, and the concerts in the park, and the carousel, but they’d also have fun watching whoever was heading up the salvage operation that particular year and trying to put the clues together.” I shrugged. “They’d tell ghost stories about Jacob Godfrey haunting the island, looking for his lost treasure. Harmless fun.”

“And then?”

“Then… the speculators drilled too much, too incautiously. It was irresponsible and fuckingstupid. They’re supposed to have oversight for these things, you know? The state, the local government, they’re supposed to approve permits.” I shook my head. “This was sixty, seventy years ago, so who knows what the hell was going on? What Idoknow is that a six-foot sinkhole opened on the upper part of the island, near Godfrey Promontory, and a tourist died.”

Mason gasped. “The groundopened?”

“Caved in, kinda. Yeah. But, of course, the legend said that Jacob Godfrey’s pissed-off ghost caused the sinkhole and killed the man… and then the ghost story wasn’t so harmless or fun anymore.”

Mason froze, his muscles tense. “He just… fell in? It collapsed on top of him?”

Too late, I remembered Mason’s not-irrationalconcernabout dark, enclosed spaces.

Damn it.

“Remember, I explained about erosion?” I soothed, rubbing circles into his upper back. “It’s rare to have a sinkhole large enough to hurt someone, Mason. Data confirms this. We should look up the statistics later so you can see. I think you’ll find them really comforting.”

Mason pulled back to look at me. His mouth twitched at one corner, and his green eyes went soft. “I findyoureally comforting,” he said… and then heblushedagain.

God. How the fuck could I establish boundaries when the man kept saying stuff like that? I couldn’t even manage a cogent response.

“So.” Mason cleared his throat, deliberately attempting to change the subject. “What would you do? If you ever found the treasure?”

“The treasure that probably doesn’t exist?” I kept my voice gentle.

“Play the game,” he insisted. “Would you travel? Buy a sports car? End world hunger? Write a novel? Go back to geology? Mess around with the Charger all day? What?”

“You realize that the first question, if you found the treasure, would be who it belonged to, right? Unless you’ve been buying up land on Whispering Key without telling me, the owner of the land is the one who’d own anything you found on it, and you wouldn’t get more than a small percentage as a thank-you. Andthen, you’d have to establish how much the treasure is worth. Big Rafe thinks it could be as much asthirteenmillion, but my dad used to say it was probably closer tothree,which means you’re not coming away with more than 1.3 million at the most, assuming the owner is generous and gives you a ten percent cut. And yeah, that’s averytidy sum, don’t get me wrong, but hardly the kind of money that—”

“You realizethat you have no clue how to play this game, right?” Mason shook my shoulders, plainly annoyed. “Daydream, for God’s sake. Behappy, Fenn. Be unrealistic.Yeesh. No one’s gonna smite you down for it.”

“Smite me.” I rolled my eyes. Where did the man get his ideas? “I’m trying to beaccuratesince some people appreciate facts and figures.” I smacked Mason’s ass lightly and he yelped. “Fine. I’d… yeah, maybe I’d mess around with the Charger. When I was younger, I wanted to work on cars. Restoring them.” I scratched at my beard. “I think I got the idea because I knew my dad—my biological dad—was into it, and I thought it’d be something we’d have in common, but I ended up really liking it. I was never into geology. That was just a means to an end and a way to placate my stepfather. There’s something satisfying about making things work the way they’re supposed to, though. So, I guess if I didn’t have to worry about bills and keeping Goodmen Outfitters running… that’s what I’d do. Mess around with old cars and bring them back to life.” Mason was watching me intently, and I resisted the urge to squirm. “Probably sounds kinda stupid. Notquiteon the level of practicing medicine, huh?”

“Practicing medicine, the business of makingpeoplework the way they’re supposed to? Yeah, no, I totally wouldn’t understand why you’d find that satisfying.”

I snorted.When he put it that way…

“So why don’t you do it?” He shook my shoulder again. “Why not open a shop, or a restoration company, or whatever it’s called?”

“Just like that, huh?” I smirked. “First, I don’t have themoney. Second, nomoney. Third, I’m kind of a hack. I know a lot about afewcars, but I’m hardly an expert in everything. And fourth, and most importantly, there’s the small issue ofmoney. So, unless Resolute’s treasure falls out of a tree and lands on my head…”