“What? Don’t think you can handle it?” he’d asked, and that was all it had taken for her to pluck her phone from his hand and begin walking north.
After circling around a block of four buildings for ten minutes, Sofia sank onto a bench and let out a huff. “They must have removed it,” she said, closing the app.
“Giving up so easily?” Isaiah asked, one arm resting against the building as he stood beside her, his biceps looking like those of a Greek god.
Sofia quickly averted her eyes. “It’s not giving up if it doesn’t exist. It’s just good sense.”
“Willing to make another bet on it?” Isaiah’s eyes crinkled at the corners, a mischievous smile on his lips.
Sofia sighed in exasperation. “There are no more karaoke nights scheduled in Emerald Hollow for a while, you know.”
“How about we lower the stakes? Winner gets to choose the movie we watch after we find all of these. I have no memories of any specific movie, but I have a feeling I don’t like rom-coms.”
Sofia jumped to her feet, thinking of the new, sappy romantic comedy she’d been wanting to see for months. Isaiah would hate it.Perfect.She stuck out her hand. “You’re on.”
They shook, and Isaiah held on a second too long, locking his eyes onto hers, that mischievous expression still there. Then he took the phone from her other hand and began to navigate.
He walked around for a minute then stopped in front of a lamppost. Sofia inched closer, wondering why he had paused. He reached for a combination lock on a small silver box attached to the post and opened it.
“No way!” she shouted, moving closer to look inside. The box was tiny, but a few trinkets were crammed inside. “I didn’t think they could just be attached to a pole like that.”
Isaiah grinned at her. “I saw a poster for a thriller when we walked by the movie theater,” he said as he relocked the box. “Hope you like jump scares.”
Chapter Forty-Three
SOFIA
Sofia sat on her couch late that evening, preparing a special jewelry line for the tulip festival. Her mind was on Isaiah as she feverishly beaded and assembled wires.
She hadn’t admitted it to him, but she’d had fun geocaching, a hobby she’d never thought she would enjoy. Then she had jumped, screamed, and covered her eyes in the movie more times than she cared to admit, but she’d liked the excuse to snuggle her face into Isaiah’s shoulder a few times and even grabbed his hand at one point.
Maybe scary movies aren’t so bad,she thought, though she’d turned on something decidedly not scary to wash away the thriller’s plot while she worked. Reality TV could drown out any lingering fictional fear.
She’d dropped him off at the Emerald House after he’d made sure she wasn’t too scared to drive home alone. She insisted she was fine, and they said good night. Sofia had tried to swallow her disappointment as she drove home that they didn’t currently have any plans to hang out again.
And whose fault is that?she thought with exasperation.Is it really worth it to fight the pull we seem to have toward eachother? What if Isaiah’s instincts are right, and he really doesn’t have a significant other out there somewhere?
Noah’s face flashed across her mind then, and she shuddered.No, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Sofia finished a pair of red tulip earrings and carefully packaged them for sale. Ash had been working at his usual rapid pace to spread word about the tulip festival and get things into place, and they were expecting a great turnout. Ever since Holly had worked her decorating magic at the fall festival and again at the Christmas Faire, people were clamoring for a chance to attend an Emerald Hollow event.
The Emerald House was already booked up for the event days, and online ticket sales gave them a rough head count. Still, they were going to allow same-day sales for a few dollars more, so they couldn’t be certain of the exact number to expect.
Sofia put aside the earrings and looked at the sketch of a belt buckle she’d been toying with. She’d never made a belt buckle before, and if she was going to add them to her line, she needed to do it right. She’d been doing research and had started creating one, but she’d ended up taking it apart in a fit of frustration. She flicked off the TV, allowing herself to be silent with her thoughts for once.
The belt buckle brought her mind right back to Isaiah. She wished she had a crystal ball and could see what would happen when they eventually figured out who he was. Another thought crept in then and filled her with icy sadness.What if we never figure it out?It had been nearly two months, and they hadn’t had any leads beyond Isaiah’s flashes of instinct.
Sofia’s ruminations were interrupted by the sound of a soft tinkling at her window. She pulled back the curtain and was shocked to see, under the illumination of her porch light, a pair of hummingbirds hovering around her birdfeeder. Brilliantflecks of green and blue feathers reflected the light, making them look magical against the night sky behind them.
She put a hand to her chest. Sofia had kept the feeder full since she’d moved in and installed it, but in all the years she’d had it hanging there, she’d never once attracted a hummingbird. Suddenly, there were two—and late at night, at the one time when the house was utterly quiet and she was still awake to hear them.What are the chances?
A shiver went up her arms, and she swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. The hummingbird was her mom’s favorite animal, and she’d always claimed that it symbolized love and luck.Seeing one is a sign to take a risk, because it means blessing will be on you.Her mom’s frequent phrase came to her, and for the first time since she had passed, not one buttwohummingbirds had found their way to her.
Sofia wiped her eyes and swallowed hard. Something shifted in her then, and she continued to watch the hummingbirds. If her mom were there, she would tell her to give love a chance and to not compare every man to Noah. The hummingbirds were the closest sign of her mom’s presence she had ever experienced since her passing. She couldn’t let her mom down, not when she had so clear of an opportunity to take her wisdom and do something with it.
The birds flitted around for a few more seconds then darted away into the darkness.
“Okay, Mom, have it your way,” she whispered and prayed that wouldn’t be the last time she would see those birds.
