I frowned. I’d never been inside the seedy downtown bar. As far as I knew, no tourists ever visited. It was all locals. “Why would we want to go there?”
“Declan owned it before he disappeared.”
“Did you know that?” I asked Galen.
He shook his head. “There was no record of that in the file I brought home. Are you sure?” he asked Gertie.
“Oh, I’m sure.” She was grim. “A lot of terrible things happened at that bar. That was another reason I didn’t like Declan.”
Galen gave me a wan smile. “We’ll get Wesley first. Then I’ll take you to the island’s crappiest bar.”
“I can’t wait.”
19
NINETEEN
As we drove to the hospital I was determined to bring Wesley back to the lighthouse — even though we didn’t have a designated guest room — but Galen seemed to think my grandfather would protest. He’d taken my side at the diner; why had he changed his mind?
“He’ll want to go home,” Galen said as he parked in the hospital lot.
“I want him with us.” I shot him my best no nonsense look. “This time I’m going to get my way.”
Galen's expression didn’t change, which meant he was going into “practical” mode. “Okay,” he said blandly. “Where is he going to rest?”
“He can stay in our room.”
“Do you really think he wants to sleep in our sex sheets?”
I was officially appalled. “You make us sound like deviants.”
“We’re not deviants.”
“Of course we’re not.”
“We haven’t washed the sheets in more than a week.”
“When I lived alone on the mainland I would go a month without washing my sheets.”
He made a face. “That’s gross. Did you have overnight guests on those sheets?”
“Um … .”
“You didn’t.”
“You do realize I dated before you?” I challenged.
“See, in my head you were a lonely spinster waiting to meet your dream man.”
“You did not just call me a spinster.”
A wicked grin took over his face. “I said you were that way in my head. I don’t want to think about other guys you might have been with. I definitely don’t want to think of you sleeping in sex sheets with them.”
Part of me wanted to torture him. The other part was too tired. “I didn’t date a lot before I came here,” I said.
His smile widened.
“I was feeling … lost … back then,” I continued. “I didn’t feel as if I fit into my own life. When I got the information about May dying, it seemed like a sign from somewhere up above. I was more than happy to at least try it.”
