Thrill Me (Fool's Gold #18)(56)

There was also the fact that he was leaving and she was staying. Which meant whatever they started would never go anywhere.

For a second he allowed himself to think it could be more. That she would want to leave Fool’s Gold with him and see the world. That they could continue their partnership in other ways. But could he trust her to be a true partner, to give it to him straight, even when she thought he wouldn’t like what she had to say?

Before he could take the next mental step, his tablet started flashing and beeping. He looked at it and saw the message.

“She’s been found,” he yelled. “Alyssa’s been found.”

Thirty minutes later, they were back at the HERO offices. Alyssa had been reunited with her family and the volunteers had turned in their equipment. He and Maya walked back toward his truck.

“I’m glad they found her,” Maya said.

“But?”

She shrugged. “That was oddly unsatisfying. I guess I wanted to be in thick of things. I know we helped, but it was kind of a letdown.”

“Since when did you want to be where the action was?”

She laughed. “I don’t know. I guess you’re having an influence on me. Next thing you know I’ll be taking off to remote corners of the globe.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not that there can be corners on the globe, but you know what I mean.”

“I do.”

Come with me.

The words came from somewhere deep inside. He toyed with the idea of saying them, but changed his mind. He’d asked Maya to be with him once and she’d said no. As far as he could tell, there was no reason for her to say yes now.

* * *

MAYA MET MADELINE outside of Paper Moon. “Shelby texted me that she and Destiny are already there.”

Madeline laughed. “You don’t think they’ll start having fun without us, do you?”

“I hope not.”

The women linked arms and headed toward their destination.

Rather than meet for lunch, several of them had decided to enjoy a girls’ night out. While each of them had been to The Man Cave before, they’d never been as a group.

“Think we’ll shock the guys when we stroll in?” Maya asked.

Madeline wrinkled her nose. “I wish, but no. Now, if we walked in topless, they’d take notice.”

Maya laughed. “You have an adventurous streak I didn’t know about.”

“I’m a lot of cheap talk,” Madeline admitted. “The truth is, I’m pretty traditional at heart. I want to fall in love, settle down, get married and have some kids. You know, normal but not exciting. What about you?”

I want to see the world. The thought came out of nowhere and surprised Maya. See the world? Since when? Sure, she had her scrapbook, but it had been years since she’d added to it. She’d never been all that interested in the world beyond getting into network news. And she’d left that dream behind when she moved to Fool’s Gold.

It was Del’s pictures, she thought wistfully, remembering the slide show they’d shown the Saplings. So many interesting and beautiful places. She wanted to see them all.

“It wasn’t supposed to be a hard question,” Madeline told her.

“What? Oh, sorry. I got lost in something else. I want to be in love with someone who loves me back,” she said.

“But not home and hearth?”

“That would be nice, but it isn’t a requirement.” It had been once, she reminded herself. Until a few weeks ago. Was she figuring out a truth about herself, or was being in love with Del messing with her head? Hard to be sure.

They walked into The Man Cave. There was a life-size statue of a caveman right by the entrance. Several tourists were taking selfies with the statue.

Maya and Madeline walked past them and looked for their friends. They found Shelby and Destiny sitting at a table. Jo was with them.

“Scoping out the competition?” Maya asked with a laugh as they approached.

“No, this is pure fun for me. Will has something going on with a friend of his. So here I am.” She looked around. “It’s nice. A good vibe.”

“Wait until the live entertainment,” Shelby said, smiling at her sister-in-law Destiny. “It’s going to be amazing.”

Destiny sipped her glass of water. “You’re very loyal. I’m nervous. Being nervous isn’t a good thing.”

“You’ll be fine,” Jo said. “And if you’re not, who are we to judge?”

A reasonable sentiment, Maya thought, not sure it would help Destiny’s obvious case of jitters. The venue might be a local bar and the event simply karaoke night, but Maya knew it was more than that for Destiny.

She and her sister had recently signed a record deal with a Nashville label and were set to head to the studio in a few weeks. So she wasn’t simply a small-town girl out on a girls’ night.

Madeline grabbed Maya’s arm. “OMG. I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe.”

Maya turned to see her friend gesturing frantically with her free hand. Shelby looked up and grinned.

“Well, look at that.”

Maya turned and saw Shep of the search-and-rescue team had walked into The Man Cave with none other than Jonny Blaze.

The action superstar didn’t do anything other than accompany a friend to the bar. Even so, conversation momentarily dipped as everyone turned to stare. Most immediately went back to what they’d been doing before. A few tourists pulled out cameras.