Chapter One #2
Even so, she’d finally managed to accept that however unreal it might seem, the inheritance was real.
So, she’d given her notice at the library, packed all her worldly goods for what felt like the hundredth time in her life, rented out her cozy cottage in the trendy Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, put Stella in her carrier, and headed south.
Now here she was, standing in the lobby of the Sand Dollar Motel, and despite her excitement at beginning her new life here on the island, it wasn’t the smooth start she’d been looking forward to.
Hopefully, now that the owner was here, they’d find a room for her—even if it wasn’t as nice as the one she’d made a reservation for.
Heck, at this point, Callie would agree to stay in a hot dog cart if it had a bed and a working shower. At least dinner would be close by.
Looking at Frank again, she saw the uncertainty in his expression and realized even a hot dog cart might be asking for too much. But refusing to give in to the sinking feeling that threatened, she pressed on. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a room for us, should it, Frank?”
As if he didn’t want to let her down, Frank glanced toward Sissy. “What’s the holdup on her room, Sis?”
“She says she has a reservation, but there’s no record of it in the system. The bird people have every room.”
Callie could hear a note of “don’t blame me” in the young woman’s voice. And despite her earlier annoyance with the girl, she knew it wasn’t Sissy’s fault. “I take it there was some kind of glitch?”
At her words, Frank raised his eyes heavenward and groaned. “I am so sorry, Miss Jameson. The network went down a few weeks ago and we thought we’d pulled all the reservations that went through while it was out and recorded them in the big book, but yours must have slipped through the cracks.”
Though she’d been expecting something like that, Callie felt the last vestige of optimism seep out of her like the sweat that was rapidly drying in the frigid air-conditioned interior of the hotel’s main room, decorated in tacky but endearingly cheerful tropical colors.
“Dare I hope that the Bird People will be placated with a nice feathery nest in the nearest tree?” It was a lame joke, but she wasn’t at her comedic best at the moment.
Neither Frank nor his daughter even offered so much as a smile.
Then Sissy shook her head and pushed up her glasses.
“Oh, no,” she said in her flat and toneless voice.
“They’re just people who are into birds.
Like watching them and stuff. There’s a convention here this weekend and we got the overflow from the Jean Lafitte. ”
The resort was named for the legendary Gulf coast pirate, which Callie knew from her research on the island and its main attractions in the weeks leading up to her move.
It boasted the swankiest accommodations on the island and was far more expensive than Callie could afford.
At least, it had been until she’d received the first installment of her inheritance a few weeks ago.
But it hadn’t mattered at the time because even if she could afford it, the resort had been completely filled up. And still was, apparently.
“Is there somewhere else?” she asked in a tired voice, no longer caring about hiding her fatigue or disappointment from the Barbiers. “A B&B? A campground? A lean-to?”
Frank’s expression told her there was, in fact, nowhere else.
“Again, I’m so sorry, Miss Jameson. Everybody is booked up.
But I’m sure Trey will have somewhere for you to stay at the library.
I’ve been talking to some of the guys who are working on it with him and they say the place is looking really good.
Of course, he’s stubborn and hasn’t let anybody inside to take a look around, but I know the man does excellent work. ”
Now it was Callie’s turn to give Frank Barbier a blank look. “I’m sorry, who?”
“Trey LeBlanc, Miss Khaki’s great-nephew,” the Sand Dollar’s proprietor said, looking perplexed.
“I thought you knew. I mean, as the new owner, I thought the lawyers or whoever would have told you he was still staying there. Though come to mention it, when I asked him when we could expect you on island, he didn’t seem to know anything about it. ”
Now that Frank mentioned it, Callie did remember Khaki’s daughter, Julie, mentioning something about a cousin doing some renovations.
There had been so much to take in at the meetings with the lawyer though, and she hadn’t realized the guy had done more than a few repairs.
From what Frank said, however, he’d had crews working on the building and had lived there while they did them.
She might have seen someone else’s presence in the library as an inconvenience twenty minutes ago, but given the fact that her previous plans for accommodation had fallen through, she was just glad to hear the place was habitable.
Surely, she and this Trey person would be able to make do for a few days until the bird people left.
As long as he wasn’t some kind of creep.
Though she couldn’t think anyone Khaki had loved like a son—Julie’s description of her mother’s relationship with this guy—would dare such a thing.
“I mean, you are the new owner,” Frank was saying, “so he could—”
But Callie, having learned of a place where she might be able to take off her shoes and sit on a chair that was stationary for a half hour, had already hoisted Stella’s carrier and was heading back out to her car.