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“I don’t know. Are you any good at Charades?”

“Try me.”

Ellery laughed again. “We play the movie version.”

“Try me.”

“I guess it’s you and me, babe,” Oscar told Tosh.

Tosh spluttered at the “babe” comment, but smiled reluctantly.

And, surprisingly, they all did seem to relax and have fun playing Charades.

Flip and Lenny won easily, which was just like old times, but Ellery and Jack made a decent showing. Jack turned out to be pretty good at guessing movie titles. Not so good at acting them out, but he did loosen up and seemed to enjoy himself. Chelsea and Freddie made a formidable team, while Tosh and Oscar were unexpectedly out of sync with each other, yet somehow seemed to find that hysterically funny.

When the game finally ended, it was after midnight, glasses were empty, the fire in the grate was dying, and everyone was yawning widely.

Oscar was fingering his lucky gold piece, absently sliding the coin through his fingers, flipping it across his knuckles with dexterous ease. The coin flashed in the firelight as Oscar’s long fingers alternately curled and straightened, creating a continuous, almost hypnotic cycle.

Ellery remembered that nervous habit from old, but he had never really paid attention to the coin. “Is that a doubloon?”

Oscar chuckled. “Yes, but it’s not an antique. I had it appraised once. It was only worth about seventy bucks.”

“Oh, you do still have that?” Lenny commented. “I thought you’d lost it.”

Oscar smiled at Freddie. “No. Thanks to Freddie.”

Freddie looked uncomfortable. “Not really. I just picked it up off the grass and gave it back to you.”

“I thought somebody might have lifted it,” Flip remarked. “There was a lot of that going on back then.”

There were murmurs of acknowledgement. Their dorm had been plagued with a rash of thefts their sophomore year. Ellery had lost fifty dollars. Flip had lost twenty. Freddie had lost sixty. Which was one reason they’d chosen to move off campus.

“Nope,” Oscar said.

“Can I see the coin?” Ellery asked.

Oscar flipped the coin to him. Ellery caught it and examined it, showing it to Jack. It was a Spanish doubloon, though, as Oscar had said, a repro.

“Nice.” Ellery flipped the coin back to Oscar, who pocketed it.

“I’ve really missed this,” Tosh sighed.

Flip said, “Same.”

“We should make it a regular thing,” Lenny said.

“I would love that,” Ellery said. “I’d love you to meet Dylan Carter. He runs our local theater group, the Scallywags. He was supposed to be our bartender tomorrow, but...”

“We could do an annual summer reunion!” That was Tosh.

“Leave it to the professional event coordinator,” Flip teased.

“I know, but really!”

“But really, I think it’s a great idea.” Even as the words left Ellery’s mouth, he remembered there was no longer justhimself to consider. He glanced at Jack. Jack smiled at him, said to Tosh, “Sure. You should come in the summer. The weather is great and there are a lot more entertainment options.”

“Then it’s a plan!” Tosh clapped her hands together.