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I shook my head and sipped a glass of whiskey. “I won.”
She laughed and then stood as Monroe and Mateo came in with Lily, Mateo’s daughter.
“Hope it’s cool that Lily’s here,” Mateo said. “She wanted to say hi.”
“It’s perfect,” I told him. I introduced Lily and Emily, and then explained, “you haven’t met, but you’ve heard of Lily. She’s the one who solved the rebus puzzle, the one where the symbols on the map represented specific words.”
“Ohh. So smart,” Emily said, grinning at the girl.
Lily shrugged, but then said, “I only figured it out because some lady knocked one of the pictures down. It was on the back.”
“And because you’re a genius,” Monroe told her.
“That too,” Lily agreed, accepting the glass of clear soda Mateo handed her and taking a seat.
“Thank you for getting me out of the house!” Aubrey practically yelled this from the door to the bar where she appeared with a bundle strapped to her chest. “I figure this kid’s doomed to grow up in a bar no matter what. Might as well get started young!” She moved around and kissed Wiley, who was helping a couple guests at the far end of the bar. She pulled herself a beer, and then took a seat at my side.
Emily peeked over at the baby. “Is he sleeping?”
“Like a rock. Leave it to my kid to defy expectations at every turn,” Aubrey said. “Good to see you back, Emily.”
“I’m so happy to be back.”
I kissed Emily’s cheek, and soon the table was full, all of my favorite people in the world gathered around it, smiling and laughing, and my heart was close to overflowing with gratitude and joy.
When there was a lull in the laughter and conversation, I stood and cleared my throat. “Hey guys!”
After a few seconds, everyone was looking my way, including a few guests scattered around the bar, which was just fine with me.
“I just wanted to get everyone together here for a few minutes. It felt important.”
“Here here!” Sasquatch yelled, raising his glass.
“I’m not quite done,” I told him.
He shrugged and grinned and CeeCee leaned over and kissed his cheek.
I cleared my throat and tried to organize my thoughts. “I just wanted to say thank you. It’s probably not the case, but it feels like everyone here arrived in some way to look after me, because you knew I needed you. Even you,” I said, turning to look down at Emily. Her dark eyes glowed back at me, brimming with happiness that matched my own.
“This has been a journey. From a run-down resort totally in the red and worries over whether we’d even be able to get it open before we ran out of money, to a destination that’s going to be on the cover of a fancy travel magazine in January...this place has come so far.”
“Here here!” Fake Tom called, raising his glass.
“Still not done,” I said, feigning annoyance. “Anyway, through it all, you’ve proven to me that friendship, love, and family really are the real treasures. I think I’d figured thatout even before we found Uncle Marvin’s old movie. And the constant support and friendship you guys all brought was the thing that I think finally led me to Emily. To the woman I’m totally in love with, who I really hope is going to be my partner in every adventure from here on out.”
“Here here!” Monroe shouted.
I sighed and smiled at my friends, who all wore looks of warmth and happiness. “I’m guessing you’ve all been filled in at this point, but Emily is Shazz’s sister. And even though there was a lot to work through there—the accident, her family, my own issues around what happened—I know that I was meant to meet her, and I’m so glad it happened here, in this place. Every single one of you played a role in that, and finding her is like coming to the real treasure at the end of the map and feeling completely satisfied, but then realizing there’s a whole second side of the map yet to be discovered.”
“Here—”
“I’m still not done, Brainiac.”
Everyone laughed, and I went on. “Emily and I are going to leave Kasper Ridge for a while. I can do that because I know you don’t need me here now, and we have adventures waiting for us. Next week we’re heading to Costa Rica, and I don’t know where we’ll go from there. But Kasper Ridge will always be home base. Take care of it while I’m gone.”
“Here here?” Aubrey said, her tone light and joking.
“Yes, now,” I told them, picking up my own drink.
