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?
“Well, it comes with the territory when you have an awesome girlfriend,” Cam confirmed. “Buckle up, Miss Bradley,” he ordered as he put his own hard hat on.
Dazed, I snapped the helmet in place, then switched on my headlamp and did the same for Rose as Cam started the engine.
Rose’s gaze swung back and forth as Cam drove us into the mine, the tunnel beginning a good twenty feet above our heads before sloping down to only five feet or so. The air was musty, thick with moisture and the tang of metal.
It tasted like blood and fear on my tongue, but I watched how excited Rose was, and the panic eased.
We traveled more than a hundred yards before the first antechamber opened up and a wooden platform appeared. Cam put the train into park and killed the engine, leaving the lights on.
“This is as far as the train goes for now,” he told Rose. “Do you want to explore a little with me?”
She nodded, then swung her backpack over her shoulders and climbed onto the platform.
“Remember it?” Cam asked me quietly.
I nodded. “How is it that every happy memory I have of playing down here was eclipsed by that one crappy one?”
He traced the bump on my nose with his finger. “We can come back and make an even better memory,” he whispered.
“You say no to hot springs, but a dark and creepy mine is on the table?” I teased.
“Eventually everywhere is on the table.” His eyes heated.
I did my best to remember that my niece was ten feet away, when all I really wanted was a table. Any table.
“Rocks,” I reminded him.
“Right. Okay, Rose, what do you know about the mine?” He turned to where she had leaned close to the chiseled stone wall, examining the rock.
“I know I’m named after it. Well, not it but the lady it was named after. Mom thought it was a pretty name.”
“It is a pretty name,” he agreed, helping me onto the newly built platform.
It was a good ten feet wide, built according to the specifications I’d given him when we’d discussed this part of the mine.
“They mined mostly gold and silver,” Rose told Cam. “The first rush came in the 1880s, but by the Great Depression, they only had a small section of silver, and they stopped mining in the fifties.”
“You know that? At nine?” he questioned.
“Every kid born in Alba knows that by the time they’re seven.” She looked up at him from under her hard hat with an expression that said she wasn’t impressed.
“Okay, smarty-pants, do you know where the three tunnels lead?”
She glanced among the three offshoots of the antechamber and shook her head.
“That’s the newest tunnel.” Cam pointed to the right. “It was constructed in the thirties. Great Depression, just like you said. The one to the left was a 1910 silver find. The one straight ahead is the oldest vein.”
“Can we go back there?”
Fearless, that one.
“Not today,” he told her. “We haven’t cleared all the tunnels yet. There are places the tunnels have caved into the ones under them. Places the air shafts collapsed, so the ventilation isn’t good enough for your little lungs. and the sides haven’t been reinforced yet like they are here.”
“Can I look around here, though?” she pushed.
“If you stay in this chamber and your aunt Willow says it’s okay.”
Two sets of pleading eyes met mine.
“Promise to stay right here,” I ordered, hoping she heard the urgency in my voice.
“I will,” she vowed, then scrambled down the stairs and across the tracks to where the space widened a good thirty feet.
“Ready for my surprise?” Cam asked.
“Definitely.”
“I think I can have at least one tunnel open for tours by the Fourth of July.” His eyes danced.
“Really? That would be amazing! Have you told anyone?” The town was going to flip. As much as they despised Cam, they loved money.
“I wanted to tell you first.” His smile blew me away. He was…happy, as much as I hesitated to even think it, and it looked wonderful on him.
“I love you,” I whispered.
He kissed me in response, then pulled back with a grin. “Hey, Rose, if you come hang with your aunt Willow, I’ll find you something sparkly.”
“Deal!” she agreed, already heading back to me, and Cam disappeared off the other end of the platform, his light bobbing down the oldest portion of the tunnel.
“This place is amazing. Pretty sure there’s still gold here somewhere.”
“Maybe,” I muttered, my eyes trained on that light as it got smaller. A few minutes later, it grew larger until Cam came into view.
I let loose a huge sigh of relief.
“You don’t like it down here, do you, Aunt Willow?” Rose asked, taking my hand.
“What? No, it’s fine. I’m fine,” I lied.
“Here you go,” Cam said as he handed two sparkling pieces of ore to Rose.
“Is it gold?” she squeaked.
“No. It’s pyrite. Fool’s gold,” he replied.
“Well, it’s still pretty.” She looked up at him. “You could have pretended it was gold.”
“You can pretend it’s gold now that you know it’s not.” He tapped her helmet. “I’m not in the habit of lying to girls.”