The Treasure by Jennifer Lowery Page A

didn’t want in a man. He lived in the jungle and flew planes for a living. She was a pastry chef at her sister’s bed and breakfast. Their worlds didn’t mesh, in any way. She doubted there was a big demand for pastry chefs in the middle of jungle.
    Confused, she sighed and pushed her thoughts away. Spending too much time thinking about the end would defeat the purpose of her trip. Here and now, that was Aunt Pandora’s motto. It would be hers too. And since Brody was part of that here and now she wanted to know everything about him.
    “Stop fidgeting.”
    Amelia lifted her head to look at him. He cracked an eye open and let out a long-suffering sigh.
    “What is it now?”
    “Do you think we’ll find it?” she asked quietly.
    “If it’s there, we’ll find it.”
    “If? You still don’t believe
Paraíso
exists?”
    “No.”
    “But you’re helping me anyway.”
    “You need protection. I’m your protection.”
    Amelia shuddered and pressed closer, his arms tightening around her. Thinking about the men after her didn’t ease her worries any. In her heart, she knew Aunt Pandora hadn’t sent her on a wild goose chase. She wouldn’t do that.
Paraíso
existed. Amelia was certain of it.
    “You’re a good man, Brody Kern,” she said on a yawn. “Why are you down here? In the jungle, I mean? Don’t you have family somewhere?”
    He went rigid. The change was subtle, but she was pressed so close that she felt his muscles tense. A silent indication that she crossed the line into personal and he wasn’t happy about it, just as she suspected.
    When he answered, she was surprised, but hid it as best as she could so she didn’t push him away.
    “No, no family,” he said, in a low, gruff voice.
    Amelia resisted lifting her head to look at him. “None?”
    “None.”
    “What happened to them?”
    Brody shrugged. “Don’t know. I was left on the doorstep of an orphanage when I was six weeks old.”
    A gasp escaped before she could stop it. “How horrible. Oh, Brody.” Unable to stop, she wrapped her other arm around him, holding him now. “Did you ever look for them?”
    “No reason to. They didn’t want me.”
    He tried to put some space between them but Amelia held tight, unwilling to let him go. How awful to grow up an orphan with no family to love him. She couldn’t imagine what that would be like. Her sisters might smother her but she would never want to be without them. A life without them — or her parents — or Aunt Pandora — was incomprehensible.
    No wonder he had no family photos or memories hanging on his walls. He had no family to put there. Not like her little house back in Michigan that was filled with family photos and mementos from her childhood.
    Hearing him say his parents didn’t want him broke her heart. How could a mother give up her child?
    “Maybe they had no choice,” she said, wanting to ease his pain. “Maybe — ”
    “Amelia. Let it go. It’s the past. It doesn’t matter.”
    “It does matter.” Adamant, she sat up and clutched his face with her hands, a palm resting on each cheek. “It does matter,” she said again, softly. “Your past is who you are, can’t you see that?”
    He tried to pull away, but had nowhere to go in the small space. “Miss Sawyer, you’ve spent the last two days complaining about my treatment of you.”
    Amelia shook her head. “No, you can’t call me that now. You aren’t distancing yourself just because you don’t want to talk about your past.”
    “I don’t have a past. I was a foster kid. Went into the military at eighteen. Retired from the military. Came down here and started a charter business. End of story.”
    Amelia let go of his face and sat back to look at him. “Don’t you want to know?” she asked quietly, wondering how he could be so blasé over the fact he never knew his parents or had a place to call home.
    Brody rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. “No, I don’t. Drop it.”
    He wasn’t seeing