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I turned and gazed at the wall of windows on the back of the resort, remembering the first time Aubrey and I had set foot into this space after Uncle Marvin’s letter had arrived. The windows had been dusty and smeared with decades of grease and grime, tempering the light coming through in a ghostly glow.
The whole mountain had felt sleepy and stagnant then, and over the past four years, it had come to life. There were so many more people here now—not just guests, but my family. Fake Tom and Lucy, and their son Teague in the first real house down in the staff housing neighborhood. And I was so glad they’d brought Uncle Marvin’s old friend, Ernie. And then to see Brainiac and Penny, Monroe and Mateo, Sasquatch and CeeCee, and Aubrey and Wiley—all living side by side in this incredibleplace...I enjoyed a glow of pride as I thought of it. We were all family—the new additions: Teague, Maggie, and baby Finn—and everyone who wandered in. I loved the way the family grew to adopt anyone looking for a place to belong.
That’s what Kasper Ridge had always been, I realized. A soft landing for those needing a home. First Uncle Marvin and Lola, and now me and those I loved. I gazed back down at reception, watching Antonio deftly handling questions and answering phones, and felt a stab of regret. It seemed like everyone had found a happy ending here. But what about Antonio?
He’d come with Sasquatch, acting as his caretaker in a way during the times when Sass was a little unstable. But now? He could leave, but he didn’t, and I was glad. He was part of the family. But once Emily and I headed out on our adventures, filling up our treasure map, he’d be the only part of the original crew still living in the staff wing of the hotel. Still on his own.
I sighed and shook off the melancholy as Wiley waved to me from the front doors. “You’re back!” he called.
I headed down the stairs and followed him into the bar. “For now, yeah.”
“I hear plans in your tone,” he laughed.
“We’ve got those for sure,” I told him.
“We?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Emily’s here. You’ll see her at dinner if you guys can join. And then I was hoping everyone could hang out here a bit. Think Aubrey would be okay bringing Finn up for a bit?”
“She’s dying to go somewhere,” Wiley laughed. “I bet she’ll jump at it, but it’ll probably be after dinner. He sleeps a couple hours and is usually up again around nine, whether we like it or not.”
“Oh no. Well, that actually works well for me. I’d like to see everyone together. One last time.”
That got Wiley’s attention. “Why do I feel like everything’s about to change?”
I winked at him.
“Nine p.m., okay?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
I spent the day dropping through every part of the resort operations, and then headed down to visit my nephew and my sister a bit. I wanted to prepare Aubrey for my departure ahead of telling everyone else. We’d come to Kasper Ridge together, and I wanted to be sure she would be okay without me.
“You’re not going to give your half to me, numb-nuts,” she said when I suggested it.
Baby Finn was nestled in her arms and he cooed and gurgled as she spoke.
“You can run around the world and travel, and I’m nothing but happy for you,” she said. “But keep the resort. It’s all we have, Arch. It’s our legacy. It’s home.”
It was. I just hadn’t thought of it in those terms. I wondered if one day Emily would be okay coming back here, settling down here. It was much too early to think about that, but I filed the idea away in the back of my mind.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I like that plan. And I think one day I would like to come back. To stay.”
“You have to. I’ll need you around to put together the next treasure hunt for Finn and Maggie and Teague, and whoever comes next.” Aubrey grinned at me.
“Another hunt, huh?”
“It’s tradition.”
I kissed my sister’s cheek and promised to see her later that night, an inextinguishable giddiness glowing inside me.
Emily and I had dinner in the restaurant, sitting on our own as everyone wrapped up their duties for the day and grabbed abite here and there as they could. And that night, we headed into the bar, grabbing a table in the back.
“You look...” Emily paused, laughing. “I can’t tell. Happy? Is this happy?”
“I think it’s content,” I said, squeezing her hand. “For so long I felt like I was in some kind of battle—trying to control my own thoughts, to control nature as we raised this place from the dead...”
“And now you’re not battling?”
