‘They called a few other contractors, but none were comfortable with the historic nature of the project. They’re all used to tearing things down and starting new. No one has the expertise to preserve the character of the buildings like you planned.’ The entire reason that Joseph and Mary hired him, and the Dream Harbor planning board even approved the renovations, was because Elliot had sworn he would maintain the historic charm of the inn. And if the contractor wasn’t totally comfortable with that, then thewhole thing went down the toilet.
‘Shit.’
‘You said that already.’
Elliot pinched the bridge of his nose. Unfortunately, the painkiller he took this morning hadn’t kicked in yet, and he had a raging headache. And if he wasn’t totally desperate, he would never say what he was about to say next. But he was desperate.
‘I know someone we can call.’ He nearly choked on the words.
‘You do?! That’s fantastic.’
Elliot groaned. ‘I’m not sure it’sfantastic.’
‘Joseph and Mary will just be thrilled to get the project moving. Who is it?’
‘My brother.’ The last thing Elliot wanted to do was to call Caleb and beg for help. It felt like admitting that his brother was right to worry about him all along. Unfortunately, he also knew his brother was the perfect person for the job. They’d restored plenty of old houses when they worked together. It was their whole thing.
‘You have a brother?! Elliot, how do I not know about a brother?’
Elliot shrugged. ‘He never came up.’ After living in his brother’s shadow for years, it was nice to live in a place where no one knew who Caleb Parker was.
Jack narrowed his eyes. ‘I have a lot of follow-up questions but obviously you are in no state to answer them. Honestly, what happened last night?’
‘Other than drinking too much of that damn May Day wine and passing out in Daisy’s bed, nothing really.’
‘Oh, no.’
‘Made a complete ass of myself.’ And he agreed to keep everythingfakeeven though his feelings for her were very much not fake.
‘Yikes.’
‘How did it go with Gabe?’ Elliot asked, eager to change the subject.
Jack bit into his bottom lip. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘Why are you not sure?’
‘Well… there was some making out…’
‘So that’s…’ Elliot trailed off, waiting for his friend to fill in the blanks.
‘Good? I guess? But now I don’t know if it was real or just you know…’
‘Beltane?’
‘Right.’ Jack looked about as miserable as Elliot felt. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one swept up in the bizarre pagan rituals of Dream Harbor and left confused the next day.
‘Anyone helping you at the desk today?’
‘Mabel should be in soon.’
‘Good. Let’s grab coffee after I get things sorted out with Joseph and Mary. We can drown our sorrows in the caffeinated drink of your choice.’
‘Perfect.’
Elliot pulled out his phone as he walked back outside to make his least favorite type of phone call. The one in which he asked his brother for help.
Caleb answered on the first ring. ‘You okay?’
