“Okay, so get this. I own the land.”
Rip paused expectantly and it took me a second to pull my brain back into the matter at hand. I swallowed quickly and wished I had some water.
“What? I thought you said it was your dad’s?” I could feel my heartbeat kicking up at this new information. Rip’s excitement proved contagious.
“I know. I did too. But I went through his files and found the deed making it mine.” Rip sat back in the chair and then leaned forward again.
“Wow. I guess that means you’re rich. Or richer.”
He gave me a curious look. “I’ve never been rich. My parents might be, but the only thing I own is this rust bucket.”
Coming from a girl who didn’t even own a rust bucket, that seemed rich to me. Damn, I really needed some moisture in my mouth. One bite of the cookie and I was dehydrated.
“Do you have any water? Also, how come you didn’t know you owned the land? Wouldn’t that be something your dad would tell you?”
Rip’s gaze dropped to the rest of the cookie in my hand and then he hopped up to dig through a small ice chest I hadn’t seen earlier. “Most normal fathers would have told their son about it, but I guess my dad didn’t want me to know. Which makes me wonder if he knows about the gold already.” He sat back down and handed me a cold water bottle.
I gasped. “No way!” Then I guzzled half the bottle before I could continue. “If he knew about the gold, he would have already mined it. I think he just wanted the land so he could open up another business. There’s been so many new businesses in the last five years, we might not be a small town for long. Granny’s all up in arms about it.”
Rip’s lips wobbled. “I’d pay money to see Yedda in a snit.”
I smiled, despite the awful burp making its way up my esophagus and making my eyes water. “Yeah, she and her lady friends are a hoot.”
Granny lived next door to Poppy. Who lived next to Polly. Who lived next door to Penelope, who wasn’t elderly like the rest of them, but sure acted like it. When those ladies got together on their Tuesday night poker games, I made sure to vacate the premises to keep my ears from burning.
“You, uh, have something on your teeth.” Rip gestured to his mouth.
My hand flew up to cover my mouth. “What is it?” I asked in alarm, running my tongue over my front teeth. Granny didn’t have the money to put me in braces, which meant my teeth weren’t exactly straight. Food was constantly getting between my teeth. I lived in constant fear of a spinach incident making me the laughing stock of the whole town. Some people feared spiders. I feared leafy greens.
Rip grinned full out, the sight making me freeze. “Your teeth are neon yellow.”
That was weird. And then it hit me. “Ah, man! I knew turmeric in the cookies was a bad idea!” I threw the rest of the offending cookie into the ocean where the fish could partake of its inflammation-lowering properties. “Wait, aren’t fish pretty low inflammatory naturally? I mean, that’s where fish oil comes from and people take that to lower inflammation, right?”
The smile fizzled, replaced by a puzzled frown. “What does fish oil have to do with your yellow teeth?”
I took another big swig of water, swishing it around in my mouth before swallowing. “I added turmeric to the cookies, as a huge health benefit for lowering inflammation, but it does tend to stain things yellow. I guess I put too much of it in the dough.”
Rip made a noise and I glanced at him. His fist jammed against his mouth, and based on the shaking of his shoulders, he was smothering back a laugh. At my expense. Just like old times. Anger crackled in my veins, and I suddenly didn’t care about my teeth anymore.
“You little shit bird.”
I grabbed another cookie off the plate and jammed it on his cheek, making him yelp and lurch back in surprise. The stupid thing broke in two with a mighty crack and crumbled to his lap, leaving my hand with a faint tint of yellow. I looked back up to see his mouth hanging open. He had a perfect ring of yellow on his cheek like clown painting gone wrong.
A giggle bubbled up my chest and I wasn’t quick enough to gulp it back down. Rip’s eyes widened and then his hand came up to his cheek, rubbing forcefully.
“It’s yellow, isn’t it?” he grumbled.
By then I was cracking up, doubling over and having a much better time with Rip than I ever could have anticipated. His deep laugh joined in, the two of us enjoying a moment of laughter like we hadn’t in years. I’d almost forgotten what his laugh sounded like, which was a shame considering it did downright dangerous things to my girlie parts.
“So the land is yours. The gold is yours. What are you going to do with it?” I asked once both of us had collected ourselves. I darted a look at him, not trusting myself to look him square in the eyes.
Rip leaned his elbows on his knees, clasped his hands together, and went back to his classic thinker’s pose. Damn, even his forearms were dangerously good looking. “I’m going to send that nugget off to be tested. If it comes back real gold, I plan to hire someone to mine the cave safely and split the proceeds with the town. Not sure how much or how to go about doing it fairly, but I feel strongly about sharing it.”
Well, shit. There went the pitter-patter of my marshmallow heart. A guy who wanted to share instead of hoarding all the wealth he stumbled onto? The universe was tempting me to forget the humiliation I’d felt because of what Rip did all those years ago. A person could change, I supposed. But I’d have to see it to believe it. No way was I signing up to get fooled twice.
“Well, I think that’s amazing of you to share.” I laid my hand on his shoulder as a way to bridge the gap. We’d been walking on eggshells around each other for so many years I wasn’t quite sure how to act normally.
He froze, and I could have sworn his non-yellow cheek started to turn pink. He stood quickly, my hand sliding off his shoulder. He paced down the aisle of the boat and back, rubbing his hands together to spark an idea to life.
And suddenly it hit me. The perfect plan. “I know! Why don’t you reveal the gold in a big, public way so your father won’t be able to do anything about it?” I jumped up, the idea of putting Mayor Bennett in his place giving me so much energy I couldn’t contain myself.
Rip stared at me for a beat and then he broke into a broad grin. “You know, I think that’s perfect.”
My chest glowed warmly, knowing I’d come up with a plan he approved of. Normally my ideas were tossed aside by my friends and coworkers as craziness. And to be honest, most of my ideas were over-the-top crazy. But hey, life was short and why not get a little wild, right? If I was leaving this planet eventually, I wanted to leave while rocking out at the very best party of my life.
Rip approached me, his arms lifting. My gaze darted from his left arm to his right and then flew to his face in a panic. He placed his hands on my shoulders and I nearly melted on the spot.
“Wanna know something crazy?” he asked, his voice dropping to a low growl that gave me the shivers in all the right places.
“Yes, I most certainly do,” I whispered back, eyes wide.
The wind danced that lock of hair around his forehead. “I want more than the gold. I want to take down my father and expose him for the asshole husband, father, and mayor that he is. I’ll share that gold, but I’m also gonna share all his dirty secrets.”