The woman behind the front desk looks up from her phone. “Joey,” she says warmly. “What are you doing here?”
Joey lifts the coffee. “You have room service now.”
Kathy gives her a quizzical smile, and Joey asks, “Which room is Nicola staying in? Nicola Bianco. She called the coffee shop. Didn’t want to come out in the rain. And I don’t blame her. It’s torrential.”
Kathy’s smile drops slightly.
“I want to get this to her before it gets cold, but I forgot to ask her which room,” says Joey quickly.
Kathy hesitates. Joey wonders if she’s had instructions to give thecast members top privacy. “It will just take a second. It’s just, I promised I’d hand-deliver it. She likes the local touch, I think.”
Kathy seems satisfied by this explanation. “Gotcha,” she says, then leans forward conspiratorially. “She’s in room three.”
“Thanks, Kathy, that’s amazing.” Relieved, Joey moves toward the hallway behind the front desk.
“Wait, wait, wait.”
Joey stops and closes her eyes. She’s sure Kathy knows she’s lying. She has no idea what to do, so she turns back and tries to smile. “Nicola’s not there,” says Kathy. “She left an hour ago. I think she was going to dinner. Not sure why she would have called you for that coffee. Maybe she wants you to bring it to her at the tavern?”
Shit, thinks Joey. She just needed an excuse to talk to Nicola, one that would be believable. Bringing her a coffee in a restaurant is not going to work. “Great, I’ll go see her there,” she says, trying to think. “But actually, I’ll get her a fresh one so it’s hot. You want this one?”
Kathy looks at her like the offer is straight from heaven. “Really? Thank you. I can hardly keep my eyes open.” She takes the cup, pops off the lid, and takes a sip. “You don’t have sugar, do you?”
“I don’t. Sorry.”
“Hmm.”
“Is it just Nicola staying here, or do any of the other actors have rooms?” Joey asks.
Kathy stands up, and her chair swivels with the release. “Tons of them. The whole place is booked up.” She raises her eyebrows in a show of pride.
Joey’s heartbeat quickens. “Did they all go to dinner together?”
“Could be. Not sure. I just remember Nicola. She’s so beautiful. It’s hard to miss her.” Kathy snaps her fingers. “You know what? I have sugar in the kitchen.”
Joey is still processing what to do with this information. Should shego to the restaurant to find Nicola? But she won’t be able to ask what she needs to, not in public. She watches Kathy leave the room. This is the kind of inn that serves sausages and pancakes in the morning, freshly cooked in-house. It’s a Whisper Ridge landmark, and just about anyone who has spent their twenties in this town has worked the front desk of the inn, including Joey.
Which is how she knows there is a master key locked in a safe in the cabinet behind the desk.
As soon as Kathy is out of sight, she slips around and kneels down in front of the safe. Surely it can’t be the same passcode it was six years ago. Surely Kathy’s changed it since then. But she tries it anyway because she can hear Kathy open the kitchen door, and she knows she only has a minute before she’s back. 1-6-9-6, Kathy’s son David’s birthday. The buttons beep louder than she’d like them to, but she pauses to listen and doesn’t hear Kathy. She presses the Unlock button—it works. The safe opens with a hard tug. The master key, just as she remembers it, clings to a ring with keys to the maintenance room, the back door, the cleaning closet, and the mailbox.
A sound from the hall brings her back to her senses. She closes her fist around the key ring and swings herself back around the desk.
“You do make good coffee over there, Joey.” Kathy is back, head bent over her drink. Meanwhile, Joey’s heart races. She’s afraid she might give herself away if she speaks, so she just turns to go.
“Come back anytime,” she hears Kathy shout after her, and she wonders if the offer will still stand once she realizes what Joey’s about to do.
54Elena
Elena feels her phone vibrate.
Relief moves through her, and she reaches into her pocket, happy to deflect what seems now to be an overt sexual advancement. Are all men the same? It’s the kind of thing she hates to think because she has a son, and it’s not fair to judge half the people in the world based on a handful of shitty interactions. But here she is, judging. The look in Cal’s eye is darkening, pupils dilating. His hunger for her is obvious, though his smile is placid, which, to be completely honest, is throwing her. She thinks it’s desire she sees in his face, but maybe she’s misreading it. Maybe it’s just the harsh lighting.
“Sorry,” she says, pulling out the phone and fumbling to unlock the screen. “One sec.”
There’s a moment’s hesitation, during which she’s not sure he’s going to back away. But then he ducks his head politely and reaches for his drink. “Take your time,” he says, reverting back to the relaxed professional she spent all afternoon with.
The first text she sees is from Barbara.Will you be here for dinner? I’m making chicken.
