Page 271 of The Romance Adventure

Ryan

CHAPTER 14

Before I let myself fully wrap my head around CJ’s discovery and what it might mean, we call an emergency McGregor meeting.

Harley comes downstairs from checking on Luke. “He’s fast asleep.”

And I’m wide awake, my thoughts churning.

She looks me over. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just shocked that all this time I’ve been sitting on something so important.” Chip would say life lesson there about putting off until tomorrow what should be done today.

“Is your vision okay?”

“Huh? Yeah. Why? You’re the one who wears glasses.”

“You don’t have an eyepatch hidden around here?” She pats me down. “A hook for a hand. A peg leg? Are you feeling like raiding or pillaging?”

I bump Harley with my elbow.

“Ouch. Careful. Peg elbow?”

“Stop,” I say with a laugh. “We’re not pirates.”

“But you come from pirates. I’d do well to hide my treasure.”

I grip her upper arms. “Harley, you are the treasure.”

She demurely presses her lips together to keep from smiling.

“When I was a kid and Chip told pirate stories, I was obsessed. Thought it was so cool. At some point, though, when I grew up, I figured he made them up to entertain us.”

“Not me,” CJ says.

“You haven’t grown up,” Royal says, entering the house with Isla.

CJ pulls a face at our brother.

“Nope. CJ never stopped believing. In a way, wanting to distance ourselves from that old lore is what drove us apart. Like if you have an uncle who, at holiday gatherings, tells you all his conspiracy theories, you avoid him after a while.”

“Uncle Eddie has lots of those, but interestingly, they’ve all proven true. For instance, he claimed there was this huge squid that was terrorizing...” Harley trails off. “Never mind. As you were saying?”

I continue, “The problem was, Chip never told him to stop.”

“Especially when it came to stuff about our parents,” Royal adds.

“I stand by my claim. They did not die in a boating accident. They’re not dead,” CJ says as forcefully as ever.

Royal and I look at our brother with the usual sympathy, but what if he’s not wrong? Like Uncle Eddie and the giant squid or whatever, what if CJ’s claim proves true? Something sparks in me.

“Then why did Chip say they were in a boating accident?” Royal asks.

“Because they were.”

“Which is it? They can’t have been in a boating accident and be dead?” Royal says sharply.

Isla plants her hand on her husband’s back and rubs it gently.