“Yep. So he lied about that to buy time because there’s some kind of problem.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Maddie said. “He didn’t say we’re definitely not getting a loan. He just said there’s a problem?”
Jules shrugged. “He didn’t say we were getting it either. And to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t trust anything he did say about it.”
Gina leaned against the counter, crossing her arms against her chest, oblivious to the fact that it got flour all over her shirt. “That’s smart. Some men can never be trusted.” Though she hadn’t admitted it to her cousins, she knew from experience with Hugh.
Maddie held up her hands. “Okay, okay. So there’s a snafu with the loan, but that doesn’t mean we should give up on this opportunity. If they come to town, they’ll be paying for the rooms. We’ll be generating our own money, and the show will give this town the attention it needs. It’s a popular show, and we won’t have to pay a cent for advertising.”
“But the hotel isn’t in good condition. We have a hole in the porch, and everything’s still under tarps,” Jules said.
“We can fix that easily. Come on. Let’s go outside and see what Dex has going on. We can ask how long he’ll take to fix that hole in the porch. And the rooms weren’t that bad. It won’t be hard to fix them up.”
“But we don’t know what kinds of repairs they’ll need. We just looked at the surface,” Gina said.
“We can look further. Maybe we can have Dex help us out. Let’s go find him and see if we can get this rolling. The welcome-wagon ladies will be here in two hours, and I want to have something specific to tell them.”
Gina looked at the mess around her. “You guys go ahead. I’ll clean this up and catch up with you later.”
* * *
“Gina was baking?”Jules asked as she and Maddie walked around the side of the motel. “Something’s fishy about that.”
“Well, she did say she wanted to make pies like Gram.”
“Huh, odd. I don’t picture her as the type to bake.”
Maddie slowed down and faced her cousin. “Me either. I don’t think she’s done much baking or cleaning, or work even, since we left the Surfstone Motel, but I think maybe she’s in a bad place now. I mean, why do you think she sold her car?”
Jules glanced at the blue Honda parked a few spaces away from her own car. “Like she said, it had bad memories.”
Maddie shook her head. “I don’t know. It seems like she would buy something more expensive and brand-new if she had money. I think there might be more to her divorce than she’s letting on. Maybe we should try to be kinder to her.”
Jules snorted. “Yeah, right. She’s got all that money and barely offered to chip in, and we should be kind to her?”
“Does she have money?” Maddie glanced at the car. “Maybe things are not as she is making them out to be.”
“Oh, so she’s lying. That figures,” Jules said. “A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
Maddie touched her arm, her expression full of kindness. It was just like her cousin to always think of others and not hold a grudge. Jules felt ashamed. Maybe she should try to be kinder.
“Maybe she’s not really lying. Maybe she’s embarrassed or hurt or even scared. She did pitch in money after she sold her car, and she’s trying to make a dish for the town meeting. She’s changing,” Maddie said.
Jules shrugged. “I suppose.”
Maddie continued around the side of the house toward the hammering noises of Dex working on the porch. “I’ve noticed you two aren’t arguing about things like usual.”
“That doesn’t mean we’ll be close,” Jules said, but Maddie could tell from the tone of Jules’s voice and the look on her face that it didn’t mean they wouldn’t be close either.
She was gaining ground on her mission to bring her cousins together. She glanced up at the sky as if to get Gram’s approval. Looking up at the sky, however, turned out to be a problem because she immediately tripped over something on the ground. Strong hands caught her just before she face-planted. She jumped back, looking down to see what she had tripped over. A hammer. She looked up into Dex’s smiling green eyes, furious.
“You shouldn’t leave your tools lying around,” she said, exasperated that he was so disorganized. Looking around the area, she could see tools everywhere. Planks of wood lay strewn about, and sawhorses were set with no apparent thought to organization.
“Whoa, slow down there. Why the scowl?” Dex asked. “You’re usually Miss Sunshine.”
Miss Sunshine? Maddie had been accused of being overly optimistic and too cheery before, but no one had ever called her a name about it. It didn’t help that Jules barked out a laugh beside her.
“That name is perfect,” Jules said.
