Page 5 of Up in Smoke

“Books.”

“Ryleigh has a good library, and she doesn’t mind sharing it,” I informed him.

“Yes, but the queens don’t have access to recent releases, so we will bring a present of books for her library. New Orleans hasn’t gotten anything new in a year due to shipment difficulties. Booksellers keep forgetting there are people in New Orleans who’d love to buy books. The supply chain for books just doesn’t go there often. While I didn’t ask Ryleigh, the queen who was at the auction gave me a call to check in on you, and I asked her for recommendations to smooth things out. I stated I didn’t want you to become stressed missing some social etiquette. I’m guessing Ryleigh wanted to test me and used this other queen to do it. I didn’t get her name. She didn’t offer it, I didn’t ask.”

“Right. Smart move. We’ll buy a bunch of new releases for her then. Okay. Anything else?”

“Ryleigh loves melon liquor. Melon liquor isn’t sold in New Orleans. We’ll get her a collection of it, and that’ll ride in the cabin with us.”

Ah-ha. The mystery of why neither one of us had anything more than our phones and a wallet made sense. “Are our laptops going to be safe in the cargo area?”

“They will, but there’s a store that sells laptops here. We’re buying four of them. They’ll go into the cabin with us as well.”

“The airport sells laptops?” I blurted.

“They’re gifts for Ryleigh, but yes. You can buy phones and cameras here, too. If there’s a problem with our laptops, Mom will pay horrendous amounts of money to ship us in new ones.”

“E-readers?”

“At the bookstore. We’ll be getting a few of those as well. Ryleigh has her own technology, but it will show we’re considerate of the challenges currently faced in New Orleans. The collection of batteries will go in with our checked luggage.”

“Had I been in charge of this operation, I would have just shown up,” I warned him.

Sandro laughed, and he smiled at me. “I know. I told the queen I spoke to that, and she laughed, too. I think I won her approval. I’ll make sure you can roam to your heart’s content, but I’ll also make sure we roam comfortably and in style—without offending the queens we’re trying to get to help us.”

“This isn’t going to be easy,” I warned him.

“The things worth doing never are.”