Total pages in book: 9
Estimated words: 8106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 41(@200wpm)___ 32(@250wpm)___ 27(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 8106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 41(@200wpm)___ 32(@250wpm)___ 27(@300wpm)
And that was when it hit her.
Vixen managed to catch the eye of one of the servers, and Patty's eyes widened at her request. "You're joking, aren't you?"
"Why would you think I'm joking?" Vixen was genuinely bemused.
"Oh, uh, nothing." Patty started grinning, and Vixen's bewilderment grew. Patty grew up in Lavender Cove while Vixen had only moved here a few years ago. Maybe this was a joke that only locals would get, but she hadn't been around long enough to understand?
Patty came back and carefully placed the candle holder at the center of the table before lighting the candle. "I'm so happy for you," the other woman gushed.
"Um...thanks?" She wasn't exactly sure why Patty was happy for her, and the other woman had already hurried away to attend to another customer before Vixen could ask her about it.
Weird.
What was it about today that there seemed to be a mystery to solve no matter where she went? If she were to write a book about this, Patty's would be something like...The Case of the Strangely Smiling Server?
Vixen set the thought aside and reached for her notebook. It had a built-in pocket sleeve at the back, and Vixen was relieved to see that the letter was still in pristine condition upon pulling it out.
She held it over the candlelight, and her gaze slowly ran over its contents from top to bottom. Just as she expected, nothing out of the ordinary caught her eye, and Vixen started feeling foolish for ever suspecting Claire's uncle. His actions might have been perplexing, but it could in no way be considered as evidence of his—-
What?!
Yellowish lines started to appear behind the words Claire's great-aunt had written, and Vixen quickly gave the letter a sniff.
Aha! Lemon juice!
Using acid ink to write a secret message was such a classic move, and Vixen's lips slowly curved into an appreciative smile when she remembered Claire saying how the older woman was a huge Agatha Christie fan.
She held the letter over the flame once more, and Vixen was able to make out the first clue.
.————.—-..——.
Well, that was easy. It was '1989' written in Morse code, but below it, however...
Huh?
The set of scraggly lines went up and down, and since Claire had to fly to Denver for her great-aunt's funeral, could this be a hastily drawn map of...The Rockies?
Vixen was feeling more than a little giddy after writing down her second set of clues, and as she stood up after paying her tab, Vixen looked around and saw that the other couples were also looking rather giddily as well, albeit in a different sense of the word.
Good for them.
Seeing couples dating like this didn't bother her at all, but many of Vixen's old friends refused to believe that she wasn't worried about being single for so long. She was about to turn thirty-five in a couple of months, but Vixen had never had a boyfriend, and she would only smile and politely say no every time someone offered to pair her up with a blind date.
Vixen didn't like saying this out loud unless pressured to do so, but she had complete faith in God's will. It was and would always be His choice if she was meant to have her own Mr. Right in the first place, and if she did, Vixen was also confident she would eventually meet him in God's perfect timing.
Patty's face fell when Vixen said her goodbyes. "Are you sure you don't want to stay longer?"
Vixen shook her head. "Maybe next time."
As she walked away, she heard Patty whisper, "Poor girl. I think she's been stood up."
Huh.
The words lingered in Vixen's mind as she carefully made her way down the steep and narrow driveway that connected the Lighthouse to the main road. There was something about those words that bothered her. Something that she should've realized away. But what?
It was a long but scenic walk back to her place, and as a car drove past Vixen on her way down, she was momentarily distracted when she caught a glimpse of its driver...and was stunned to feel butterflies actually come alive in her tummy.
Oh!
The man behind the wheel had raven-black hair, strong-jawed, and deeply tanned. He was handsome in the most classical sense of the word, and Vixen was almost unnerved at how instantly attracted she felt to a complete stranger.
She wished she could make herself believe this was God's way of introducing her Mr. Right, but...nope.
Vixen wanted to take care of her heart the way God took precious care of it, and so she determinedly pushed all thoughts of Mr. (Possibly) Right out of her mind.
If he's the man God has chosen for me, then I'll meet him again, one way or another.
But for now, Vixen had her first honest-to-goodness case to solve, and a follow-up question to her first one. Had Uncle Jorge seen the same secret message, and if he had—-why hadn't he told Claire?