Maggie Moves On(56)
He showed her the picture.
“Now, that’s someone who knows how to use his afternoon off,” Dean said behind Maggie’s back. He pointed at her and then twirled his finger around his ear. “Don’t think you can work me around the clock when I move in.”
She glanced at Silas. “Not that you need to know, but Dean and Cody are moving in.”
“Kid was couch surfing,” Dean explained. “I’ve got a call in five. I’ll be upstairs with a vat of coffee if you need anything.”
He waited until Dean was gone before perching on the wide sill of the front window.
“No lecture on letting strange teenagers move in?” Maggie asked.
He held up his hands. “None from me. I asked around. Consensus is he’s a good kid from a crap family. Also his grades suck.”
“I don’t know how much help I’ll be with homework,” she mused.
“Was this Campbell’s study?” he asked, examining the coffered ceiling above.
“I think so,” she said as she vigorously scrubbed at the blackened marble surround. “All of his books were on the shelves in here. I boxed most of them up so they wouldn’t get damaged, but I read the first one. It was good.”
“I liked it,” he said. “It had a little bit of everything. Action. Adventure. Romance. Treasure.”
She paused her scrubbing. “You read it?”
“I read all of them. I’m from Kinship. A. Campbell is practically required reading here.”
She shifted on her knees to get a better angle.
“Watch your head,” he warned.
She looked up at the mantel jutting out above her and then froze.
“What? Spider? I can be your hero and trap the long-legged little bastard,” Silas offered, standing up.
But she was reaching into the bucket and pulling out a wet cloth. “Not a spider. Not sure what it is.” She reached up under the mantel and gently began to scrub.
He got down next to her. There was a perfect circle embedded in the bottom of the mantel.
“It looks like one of the souvenir coins they sell downtown,” she noted as the gold finish began to glint through the baked-on soot.
He took the rag from her and worked at the center. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he murmured.
“Why would Campbell or someone hide a fake gold coin in his study?” Maggie wondered aloud.
“Darlin’, there’s nothing fake about this gold.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, scooting closer to him.
“Just about certain. This is the Wild West, remember? We’re born knowing real gold from fake.”
“Let me get my camera,” she announced. She sounded excited, like a kid just before going downstairs on Christmas morning.
He kept at it until he’d managed to clean off most of the muck and found himself staring at an honest-to-goodness gold coin.
When she returned with the camera, he was flat on his back, staring up at the coin. He heard the click of the shutter and glanced her way.
“Just documenting the find,” she said.
He rose up on his elbow and patted the hearth next to him. “Come on down, darlin’.”
Shaking her head, she took another picture.
“What was that one for?”
“I might frame it and call it the Playboy Prospector,” she teased, joining him in front of the fireplace.
She lay back and wiggled into place so her head was next to his. She was looking up at the coin, but Silas was watching her face.
“I kinda like being in this position with you,” he said.
She rolled her head to the side to give him a glare. “Focus, Wright.”
“Oh, I am, Mags. I’m focusing on a nice comfortable mattress. Clean sheets. Rain on the window. Your hair spilling out like—”
“Silas. Aren’t you the least bit excited?”
“I’m real excited,” he promised darkly. He trailed a finger down her neck to the delicate ridge of her collarbone.
“You’re terrible,” she whispered. But there were goose bumps cropping up on her skin. She extended her arms and framed the coin on the camera screen. “I never found gold before. Matchbooks. Every back issue of Bikini Babes. A rat skeleton. But no gold.”
She took several shots and then tried a few other angles to catch the raised detail on its surface.
“Now we just need to figure out how to search for gold coin designs. I wonder if a reverse image search would work?” Maggie mused.
“I can do you one better than some online search,” he said, patting her leg. “Come on.”
He climbed to his feet and helped her up.
“Where are we going?”
“Into town.”
Fortyflirty: Did anyone else catch the hot, dirty landscaper in the background of Dean’s video on FB today? Just me?
JesusLuvsMe39: I HATE HATE HATE the tile she picked for the main bathroom. Ugh! Maggie has lost her touch. This show is basically one giant homage to horrible taste.
Leo4Life: A low maintenance woman who can swing a sledgehammer like that? Marry me, Maggie!
20
They left Kevin snoring in Maggie’s bed and headed into Kinship in Silas’s truck. She’d changed into clean jeans, a tank, and a soft cardigan that had him fantasizing about her wearing nothing but it and a pair of easily removable underwear.