Sofia turned toward him, surprised.Does he have a crush on Holly?But the more she thought about it, she realized she knew what he meant. Holly had brought something unique to the town that she couldn’t explain. Maybe she and Ash weren’t the only ones who had benefitted from her presence.
She eased the car down a dirt road and parked at the end of it. At the edge of the trees was a tiny wooden sign battered with age, which read Jewel’s Meadow.
Sofia retrieved the treasure box from the trunk and followed Tyler through the thin woods. As they emerged into the clearing, the early-morning sun sent streaks down to the ground, casting an enchanting look over the blades of grass andvibrant flowers that encompassed the field. The tulips were still blooming around town, but in the clearing, there was a stunning assortment of wildflowers in all colors. Butterflies flitted from bloom to bloom as if they’d found the perfect sanctuary in the meadow. Sofia’s breath caught as she looked around. For a moment, she wondered if she’d ever seen anything more beautiful.
“Right in the middle?” Tyler called, snapping her out of her moment of wonder.
“Sure,” she said, helping him carry the treasure box to the center of the meadow.
They nestled it into the ground, and Tyler sprinkled some gold tinsel from the bag he’d been carrying across the grass and wildflowers around it.
Just as they prepared to leave, the sun disappeared, and a dark cloud rolled overhead.Great. It’s going to storm today,she thought glumly, the magic of the dawn in the meadow fully dissolved.
“May the best leprechaun win,” Tyler said, seemingly unaffected by the change in the air.
Sofia cast one last glance at the ominous sky as they turned their backs to the treasure box and left Jewel’s Meadow.
Chapter Seventy-One
SOFIA
After returning to the Emerald House for a quick breakfast, Sofia headed back to the meadow. She’d volunteered to man the final destination, the treasure box, during the hunt. Tyler, whom she was realizing more and more was an extremely capable young man, had volunteered to kick off the event.
Sometime within the last hour, he’d passed out the maps they’d created to the leprechaun groups, as they’d decided to call them during their feverish planning. The treasure hunt was well underway. Other volunteers from their treasure team were posted at the other stops with water, snacks, and the special coins that needed to be collected before they reached the final stop.
Sofia sat in a camp chair at the edge of the meadow, hidden by the trees. She pulled out her laptop to edit some of her product photos while she waited for the winners to arrive.
It wasn’t lost on her that her feverish planning of the treasure hunt might have been subconsciously inspired by Isaiah and the geocaching they’d done together. She just hoped she could get through the day without constantly thinking about him.
Sofia had been working for half an hour when the dark clouds finally let loose. But instead of a heavy downpour, it was a soft sprinkle, as if the clouds were holding something back. Sofia adjusted her camp chair so that she was fully protected under the dense branches of the pine trees and continued to work, emptying her mind of anything else.
The time passed quicklyas Sofia waited for a leprechaun team to come claim the final prize, the soft mist falling around her as she worked. Eventually, a slice of sunlight streaked across her computer screen, and Sofia looked up as the sky brightened, and she smiled in surprise. The clouds were moving away, the mist dissolving, and to her delight, a massive rainbow formed in front of her.
She stood, barely able to believe her eyes. She’d seen rainbows many times throughout her life, but she’d never seen the end of one. But on St. Patrick’s Day, during the middle of a treasure hunt, a rainbow had landed in Jewel’s Meadow, right over the treasure box.
Sofia set down her laptop and began to walk toward the rainbow, feeling as if she were in another world, in complete awe of the sight before her. It was as if the light were dancing around her from every direction. She experienced a sense of surrealness similar to when the two hummingbirds had appeared on her porch late at night. Time seemed to slow down as she marveled at the natural world, and she wanted to stand in the exact spot where she thought the rainbow met the ground.
Halfway to the treasure box, she noticed she wasn’t alone. Two figures emerged from the trees on the other side of themeadow. Sofia realized that one of the leprechaun teams had finally deciphered the map and found the treasure box.
As they moved closer, Sofia tried to make out who it was. Along with a man was a boy who, based on height, was probably elementary school aged. With a sharp intake of breath, she recognized them. The boy was Henry, son of Matilda and Ben, who ran the museum.
But the man wasn’t Henry’s dad. The tall, devastatingly handsome man striding toward her through a real-life rainbow was Isaiah.
Chapter Seventy-Two
SOFIA
“Did I really just find you at the end of a rainbow?” Isaiah asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes, as Henry ran to the treasure box.
Sofia was so shocked to see him that her usual snarkiness didn’t immediately flare. Instead, she just stared at him, disbelieving.
“You’re pretty cute as a bar maiden,” he said, and that broke the spell.
Sofia rolled her eyes. She threw up her arms in exasperation, though she was still stunned at seeing him. Her legs were slightly shaky. “What are you doing here, Isaiah?”
“You didn’t think you could put together a scavenger hunt with clues and a map that led to you and not have me be the one to get here first, did you?” His eyes were sparkling, forming heart-melting lines at the corners.
Sofia pursed her lips. “It wasn’t supposed to lead to me. It’s leading to the pot of gold.”
