She slipped out and walked to the door.“I’m glad you asked me to go. I had a better time than I thought I would.”
“I’m glad you did.”He stood staring at her in the muted light filtering out the windows. More tendrils of her hair had worked loose and framed her face. She held her shoes in her hand. He understood that. He couldn’t wait to get back to his house and kick off his dress shoes. Yet…he didn’t want to leave her. Not yet.
Besides, maybe he should kiss her.It sounded like a good idea, didn’t it?
She stifled a yawn and his manners kicked in.
“I better go. It’s late.”The kiss would have to wait. Besides, he wasn’t certain it was a good idea or not.
She nodded.“Thanks, again.”
He turned and headed back to the car and drove the one house over and pulled into the garage. Grabbing his coat and tie from the backseat, he headed inside. The house was deadly quiet and empty after the noise of the evening and the comfortable, intimate atmosphere of driving home in the darkness with Donna.
He slipped off his shoes and padded to the front window and stood staring at Donna’s house. As he watched, the house darkened when she turned off the front lights. She was probably headed for bed.
Which he should do, too. But as tired as he was, he was wired, too. He headed through the house and out onto the small, screened lanai and sank into one of the comfortable overstuffed chairs. The sky was filled with twinkling stars and the moon cast a shaft of light across the water in the canal. The tide was coming in and the water lazily drifted past the dock in front of the house and onward. The tide changes fascinated him. He’d been surprised to see how far the water in the canals rose and fell with the tides.
He’d toyed with buying some fishing gear so he could fish off the dock, not that he had much free time. He sat outside, listening to the lullaby of the night sounds until sleep threatened to overcome him. He shoved out of the chair and went inside, reluctantly leaving the night behind him.
Chapter 17
Barry sat at the bar at Jimmy’s out on the wharf, sipping a beer. It had been a long day at the hotel and he wanted to unwind before heading home. He turned when someone sat on the barstool next to him, then grinned.
“Well, hello there, Delbert. Looks like you had the same idea that I did.”
“Looks like it.”Del nodded to the bartender.“I’ll have that local craft beer.”He pointed to a sign up high above the bar.“It’s been a long day.”
Barry laughed.“I was just thinking the same thing.”
“So, did Donna enjoy the get-together at The Hamilton? We sure had a good turnout.”
“She did. And there were a ton of people there.”
“By the end of the night, I’m pretty sure everyone knew about the grand reopening of The Cabot.”Delbert smiled.“I even heard Donna talking about it to a group of ladies she was chatting with.”
“I knew she’d have a good time. She’s so easy to talk to, and people just seem to like her.”Heliked her…
“Oh, and I finally met Evelyn in person this week. Looks like she’s doing a great job with the grand opening. She said she’s calling it a gala. A 1920s theme. She has some great ideas and seems very capable.”
“I think so, too. Glad to have someone else in charge of that. She’s got catering set up and servers. Invitations went out weeks ago, plus basically the whole town of Moonbeam is invited.”
“Sounds like it will be perfect. And I’ll be glad when we get our official occupancy permits. Should be soon. I’m going to move into one of the suites for the last few weeks until we open.”The bartender brought Del’s beer and he took a sip.
“You are? Well, that’s probably more convenient than staying on Belle Island.”
Delbert stared at his beer glass for a moment, then looked directly at him.“I haven’t been staying on the island. I’ve been driving into Sarasota and staying at The Hamilton.”
“Really?”
Delbert let out a long breath and grimaced.“Seems that Camille and I are on the outs. I tried really hard with her. I did. She was charming and fun to be with when she wanted to be.”He shrugged.“But she was a bit…difficult. And sometimes she could be a bit…um…self-centered.”
And by self-centered, if Delbert meant mean girl, he’d agree with him.
“Anyway, I can’t have her talking to my employees like she did to Emily, and it wasn’t the first time. I’m always running interference between her remarks and people I care about. This deal with Emily was the last straw. She said she was heading back to Belle Island and…”
Barry stayed silent letting Del continue or not.
“She expected me to apologize for asking her to not interfere in my business decisions of who I hire. And I asked her to not speak to them like she did. I feel like people who work for me are my family. Camille? Well, she doesn’t understand that. She was raised…differently.”
