Book of Days_ A Novel - James L. Rubart [97]
"What are you driving at?"
"Someone has created an elaborate game out of this Book of Days legend. He's probably waited years for someone to discover it. And we're about to win. But we won't win the chance to see our past or our future. I think the only prize we'll get is the chance to say we figured out the clues and have some mysterious game architect pat us on the back."
"Taylor Stone's clues."
Ann nodded. "That's where I'd place my bet."
"So Taylor is the architect?"
Ann shrugged and raised her eyebrows.
"You're saying Taylor traipsed all over the globe planting rare rocks to concoct—?"
"No, I'm saying he searched until he found something unusual—those rocks—and tied it all together."
"Why take all the time and energy and money to concoct something like that?"
"I don't know, Cameron! Maybe he got bored. Let's just follow the bread crumbs. I don't believe—you do—but like you say, it doesn't matter." She grabbed her purse and stood. "Listen, I have to go."
"Go? Now? You can't go; we need to figure out what the constellations mean. Where do you have to go?"
"I have a massage appointment. I'll be back in an hour and a half max."
"Massage? How can you get a massage when we're in the middle of all this?"
"If I don't work out the kinks after rock climbing, I'm sore for days." Ann flipped her hair and laughed. "Plus massages make me more beautiful."
"You're already beau— I mean you look fine."
"Thank you." She smiled.
"When will you be back?"
She sniffed out a laugh. "I just told you, in an hour and a half or less."
He lied and said, "I remember." He mashed his forefinger into his lips. Concentrate. He needed to concentrate better.
Ann sat back down, a concerned look on her face. "You're right; I do know why it's so important for you to find this book. I nailed it yesterday after the climb, didn't I? I saw it in your face then and I'm seeing it again right now. You truly are losing your mind, aren't you?"
Cameron held his breath till he had to let it out. "Yes."
"And the book will heal you?"
"That's my hope."
She squeezed his arm. "I'm sorry, Cameron."
"It's okay."
Why couldn't he tell her the truth? Okay? No. It wasn't. He didn't want to wind up in an assisted-living facility in two years, ten years, forty years—ever. He wanted a life!
Ann wove her way up the street around tourists in bad hats worried about nothing more than finding another summer adventure.
How should she navigate the one she was on with Cameron?
She'd suspected his mind was slipping more than he'd let on, but she hadn't been around him for an extended amount of time for years and didn't know how the stress of Jessie's passing might have affected his brain.
No wonder he was so desperate.
The bells on the spa door jangled as she stepped inside and stopped. "All right, God, I get it. He needs me to help him find this thing—whatever it is—so I'll do it, with everything in me. It doesn't mean I have to believe the book is real."
As soon as the front door of the coffee shop closed behind Ann, Cameron squeezed his temples, as if the pressure could jump-start the memories deep inside his brain. A soft groan escaped. He was losing it. Come on! Remember!
Cameron wiped his forehead, leaned back in his chair, and forced his breathing to slow. If only he could get more sleep. Maybe he should . . . No. He wouldn't see a doctor. Had he ever considered that? Forget it.
He was fine. He would be fine.
After pouring over their notes for ten minutes and getting nowhere, Cameron stepped outside Java Jump Start to take a break and a short walk. As he strolled north on Main Street, the sensation of being watched crept up his spine.
He did a slow spin studying the people on the street and