“It’s at Vogel State Park.” Which was located just under an hour away. “Pull up a map of that area and tell me if you think I’m right.”

“Will do. Hang on.”

He smiled at the muffled noises on the other end of the line. He liked being on the phone with her, even when they weren’t saying anything. In the same way, he liked being in a room with her at the Center. It didn’t matter if her attention rested on something else. Her nearness meant his breath could ease, his heartbeat could steady.

“You’re absolutely right,” she whispered. “It’s exactly like Dad’s drawing. You know . . .” Her words drifted to nothing.

“I know I’d like to be making out with you right now,” he said.

She laughed. “Then drive over.”

“I can’t.” Which actually meant, I won’t. He was way too into her. So much so it was dangerous, and he knew it. He was trying to protect himself from her, and he was also trying to protect her from him.

“I was going to say . . . you know, I’m pretty sure my dad and I visited this state park. Is it the one with a waterfall at one end of the lake?”

“I have no idea.”

“Let me check.” She made cute thoughtful sounds. Mmm. And oh. “This is the park with the waterfall. He took me there once during my college years. We stretched out on the beach for a whole afternoon, reading. Then we got back in the car and drove to a more remote section of the park. We hiked off-trail until we found a spot on the hillside where we could eat the dinner we’d packed and watch the sunset. The view was stunning.”

She paused. He didn’t speak because he didn’t want to interrupt her memories.

“We had a great conversation,” she continued. “It was one of those rare moments in time that was absolutely and completely perfect.”

“If you felt that way about it, your dad probably felt that way, too.”

“He probably did. Goodness. Recalling that day makes me miss him.”

“He loved you.”

“I loved him, too. And now I’m getting weepy. Here. I have a napkin to use on my eyes. I’m fine!” Her voice trembled a little. “Everything’s fine!”

“Do you think he buried the treasure at the location of your picnic? Then marked that place with the symbol on his map?”

“That would make sense.” He heard Finley take in a deep breath. “If we overlay the hand-drawn map on a digital map of the same scale, we should be able to drop a pin onto the digital map on the spot of the treasure symbol.”

“Yes.”

“Then we hike to the spot of the pin using GPS and simply . . . start digging?”