Isabel #2
"Well then, let's go," Isabel said, already heading toward the bathroom door. She grinned. “If we take the car before he does, Darius will have to get a taxi, which will slow him down.”
“You can be so evil at times,” Penny laughed as they headed out of the house.
The diner sat at the edge of the bay road where it curved away from Sweet Blossom Bay toward the Sanibel causeway, a low-slung building with a green awning and a hand-painted sign that said GULF COAST GRILLE in faded letters that suggested the sign had been there considerably longer than the current owner.
The parking lot held six cars. A ceiling fan turned slowly behind the glass front door.
The owner, a broad-shouldered man in his fifties named Pete, recognized Penny the moment they walked in.
"Penny," Pete said. "Welcome back, it’s so good to see you."
Penny greeted him warmly, then introduced him to Isabel before she explained, without explaining too much, what they needed.
She told him that a meeting was taking place there in approximately twenty minutes, involving people she needed to observe without being seen.
She needed a booth at the back, away from the main floor, and she needed the booth nearest the window table to be available and unoccupied when her party arrived.
She handed Pete a small flat device no larger than a coin, which she asked him to slide under the edge of the table's condiment tray.
Pete looked at the device, took it, and grinned. “As long as this is industrial espionage, I don’t get named or blamed,” he teased.
“Nope, just me needing to hear what my foolishly sneaky brother is up to,” Isabel assured Pete.
“Okay then,” Pete said. "Kira," he called to the waitress behind the counter. "Come here a minute."
He briefed Kira quietly while Penny and Isabel settled into the back booth. Kira was a small, sharp-eyed young woman who nodded once at Pete's instructions, then did as he instructed, flashing Isabel and Penny a smile.
Isabel sat with her hands around a glass of iced tea and her eyes on the front door.
"I feel ridiculous," Isabel said quietly.
"You feel ridiculous because you've never done anything like this before," Penny replied, her eyes also on the door. "Give it five minutes."
“It is also quite exciting, though,” Isabel admitted. “I feel like a spy.”
“Is that why you insisted we get these baseball caps?” Penny winced, tapping the brim of hers.
“Well, if we’re going to do this, we may as well do it right, and we can’t risk Darius or Baxter glancing our way and seeing us,” Isabel reasoned. “And baseball caps are perfect as they know we’d never ordinarily wear one.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Penny agreed.
"If Darius is doing this because he thinks it’s my father's dream, he’s wrong," Isabel told her.
“What do you mean?” Penny asked with a frown. “Darius told me that your parents often spoke about creating that resort and spa here.”
“The last year we ever came here, I heard my mom make my father promise to never create that here,” Isabel confessed.
“She said that it would ruin the small town and that it would be better on the outskirts of the town between Sanibel and Sweet Blossom Bay. She was also adamant that the hotel shouldn’t be as large as my father had first envisioned. ”
Penny gaped at her. “You haven’t mentioned this to him?”
“I did,” Isabel told her. “I went straight to him and told him that mom and dad were fighting over dad’s project plan for Sweet Blossom Bay. He asked why they were fighting, and I told him that Mom wanted Dad to stop thinking about ruining the beautiful town because she wanted to preserve it.”
“And he’s still insisting on this!” Penny said more to herself in confusion.
“It was not long after that they passed away,” Isabel’s voice dropped with the ache in her heart. It had been over forty years, but that ache of losing her parents in that way had never gone away.
“It could be he just forgot,” Penny stated doubtfully and then shook her head. “Or it could explain his growing reluctance for this project.”
“What do you mean?” Isabel asked, her brow furrowing.
“I don’t know,” Penny said. “But I’ve seen it in his eyes.
It’s like he’s conflicted about this project.
Even with the house, I can see when we talk about redoing it how his eyes go distant but not in a bad way.
Like he’s picturing what we are saying.” She bit her lip.
“He could move on the properties he wanted at any time, but he’s held back and instead just keeps sending letters and offers. ”
“Like he’s hoping they’d be able to thwart him,” Isabel realized as she remembered watching Darius’s face the other day when they were talking about giving the house a refurbish.
"Yes, like that," Penny answered. "Which is why I'm choosing to believe that something has changed in him about this project. I've seen it, Isabel. The doubt. The way he looks at the bay in the morning. The way he talks about the people here." There was a pause. "And definitely since he met Linda.”
The mention of her new friend's name had the anger igniting once again. “What is he doing with Linda?” She eyed Penny suspiciously once again. “I hope he’s not toying with her emotions or trying to get close to her for the hotel.”
“No!” Penny said straight away. “That is not Darius’s way. He truly likes Linda.”
"Then why is he meeting Baxter?" Isabel asked.
"I want to believe it’s because Baxter has arrived with a weapon aimed at people Darius has started to care about," Penny said quietly, "and your brother has always dealt with threats by walking toward them."
Isabel held her eyes as a movement at a far table caught her eye.
A tall man in jeans and a worn navy t-shirt stood up and put a canvas bag over one shoulder, then folded a newspaper under his arm.
Isabel recognized him after a moment. She remembered his name as Owen Reed, from the Bay Café.
She'd met him briefly at the festival Linda had taken them to when they’d first arrived in Sweet Blossom Bay.
She remembered him for how strikingly handsome he was and for the way his eyes brimmed with intelligence.
He was a man who, without so much as glancing around, knew exactly what or who surrounded him.
His head turned for a brief instant, and their eyes met.
He gave her a brief nod of acknowledgment.
To Isabel’s mortification, heat crept up her cheeks.
She nodded back and quickly looked away, even more embarrassed for being caught staring at him.
But her embarrassment was quickly replaced when Baxter and a tall, poised woman in a designer suit, high heels that cost more than most people made in a month, and eyes that scanned the room and dismissed everyone in it as beneath her.
Isabel sucked in her breath. She knew that type.
Had grown up with that type of woman who was a complete snob.
Isabel and Penny shrank back in the booth, making themselves as invisible as possible.
Before Darius could look around the diner, the server Pete had assigned to Darius and his guests approached them.
She’d seen the photos Isabel and Penny had shown her.
The server was about to lead them to the designated booth when they heard Baxter tell her that they were still waiting for one more person in their party.
The server nodded politely and moved again to take them to their booth.
"Wow," Penny said, very quietly. "That woman is not Baxter’s usual type."
"No," Isabel agreed, studying the woman. "She's more put together than his usual choices." She watched the woman stand haughtily.
Before they could say anything, Owen had finished paying for his meal. He was checking his phone and hadn’t even noticed the couple, stepping into their path.
“Excuse me,” Owen said, lifting his head and freezing. His shoulder stiffened, and his eyes went glacial when they narrowed in on the woman with Baxter.
The woman saw him at the same moment, and her surprise was very different from Owens'. Her eyes widened, and her face fell at the instant recognition. Surprise and shock registered on her previously stony features.
Something crossed her face, too quickly for Isabel to decipher, before a warm sugary smile lifted her lips.
"Owen," she breathed, and her voice was a soft, warm purr, carefully calibrated to sound effortless. "What a wonderful surprise."
Owen didn’t look at all happy to see her and briefly glanced at Baxter, instantly dismissing him before looking back at the woman. His expression gave nothing away.
"Dr. Wineberg," he said, and his voice was empty of warmth or any emotion.
The woman opened her mouth. But before the words came out, Owen turned and waved to Pete before stepping around them and leaving without another word or backward glance.
Baxter and the woman they now knew was Dr. Wineberg turned to watch him go, looking slightly taken aback.
“What was that?” Baxter turned to Dr. Wineberg. “He was very rude.”
“Just an old…” Dr. Wineberg glanced back at the door, and Isabel noticed something shift in the woman’s eyes. “Colleague.”
Isabel looked at Penny with raised brows.
"That wasn't rude," Penny said, very quietly.
"No," Isabel agreed, watching the front door where Owen had been a moment ago. "That was something else entirely and more like disgusted indifference."
A few minutes after Darius and Dr. Wineberg were seated, the diner door opened once again, and this time Darius stepped in.
Peter gave a quick glance toward Penny and Isabel, who once again shrank back out of view, before he walked over to Darius, who informed Pete he was meeting people.
Pete led him toward the table where Darius and Dr. Wineberg were seated.
“Looks like the show’s about to begin,” Penny stated.
Isabel picked up her iced tea, nodded, and settled in to listen.