Page 404 of The Romance Adventure

Ryan slaps his hand on the counter. “The pen with the plume!”

“Do you think there’s a secret message on your father’s stationery?” Harley asks her husband.

He nods. “There must be.”

Royal and Isla hurry back to the resort to get a bottle of Sempre Spirits rum. Ryan and Harley go with them to grab the pen with the plume and bring Luke to her sister’s since this might turn into a late night. The rest of us join forces and make dinner. It’s nearly dark. We discuss Thanksgiving and Magnus and Lally’s upcoming wedding plans.

Lally smiles at Jolie and says, “Would you like to be one of my bridesmaids?”

“Oh, um, I don’t know, um...”

Placing my hand on her lower back, I say, “Yes, the answer is yes.”

“But what if⁠—?”

I raise both my eyebrows.

Jolie seems to shake off whatever doubts she was having and says, “Thank you. Yes, I’d be honored.”

The two women discuss plans. On her phone, Lally shows Jolie pictures of the gowns in muted autumnal colors that remind her of growing up in the Pacific Northwest. Lally tells her she can wear whatever shoes she likes.

Magnus takes me aside and points to Jolie, then back to me. “You sure about this?”

We found all three missing stones from the Lost Crown of Tears. We got ahold of the entirety of the map. But one piece of this puzzle is still missing. “Yeah. I trust she’ll do the right thing. It might not be an easy thing, but she’s courageous.”

He acknowledges me with one stiff nod.

I hope I’m right because that’s all I have left to work with.

After scarfing down an assortment of random things that were in the fridge—leftover pizza, stir-fry takeout, and salad fixings, we get down to business. Ryan runs the feather from the pen through the rum and dabs it along the bottom of the piece of our father’s stationery.

He lets out a long, “Ahhhh.”

Letters appear, but they’re scrambled. LOIPLW

“Is it another language?” Isla asks.

“An acronym?” Lally suggests.

Harley says, “Another code to decipher using the Salty Skeleton?”

Jolie looks over my shoulder and says, “Pillow.”

“Pillow?” The others repeat.

She nods. “It’s the only word that could come from that combination of letters and make sense.”

“In English,” Royal says.

Jolie and I exchange a knowing look.

“It’s pillow,” I confirm.

“But what could it mean?” Ryan asks

“A place to rest, considering Chip left me with a pillow?” Magnus suggests.

“Something fluffy. Pillow-like,” Lally supplies.