Chapter 10
LINDA
Linda walked slowly along the wet sand, and the morning sun was warm on her shoulders.
For the first time since she had walked out of her Miami house yesterday morning, she felt positive.
She understood that Uncle George’s recovery was going to be hard.
Saving the hotel and its attached properties was going to be hard.
But she, with the help of her family and friends, would do it.
Linda had no doubt about that. She thought about the locked drawer in her uncle’s office.
As soon as she got back there, it was going to be the first thing she tackled.
A shiver slivered down Linda’s spine as she knew it was not something good.
It was something Uncle George wanted no one to see.
She had been walking for perhaps ten minutes when she saw three figures coming the other way along the beach.
A tall man in a soft blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
A woman in a pale linen dress and a wide straw hat.
A young girl with long dark hair and bare feet, walking with them at the water’s edge.
The tall man looked up.
Linda’s stomach did a small, foolish thing, and her breath caught.
It was him. The man from the pizza place.
He was even taller than she remembered, his dark, thick hair neatly cut, the line of his shoulders square against the morning light. His eyes met hers across thirty yards of shell-strewn sand, and the same small surprise flickered across his face as he recognized her.
They got closer, then stopped walking. Linda stopped too.
The two parties met on the wet sand near the waterline. The little girl with the long dark hair giggled and leaned down when Buddy greeted her excitedly. Jake and Toby looked up from their shell pouches.
“Well, hello again,” Darius greeted her with a warm smile.
“Hi,” Linda answered, struggling to control the fluttering in her stomach. “How were the pizzas?”
“Ah, you’re the wonderful person who ensured we got a delicious variety of pizza.” The woman’s eyes warmed, and she smiled. “I’m Isabel.”
“Hi,” Linda greeted back. “I’m Linda, and it was a pleasure. But you can’t go wrong with any pizza from Sweet Pizzas.”
“What’s his name?” Linda heard the young girl ask.
“Buddy,” Sophia answered. “I’m Sophia, this is my brother Jake, and our friend Toby.”
“Hi, I’m Emma.” The young girl was giving appreciative Buddy a lot of attention.
“How are you enjoying the Bay View Beach House?” Linda asked Isabel.
“It’s beautiful,” Linda told her. “My granddaughter and I are very grateful to my big brother here for bringing us on this summer vacation.”
“You’re brother and sister?” Linda didn’t know why that information pleased her. She shook it off.
“Yes,” Darius replied a little too fast. “And Emma is Isabel’s granddaughter and my great-niece. I thought we needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of Miami for a relaxed and fun summer here in Sweet Blossom Bay.”
“Well, you certainly came to the right place for a wonderful summer,” Linda assured them. “This small community has a way of taking you in. You may arrive as a stranger, but you will go away feeling like family.”
“Yes, I know,” Isabel told her. “We used to come here some summers with our parents when we were kids.”
“How lovely,” Linda said. “So you’re here for the entire summer?”
“We are,” Isabel said with a nod. “Are you here for the summer or do you live here?”
“Yes. My son and his wife are away working for Doctors Without Borders for the summer,” Linda explained. “My grandchildren and I arrived yesterday.” She glanced at her grandchildren. “We’re staying at Hearts Hotel for the summer.”
She watched Darius’s face as she said it, frowning as his eyes gave the smallest flicker behind them. But the expression was gone before she could decipher it. Linda shook it off and ignored it.
Linda wondered what that was about but she didn’t have time to think about it when Sophia asked Emma, “Are you going to the first day of the summer carnival tomorrow?”
“I don’t know,” Emma turned to her grandmother. “Are we, Gran?”
“I’m sure we can go,” Isabel told her with a warm smile.
“You should come with us,” Sophia said, then stopped and glanced at Isabel. “That’s if you would allow it.”
“Sophia, we’ve just met,” Linda laughed. “Sorry, the kids here are like a big family.”
“I remember that, actually,” Isabel commented, then looked at Emma. “Why don’t we meet you there?”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” Darius said.
“Why don’t I give you my number?” Linda suggested.
“Then you can message me, and we can make arrangements to meet.” She smiled at the look in Isabel’s eyes.
“I grew up in Sweet Blossom Bay. I know all the local spots, so I can introduce you and show you, Sweet Blossom Bay, from a local’s point of view. ”
“That’s very kind of you,” Darius told Linda, then turned to his sister. “What do you think, Isabel?”
Isabel hesitated for a second.
“Please, Gran,” Emma pleaded with her grandmother. “It will be nice to have a friend here for the summer.”
“And we live just down the road from the Bay View Beach House,” Sophia pointed out, so you know where to find us.”
“Okay,” Isabel relented, pulling out her phone.
Linda and her exchanged numbers. She saved Isabel’s number as Isabel from Bay View Beach House.
“Did you say you arrived here yesterday?” Darius asked.
“Yes, we came from Miami,” Linda told him.
“We’re also from Miami,” Darius told her. “What part are you from?”
“Coconut Grove,” Linda told him. “And you?”
“We are out near Key Biscayne,” Darius informed her.
“You realize just how big Miami is when you meet someone from there here,” Linda pointed out.
“And how cozy this little town is,” Darious pointed out. “I bet there’s no way you’d go a few days without bumping into someone you know, especially as a local.”
“Yes,” Linda agreed. “Living in a small town is both a blessing and a curse. Everyone knows you, and you feel you hardly have any privacy. But living in a big city isolates you, and there is only your close circle of friends and family.” She glanced around.
“Here it’s a community that becomes like family. ”
“That’s so true,” Isabel agreed.
“Isabel, if you like, I can fetch you and Emma to come with us to the fair opening tomorrow,” Linda offered on impulse. “I park in the shopping mall parking garage as we have a reserved parking space there. The first day of the festival is usually manic, and there is no parking.”
“Oh, Linda.” Isabel’s eyes warmed. “That is so kind.”
“Darius, you’re welcome too.” Linda glanced at him.
Linda heard her own voice say it and immediately wondered what she was doing. She had asked because it was the polite thing to do. She had asked because Isabel had clearly hesitated, and the hesitation had been about Darius as they were here on vacation together.
“That is generous of you,” Darius said quietly and looked at his sister. “I think that would be a great idea. And I won’t feel guilty about the few work things I have to do in the morning. Isabel, you and Emma should take Linda up on her offer.”
“Are you sure?” Isabel asked, her eyes narrowing with a flash of anger, and for a moment Linda thought she’d stepped across the line. “This is supposed to be your vacation too, and not a working one.”
Ah, Linda thought, understanding the problem.
This was about her brother working on their vacation.
She knew how that felt with both her ex-husband and son.
Although, her son was a surgeon so he had an excuse.
Her ex-husband was probably just pretending to work while gambling away their money and cheating on her. ”
Bitterness and anger shot through her. She swallowed it down and kept her smile firmly in place.
“I’m sure.” Darius nodded and smiled encouragingly at her. “And I think it’s about time you went out and had some fun with female friends.”
Isabel looked at her brother for a few seconds before turning back to Linda.
“Then yes,” Isabel said to Linda, with a big smile. “Emma and I would love to take you up on your offer.”
Just then, Linda overheard Sophia and Emma quietly exchanging numbers.
“You can message me anytime,” Sophia told Emma.
“Same here,” Emma told Sophia.
Linda smiled. Her heart warmed at how quickly the two girls warmed to each other. Sophia didn’t make friends easily, so she must’ve picked up something special about Emma.
Linda glanced at her wrist watch, and her brows lifted.
“Goodness, is that the time?” She looked from Isabel to Darius. “Sorry, but I have to get back.” She looked at her grandkids and Toby. “We need to go.”
They said their goodbyes, and Linda promised to message Isabel about the festival, and they could make plans.
“Until tomorrow, then,” Linda said as she gathered the children and Buddy.
“Until tomorrow.” Darius, Isabel, and Emma called.
The two parties parted. Buddy whined a small protesting whine that Emma was leaving and trotted reluctantly after Linda when she called him. Sophia walked beside Linda with a small bright bounce in her step.
“Gran,” Sophia said quietly when they had got a little distance up the beach. “I think I made a new friend. Which is great as now I don’t have to hang out with those two.” She looked pointedly at her brother and Toby.
“Yes, sweetheart.” Linda nodded. “But you still have to keep an eye on them.”
“Really?” Sophia rolled her eyes. “I look after him all the time at home. This is my vacation.”
Linda smiled and reached down and squeezed her granddaughter’s shoulder.
“Oh, honey, that’s the price we pay for having siblings,” Linda told her. “My brother used to say the same thing when we were your age.”
“I can’t see Uncle Michael saying something like that.” Sophia looked at Linda, unconvinced. “He is very protective.”
“Not when he was your age,” Linda told her. “He just wanted to play with his friends and not have his younger sister following them around.”
They walked on in the warm, bright morning. Linda did not let herself glance back over her shoulder once. Behind her on the wet sand, she felt the small, unsettled echo of a man’s gaze that had not quite left her, even now.
It is nothing, Linda told herself firmly.
She was almost sixty and wouldn’t even know where to start dating again or if she’d even want to.
The thought of Richard getting remarried at the end of summer struck her, but this time, for some reason, she felt nothing.
No anger. Not even that slow-burning resentment that he’d spent her money on his new bride-to-be.
Linda frowned, thinking that she probably owed him for pushing her in this direction, because now more than ever, she felt this was where she was meant to spend the rest of her years in this world.
By having lost everything, Linda had regained her real home—Sweet Blossom Bay.
Not that she would ever admit that to Richard, as she still felt he owed her a lot of money for his theft of her personal savings and for making her have to sell her house.
All to pay off his debts and fund his second marriage it seemed.
Linda cleared her mind of thoughts of Richard and Darius. But as she walked the children back through the side gate to Heart House, Darius’s easy smile and intense gaze refused to be erased from her mind.
Rosa was on the porch with a tray of cold lemonade.
“Look, Rosa has snacks and lemonade,” Jake called and ran ahead with Toby and Buddy in tow.
“Are you going back to the office, Gran?” Sophia asked.
“Yes, sweetheart,” Linda confirmed. “I have to start helping Uncle George with the hotel while he’s not able to.”
“I thought you might do that,” Sophia admitted.
“Gran, you know you should just live here instead of trying to find a new house in Miami. Uncle George needs help now, and you won’t be all alone in Miami.
” Her eyes sparkled with the smile that lifted her mouth.
“And, Jake and I can come here to visit you every summer and maybe even Christmas.”
Linda looked at her granddaughter in surprise. It seemed everyone in her family had the same idea: that she move back here.
“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Linda admitted. “And I may just do that.”
“Good,” Sophia said, going up on tiptoes and kissing her cheek. “Don’t work too hard and remember you promised to take us to see Uncle George this afternoon.”
“I won’t forget,” Linda promised and watched Sophia run up the porch stairs to join her brother and Toby.
A few moments later, Linda was back in Uncle George’s office, which was as she had left it. The bunch of keys was still in the desk drawer. The morning light was a soft, warmer gold now through the window.
Linda sat down, pulled out the bunch of keys, and started turning them again, tag by tag.
Lobby front. Lobby back. Staff hall. Wine cellar.
Workshop. Side gate. Heart House front. Heart House back.
Heart House attic. Master bedroom upstairs.
Linen closet. Pantry. Library back door. Then she found it. Desk drawer.
Linda turned the small brass key in the small brass keyhole. The lock gave with a soft click. The drawer slid open under her hand.
It was full.
Full of bills. Letters. Final notices. A stack thicker than her wrist. Linda pulled the stack out and laid it across the desk, and her chest tightened with each new envelope she lifted off the top.
Then a larger envelope at the bottom of the stack caught her eye. Heavy cream paper. A discreet logo embossed in the upper left corner. Her uncle’s name typed neatly on the front, addressed care of Hearts Hotel. The postmark was from two days ago.
Linda lifted the envelope out and turned it in her hands.
The return address read simply:
Wayne Group International. 1 Brickell Bay Drive. Miami.
Linda sat very still. The desk lamp threw its soft green light across the cream paper. The morning sun lay quietly on the windowsill. Down the hallway, Linda could hear the faint music of Molly’s radio in the kitchen and the small, distant laughter of the children on the porch.
Linda slid a finger under the envelope’s seal and lifted out the heavy, folded letter.
The first line read: Dear Mr. Heart, We write further to our previous correspondence and are pleased to enclose, for your consideration, our formal letter of intent to acquire the property known as Hearts Hotel and its adjoining bayside reserve, situated at 1 Bay View Drive, Sweet Blossom Bay.
Linda’s hand began to shake, her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes widened.
What on earth was this? Was Uncle George thinking of selling?
Was someone trying to push him out? The paper slipped from her fingers and drifted onto the stack of unpaid bills below it.
The two pieces of paper sat together, and Linda felt the cold weight of what they meant in the same room.