Page 140 of Faking it For Summer

“What did you guys do?” I ask, prodding her to reveal what is going on.

“Well … we might or might not have sent the treasure hunt notes to Mia so that you two could solve them together.”

“What? Did you bury a treasure or something?” I am so confused. “I hope neither one of you buried any real gold or anything. That would be so irresponsible.”

“No, not quite,” my grandma says, giggling. “There is gold at the end of the journey, but not bullion.”

“What?” I am starting to grow annoyed.

“Grandma, explain in better detail, please,” Mia demands.

“Mia, darling, it was my idea.”

“What’s going on, Grandma? What was your idea? Luke and I have no clue what you’re talking about right now, and it’s driving us both crazy.”

“We wrote the notes,” she admits, like it’s no big deal. “Rex has no clue that you even got those notes. We wrote the notes on the back of your and Luke’s invitations,” she explains again. “Pity you don’t have a date.”

“What?” Mia looks shocked. “What are you saying?” She grabs the phone from me. “Let me get this straight,” shecontinues without letting them speak again. “You sent that rude note to me and the one to Luke? They weren’t from Rex?”

“Technically, we never said they were from Rex.” Lucille sounds guilty. “We never signed any name to the notes.”

“But you knew we’d think they were from him. Why on earth would Andi write us anything?”

“It wasn’t intended to be malicious, darling, we just wanted to start the train to get it to the station.”

“What are you talking about, Grandma? You made me think everyone in Coconut Beach was going to be talking about my years pining away for Rex.”

“But you weren’t pining away for him, Mia.”

“Yes, but no one knows that.”

“I knew that, and of course, Bitsy knew that as well.”

“Grandma, I can’t believe you did this to us. Do you know what you did?”

“Bring you both together?” she responds smartly.

“Grandma.” Mia’s voice is weak, and she shakes her head as she gazes at me.

“You and Luke were made for each other. We have known it since you were kids, and you’ve just been spending too much time apart, and it felt like it was never going to happen. You are both too stubborn and too scared to be honest with each other about your true feelings. So, we thought this was the perfect opportunity.”

“For you to scheme?” Mia interjects, and the two ladies laugh.

“We thought this was the perfect opportunity for you both to spend quality time together and get closer,” Bitsy adds. “We had a feeling the notes would make you both act rashly and decide to go together. We couldn’t have predicted you’d lie and pretend to have been dating for a year. That was even better than we’d hoped. What a fabulous idea.”

“Grandma—” I scold her.

“So, you guys wrote the rude notes on the invitations?” Mia says, demanding more information. “Every single word? None of it was from Rex? I just want to make sure I’m understanding this fully.”

“Yes, darling. I’m sorry. We didn’t really mean them. We just wanted you both to be so infuriated that you would take some sort of action—and we hoped that action would lead you two to being together.” Her grandma’s voice is sweet. “We hope you both understand.”

“That’s all we wanted because we knew that you were made for each other, and we just needed you both to realize that,” my grandma adds. “We knew if we tried to play matchmaker, you’d both run from the idea, but we figured if you guys played matchmaker together, it would lead to something.”

“Dang. We were set up,” Mia says. “So, what is at the end of the treasure hunt, Grandma, if it’s not real gold? And please do not tell me it’s candy. If the gold is chocolate coins, I’m going to be mad ’cause you know they’ll likely have melted by now.”

“It’s something far greater than that,” Lucille says softly.

“The gold we have for you is the most valuable thing in the world,” my grandma adds. “Gold everyone wishes they had.”