Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
They spent the morning sunbathing, out there on the boat. Brooke felt all her stress and anxiety melt clean away, soothed by the gentle roll of the ocean—and Riley’s lazy kisses.
“I’m beginning to see why you like this thing,” she said, yawning. “It must be nice being able to just pull up the anchor and sail on whenever you please.”
“I keep it close to home most days,” Riley replied. He was laying beside her, one hand intertwined with hers. “My adventuring days are behind me. I like my creature comforts, a hot meal and a good glass of whiskey.”
“Speaking of . . .” Brooke sat up. “I remember you saying something about a picnic?”
He grinned. “Worked up an appetite, have you?”
“Maybe.” She smiled back. “And I could use some fuel for another round.”
Riley’s eyebrow arched.
“Another swim,” she added, getting to her feet.
“Sure, that’s what you meant.”
She laughed and headed down into the cabin, where she found the picnic basket and a couple of glasses. She emerged back on deck and paused, just watching Riley. He was fixing something with the sail, looking sexier than any man had a right to; tanned skin golden in the sun, his muscles rippling.
She felt a delicious shiver spiral through her. She’d been joking before, but it was true—this was just the start of their fun.
Riley looked up and caught her staring. “Come here,” he beckoned, and she moved closer. He kissed her softly, but even the gentle brush of his lips ignited something hot and craving deep inside.
A sudden chill whipped around them, and Brooke shivered. Riley broke the kiss. “You’re cold.” He frowned, gently rubbing Brooke’s shoulders. He glanced back out at the water and paused. “When did the weather turn?”
Brooke looked too. The blue skies were now clouding over fast with an ominous grey, and the calm waters were getting choppy, the boat shifting and rolling on the tide.
“Come on,” he said, looking concerned. “We better get back to harbor before this storm blows up.”
Brooke grabbed a sweater and pulled her clothes back on over her swimsuit as Riley set about pulling up the anchor and setting their course back to Sweetbriar Cove.
By the time they arrived back at the harbor, it had started to rain.
The wind was whipping hard around them, and the waves were roiling high.
Brooke held on tight to the railing, glad to see the dock right up ahead.
She was already feeling queasy, and if she spent longer on this rollercoaster of a ride, she wasn’t sure she could keep from doing something incredibly un-romantic.
The harbormaster met them to help Riley secure the boat up tight to the mooring. “I was wondering where you were,” he said, reaching out to help Brooke ashore. She staggered inelegantly off the boat and caught her breath, relieved to be on solid ground again.
“It was a race, but we made it.” Riley grabbed her things and hopped onto the dock. “The storm sure picked up fast.”
“Shouldn’t last long.” The harbormaster checked the horizon. “But I’d spend the night on dry land if I were you.”
“That’s the plan.” Riley met her eyes with a secret smile, and Brooke grinned back. Now that she wasn’t hanging on for dear life, she remembered exactly where they left off—and his tempting promises for where they would pick up again.
Riley opened the lockbox and retrieved his keys and her phone. “Four hours and counting,” he said, passing it over. “I’m impressed. The way you were talking about that thing, I figured you’d be in a cold sweat by now.”
“I’m not that bad!” Brooke protested, laughing. “I can go a few hours without?—”
She stopped, seeing the screen. Fifteen missed calls?
“Come on,” Riley said, starting out ahead of her. “Let’s get out of this rain—and into a hot shower. Your place or mine?”
Brooke ignored him, frantically dialing the front desk at the hotel. They answered right away. “Kevin? It’s Brooke,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“Only total meltdown!” he exclaimed, sounding panicked. “Where have you been? We’re been calling everywhere trying to reach you.”
“I left my phone for a few hours,” Brooke gulped. “Calm down, tell me what’s wrong. Did the drains clog in the Marigold suite again?”
“Worse,” he whispered. “The computers are all screwed. Something happened, some kind of virus or something? I don’t know, but the system’s wiped. I called in tech support, but they don’t know what to do either. Everything’s gone!”
Brooke’s stomach dropped.
“What do you mean, gone?!”
“Hey, put that away.” Riley suddenly took the phone from her hand, grinning. “Your day off isn’t over yet.”
“Riley!” Brooke snatched it back impatiently and pressed it to her ear again. “Hello, Kevin? I’m on my way. Don’t touch anything until I get there!” She hung up, her mind racing. The whole system? That was everything: reservations, orders, all the internal guides and training and?—
“Everything OK?” Riley asked.
Brooke turned on him. “No! No, it’s not OK!” she exclaimed, full of dread. “Nobody’s been able to reach me for hours! What did I tell you about my phone? I can’t just clock off and disappear like you. I have people counting on me!”
“Whoa, easy there.” Riley placed his hands on her shoulders. “Take a breath.”
“I don’t need to breathe!” Brooke cried. “I need to get to work.” She pushed past him and started for the parking lot before she remembered he’d driven. Crap. “Can you please drop me at my place?” she asked through a clenched jaw. “I have to get back right now.”
Riley blinked. “Sure, we can head straight to the hotel.”
Brooke shook her head. “It’s out of your way.”
“It’s no trouble.” Riley nodded to the car. “And whatever the problem is at work, I’m sure you can figure it out.”
She’d always liked Riley’s eternal optimism, but for once, it was no comfort.
Brooke sat tense in the passenger seat as they sped up the coast to the hotel.
What had she been thinking taking off like that today?
Going AWOL wasn’t a part of her job description, and who knew what mess Kevin had made blindly clicking about after the system went down?
It was her job to be around for these disasters, on call so someone could minimize the damage and keep everyone from making a bad situation even worse.
What if they couldn’t restore the files? What if the whole system was erased? Brooke’s stomach churned just thinking of the information they’d never get back. And with the big wedding coming up in just a few weeks, she needed those contacts!
“It’ll be OK.” Riley reached over and squeezed her hand. He flashed her a reassuring smile. “Whatever it is, I’m sure you can fix it.”
“You don’t know that,” Brooke snapped back, tense and guilty. She’d been sunning herself out on the ocean while everything was falling apart. “I never should have let you take my phone. They’ve been trying to reach me for hours.”
“These things happen.” Riley sounded supportive, but Brooke wasn’t in the mood for his “easy come, easy go” approach to life.
“Not on my watch, they don’t,” she said tightly. “I’m supposed to be in charge, so I’m the one who has to answer to the boss for any mistakes. Not all of us have the luxury of running our own thing however we please.”
Riley opened his mouth to reply, but they were pulling up outside the hotel. Brooke reached for the car door and opened it almost before they came to a stop. She dashed inside without a backwards glance.
“Kevin?” she called, hurrying into the lobby. She found the weekend manager huddled around the computer with her IT guy and a group of staff—all of them wearing the same panicked expressions on their faces.
“Brooke, thank God!” Kevin exhaled, looking relieved to see her. “We’ve tried everything. Nothing’s working.”
She strode forward. “Guys?” She looked to her bartender and bellhops. “Let’s get back to work now, OK? I’ll let you know if there’s anything we need.”
The crowd dispersed. Brooke turned to Kevin. “Tell me what happened,” she said, trying to sound calm and totally in control of the situation. “Start at the beginning.”
“I was, umm, working the morning shift,” Kevin started, evading her gaze. “Things were quiet, the Newton wedding haven’t checked in yet, they called and said their flights were delayed, so they won’t be in until this afternoon, and?—”
“The computer, Kevin,” Brooke interrupted him.
He flushed. “So, it was quiet. And I already double-checked the rooms and the reservation schedule, and there was really nothing I needed to be taking care of, so I thought I would play some Bixy, just until anyone arrived.”
Brooke frowned. “Bixy?”
“It’s this new game.” Kevin was the color of a tomato now, flushed all the way to the tips of his ears. “You can download it from the server and log in to access your old games. So I . . . ummm . . . I . . .”
“He downloaded a bootleg copy.” Her IT guy, Jose, put Kevin out of his misery. “Packed with viruses, I’d say.”
“The screens all froze, then they went black, and this logo flashed up.” Kevin tilted the screen so Brooke could see the icon, a maniacally laughing cartoon frog.
“We checked the office computers and tried rebooting, but it’s a system-wide shutdown,” Jose said, looking grim. “I’m sorry, but this is way above my pay-grade. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Brooke stared at the screen in disbelief.
The entire hotel ran off specialized software—everything from linen delivery to the restaurant orders to her entire reservations schedule.
If it was all lost . . . She couldn’t even imagine it.
There was no replacing the information, they would be completely paralyzed.
“What about the back-ups?” she asked hopefully. “We back up the system, every night, so we don’t lose anything.”
Jose shook his head. “The back-ups are still a part of the main system. Right now, we’re locked out. We can’t get in to anything.”
“Is there anyone we can call?” she asked desperately. “There has to be someone.”