“I thought you left,” Claire said softly.

Sydney couldn’t quite get her mind around it. “You’re upset because you thought we left? You mean for good?”

“If you need me, I’ll be in the garden.”

“I…I’m sorry I worried you. I should have called. I was wrong.” Sydney was nearly out of breath with all the oxygen Claire’s frustration was consuming in the enclosed sunroom. “Claire, I told you. We’re not going anywhere. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Claire said, pushing open the sunroom door and leaving a smoldering brown imprint of her hand on the casing.

Sydney watched Claire cross the driveway and unlock the garden gate. When she disappeared into the garden, Sydney turned and went back into the kitchen. There were cupcakes spread out over the countertops. They each had X-marks-the-spot symbols and tiny cards with riddles printed on them, held up by toothpicks. Sydney walked closer to read them.

You think there’s nothing, but no cause for alarm. Dig deep and you will find your charm.

Who knows what the future brings? Maybe a broken heart, maybe a diamond ring.

Have no money in order to join? Dig right here and you’ll find a coin.

And for the ones that didn’t have anything inside, she’d written a very telling riddle:

No gift, no luck, no play, no toys. Don’t dig here, you’ll find a void.

Sydney was thoughtful for a moment, then she went to the storeroom and sat at Claire’s desk with Bay cuddled in her lap.

She reached for the phone.

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER

10

Like every person who had ever fallen in love, Tyler Hughes wondered what in the hell was wrong with him.

Claire had all this energy, this frustration, and it came out of her and surged through him when they kissed. Every time he thought of it now, he had to sit down and put his head between his legs, and when he finally caught his breath he had to drink two full glasses of water to cool his fever.

But what made him light-headed and changed the color of every room he entered to bright, fantastic red had scared Claire to tears. What was wrong with him that he could take so much pleasure from the same thing that caused her so much pain?

He was doing what he’d always done, making up his own agenda under the guise of it being romantic, carrying it through, and all the while losing track of what was real. Claire was real. And Claire was scared. What did he really know about her, anyway? What did anyone really know about Claire Waverley?

That afternoon he had been sitting at his desk in Kingsly Hall during office hours before his night class, thinking of that very thing, when he saw Anna Chapel, the head of the department, pass by.

He called to her, and she popped her head in.