Lighthouse Way (Huckleberry Bay 1)

“We can make that happen,” June confirms. “Come on, let’s go check it out from the inside again.”

“I definitely want another look at that baby,” Wolfe says with excitement.

The three of us circle back around to the front of the barn, and I grin when I see my brother and his best friend, Tanner, walking toward us.

Apollo’s gaze falls to my linked hand with Wolfe’s, and his eyes narrow.

“Well, look who it is,” June says with a sneer. “Apollo and Hermes.”

“Damn it, June, you know that’s not my name,” Tanner says and reaches out to playfully steal June’s hat, but she dodges out of his grasp.

“And yet, it just fits so well,” June replies and then turns her glare on my brother. “What are you doing here?”

“We came to check out the car,” Apollo says easily. My brother never shows any sign that June gets to him, but I know she does. She always has. He turns to Wolfe and holds his hand out in welcome. “Hey, man, I haven’t had a chance to say welcome home yet.”

“Thanks.” Wolfe grins and shakes hands with Apollo and then does the same with Tanner. “Not much has changed up here on the cliffs, even in a dozen years.”

“Not yet,” I remind everyone. “We’re working on it. Be careful in here; the floor has some rotten boards.”

I push open the sliding barn door, and we walk inside, spreading out so we don’t put too much weight on any one spot.

“The car’s back here,” Wolfe tells the other men, and they all set off in that direction in eager anticipation.

“Boys and cars,” June says as she rolls her eyes.

“I seem to remember a woman I know asking Wolfe about his fast cars,” I say and glance her way. “You wouldn’t happen to know who that was, do you?”

June just wrinkles her nose at me as we follow the three men to the far corner of the barn.

“How is it possible that this was out here all these years, and we had no idea?” Tanner asks Apollo.

“No one ever came out here,” Apollo replies with a shrug and then turns to me. “Were you able to reach Dad and ask him about this?”

“Yeah, I spoke with him this morning.” I shake my head. “He didn’t know it was here either, which I find really weird. I’m about to start looking through the filing cabinet in the office to see if there’s any paperwork on it. All the lighthouse documents are in there, so I hope I get lucky.”

“Did anyone ever think to try looking in the car?” Apollo asks as he opens the passenger side door and leans inside.

“Be careful on those seats,” Wolfe warns. “I don’t want anything to crumble.”

June and I exchange a look as the guys carefully rummage around in the car. Apollo eventually comes up with an old, faded envelope.

“Jackpot.”

“It could just be seventy-five-year-old junk mail,” June points out, and without looking her way, Apollo reaches over and tugs her hat farther down her forehead. “Hey!”

“Why do you always have to be so pessimistic?” my brother asks her.

“Okay, kids, no need to argue—like you always do.” I hold out my hand, and when Apollo passes over the envelope, I frown. “It doesn’t feel like anything’s in here.”

“Well, open it,” Tanner says. “Put us all out of our misery.”

“There’s no mold in here,” Wolfe mutters as he continues looking around inside of the car. “Incredible.”

I open the unsealed flap and pull out a single piece of paper.

“What does it say?” June asks.

“You guys.” I scan the document and then look up, directly into June’s eyes. “This was Rose’s car.”

“Rose who?” Tanner and Wolfe ask at the same time.

“Rose?” June echoes, her green eyes widening in surprise. “But she would have been, like…in her seventies when this car was built.”

“It’s hers,” I repeat and show June the paper. “This is an old registration. It was registered to Rose Winchester in 1927.”

I look up at Apollo, whose eyes have narrowed.

“I think it’s time to start doing some family tree research,” I tell him.

“Why didn’t we do it before?” June asks. “We’ve had her diary since we were, what, like twelve?”

“You have her diary?” Wolfe asks and pokes his head up from the back seat.

“Yeah.” I grin at June. “That’s right. I don’t know, time passed, and I forgot.”

A door slams upstairs, making us all jump.

“I’m sorry!” I toss up to the loft.

“Uh, what was that?” Tanner asks Apollo.

“Ghost,” my brother replies.

“So, the car belonged to Rose,” I continue and pace away from the group. “But she would have been elderly by then. And from everything I know, which isn’t much, she wasn’t wealthy. How would she have afforded this car?”

“Maybe it was a gift,” Tanner suggests.

“Maybe,” I reply and then shrug. “Well, one more thing to look around for, I guess. In the meantime, you have my go-ahead to knock out that back wall and get the car out of here.”