“A grand—what?” I held up my hand as I stood, shaking my head. “You know what? Never mind. I’ll see you later.”
I had no idea why the fact that there was nothing going on with Beck and Luna had loosened something in my chest. Settled the undercurrent that had been bubbling for days. Had no idea why I cared enough to ask in the first place.
* * *
A few dayshad passed since I’d last seen Luna, and that was exactly how I preferred it. The motion for discovery that she’d filed was holding up progress for Holton Group, which meant I hadn’t had to babysit her to ensure she wasn’t causing trouble.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t keenly aware of every move she made in town. I had no choice in the matter, considering the busybodies of Starlight Cove and their penchant for sticking their noses where they didn’t belong. Why they thought I’d want to know she’d stopped by the senior center to give complimentary massages to the residents or made a house call to ninety-three-year-old Greta bearing a homemade foot cream to help with her neuropathy was beyond me.
I had enough on my plate to worry about, and what Luna spent her time doing wasn’t on that very extensive list, so long as she kept her nose out of trouble and her wrists out of my cuffs.
“Good news,” Addison said as soon as everyone was seated at the dining table. It was usually too early for her to do much but grumble during these meetings, let alone smile, but there was no denying the grin stretched wide across her mouth. “Well, sort of. I just got an email.”
“Thanks for sharing,” Aiden said dryly, never lifting his gaze from his phone, “but we don’t actually need to know the contents of your inbox.”
“Anemail,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “that said while they haven’t made their decision yet—”
“Who’s ‘they’?” Ford asked, pulling the top off one of the muffins Beck had brought before stuffing the whole thing in his mouth.
She shot him an exasperated look. “Weekend Wanderlust.”
Aiden straightened up. “Did we get it?”
“If you idiots would let me speak, I could tell you.” Addison pinned us each with a look, and when we all kept our mouths shut, she finally said, “They’ve narrowed their selection down for the feature, and the last spot is between us and one other town.”
“That’s…” Disappointing? Frustrating? A kick in the nuts?
“Yeah,” she agreed with a nod. “But it’s not a no, so I’m keeping the faith. They’re sending someone back to observe the festival this weekend.”
“Harper?” I asked, brow raised.
“Yep, she’s checking in on Thursday.”
“Wait…” Beck said, brows drawn. “Harper who used to spend every summer here, glued to Levi’s side? That Harper?”
“One and the same,” Addison confirmed with a nod.
“Since we’re trying to get on her good side, don’t mention Levi around her,” I said before taking a sip of my coffee. “Made that mistake already. Apparently they tossed out their friendship bracelets.”
“Noted,” Beck muttered with a nod.
“Hopefully this storm doesn’t fuck up her arrival.” Aiden thumbed his phone, probably scrolling for the latest weather update.
A storm had cropped up, gaining more traction than what we usually saw this time of the year, but it still wasn’t much to worry about. As of now, the forecasters had issued a high wind and coastal flood watch, but it hadn’t even escalated to a warning yet. It’d probably die down into nothing and fizzle out before it reached us.
I waved him off. “She’ll be fine.”
“Which cottage are we putting her in while she’s here?” Aiden asked, glancing up at Addison.
“One, obviously.”
The resort property was spread out over five acres and contained the main inn—which didn’t actually offer any guest rooms since it was where Addison and Aiden lived—as well as nineteen cottages along the shore, some directly on the beach and others on the bluffs. No two were alike, and whether intentional or not, we’d focused most of our efforts on the lower numbers in recent years—the ones with the best locations and interiors—and let anything above ten languish. Cottage Nineteen was practically a storage unit now, stuffed with all the castoffs we didn’t have a place for, and Ford had moved in to Cottage Sixteen, not wanting to wake Aiden or Addison with any late-night emergency calls—not to say anything of the unmentionable Cottage Thirteen—though it wasn’t like it mattered. We hadn’t had more than five cottages booked at the same time in years.
“I’m going to spend the rest of the week working through our list and making sure everything’s in order,” Addison said. “Ford, I could use your help.”
He saluted her. “You got it, boss.”
“Between the festival and everything else, Harper’s weekend will be full. I’ve already talked with Luna—she’s going to run a one-on-one yoga class for Harper while she’s here, and we’ve got Cottage Two set up for a massage. I know we did this as a compromise with her, but I’d love if this could be a permanent offering for the resort, and I think a write-up about it would really help.”
