Purrfect Roast: A Dragon Cozy Mystery Verena DeLuca (summer reading list .txt) 📖

"I'm just not ready to barge in there and accuse anyone of anything yet," I said.

Skylar shielded her eyes and looked up at Aubrey. "Yeah, most of these ladies know who I am. Next year's going to totally suck if we get it wrong and make a scene."

"I didn't even think of that." I buried my face in my hands as I rested my elbows on the table and let out a sigh. There was no right way to find the culprit.

"Okay," Aubrey said slowly. "I guess I get that. I just don't know how else we're going to find answers, if we don't start asking the hard questions."

"I know, I know."

I rubbed my face, hoping that once I took my hands away, we would be in the cafe and this whole nightmare would be just that. A horrible dream that I woke from. But as I folded my hands in front of my mouth and glanced around the pool area, it became clear I was not dreaming. I took a drink of my coffee and let out another sigh.

"We just don't have enough to go on," Skylar said. "Not a single group of people have come back with anything that gives me a clue to them being guilty or not."

Aubrey picked at the table as we spoke. I could tell it upset her that we were not eager to back her. But truth be told, I did not want to make a fool of myself. There was more at stake here than a cat show. Being a tribe leader meant I needed to stay professional and not cause unwarranted drama.

Skylar and I exchanged glances, and she shrugged. We needed a subject change. Talking about something else would help our subconscious figure out the puzzle. Okay, maybe not, but it would at least break the tension in the air.

"Oh!" I said. "I forgot to tell you about this new series I started reading."

Aubrey's eyes met mine and gave me a look that screamed, "are you kidding me right now?" But I pushed on. She was going to get her mind off of the trophies if I had to do the hula on the table.

"Seriously! You're going to love it," I said. "It's about a witch, that lives in a town where witches and normies blend together. But the normies don't know about the witches. She has this cat familiar that is so sarcastic. Like my level of sarcasm. He and her grandma are my favorite characters."

"Normies," Aubrey giggled.

"I don't even read this genre and I'm intrigued," Skylar said. "Cats and sass go hand in hand."

She looked at our sass buckets curled up on the concrete and smiled. I felt silly for never thinking to chat with her about the dragons before. But in reality, most of the time we were hanging out, Jess or Aubrey were with us.

"For real," Aubrey said, perking up just a tad from her hunched position. "When the cat isn't sassy, I'm seriously disappointed."

"Same," I said. "I binged the first three books, plus the free one from the author's newsletter."

"Wow. Alright, I'm sold. Text me the name, and I'll download it," Aubrey said. "Is it standalones or a series-long plot happening?"

"Alright, Alright," Skylar interrupted. "I'll bite. Text it to me too. I need to check out one of these cozy mysteries y'all keep going on about, anyway."

"Finally!" Aubrey threw her arms up in the air as I typed Charmed and Dangerous by Morgan Vale into our group text message with Jess.

"Don't say I didn't warn you. They're as addictive as coffee," I said in a deadpan tone, then looked back to Aubrey, excitement pouring off me. "I'm telling you you're going to love it. It has a bigger mystery that is spanning each book. Like that royal witch baker series. The world also has werewolves, and a slow burn romance developing."

"Werewolves?" Aubrey said, excitement finally taking hold of her tone. "That's a new one. Are they good or bad? I hope they aren't the bad guy. Werewolves always get such a bad rap in media."

My phone dinged, along with tones from Aubrey's and Skylar's with a response from Jess.

Jess: Hey! Don't have book chats without me!

Jess: This looks good, already bought book one.

"They're good guys," I said, then paused to respond to Jess before continuing.

Hailey: Books is about the only thing interesting happening here. The number to the fire department is 911.

"Well maybe, I don't know. You need to read it so we can talk about it! They are part of the bigger mystery that's happening. I need to fan girl with someone."

They both laughed at me, but I was dead serious. There was nothing worse than reading a book with major plot speculation elements and no one to theorize about them with. Another round of tones sounded and I looked down at my phone, glad I did not tell Jess about the theft. Smart alecks did not get mystery intel.

Jess: Lame.

Jess: Duh, thought it was 211. No wonder they hadn't shown up yet.

Hailey: 12

"Ha," Skylar giggled, and I looked up to see her reading her phone.

Skylar: Hailey is lying. Someone stole the trophies. We're totally investigating it.

Jess: SHUT UP! TELL ME EVERYTHING!

Skylar: Too much to type, we'll fill you in tomorrow. We're still at the hotel.

Aubrey: Wish you were here, we could use another sleuth.

I rolled my eyes and took a drink of coffee. Another body here would not make the investigation any clearer. Luckily, both Skylar and Aubrey were looking down at their phones as Jess responded.

Jess: Unfortunately, I'm stuck burning down the fort.

Hailey: Not funny.

"It was a little funny," Aubrey said, and took a sip of her own coffee.

"Totally funny," Skylar added.

"Even apart, you three are ganging up on me," I said. "Rude."

I shook my cup to find disappointment. Guess it was time for us to head back into the chaos. At least to fuel