“Watch it!” Mac hissed, elbowing her friend in the ribs as she slid in next to him in turn.
“Don’t worry about it,” I laughed as Jeff and Charlie filled in the rest of the booth. “I’m well aware that we’re doing more business than usual lately. No small thanks to Mark for that, no doubt.”
I gave the man a wink, and he laughed as well.
“I don’t know that I can take credit for all of it,” he chuckled, spreading his arms wide at the almost full bar. “I guess word’s getting out about you guys.”
“I guess so,” I said with a shrug. “I’m not going to complain. Anyway, I’ll be right back with your drinks.”
“No, don’t go!” Charlie cried, his tone almost whining. “We want to know what happens next! Did you ever catch that crime ring couple from the Keys? And what about the Dragon’s Rogue and Lafitte’s ship?”
“It’s a little busy in here, guys,” I pointed out, glancing out across the packed bar full of thirsty customers. “I don’t think Rhoda can keep up on her own.”
As if on cue, there was Rhoda, standing right next to me.
“Nadia and Joey are both coming in,” she said quickly. “I just called them.”
“Oh?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at her. “They just agreed to give up a free evening like that?” I snapped my fingers to illustrate my point.
“They’re not the only ones who like a good story,” the bar girl said, flashing me a lopsided grin as she zoomed off to go get the kids their drinks. “Be right back.”
I chuckled, more than a little amused. I’d started to notice the bar girls paying more attention to my stories when the kids came in as of late, but had written it off as me reading into things. I guess they really were paying attention.
Maybe Mike was right, and I didn’t give my stories as much credit as they deserved. I had had an interesting career. I wasn’t going to deny that. I supposed I just never considered that it might be of interest to the next generation, who I’d always thought to be more interested in their cell phones than anything some old guy like me had to say.
“Alright, then,” I said with a bemused shrug. “I guess I’ve got a little time to kill.”
Ty pounded on the table in anticipation, and a goofy grin spread across his face.
“Alright!” he cried. “I can’t wait.”
“We’ve been meaning to get back here for a while now,” Jeff explained apologetically. “It’s been killing us, not knowing what happens next.”
“Some more than others,” Mac said, giving Ty the side-eye as he continued to bounce around in his excitement.
“Well, I’m glad to be of service,” I chuckled, sliding into the booth next to Mark.
Rhoda returned in not too long bearing the kids’ usual orders as well as a neat whiskey for me.
“You sure you’re good?” I asked her one last time as she set the glass down in front of me.
“Yeah, they’re right here,” she said, nodding in the direction of the front doors through which the other bar girls, Nadia and Joey, were now spilling, laughing amongst themselves as they did so. “So we should be good for the rest of the night.”
“Thanks again,” I said, saluting her with my glass as she made her way over to the other bar girls. Then, calling to the other two, “And thank you, girls, for coming in on short notice!”
Nadia and Joey both smiled and waved to me, and I couldn’t help but notice that as they worked, all three of the bar girls lingered near our booth as much as they could, not wanting to miss any more of my story than they had to while they fulfilled the other customers’ orders.
“So?” Ty asked when they were gone, his eyes practically bugging out of his face in anticipation. “What happened next? Did the FBI ever get back to you about what was going on with Lafitte’s ship? Did any of that treasure and stuff you found in it have to do with the Dragon’s Rogue? What about that tent on Pye Key, with all that old nautical stuff, did any of that have to do with the Dragon’s Rogue?”
“Hold on, hold on, hold on,” I chuckled, holding up both of my hands on the table to slow him down. “One question at a time.”
“I don’t know if he’s capable of that,” Mac said dryly, shooting her friend a sly smile.
“So?” Ty asked, unable to contain his excitement to such a degree that he would’ve knocked over his drink if Mac hadn’t rescued it from his wildly flying arms. “What happened? What was that ship in a bottle? It was Lafitte’s ship, right?”
“Oh yes, it was Lafitte’s ship,” I confirmed. “As for who made it, well, that’s the story that I’m going to tell you today.”
“You got another case chasing after that couple from the Keys, the ones who were behind the drug ring there, didn’t you?” Ty asked, looking around at his friends eagerly. “I knew it, I just knew it.”
“Not quite,” I chuckled, enjoying that someone was getting so excited about my life story. “I think I told you before about the old pirate Grendel’s journal, and how I’d been trying to get my hands on it?”
“That’s the one for that old ship your gramps spent so much time trying to dig up?” Mark asked, having not been there for all of my stories leading up to the last one.
“That’s the one,” I confirmed with a nod. “The Dragon’s Rogue. So you’ll remember that my friend Tessa Bleu and I were trying to track it down at this museum in Virginia, but they’d been giving us the runaround.”
“And then they sent you a fake!” Charlie finished for me.
“Well, someone sent me a fake,” I corrected. “Once I got home from the Keys, you could say that I was more than interested in getting to the bottom of all
