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An Emerald Marks the Spot
© Copyright 2005 Kimberly J. Fish
Chapter Five
Kali Cavanaugh closed her cell phone and washed her sweaty hands at the bathroom sink. She hated to call people from the ladies room, but with tall, dark and obsessive shadowing her every step this water closet proved a last resort for privacy. Since Brad announced he ‘didn’t trust her’, she’d endured him hovering during her cheese processing, sharing her lunch of tuna salad and interfering with the way she stacked the delivery van. All the while questioning every conversation she shared with relatives about the contents of Aunt Annalise’s attic.
Kali stared at the mirror’s reflection of her almost thirty-year-old face and wondered if Brad noticed the tiny lines punctuating her hazel eyes. Leaning closer to the glass she pushed sandy blonde bangs off her forehead and guessed she was about five years overdue for a facial. And highlights. And a total cosmetic makeover.
Dropping her hand she banished the vanity. She’d not worried about her appearance since the last cheese festival and she sure wasn’t going to dig out her make up just because Brad Williams decided he wanted the antique engagement ring returned. Hello, she reminded her reflection, this man had not looked her up because he missed her sweet disposition. Two hundred thousand dollars was on the line, not her faded romantic illusions.
“Knock, knock,” Lacy called pushing open the bathroom door.
“It’s a good thing I wasn’t ‘indisposed’.” Kali hid her cell phone in the cargo pocket of her shorts.
“Oh, please,” Lacy huffed as she squeezed into the narrow room and propped herself on the sink basin. “Okay, what did Marguerite say when you called her?”
“Are you even going to pretend you’re embarrassed for accosting me in the bathroom?”
Lacy rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “We’re sisters, embarrassment left years ago. Now, we both know why you’re hiding from that gorgeous hunk of manhood, so tell me what you found out? Did Marguerite put you on to Olivia? I bet Olivia has the trunk with the keepsake box. She’s just that kind of person who’d steal another girl’s romantic mementos.”
Kali knew Lacy had good reason for her patent disregard for Uncle John’s step daughters. “Alright, for the record, Marguerite said she’s never gone into the attic, too musty and too many potential spiders, but Olivia moved into the house after the other cousins moved out so she might know something about my old college boxes. But the big O’s not answering the phone.”
The door pushed open “You really trust your relatives, don’t you?”
Kali folded her arms over her t-shirt and looked at the dark-haired man leaning into the tiny room. “This is a restroom. Do you mind?”
“Oh, I mind,” Brad said with a snicker. “I could hear your conversation half way to the cold storage and I’m thinking if Lacy doesn’t trust Olivia then neither do I.”
Kali looked at Brad and shooed him back from the doorway. “Lacy has unresolved issues toward our cousins, but that doesn’t mean they stole my college keepsake box. We’ll just have to drive into town look for it ourselves.”
“With or without their permission, it sounds like.” Brad stepped toward the hallway. “Breaking and entering. . . I always knew I liked the way your brain worked.”
Lacy followed Brad through the doorway. “You expect me to believe you were attracted to Kali’s brain? She was once asked to be a fashion model and when she’s dolled up she can still turn heads.”
“Lacy, I’m not denying your sister wasn’t, and still is, the most gorgeous thing to walk through the doors of an Economics class, but there is more to a woman than the outside packaging.”
Kali laughed. “Brad Williams, you are so full of baloney. And for your smarmy flirtation skills you get to stay back at the farm and help Joaquin herd the goats to the east pasture.”
“We need his smarmy skills,” Lacy said stopping Kali from walking away. “You’ve got to make up a convincing story for M and O, right? We can just say you’re old college sweetheart showed up on your doorstep stirring old memories and you want to revisit nostalgia lane.”
“I will not lie,” Kali insisted as she threw her leather purse over her shoulder.
Brad reached his arm around Kali’s waist and drew her to his side. “Oh, honey. That’s no lie. I’ve been swimming in regret all day.”
Kali scooted away from his electric touch. “You don’t have to flirt with me, Brad. I’m prepared to help you find this ring even though Miss Manners would validate my claim to keep it.”
Brad’s smile flickered into serious line. “I won’t take all the money. I’ll share some with you.”
“Like a finder’s fee,” Lacy said.
“Like a consolation prize,” Kali corrected. Then fishing her car keys out of her purse she said, “But before we get started there’s just one thing I need to clarify.”
“Shoot,” Brad said.
“When this is over, when we find the emeralds,” Kali swallowed a bitter reality pill. “We agree never to see each other again.”
Lacy blanched. “Why? You’re both single. And it’s obvious you still like each other.”
Kali wouldn’t let her eyes connect with Brad’s penetrating gaze, so she focused on the calendar beyond his shoulder. “This is a business matter, not a relationship, and it’s all about the ring.”
Brad pushed his hands into the pocket of his jeans. “Oh, there’s more here than just the ring. And to prove it, I’m taking you out to dinner so we can discuss the finer points of our . . .relationship.”
“You’d better make that a drive-through,” Lacy said sighing. “Because if I remember correctly Olivia teaches an art class on Thursday nights and she’ll be back home by nine.”
Brad’s left brow quirked over his eye. “So you’re saying if Kali and I are going to break into Olivia’s attic, we’d better hurry?”
to be continued. . .
Chapter 6
© 2005 Kimberly J. Fish
This is a work of fiction
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