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

"What's not funny?" Azure transmitted.

"Nothing," I transmitted back. "Go back to sleep."

"It was funny," he transmitted. "You're too overprotective. The cafe is fine."

"Not you too," I transmitted, and Skylar laughed.

I stuck my tongue out at her. There was no way to verbally call her out for telling Shadow what was happening, but at least she knew I knew she was a tea tart.

A silence fell back over the table as we all spaced out into our thoughts.

There had to be a way to get out of this hotel. I glanced at the time on my phone, 5:50 PM. Over five hours past when I thought we would be done. Awesome. Veronica was right, they needed to comp us a room for the night.

"I'm sorry," Aubrey said. Startling me out of my anger.

"For what?" I asked.

"Getting carried away with the case." Aubrey looked down at the table again. "I lost track of the fact that you guys have to see these people next year. I would have ended up making a scene if you'd followed me in there."

I smiled. "Don't be."

I reached across the table and put my hand on top of hers.

"Totally," Skylar said, and mimicked my actions.

"If it weren't for you, Skylar and I would probably have gone upstairs and taken a nap until they kicked us out."

"Totally would have," Skylar laughed. "You're the one that kept us entertained."

Aubrey looked up at us and blushed.

"Whatever," she said. "You guys would have taken the case with or without me."

"Maybe," I said. "But it would have been way less fun. Neither of us would have talked to Mark."

"Seriously!" Skylar said. "How you just walked up to him and got him to gossip with you. I would have never had the nerve to do that."

"That's true, I guess," Aubrey said, looking down at the table again. Her embarrassment over the case was clear on her face, and I did not want her to feel like she overstepped, but I was not sure what to say.

"We need a new plan," I said.

"We could always just leave," Aubrey said, not looking either of us in the eyes. "No one would even notice we're gone. The police already spoke to us."

"I meant for solving the case," I said. "We're not going to bail when there is a case to solve."

"You mean it?" Aubrey said.

"I swear on my bean roaster," I said. "We started this, and we're going to finish it."

Aubrey squealed and put her hand in the air for us to do a group cheer. Skylar and I put our hands in.

Aubrey said, "To finding the trophies?"

"To finding the trophies," we repeated and bounced our hands into the air.

We fell into a fit of giggles, and Skylar cleared her throat first. "So now what?"

"Why don't we just hang out in the lobby?" Aubrey said. "We might see or hear something that will help us find the culprit."

"Good idea," I said.

We stood and gathered our cups.

"Come on, fluff ball," I transmitted to Azure. "We're going back inside."

"You go," he transmitted. "We'll stay here, hold down the concrete."

"And get the pound called on you?" I transmitted. "I don't think so."

"As long as we look like we belong here, no one will bother us."

I laughed and bent down to tickle his toe beans.

"Stop that," he transmitted and tried to kick out of my tickles, but it was no use. I was fully awake, and he was still groggy from his nap.

"We can't find the trophies if you don't get up."

"Touche," he transmitted. "I'm up."

He let out a long stretch, and I glanced up to see Skylar having the same issue getting Shadow to wake.

"Dang," Aubrey said. "I was so wrapped up in the case, I didn't take photos of the cats in the last three groups of ladies we spoke with."

"Guess we know what you're doing in the lobby." I giggled.

"Ha!" Skylar switched her tone to a mocking one. "Can I photograph your cat? I swear I'm not a creep, just want cat photos to show my kids."

We all laughed.

"Is that what I sound like?" Aubrey said, making Skylar and I laugh harder.

"Y'all," Aubrey pleaded. "If that's what I sound like, tell me!"

We both walked over and gave her a hug, and I said, "You can be a creepy cat stalker if you want. It's not our place to shame you for it."

"Yeah, no shaming here," Skylar said, still trying to control her giggles.

"Y'all aren't funny," Aubrey said as we headed for the doors.

I laughed, but internally tried to center myself. At least we were heading back in with a new perspective.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sunday, May 17th, 6:10pm

We entered the lobby hopeful to find a table for people watching, only to discover it was packed full of contestants. The doors to the ballroom and vendor rooms were closed. I hoped it meant they had apprehended a culprit, but based on the amount of people walking up to them and trying to enter, I knew we would not be so lucky.

I glanced around the crowds, looking for a familiar face, or an open table. Our tribe sat together at one of the tables in the recessed area. I led the girls over to them, with neither of them questioning my destination. While it was nice to spend the day without the tribe following me around, I was curious if any of them followed through on checking into the gossip mill.

It took us longer than usual to weave through the crowd, and while we walked it became clear everyone in the lobby was as happy as I was, to still be stuck in the hotel. From rude remarks to arguments with staff and coordinators, no one was pleased at the delay. I was still not convinced they could keep us, but I focused on keeping my head down and walking straight to my destination, to avoid getting pulled into any discussions.

"Hey y'all," I said with a fake smile as I walked up