“She was helping herself,” Zach said. “She’s pathologically afraid of being poor.”

Jill let out a long breath. “And I’d rather be poor than play a rich man’s game of blue smoke and murder. Let her sink.”

Zach shifted suddenly, lifting Jill onto his lap. “I really like that about you.”

“What?”

“You know what’s real and what isn’t.”

“Rapids are real,” she said, putting her arms around him. “You’re real. I’d like to teach you about my favorite rivers.”

“Sold,” Zach said. “As long as I get to show you my favorite junkyards and teach you about old muscle cars along the way.”

“Still looking for that hemi whatever?”

“That’s a convertible Hemi-cuda, the Holy Grail of muscle cars.”

She laughed and leaned closer. “I suspect you’ll learn the rivers real quick, but I have to warn you, I’m not good at the car thing. It could take me a long time to learn.”

Zach’s arms tightened around her. “I’m counting on it.”