We stood there looking at each other with upturned lips. I loved designing it for him. Loved working with him. Loved helping him and confiding in him. Loved everything about every moment I got with him.

“Are you two going to kiss again, or can we go find more rocks?” Rose asked.

Cam took my hand, enveloping my grip in his larger one. “Let’s find you some rocks.”

We cleared the construction equipment, and the main tunnel appeared. “It’s smaller than I remember.”

“You were smaller,” Cam countered as we approached the wooden platform, where an open-topped train with three cars waited. “Look what I got running this week.”

“That’s so awesome!” Rose said, racing ahead to the train.

“What she said,” I agreed. “Is that…?”

“Completely safe and in park, I promise.” He dangled the keys from his finger. “It’s the original from the last time the mine ran in the fifties, and I worked with Keith Mayberry to convert it for tours.”

“That’s great, and I bet Keith really appreciated the business.” He was one of the business owners in Alba who didn’t own historical property.

“Yeah. He’s tracking down another setup just like this one—historically accurate, of course—and then he’ll do the same with those. I figured if we’ve got the grant money, we’d better keep as much of the business in Alba as we can, right? It should benefit the whole town.”

I nodded, swallowing back the little lump of emotion in my throat.

“This is amazing!” Rose shouted, already sitting in the car behind the driver’s seat.

“Want to go for a ride?” he asked.

“Yes!”

I tensed.

“Relax, Pika,” he muttered against my temple. “We’ll only go as far back as they’ve reinforced. I won’t let anything happen to her or to you.”

My head nodded, but my brain was already down the mine. “How far have they reinforced?”

He heard the catch in my breath and squeezed my hand. “Not that far.”

“Okay.” I hadn’t been more than thirty feet inside the mine since the day I’d been way farther than that.

Cam helped me into the ore cart, which now had cushioned benches and seat belts, and I made sure Rose’s was buckled.

“Ta-da!” he said, flourishing a bright-yellow hard hat with Rose’s name in big, bold letters above the headlamp.

“That’s mine?” she squealed.

“It’s no unicorn shirt, but yeah, it’s yours.” He leaned over the division between cars and put it over her hat. “Can you get it buckled?”

“You bet!” She buckled as Cam handed me a bigger model that read pika.

“Your boyfriend is so awesome!” Rose shouted with her hands in the air.

My eyes popped wide. Oh God. Were we labeled? Was labeling even a thing anymore? Did he think he was my boyfriend?