Page 27 of The Romance Adventure

Royal

CHAPTER 8

I’m the kind of guy who has both feet on the ground—unless I’m skydiving. But right now, I feel like I’m spinning in a washing machine.

The last several hours have been a trip, literally and in a surreal kind of way. Multiple run-ins with Strawberry Shortcake. She sputters and shuffles through this legal presentation like it’s her first day on the job. Or maybe she’s nervous around me. Not to be cocky, but it wouldn’t be the first time. The thing is, I feel something around her—the slow disturbance of time and like my pulse could explode if I don’t keep myself under such tight control.

Oh, and Chip died. I should feel sadness. Mostly, I’m angry. Mad at him, but equally so at myself. I should’ve been a better grandson. But he could’ve done a better job, too. It’s the rule that the elder reaches out to the younger, right? Seems like it should be, but maybe I’ve had it wrong all along.

“Do you feel cheated?” Ryan teases our younger brother.

I do. Cheated out of parents. Cheated out of a normal life with Chip constantly challenging us, sending us on adventures, and keeping us at a distance. Because then what? Getting too close came with a risk.

Message received. Lesson learned. Thanks, Chip.

Strawberry Shortcake clears her throat, gaze flitting to mine as if she’s checking on me. I don’t need anyone’s pity or pithy words of consolation.

I have no doubt my gaze is flat, dark. I’m staring into the void.

“To answer your question, no, that’s not it. There’s more,” she says.

We all lean in and the oxygen in the room leaves as if Chip took it with him when he left this life.

“It says here: The youngest would sooner dive than the shallowest go deep. But neither will find what they seek without the strongest softening and the cleverest humbling.”

She meets my eyes for a fleeting second before going on. “Start on the eighteenth. Avoid the sand. Seek her with all your heart and might. Bring your wits. You’ll need them and each other.”

Ryan lets out a shaky breath. “What does that mean?”

Strawberry Shortcake bites her lip. No comment, because I don’t want to admit how I had the wild idea that if I planted my mouth on hers, she’d stop reading my grandfather’s will.

She goes on, “If each of my grandsons answers the following questions, the family fortune will be theirs to do with as they wish. If even one of them fails, the funds and all properties on the island, including the Driftwood, go to Gerome Glandman.”

“Glandman?” we all say at once in a tone that is decidedly evil nemesis.

“Why him? Chip hated Glandman,” Magnus says.

“Chip and Gerome were mortal enemies,” I add.

“Weren’t they business partners at one point?” Ryan asks as if the details are foggy in his memory.

“Until Glandman started siphoning funds from their account,” Magnus says.

“Then he sabotaged the big deal on Miami Beach. I learned everything I know about real estate from them.” And that’s all he gave me—no relationship, no warm memories. Just the cold, hard laws of the business world.

“The Driftwood property was Chip’s pride and joy. Would’ve been his legacy,” Ryan adds.

“And before that, they were best friends,” CJ says with an air of certainty.

Three sets of eyes stare questioningly at the youngest brother, mine included.

“I heard Glandman seduced our grandmother,” Ryan says. “Did they run away together?”

“Not even close.”

“Chip never talked about our grandmother,” Magnus adds.

“Maybe not to you,” CJ answers.