Treasure in the Sand

by Jill Monroe

  “I’m solving this.”

  But an hour and a half later, Molly wasn’t any closer to spotting a pattern or identifying the markings. Her back ached and the muscles in her neck throbbed from the awkward angles she used to study the map. She was thirteen all over again and unable to solve the latest picture puzzle her grandpa had given her. What was Gram always suggesting? Change of scenery and change your perspective. And the scenery of Casa Blanca was amazing.

  Grabbing the keycard Cooper left for her on the dining room table, she shoved her sunglasses in place and tore out the door. Gram would love the beautiful grounds here—to see it teeming with new plants and trees and wildlife and smiling people. As soon as she was strong enough, Molly would bring Gram here to walk along the winding paths and smell the flowers and plan how they’d replant the grove. Just complete the simple task of finding Le Cœur Surveillé, the puzzle that had stumped generations. Easy breezy.

  The sun warmed Molly’s skin and the clean air refreshed her spirits. She spotted a large flat stone poking through the vines of a flowerbed. She crouched and rubbed the dirt off the smooth granite delighted to find writings etched onto its surface.

  “I see you’ve spotted the dedication stone.”

  Molly looked up to see Tessa Galloway Browning approaching her. Mud smeared her smooth cheek, but her brown eyes shown with pride. “The grounds here are so lovely, Tessa. I think Gram would love what you guys have done with Casa Blanca.”

  “How’s she doing?”

  “It’s been a long recovery, but we’re both seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I’d love to bring her here.”

  “Get a cutting, take her some flowers.”

  “Thanks, I will.” She glanced down at the stone. “What is this?” Molly loved history and learning about new things, and Tessa had peaked her curiosity.

  The other woman’s expression grew eager at realizing she’d found an equally interested listener in Molly. “It’s the dedication stone from the first wooden causeway. If you look, you’ll see the names of many of Mimosa Key’s founders etched there.” She pointed at one. “I believe that’s your grandpa.”

  Molly squinted and then smiled. “Yeah, it is.”

  “No one knew what to do with this when they tore the old causeway down and built the new one, so I took it.”

  Molly rubbed her fingertips along the carving. “I’m so glad you did. Hey, would you guys be okay if I brought some of the kids I teach over to look around? It might be fun for them to make crayon rubbings. I think kids learn better outside the classroom sometimes. Nature takes them off their guard. The wind and the sand and the palm trees don’t care if they have trouble finding their words.”

  “I think that’s a great idea,” Tessa said. Then she ran her finger around the perimeter of the dedication stone. “Make sure you point out this, it’s the outline of Mimosa Key.”

  With a wave to Tessa, Molly followed the sound of the waves to the Casa Blanca’s private beach. Families and couples walked in the sand or snoozed under the yellow umbrellas. Her kiddoes would love these amazing grounds, and how cool was the outline of the island on the stone? She could make it a game for the kids to figure out what it was. The way her grandpa did for her when she was little. They could trace the outline with their fingers and—

  Molly almost stumbled. The ocean breeze cooled her skin and she ran her palms up and down her arms. Had she just figured out the link between her stone and Coop’s map?

  With a squeal, she tugged her phone out of her back pocket and texted Adventure Man: Buy crayons.

  The click of the keycard finally concluded an endless hour of restless pacing. Molly launched herself in Coop’s waiting arms. She kissed his check as she wrapped her arms and legs around his body.

  “That’s the way to be greeted. I don’t know what kind of kink you’re into with this crayon thing, but I bought the five hundred pack just in case.” Then his mouth was on hers. She breathed in his sunshiny scent as his tongue tangled with hers.

  She almost locked her ankles behind his back and challenged him to carry her up the stairs. Almost. Instead she dropped to her feet and grabbed his hand. “C’mon. We don’t have much daylight left.”

  Hand in hand they bolted to the dedication stone. He crouched down beside it and watched as she traced her finger along the carvings that lined the perimeter. “See this? It’s an outline of the island.”

  Coop tapped the etching. “That looks like the marking on your stone.”

  “That’s what I think, too. After the map was torn in two, Grandpa must have carved his stone so Le Cœur Surveillé had a chance of being found. I think he wanted something more solid than just paper. We’re not supposed to reproduce the map, but maybe he thought etching it was a workaround. Now back to the villa to work with the crayons.”

  Cooper waggled his eyebrows. “Work with?”

  His tone was pure suggestion and released about a million naughty thoughts in her mind. Molly laughed, feeling carefree for the first time in two years. Like she was on the verge of something amazing. With Cooper. She lifted on her tiptoes and licked the seam between his lips. Before he could grip her shoulders and haul her against his chest she skipped out of his reach. “Race you to the villa.”

  Once back in the study, Molly broke open the seal of the box of crayons and handed him two. “Rip off the paper,” she instructed.

  “Orders and crayons. This just gets more intriguing.”

  She giggled as she swiped a few pieces of paper from the printer tray. “Tessa gave me the idea. She suggested the kids could get rubbings off the dedication stone. Or maybe I did. I don’t know. The important thing is the idea.” Babbling again. Molly flattened the copy paper against her grandpa’s stone and began rubbing the length of the crayon on the surface. Cooper snapped a few pictures with his phone. Soon, in bright aquamarine, the reliefs and makings of the stone appeared. Then she lined her paper with the edge of Coop’s map.

  “They don’t quite line up.”

  “Aged documents can do weird things. Shrink or crumple.” Cooper grabbed the crayon colored paper and took it to the printer. “Let me see what I can do.” After the scanned image appeared on the screen, Coop manipulated the size on the computer and then hit print.

  Molly shifted her weight from first her right leg and then to her left. “Ugh. Print faster,” she called.

  “I think it’s nearly… Yes, it’s done. Coop snagged the newly printed page from the tray and lined it up with his copy of the map.”

  The two halves met in the middle, but a gap remained at the top and bottom of the map. Her shoulders slumped. “How can they still not line up? I was sure this was the solution.”

  Coop pounded the table. “This means there’s still two small pieces missing.”

  Molly sank into one of the conference chair. “This is just what Gram warned about. The agony and frustration. And I’ve only had a few days of it. My parents had years. Other Waiters wasted a lifetime. Why did I think I’d be any different?”

  He gripped the back of her chair and spun it until she faced him. “Is there anything you may have left out? Some small family tidbit you’re holding back?”

  She shook her head. “All I know is my grandfather had a brother. They were only eighteen months apart, so they grew up really close. They’d pretend to be pirates, exploring all over this island. But something happened when they got older.”

  “I think it was your Gram that happened.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Oh? What? How would you even know that?”

  “The man who sold it to me. He told me a story of lost love and obsession. How he’d fallen in love with a woman, but wasted his time chasing after a treasure. The woman he loved broke it off, and finally turned to a man, who’d put her and their future together first.”

  Her fingers fluttered to her mouth in shock. “Gram was first in love with grandpa’s brother.”

  “The man who sold this half to me was so furious he stole the
map. But your grandpa caught him. He didn’t get angry he just…”

  “Grandpa ripped the map in half. Each keeping one portion.” Her hands twisted in front of her. “That sounds just like him. Grandpa always planned to find Le Cœur Surveillé, but never without his brother. How sad that my grandpa died before they reconciled. It was my great-uncle who sold it to you? I’d like to meet him. Some day.”

  “I signed that nondisclosure agreement,” he reminded her.

  “But it was with grandpa’s brother, right?”

  His shrug was her answer. “The money I offered sealed the deal. But he meant to have the jewel found, and he figured I’d get it done.”

  Molly studied Coop’s face. “So then he believed he had the only other piece.”

  He nodded.

  She spun the chair back to study the two maps. “What are we missing?”

  In a frustrated move, Cooper grabbed the magnifying glass and began to study the map. Again. For about the twelfth time. He circled around the table in an attempt to find new angles. Molly could only watch. What did she have to add? She’d done the same thing herself.

  He hunched over to get a closer examination to where the map had been torn in two. “Molly, look at this. The rip between the two halves has some wear and tear, but compare that to the cutouts on the pieces we’re missing.”

  He handed her the magnifying glass and she searched where Cooper indicated. “The wear line is even more deteriorated. These cuts were made much sooner in the life of the map. Maybe almost right from the beginning.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking. Grab some tape, will you? There’s some in that top drawer.”

  Molly tore off two long strips and Coop taped the two pieces of the map together, but left the area of the cuts unbound. Then he drew the open flaps together making something that looked like a reverse fold and taped that as well. A small rise lifted in the map, giving it a 3-D vibe. “Does that look like anything to you?”

  Her heart pounded. Blood rushed in her ears and a smile crossed her face. “It sure does. Barefoot Mountain. I mean, it’s not actually a mountain; the locals just call it that. The thing is more like a rise and, I’m babbling right now.” She spun toward Cooper. “I think we just found Le Cœur Surveillé.”

  “Is Barefoot Mountain part of your land?”

  She shook her head. “No. But there’s kind of a longstanding agreement amongst all the original pioneers of this island. It will be okay if we go there tomorrow.”

  “I have shovels and a metal detector in the car. That should be enough.”

  Molly squeezed her eyes tight, but she couldn’t stop the tears of relief and gratitude and overwhelming joy from sliding down her cheeks.

  So many years…a family divided, betrayals, the agony of losing a child in search of the treasure. The weight of so much Waiter history lifted and faded away until Molly could only picture her grandmother. She could ease each beloved line on Gram’s face; the most recent carved by first a hurricane and then by a stroke.

  Molly wanted to hurl herself into Coop’s arms. She touched his cheek, smooth and warm. “Thank you, Cooper. I know we haven’t found the treasure yet, but everything inside me tells me this is it. I never would have been able to find anything if it weren’t for you. I’ll be able to restore the cottage. Gran will be able to replant the grove and walk along the rows of her orange trees again.”

  He wiped away the last of her tears with the rough pad of his thumb, his dark eyes searching. “Even now your first thought is for someone else. How would that feel?”

  “How would what feel?” she asked, breathless and yet her heart pounded.

  “How would it feel to be the one you think of?”

  Sadness tinged his voice and lurked in the gaze he’d locked with hers.

  Molly reached for his hands and covered them with hers. “Right now my thoughts are filled with you.”

  His bottom lip curved. Coop was about to flash her his Overton over-the-top, panty-vanquishing smile and she’d be gone gone gone. Again.

  Only Coop twined his fingers with hers and tugged on her hands to draw her closer. He grinned then, not his camera smile, but like a guy who’d just been drafted into the NFL, NBA and MLB all at the same time. Like he’d been given the only thing he ever really desired.

  “I love you,” she blurted.

  Where the hell had that come from? But then on a rush, she realized it was true. Somewhere along the way of this adventure together, her tiny TV crush had transformed into the real thing.

  Her muscles tensed and Molly wished with every mortified cell in her body she could grab those three words out of the air and clutch them to her chest and protect herself from the hurt that was sure to follow, as predictable as the tide.

  But like the weight that had lifted at realizing they knew the location of the treasure, the heaviness of her words lightened also. She loved this strong, brilliant funny man in front of her. If the hurricane and Gram’s illness gave her any kind of life lesson—it was life was too short to spend it sidelined and living along the edges. Fall in love? Might as well fall in love big. Get her butt kicked by unrequited love, might as well make that big, too. Call it out! And—

  Coop hadn’t said a thing. She’d been so involved by her own distracted thoughts. Her chest tightened. Was this all one sided? “I know this is crazy, and people don’t fall in love in a week,” she said, offering him a way out.

  His dark eyes softened. “My dad said he fell in love with my mom in two days.”

  “But then they were hippies,” she teased, unable to not make his joke.

  His laugh made her stomach leapfrog. “Molly. I know fake. I’m surrounded by fake almost every day in my career. This is real.” Coop dropped her hands and gently gripped her shoulders, pulling her hard against his chest.

  She lifted her head to gaze up at him. His dark brown eyes met hers. He stared back at her with desire and need and want. “I think we’re going to break that curse,” he said against her lips.

  This kiss was unlike any they’d ever shared. Hot and passionate, yet tender. The beginning of something powerful. They walked hand in hand to the arched doorway that led to the master bedroom, their progress hampered by the overwhelming urge to share one more kiss. Or caress. Or heated glance.

  From the stenciled and painted ceiling to the fretwork panels of the canopy bed, the Moroccan theme inside the bedroom enveloped them like a dream. Cooper eased her onto the spread, accented with shades of gold and the color of morning glories. He led her along his body, pulling her on top of him until she straddled his hips. His erection surged between her thighs, and she circled her hips against him. Cooper groaned, the sexiest sound she’d ever heard, so she ground against him one more time.

  He cupped her breasts through her t-shirt. “Too many clothes,” he mumbled.

  “I can take care of that.” In a flash her top and bra were off, one landing on the TV in the corner. “But now you have on too many clothes.” He’d tossed aside his tie and suit jacket as they fiddled with the map, but that button-down shirt he wore had to go. She reached for the first button and licked the skin she exposed.

  “You gonna do that all the way down?” he asked, his voice thick.

  “And more,” she promised.

  His hard-on raged by the time she reached his belt, and the length of him sprang free as she released the zipper and shoved aside the cotton of his boxer briefs. She gripped his erection, caressing the crown with her thumb. Molly lowered her head and kissed the tip, then drew him gently into her mouth.

  His fingers sunk into her hair. “Molly…. Ahhhh Molly. You… Keep…”

  She thrilled at his nonsensical words. He’d blown her away in the pool, now it was his turn. She licked and stroked and sucked until his breaths came in struggled pants.

  Cooper propped himself on his elbows and reached for her. “I want you so bad.”

  “I want you, too”

  “I need to be inside you.”


  She began to shiver as the force and weight of his desire slammed into her. Molly needed him. Ached for him. She slid off her shorts as he shucked his pants. He reached for the tiny lacy stretch of silk. “I’ve dreamed of ripping your panties from your body so many times. Let me now.”

  She nodded, and the silk tore with one quick snap. Coop’s fingers ran over her hips and across her stomach. “You’re so soft. So hot.”

  He rolled her onto her back then leaned over to kiss her breasts. “When I close my eyes at night, I think about your nipples until I fall asleep. I wake up hard as a rock, but it’s worth it. Your nipples are perfect and the way they respond to my touch,” he tweaked her left breast and she tightened. “Gorgeous. And the way you taste.” He drew the tip of her right breast into his mouth. “Heaven.”

  Cooper stroked her skin as he spoke, the allure of his words pulling her into a sensual fog. Then his fingers grazed her clit and her hips bucked. She dug her heels into the mattress and moaned. “Molly, I can wait if you’re not ready for me, but I can’t promise it will be as good. You have me on fire.”

  She shifted her legs, inviting him to fit himself between her thighs. “I’m ready. So ready.”

  His finger dipped and slid easily inside. “Feeling how much you want me…it wrecks me.” Coop kissed her then, hard and hungry. He dove for the drawer on the bedside table, pulled out a condom packet and ripped off the top.

  “Here. Let me.” She took the latex from the package and slid the condom down the long, hard length of him.

  “Damn that’s hot,” he said, licking his lips

  He lifted her leg and hooked it around his back. Molly felt him pulsing between her thighs. “Hurry, Coop. I can’t wait any longer.”

  Then he pushed inside her with a groan. She watched his face, eyes squeezed closed and full of agonized pleasure. Then he thrust, hitting her clit at just the right angle and she couldn’t keep watching. Only feeling.

  Pleasure and pressure built inside her. Molly gripped his shoulders and locked her feet behind his back. Every stroke, every thrust drove her higher and higher. Then she was lost in nothing but sensation.