He stares back, like he can see right through me. “I’ve known you my whole life, Lee. Still took me awhile to figure it out. But when you found that locket in the dirt, I got the most fanciful notion that you could sniff out gold the way Nugget sniffs out squirrels.”

“I . . . see.”

“Then I thought back to Dahlonega, how the Westfall homestead grew so fast, all those rumors about Lucky’s stash. My mother’s folk had dowsers, people who could find water or lost things. My da never believed my mama’s stories, but I did. I figured that’s how it was with you and gold.”

He doesn’t have to look so smug.

“You’re not mad?”

Jefferson considers. “Well, now that you’ve told me, I’ll get not-mad. Eventually.” He reaches up to brush some of my lengthening hair from my eyes. “It’s the strangest thing. People lie all the time, and it’s nothing. But one little lie from you makes me feel so small.”

“I . . . I’m sorry, Jeff.”

“Thank you for telling me, finally.”

I nod, swallowing hard.

His eyes narrow. “Your uncle knows, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Well, California is a big place.” He sounds as unconvinced as I am.

“So I keep telling myself.”

“We’ll deal with Hiram Westfall when we have to,” Jefferson says.

A smile slips onto my face. He said “we.”

Less than a stone’s throw away, a striped tawny squirrel skitters through the blanket of crunchy oak leaves, his cheeks puffed out with acorns, and I marvel at how golden everything is in this country—the squirrels, the fat marmots who spied on us as we crossed the Sierra Nevada, the wind-rippled velvet of these grassy hills.

Softly, Jefferson says, “You have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”

My heart stampedes in my chest.

“Did you know that sometimes they turn dark gold? Like the last edge of a sunset. I think it happens when you’re sensing something.”

“I . . . No, I didn’t know that.”

His eyes are so close, and the world disappears. There’s just Jefferson and his familiar, perfect face and his knowing gaze and the way he’s leaning forward as if to kiss me. My whole body thrums, as though I’m in a wash of glittering gold.

After a hesitation as quick as a blink, he brushes his lips across my cheek. It’s brilliant and breathtaking and not nearly enough.

He steps back quickly. “Um, well, I guess you have to decide if you want to tell anyone else your secret. But we have some good people with us, and I think you might be surprised.”

“Maybe so.”

“And Lee?” His eyes dance. “You are going to be so rich.”