“There you go.” William squeezed my hand. “And your shop will be fabulous.”
“You’re just saying that because you got excited at the mention of treasure.”
“Not true. I’m excited at the idea that you’ll move out of my place because you’re messy, and I don’t do messy.”
“I’m not messy.” I threw a pillow at him. “You just don’t have enough space to store all my things.” I was untidy, but in my defense, for the past month, my life had been nothing but chaos.
“What about this vacation and the things you have planned?” I asked.
William shrugged. “Meh. It’s just two days out of twelve. Adriana, please,” he pleaded. “If not for you, do it for me. This short pirate treasure trip will be so good for me.”
My phone pinged with a new email. I checked it, and my heart sank when I opened the attached PDF. Four logo proposals for my future shop.
“Aw… these are so eye-catching.” William pressed his face closer to mine, his hand adjusting my phone so he could see the images better. “How can you pick just one? Hun, this is the sign that you must go.”
“Thisis the sign I have more bills to pay now.” I released a heavy sigh.
Even if I didn’t find a new investor or secure a business loan, I had to pay for these. Crap. There went a month of loan payment.
“So?” William nudged me with his foot.
My loud sigh morphed into a groan. “I guess we can go. But he needs to send us the money first.”
* * *
Andrew was talking on his phone when we returned to the living room. “I’ll see you soon. I need to go.” He hung up. “Are you coming?” he asked, his voice edged with worry and eyes full of a silent plea. And at that, something broke inside of me, and a stone rolled off my erected defense wall.
“Yes,” William said with way too much enthusiasm. “But I’m going to accompany her.”
“As any good brother should,” Andrew said, with a slight nod.
I folded my arms over my chest and leaned on the balcony door. “Could you please tell us your exact plan?” I asked, hoping my voice sounded more determined than anxious. “Do we need visas? When are we leaving?”
“Well…” Andrew said, his face turned serious.
Oh no. No great plan started with the wordwell.
“Hold on.” I held up a finger. “Is there a plan?”
“Well, yes.”
That word again. Andrew had no plan. Or he thought he had a plan, but he was questioning it.
“He has no plan,” I blurted out and faced William. “We’re not going.”
“You just said you would,” Andrew said.
I spun back round to glare at Andrew. “That was because I thought you had an actual plan, but you don’t.”
“You didn’t even let me speak?—”
“You started it with ‘well.’”
“So what?” Andrew’s eyebrows drew together.
With a roll of eyes, William released an exaggerated breath. “My sister has this theory that if someone starts their sentence with ‘well’when they explain something, that means they’re bullshitting.”
“Christ. Fine. No more ‘well.’ But the plan is simple. Tomorrow morning, we fly to Santa Marta, meet with Professor Garcia, and hopefully unlock the bracelet?—”
