Then she laughs.
“And for some reason, item number one on that list was become someone who likes nature, and I never got a whole lot further than that, but that was the idea. Anyway, I guess I’m different because I’m about to sleep on the dirt and I’m perfectly fine with it.”
“For the record, I liked you both ways,” I tell her. “I’d like you even if you never stepped foot in a forest.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” she teases. “Levi Loveless, I cannot imagine you tolerating someone who’s afraid of getting dirty.”
I just raise an eyebrow at her.
“You know what I mean,” she says.
“You do have that thing about snakes,” I point out.
“Levi,” she says, insistently. “They. Move. Wrong.”
I’m quiet for a long moment.
“Fine,” I admit. “They do move wrong. That’s how much I love you. I’ve somewhat reconsidered my opinion on a perfectly harmless critter.”
June just laughs.
“Victory!” she says and hits my steel mug with hers. “I know it’s like eight o’clock, but can we go to bed? I’m freezing.”
“I thought you were an outdoorswoman now.”
“Yeah, but I’m a cold outdoorswoman,” June says, and she stands, offers me her hand. “Come on.”
I take her hand and let her pull me off the ground, and then I grab her by the waist, pull her in.
“Better?” I ask as she snuggles in.
“Better,” she says. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” I say.We’re about to leave our campsite and go home the next morning when June turns, looks at the tree, and stops.
And stares. Eyes narrowed, chewing on one lip, the thinking face I’ve come to recognize.
“Tree thoughts?” I ask.
“Sort of,” she says, and then walks away from me, back toward the two-hundred-odd-year-old-tree that we saved. “Look. Is that anything?”
I follow in her footsteps, gaze up at where she’s pointing: a small, dark hole in the tree, maybe twelve feet up.
“It’s a hollow,” I say. “Is a hollow anything?”
“Probably not,” she says, still considering. “But the story does say that Phineas hid his treasure in the hollow of an oak tree, somewhere around here.”
“You think he got this far after leaving that saloon?” I ask, also gazing up at the tree.
I take a step closer, trying to see in, but it’s impossible from this angle.
“No,” June says. “I don’t think he made it much of anywhere before dying of exposure, and I definitely don’t think he left a cache of coins anywhere.”
I lower my gaze from the hollow in the tree to her.
“But despite all that, you want me to give you a boost?” I say.
“Please?” June says, grinning at me. “We’re here. There’s no reason not to look.”
“If it’s treasure, I want half,” I bargain.
“What? It’s not even your idea. Forty percent,” she says, laughing.
“You need me to get up there.”
“I didn’t know it was going to be a negotiation,” she says, narrowing her eyes in mock suspicion. “Fine. Forty-five percent, final offer.”
“You drive a hard bargain for your own boyfriend,” I tease, and she laughs.
“Take it or leave it, Loveless,” she says, walking to the tree. “Come on.”
“Fine,” I say, and follow her.
I crouch in front of the trunk and, very carefully, she climbs onto my shoulders.
“You okay?” she asks. “Tell me if I’m hurting you.”
“You’re fine,” I say. “Hold onto the tree.”
“Keep your back straight!” she says. “Lift with your legs.”
“Thank you,” I say, standing with perfect form, just as I was going to before she told me to. “Anything?”
“Crap,” she mutters. “Could you be maybe a foot taller?”
“I’m trying.”
She shifts her weight very, very slightly, and I hold onto her ankles.
“I could just reach in there—”
“Please don’t do that,” I tell the bark in front of my face.
“I don’t think there’s anything in there.”
“I’d prefer you not find out blindly.”
She sighs.
“Could be snakes,” I say, even though it’s extraordinarily unlikely to be snakes.
There’s a pause above my head.
“That was low,” she says.
“When something strange doesn’t bite your hand and your hand therefore doesn’t turn gangrenous and fall off during our hike back home, you can thank me,” I tell her.
“Oh!” she says, and then wobbles slightly. I hold onto her ankles tighter, then look up, just in time to see a quick, bright flash in the hollow, followed by a few more.
Then there’s a too-long silence.
“Do you need to get down?”
“There’s something in there,” she says.
“Something alive?”
She pauses again, and I look up to see June, gazing at her phone.
“I think it’s a box,” she says, finally, sounding confused. “Hold on.”
There’s more silence, more flashes. Then, after a few more minutes, she reaches in and pulls something out.
“Okay,” she says.
Getting her off my shoulders is harder than getting her up there was, but we manage it and then she’s standing in front of me, leaves and bark on the fleece she’s wearing.
There’s a box in her hand. It’s not big, slightly smaller than her hand, metal worked in some sort of curlicue design. Brass, maybe.