It didn’t have room service, but it had a pool! And a hot tub (not a particularly clean one, but Zadie was beyond caring). Most important, their room at the Indigo Motel had real double beds with real mattresses and fluffy down comforters that sighed when they sank into them.

“No sand, no rocks, no bugs,” Zadie mumbled blissfully, the soft mattress drawing out the ache in her back like a poultice.

“No stars.” Her sister frowned as she gazed up at the water stain on the popcorn ceiling. “No birds, no fresh air.”

The fan next to Zadie kicked on and a gentle breeze swept across her face. “Aaaaaiiiir-conditioning.”

“Yeah, that feels pretty good.” At least they agreed on something.

The moment Finn’s toes pierced the water’s surface, the pool burst open like a ripe fruit. She sank like pulp to the bottom, feeling cool but not cold, and gazed up at the shimmering fractals the late afternoon sun made on the water.

She surfaced and swam to the side of the pool closest to Zadie, who was lying on a deck chair reading. Finn squinted to read the cover. “Two to a Saddle. What’s that one about?”

Zadie presumably lifted her gaze to her, but it was hard to tell behind the large sunglasses she was wearing. “It’s about a misunderstood cowboy named Dash. I’m not that far in, but it looks like he’s got the hots for his employer’s wife.”

Finn rested her arms on the pool deck. “Uh-oh.”

“Yeah. Uh-oh.”

“My book’s under my towel. Can you pass it to me?” Finn pointed to the balled-up hotel towel sitting on the deck chair next to her sister’s.

Zadie looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “You want to read in the pool?”

“No. I want to read over the pool.”

“But your body is in the pool.”

“My lower body is in the pool. My hands”—Finn wiggled her fingers—“are not.”

“Ugh. Fine. But if you drop it, you’re buying me a new copy.” Zadie stood up from her chair and walked The Fisherman’s Desire over to Finn.

“Gracias,” she said and started thumbing through the pages with her pruney fingers. Zadie cringed.

A few minutes later, Finn gasped in horror. Zadie jerked up to sitting. “You dropped it, didn’t you?”

“Worse!” Finn replied. “Eleanor just found another woman’s stocking in Neptune’s lobster trap!”

Zadie heaved an exasperated sigh.

“How could Captain Neptune do that to her?” Finn continued, incensed. “After she promised to give up her riches to be with him?”

“Just keep reading.”

“It doesn’t make sense. They were so in love!”

“Just keep reading.”

“Wait…” Finn’s gears began to turn. “It wasn’t another woman, was it? It was planted there by Admiral Winsome!”