Buried Secrets by Kristi Belcamino (book recommendations for teens txt) 📕

She stood up and turned toward my dad standing between him and the TV. Her face was red. I’d never seen anything like it.”

“Whoa,” Colton said.

“Right? She went off on a rant about how Cleopatra had been possibly the most educated person in the world at the time. How she spoke a bajillion languages, how she was smarter than any Harvard graduate today and so on.”

“Your mom knew a lot about her.”

“That’s what my dad said. I mean he was instantly contrite. So maybe it wasn’t an argument so much as me seeing my mother furious and passionate about something and standing up to my dad about it that made such an impact on me.

“I mean normally she just went along with anything he said. But even when he agreed he was wrong to say that and that Cleopatra seemed amazing, my mother still had to go get down a giant book from the bookshelf and brought it over to him.

“They sat side by side on the couch and she told him all about Cleopatra while they thumbed through the book. She wasn’t angry anymore and I could hear the excitement in her voice. Most of the time she was so busy with work and being a mom that I never got to see this side of her. I was fascinated. I sat and listened.”

“I can just imagine you. I bet you were so cute.” Colton reached over and tugged at her ponytail a little. “Did you have long hair like this in a ponytail?”

“Stop!” She playfully swatted his hand away. “My dad said, ‘Karen, I never knew any of this.”

My mom told him she’d begun studying archeology in college, but that when my grandmother died, she dropped out and returned home to raise her younger brother.

“Oh man.”

“Yeah, right? He was the one who died.”

“Ugh.”

“I know. She gave up her dream.”

“Wow.”

Colton and Dallas sat in silence for a few seconds.

“I thought that they didn’t know I was there, but toward the end my mom yawned and stood up and winked at me. I ran to my bedroom and jumped in my bed, pulling the covers over my head and pretended to snore and that was that.”

“That was that?” Colton said wrinkling his nose.

“Well, I guess not exactly.” Dallas felt like she’d talked too much as it was, but Colton seemed genuinely interested in hearing more.

“After a while, when I heard my dad snoring from their room, I got up and went back in the living room to look at the book my mom had been reading. Gosh, it must’ve weighed as much as I did, and I sat up all night looking at it. I fell asleep but luckily woke in the morning in time to get in my own bed before my mom came in to wake me for school. For some reason, I felt like I needed to keep it a secret that I’d overheard them.”

“That’s cool,” Colton said.

“A few weeks later, for Christmas, my dad got my mom this necklace.”

Two months later he landed a job as a photographer at National Geographic and took off. He came home a few times a year and stayed for a week or so, but then left again. Right after I turned eighteen, he got a book deal and moved home to write the book. He told me and my mom he would never leave us again. That night they were killed by a drunk driver.

Colton reached over and gently put the ankh in his palm.

“Oh Dallas, I’m so sorry.” Colton let go of the ankh and reached for her hand, lightly rubbing it with his thumb.

Dallas felt tears forming in the corner of her eyes and tried to blink them away. “I guess after that I always made Cleopatra larger than life. She was the one thing my mother was most passionate about—well besides me and my dad.”

Colton leaned over then and kissed her, long and hard.

Dallas didn’t even care about the console between them digging into her side. All she could think about was how amazing the kiss was.

Colton pulled back too soon.

“We probably shouldn’t start something we can’t finish.”

“Who says we can’t finish it?” Dallas said, jutting her chin toward the back seat.

Colton raised an eyebrow. “Well … it’s not exactly how I planned it. I’d hoped for a more memorable … well, damn it, Dallas. I want it to mean something.”

“Oh, it will mean something all right,” she said. “Today might be the most important day of my life—the day I discovered the tunnel that leads me to Cleopatra’s tomb.”

“Um, no offense, but wouldn’t the most important day be the day you found the tomb? He smiled. He was teasing her. “Wouldn’t you want us to celebrate at the Marriott or something.”

“No!” Dallas was adamant. She pointed to the windshield. The moon was rising and casting a blue metallic light on the jutting silhouettes of the temple. “I can’t think of a more beautiful or fitting place.”

Colton smiled. “It does suit us, doesn’t it?”

She liked the way that sounded—us.

Dallas leaned her seat back all the way and had climbed into the back seat. “Come on, Indiana Jones!”

“Only if you take your hair out of that damn ponytail,” he said and then laughed. But before he could crawl over the seat, headlights flashed on his features. “Crap.”

Dallas scrambled back into the front seat, her heart pounding. “Who is it? What is it? What do we do?”

She turned to Colton. He was watching the approaching vehicle in the rearview mirror. He triggered the locks on the door. Dallas looked around. There was nothing that could be used as a weapon except maybe the empty steel thermos. She reached for it.

Before she could react, the car had come to a skidding halt behind them and a man appeared at her window pointing a gun at her. That was all she could see. A large gun being held to her window.

Even with the window closed, she could hear their voices.

“Get out.”

“Colton?”