AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Susan squeezed Amanda’s wrist. “We have to stay strong.”
“We always do.” But Amanda’s voice wavered. Everything was off.
Amanda carried Genevieve inside quietly. Susan helped her with the diaper bag and the carrier, which she set down in the foyer before hugging her and backing out into the night. Amanda watched her mother’s car lights purr down the dark road and disappear around the bend, thinking about how she’d listened to her mother’s footfalls disappear up the hallway after she’d said good night so many years ago. A youthful part of her ached to have those years back.
“Hello?” Sam’s voice was weak.
Amanda left Genevieve asleep in her carrier in the foyer and tiptoed to the kitchen. Sam hunkered over the table with a glass of whiskey and a bag of chips. He looked up at her, his eyes bloodshot. Amanda poured him a glass of water and rubbed his back. His sigh was that of a very old man.
“It’s going to be okay,” Amanda said. “We got everyone out of the Sunrise Cove in time. That was step one. We’ll just take it one day at a time.”
Sam rubbed his temples. “I’ve spent all night running the numbers. It doesn’t look good.”
Amanda’s heartbeat felt syncopated.
“It was a dismal winter,” Sam said. “We just didn’t bring in the revenue we needed to. We have quite a few reservations over the next few weeks, but we’ll probably have to refund all that money. And we’ll have to do it sooner rather than later so that people can make other plans. But we just don’t have the money to refund everyone. Not right now. I’ve already paid the construction company for their work on the basement—work that they can’t complete. And if we aren’t open for tourist season…” He sighed. “We’re doomed, Amanda.”
Amanda collapsed in the chair beside him. She was too exhausted to speak.
“Your family entrusted this inn to me,” Sam said. “I would hate myself forever if I let it die.”
“It’s not your fault,” Amanda breathed. In her mind’s eye, she imagined a faceless corporation bulldozing the Sunrise Cove Inn and building a high-rise luxury apartment complex for rich tourists who planned to swarm the beaches. She shuddered.
Sam wouldn’t accept the fact that this wasn’t his fault. To him, he hadn’t paid close enough attention to the cash flow throughout the autumn and winter. He hadn’t brought in enough tourism during Christmas. He hadn’t laid down his life enough for the inn. The devastation etched on his face broke Amanda’s heart in two.
Her thoughts raced, searching tirelessly for an answer. It felt like her brain was eating itself.
“We’re going to get through this,” Amanda assured him, a platitude so empty that it echoed.
Sam blinked at her and opened his palms to the sky. “How?” he asked.
“Just give me some time to think,” she said.
But Amanda had no idea where to turn. Perhaps he was right. Maybe it was too late.
Chapter Sixteen
Wes returned home at ten o’clock that evening to find Tommy Gasbarro at the kitchen table with a bottle of beer. Tommy’s lips were in a thin line. Wes wavered in the doorway and blinked at him, unable to fully admit that he hadn’t recognized Tommy when he’d first walked in. He’d thought there was an intruder casually drinking beer at the kitchen table. He reminded himself to smile.
“Hey, Tommy. This is a surprise.”
Tommy was Beatrice’s only real family on the island. Tommy was married to Lola. He was also related to Stan Ellis—a fact that Wes tried to blot out of his mind. Why could he forget everything else but this?
Tommy sipped his beer. “Beatrice is asleep.”
Wes nodded and sat at the table. He avoided drinking like the plague, as it made his already foggy mind even grayer, but right now, Tommy’s beer looked perfect: golden and crisp and so calming. It had been one heck of a day.
“Did you get any of Beatrice’s phone calls?” Tommy asked.
Wes was stricken. He touched the pocket where he normally kept his phone but found only his keys. Perhaps he’d left his phone at the Sunrise Cove in all the chaos.
“I guess I didn’t,” Wes said, knocking his forehead with his knuckles. “Did she need something?”
“She had a doctor’s appointment at four thirty,” Tommy said. “She mentioned reminding you about it this morning. You were supposed to take her.”
Wes felt the words like a javelin through his chest. He coughed and removed his ledger from his bag. On today’s date, he’d written: “BEATRICE DOCTOR @ 4:30!” It had gone out of his head like clouds buzzing across the sky and out of sight.
Wes rubbed his temples so hard that he saw spots. “I should have been here.” He couldn’t even remember what kind of doctor it was. Gynecologist? Heart? Although Wes’s health was worse by a thousand degrees, Beatrice had her own situations to deal with. She’d stuck by Wes tirelessly, helping him arrange his life so that his dementia didn’t unravel it too quickly. She’d even chased him while he’d sleepwalked and ensured he didn’t leap in the sound.
