Page 10 of Holidate Fail
The puzzle didn’t look Sunday difficult, but it would still take some thought. “Thanks.”
“Someone’s coming!” Heath hissed, and pulled her away from the OED.
“Welcome to our library!” Crissy crossed the lobby as she called to the group of newcomers. They barely gave her a second glance before heading up the stairs to the CDs. “Let me know if you need help with anything,” she said to their retreating backs.
“Okay, quick,” Heath said.
The thrill of the hunt filled her as Dahlia flipped to the Ts, then to the Ys. Nothing stood out, slid out of the pages or rang any celebratory bells exclaiming she had found anything. She sat back a moment and took a deep, cleansing breath. Stop approaching a problem from the middle. Start at the beginning. She closed the dictionary, then opened the cover.
The Tri-Shine Stills and Dash logo topped a blue notebook-sized piece of paper with a watermark of an ocean wave. A clue was typed on it, and Dahlia took out her phone to snap a picture.
“No, take that one,” Crissy said. “I’ll put in another once you leave.”
“I’ll go get Lacole and Kelly.” Heath dashed up the stairs.
“Hey, have fun today,” Crissy said. “And good luck.”
***
“So when the group came up the stairs,” Kelly said as they drove away from the library, “Lacole gave this fierce whisper like we had found something amazing.”
“And Kelly played right along, hunching his body over a DVD ofCannonball Run.” Lacole laughed, turning to the back seat. “Which he then put back in the wrong place, and we ran right outta there.”
Dahlia laughed, the bright and lively one that sounded like she truly meant it. If she was just being polite, it would have been a low chuckle. Kelly grinned at her in the mirror. He hadn’t had many opportunities to make her laugh before. She’d always been way too smart for him. Though to be fair, most people were way too smart for him. Kristy had used that argument an awful lot when she told him she wanted a divorce.
“That’s awesome,” she said.
“Coupled with the fact that the two of you were amazing sleuths and found our clue just made it all the better.” Kelly pulled into a shady parking lot under some live oaks so they could read the paper from the dictionary. First, he held up the clue and took a selfie next to his smiling face, then passed it to Lacole.
The picture was fun, showing him having a good time, and he hashtagged that, too. With luck, those following will see it as a reflection of Georgia Adventures and they’ll get lots of new business. This time, he added a link to their web page. “Hey, Dahlia, remember when you were studying in the library, and Wayne and I kept flicking the paper footballs at you?”
Dahlia narrowed her gaze. “No. But I do remember many, many other various forms of older-brother-and-best-friend torture.”
Kelly’s chest tightened a smidge. Dahlia had caught one of the footballs and hurled it back at him, catching him by surprise and in the face.
Honestly, it was the first time he had noticed her as a person in her own right and not just Wayne’s little sister. Not that he ever mentioned anything to her. Or his friend.
His phone dinged with text messages from Vin.Photos and videos getting views.
3 new booking already. Keep going.
Relief cascaded over him. Three wasn’t a huge number, but the day was still young. If it kept up, his business just might survive. He turned to Dahlia to share the good news, but Lacole spoke before he could say anything.
“This clue is just a bunch of letters and numbers and elements,” she said. “C A dihydrogen monoxide? What even is that?”
Kelly blinked as real life came crashing back to him. His first thought had been to share with Dahlia? He glanced over at her, the little flowers in her hair, the Georgia Adventures t-shirt. He could easily picture her sitting next to him on a raft, clinging to his arm as they went over the rapids.
Dahlia caught his eye, and he flashed her a smile.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Heath chimed in first.
“I read this tweet once where someone was going on about the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide, stirring people up into a frenzy,” he said. “Saying you could drown in it and too much will kill you and how it’s everywhere and you can’t avoid it.”
“Sounds horrible,” Lacole said.
“No.” Heath grinned. “It’s just water.”
Lacole snorted out a laugh. “Oh, my gosh, Heath, you’re too funny!”
