Page 81 of The Treasure Hunt Hookup

“Exactly.” I swallow hard, surprised to feel tears stinging in the corner of my eyes.

“So I won’t do it.”

I pause, confused. “Do what?”

“The movie.” Reeve takes a step closer to me, giving a careless shrug. “If it’s going to hurt you, or risk this relationship, then I won’t do it. I’ll tell the movie studio that it’s not going to work out.”

“You don’t mean that …” I shake my head.

“Sure I do,” Reeve says it like it’s nothing. Like he’s not offering to give up an instant blockbuster, his chance at a future Oscar award. “I haven’t signed anything, it was one conversation, that’s all. I’ll just write something else.”

I don’t believe it. He would do that? I shake my head, reeling. “I can’t ask you to give up your career for me.”

“You’re not. It’s one project,” Reeve replies.

“One project that you love and are inspired by.”

Reeve pauses, and gives me a wry, charming grin. “If I say I love you, and I’m inspired by you, will you turn and run right back down this trail?”

My heart stops. I stare at him, frozen as my mind races and a million conflicted emotions do battle in my chest.

Oh God, he loves me.

It’s incredible and terrifying all at once, I don’t even know what to say. What if it’s too much, too fast, too going to break my heart all over again?

“Forget I said that,” Reeve says quickly, seeing my expression of blind panic. “It didn’t happen. Not one word. Now, about this treasure … this way, you said?”

I gulp for air, trying to remember how to breathe. “Uh huh,” I stammer. I can hear the roar of the falls up ahead, so I hoist my pack, and give a wobbly gesture. “That way.”

I take a couple of steps – and almost plummet into a ditch. Reeve catches me at the last second. “Whoa there,” he says, steadying me.

I clutch at him, feeling a rush of emotions – and a desire so sharp, it takes what’s left of my breath away.

I want him. I want himalways.

Reeve sets me back on my feet and steps away, respectful. “After you.”

I try to pull myself together.Focus. We’ve already come this far, and I have a terrible suspicion that if I open my mouth now, I’ll say something crazy like, "write what you want, take it all, just love me forever.”

Which would be a disaster on just about every level.

So, I keep my mouth clenched shut, and lead him up the last stretch of the trail, emerging from the trees by the base of the waterfall. “Milford Falls,” I announce, as the water crashes down onto the rocks below.

The falls are steep and dramatic, about forty-feet high, with a sheer drop to a deep pool. “Earl and Madeline used to sneak away here, and use it as a rendezvous,” I explain.

Reeve nods. “I saw it in their letters. But people will have searched the area, right?”

“All over,” I agree. “But what if the treasure isn’t hidden near the falls, butinsidethem?”

Reeve frowns, and then I see him put two and two together. “The curtain of the waterfall!” he exclaims, lighting up. “Look behind the curtain.”

“Exactly,” I smile back at him, getting excited all over again.

He looks up. “Can we even get there? Is it dangerous?”

I smirk, leading him to where the rocks begin. “Kids go jumping off it all the time.”

“Did you?”

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