Finding Perfect (Fool's Gold #3)(9)
“Will they put me on a stamp?”
The smile turned into a grin. “Stamps are actually a federal thing, but I’ll see what I can do.”
Raoul thought about the kids he’d met that morning. Especially the little redheaded boy who had flinched, as if someone hit him. He didn’t know the kid’s name, so asking about him would be problematic. But once the school reopened, Raoul could do some checking.
He remembered Pia’s teasing comment about moving the school to his house. This was close. It would be moving to his camp.
“Want to drive up to the camp with me?” he asked. “We should go and see what changes have to be made.”
“Sure. If there’s anything more than basic cleanup and refurbishing, I’ll have Ethan meet with us.”
Raoul nodded. Ethan was Dakota’s brother and the contractor Raoul had used to refurbish the camp.
Dakota stood and collected her handbag. “We can have a couple of work parties, for general cleaning and prepping. Pia has a phone-tree list that would make the CIA jealous. Just tell her what you need and she can get you a hundred volunteers in about an hour.”
“Impressive.”
They went out, only to pause on the curb.
“My car is at the school,” Raoul said.
Dakota laughed. “We’ll take my Jeep.”
He eyed the battered vehicle. “All right.”
“You could sound more enthused.”
“It’s great.”
“Liar.” She unlocked the passenger door. “We can’t all have Ferraris in our garage.”
“How about cars built in the past twenty years?”
“Snob.”
“I like my cars young and pretty.”
“Just like your women?”
He got in. “Not exactly.”
Dakota climbed in next to him. “I haven’t seen you date. At least not locally.”
“Are you asking for any particular reason?” He didn’t think Dakota was interested. They worked well together, but there wasn’t any chemistry. Besides, he wasn’t looking to get involved, and for some reason he didn’t think she was, either.
“Just to have something to share when I sit around with my friends and talk about you.”
“A daily occurrence?”
“Practically.” She shifted into First and grinned. “You’re very hot.”
He ignored that. “Pia was saying something about a man shortage. Is that true?”
“Sure. It’s not so bad that teenage girls are forced to bring their brothers to prom, but it’s noticeable. We’re not sure how or when it started. A lot of men left during the Second World War. Not enough came back. Some people attribute it to a rumor that the site of the town is an old Mayan village.”
They drove through town. Dakota took the road that headed up the mountain.
“Mayan? Not this far north,” he said.
“They’re supposed to have migrated. A tribe of women and their children. A very matriarchal society.”
“You’re making this up.”
“Check the facts yourself. In the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, part of the mountain opened up, revealing a huge cave at the base of the mountain. Inside were dozens of solid-gold artifacts—Mayan artifacts. Although there were enough differences between these and the ones found down south to confuse scholars.”
“Where’s the cave now?” He hadn’t seen anything about it in his travels or research.
“It collapsed during the 1989 earthquake, but the artifacts are all over the world. Including at the museum in town.”
Something he would have to go see for himself, he thought. “What do matriarchal Mayans have to do with the man shortage in town?”
She glanced at him, then turned her attention back to the road. “There’s a curse.”
“Did you hit your head this morning?”
She laughed. “Okay, there’s a rumor of a curse. I don’t know the details.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Something about men and the world ending in 2012.”
“Dr. Hendrix, I expected better from you.”
“Sorry. That’s all I know. You might ask Pia. She mentioned something about doing a Mayan festival in 2012.”
“To celebrate the end of the world?”
“Let’s hope not.”
Talk about a crazy history. A Mayan curse? In the Sierra Nevada mountains? And to think he’d been worried that small-town living would be boring.
PIA CAREFULLY COLLECTED cat food, dishes, cat toys and a bed that Jake had never used. Jo, the cat’s new owner, had said she’d bought a new litter box and litter. After making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, Pia got the pet carrier out of the closet and opened it.
She expected to have to chase Jake down and then wrestle him into the plastic-and-metal container, but he surprised her by glancing from it to her, then creeping inside.
“You want to go, don’t you,” she whispered as she closed and secured the front latch.
The cat stared at her, unblinking.
Crystal had said he was a marmalade cat—sort of a champagne-orange with bits of white on his chin. Sleek and soft, with a long tail and big green eyes.