Pulling herself away from the lull of the waves as they crashed against the short cliff at the edge of the property, she turned to face her.
“Hallie, are you okay?” Sydney knew that she’d been a lot the past few days, but she’d be fine. This was just a difficult time. “Really, I’m going to be?—”
“I need to tell you something.”
She hated the look on Hallie’s face, hands clasped together in front of her. It was the same stance she’d had when they were growing up and she knew her parents were going to be mad about whatever she’d done. Or, more accurately, whatever they’d done.
Trying to hide a kitten in Hallie’s bedroom when they’d been ten, for example. Not the best idea, considering she’d grown up sharing this two-bedroom suite with her parents when they’d managed the inn. They’d named him Stoner, missing the accidental joke by a mile until they were both older.
Then there was the time they’d tried to pierce one another’s ears. Sydney’s scream was so loud it had caused a guest walking through the hallway to go to the front desk in concern.
In retrospect, that should have been Sydney’s first clue that she didn’t exactly take difficult situations in stride.
They’d always been in troubletogether, so it felt strange for Sydney to be standing on the outside of whatever tumult was coursing through Hallie, unable to read her mind.
Her body buzzed. “What is it?”
“My parents sold the inn.” Hallie blurted the words out, her cheeks going bright red.
Relief coursed through Sydney, even as she tried to make senseof everything. In the seconds that Hallie had made her wait, Sydney had considered what felt like every possibility—from a terminal illness to, well, a faster-moving terminal illness.
She sighed deeply before sucking in a much-needed breath. “I mean, that sucks, Hal. Why didn’t you tell me?”
The flush on Hallie’s cheeks softened but didn’t disappear. “I know you’re going through a lot.”
“But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here for you.”
Sydney gestured for Hallie to come join her near the window. When she was close enough, Sydney looped her longer arm over Hallie’s shoulders. They stared out at the water, a ritual they’d had since childhood.
“So, tell me about it. What made your parents decide to sell?”
She felt Hallie roll her shoulders against her. “They’ve been spending more and more time in Colorado since Mason and Claire had the twins. They’re going to buy a house near them, but all of their money’s tied up in the inn.”
Sydney nodded. Mason was Hallie’s older brother, who’d moved out to Colorado for college, where he had met his wife, Claire. The twins, if Sydney remembered correctly, had just turned one. It made a lot of sense, even if Sydney hated the idea of the Thatcher family no longer owning The Stone’s Throw.
Everything really was changing.
Still, she shoved her disappointment down. “Those kiddos are cute. I’ll give them that.”
“Aren’t they,” Hallie admitted with a glum laugh. “Finicky vacationers and hardcore antiques shoppers were no competition when it came down to it.”
“So, what will you do?” Suddenly, Sydney looked around the room. “Are we even supposed to be here?”
“It’s fine,” Hallie said, though her reassurance didn’t quell the unease building in Sydney’s stomach.
“Wait. How areyoudoing?” She could feel her adrenaline picking up. “I mean, this is big. Life-changingly big. For yourfamily and for you. What are you going to do? Am I back here so we can do some sort of goodbye tour?”
“Syd.” Hallie laid a gentling hand on her arm. Sydney had always been the one to get keyed up faster. “First of all, it was your idea to come back to Stoneport.”
Sydney acquiesced with a quick nod, the most she could manage at the moment. Tennis had been the only thing her brain worked through quickly. Everything else needed time to marinate and roll around in her mind before it made sense.
While she was toying with what all this new information meant, Hallie spoke again. “I’m staying on for six months to help with the transition. Hence our access to the finest of accommodations.”
“Who are the new owners?” Along with staying in dozens of hotels during her tennis career, Sydney had stayed in even more by virtue of her ex, Grant, whose family was in the hotel business. Add in that her best friend’s family had up till recently owned an inn, and she knew far more about the hotel business than the average person.
“About that…” Hallie stilled next to her, staring so hard at the water it was like she was looking for a drowning body in the choppy waves.
Sydney’s thoughts immediately went to Grant and his family’s business, which was, coincidentally, a New England–based hotel chain that would absolutely love The Stone’s Throw Inn as one of its coastal properties. Her blood ran cold. “Oh.”
