by Dana Mentink
“Cy,” she yelled. “Can you come here for a second?”
Cy was out of hearing range. Rosa clumped up another step and noted it was not one drop oozing from the lamp, but two. “What in the world?”
She unscrewed the button at the bottom of the lamp and carefully eased away the glass dome exposing the drywall underneath. The mystery ooze had formed a sticky trail around where the dome had been. She could see now that the edge of the Sheetrock was slightly raised. She pulled a penlight from her pocket and shined it into the gap.
Her scream echoed madly in the freshly painted confines of the bathroom.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ROSA HAD ALREADY slammed the bathroom door, raced downstairs and through the foyer and pelted outside, before she rammed into Pike, who was on his way inside. She bounced off his chest and would have fallen if he hadn’t gripped her forearms and steadied her.
“Whoa, there. Did you scream?”
She nodded, heart knocking against her ribs.
His eyes searched her face. “Why?
She was too panicked to reply. Bitsy and Cy arrived at the same time, followed by Manny.
“What’s the problem? I heard a scream,” her father said, eyes crusted from sleep. “I must have dozed off.”
Pike bent close and cupped her chin, tipping her head. “What is it, Rosa?” he said, voice calm and insistent. “Tell us.”
“There are...” she sucked in breath. “In the bathroom. Millions.”
Pike tried again. “Millions of what in the bathroom?”
“Bees,” she cried, feeling the horror wash over her again. “Millions of them.”
“Bees? In the bathroom?” Bitsy asked.
“Yes,” Rosa squeezed out.
“Oh, don’t cry. We’ll fix it. We’ll...smoke them out or suck them up or whatever you do to bees.” Pike looked helplessly around. “She’s hyperventilating. What do we do? Should I get water or something?”
Manny elbowed forward and wrapped his arms around Rosa, patting her on the back. “It’s okay, princess. I know how you feel about bees.” He rubbed comforting circles on her back, and though she did not want to allow it, his touch soothed her the way it had twenty years before. It seemed her body ached for her father’s presence, in spite of her mind. She pressed her head to his chest.
“She stepped on a wasps’ nest when we were camping at Big Basin. Only five years old and did she ever get stung. They swarmed all over and twined in her hair, terrified her to no end. She’s been afraid of them ever since,” Manny explained.
“But those were wasps at Big Basin,” Cy pointed out, returning from a peek into the bathroom. “I think what we’ve got here is a honeybee situation.”
“Close enough,” Rosa said, trying to grab hold of her mutinous emotions. “I pulled down the lamp and I could see them up there in the attic space. Honey was dripping down through the ceiling.”
“Uh-oh,” Pike said. “That does not sound good. I’ll get Rocky. He’s got bee experience.” He moved away a step and then stopped. “Rosa, are you okay? If you’re not, uh, I can go get Rocky later and, you know, do something or other to help you.” His deer-in-the-crosshairs look almost made her smile.
She disentangled herself from her father and forced a breath in and out. “No, thank you. Sorry for the outburst. You go get Rocky. Maybe he’ll know what to do. And tell him to be careful of the Marmoleum.”
“That’s flooring,” Cy put in helpfully.
“Sounds like something you spread on toast,” Pike mumbled as he trotted off, Cy following along.
Manny took her hand and led her to one of the rocking chairs under the porch cover. “You just set a minute and you’ll feel better. You’ve had a shock, is all.” He eased down next to her, and together they looked through the falling rain toward the horizon, which was shrouded in a cape of clouds. The air was fresh, so clean it almost hurt to breathe it in.
A boat bobbed far out on the water, a stalwart fisherman who probably lived his whole life lifted and let down by those fickle waves. They listened to the soothing, ceaseless rumble of the sea.
“Dad,” she said.
“Yes, princess?”
“Back then, at Big Basin, when I got stung by the wasps, you stayed up all night with me.” She hesitated. “Do you remember?”
“Sure do.”
“And every time I thought I heard a buzz, you would turn on the flashlight and check. Every single time.”
He laughed. “I remember. Neither one of us got much sleep that night, did we?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “Thank you. I mean, it was nice, when you did that for me.”
He blinked hard and puffed out his lower lip. “Princess,” he said, “it was a privilege.” He squeezed her hand again and she felt the rough calluses and the thick fingernails that he didn’t cut regularly enough. Her fingertips recorded the steady staccato of the pulse tapping inside his wrist.
She thought she might start to cry, but Bitsy forced a cup of water into her hand and Baggy waddled his way up onto her lap. He had serious jumping power for a dog with markedly short legs.
Pike and Cy returned.
“Rocky’s gone to get his bee suit and smoker,” Cy said.
“And a super Shop-Vac to suck them all up?” Rosa asked.
Bitsy eyed her watch. “Roast will be ready soon. We can have dinner when he gets here and then let Rocky do his magic.”
Rosa hugged herself. “I’m fine here. You all go on inside and eat. I’m not hungry.”
Bitsy frowned. “We can make sure the kitchen doors stay closed. I think we’ll be safe from bees.”
“Aunt Bitsy, no offense, but there are a bazillion bees in your attic that got in without any of us noticing a thing. They’re stealthy. I’m staying out here until Rocky checks it out.”
“But Rosa, honey,” she tried again. “It’s pouring and it’s just going to get colder and colder. Come inside. I promise it will be okay.”
“I’m fine out here, really.” Rosa said.
Eventually, she convinced them to go inside and eat, though Bitsy insisted on wrapping Rosa in a sturdy wool blanket that had been vigorously shaken to ensure no bee hitchhikers were present.
Rosa’s stomach tightened into knots as she thought about the newest catastrophe keeping her from her goal. Despite the knots, though, her stomach also reminded her that she was, indeed, hungry. The smell of pot roast and garlic made her mouth water. It occurred to her she’d been so deep in decorating details, she had bypassed the cold sandwiches Bitsy provided at lunch. Didn’t matter. She was not going back into the Pelican until Rocky assured her the situation was under control. Certainly it wouldn’t take too long to suck up the swarming plague with a bee vac or whatever beekeeping equipment was apropos.
Her stomach grumbled louder. “Quiet, stomach,” she said. “Pot roast is not worth braving the bees for.”
“I don’t know,” Pike said, stepping onto the porch. “It’s a pretty stupendous pot roast.”
Pike eased out the front door holding two plates heaped with food.
“What’s all this?” She took a plate as he settled into the chair and fished two forks from the pocket of his overalls. From the other pocket, he retrieved some napkins.
“Unbelievable,” she said.
He held up an index finger. “Hold on.” Out also came a small glass jar with a stub of a candle in the bottom. He lit it with a match struck on the bottom of his shoe. Carefully, he set the jar on the railing.
She stared at the flickering flame. “You brought me dinner.”
“A candlelight dinner,” he said, smiling. “Am I awesome or what?”
She laughed, a nervous tickle in her stomach. “Yep, you’re awesome.”
“That explains my near-perfect
SAT scores. I can’t take credit for the cooking, but the delivery service is all me.” He held up a fork and they clinked tines. “To bees, long may they buzz.”
Rosa clinked with a shudder. “They need to buzz somewhere else.”
An awkward silence grew between them. She forked up a mouthful of creamy potatoes followed by buttered peas. “Heaven. How does she do it?”
“She says she adds love, but I think there may also be dairy products and garlic involved.”
“No doubt.”
They ate in silence, enjoying the succulent beef and potatoes. Pike had even managed to pilfer two sourdough rolls, which he revealed in magician’s style from his wide front pocket. Her roll’s tender interior was still warm and she enjoyed every tiny morsel. The storm pushed at the little candle flame, sending it reeling in the night, but it steadfastly refused to go out. How delicate was a flame, she thought, and how tenacious.
If things were different, how could she not enjoy the company of a handsome, thoughtful man? But she would not, could not risk it.
As they settled back in their chairs, full of excellent food, Rosa sighed, snuggling the blanket around her. “Do you want to get another blanket?”
He shook his head. “I’m very manly, always warm.”
“Seriously. I don’t want you to be cold after you did such a nice thing and brought me dinner out here.”
“Helping you made me feel better.”
“Really?” She cocked her head. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Trying to improve the reputation of my lawyer clan, to show you we’re not all so bad.”
“Don’t try, Pike. Don’t try to make things okay for me. I let myself get used. I was a fool to let my heart get in the way of my head.”
“Doesn’t the heart ever get to win?” he asked quietly.
“Not now.” A throb of pain rose inside. Maybe not ever.
* * *
A HALF HOUR LATER, Stu helped Rocky pull on the bee suit and ready the smoker. Rocky waddled down the hall and stood ready at the foot of the stairs. Rosa peered through the front door. “Be careful, Rocky. They’re all armed.”
He nodded and headed upstairs for the bathroom. Rosa shut the front door again and pressed her face to the window. The minutes ticked by. Rocky would no doubt have smoked the bees into a trance by now.
She strained to see if Bitsy or Stu was standing by with the Shop-Vac. Rocky clomped down the stairs holding a canvas sack. Rosa bit back a scream and scooted off the porch into the rain as he emerged.
“Got the hive. Queen and all. Taking it to my place.” He eased the bag into a wooden box.
Rosa felt like cheering. “You’re fantastic, Rocky. I’m naming my first child after you, even if it’s a girl.”
“Had to saw a hole in the bathroom ceiling.”
She swallowed hard. Plenty of time to patch and mend a hole.
“But I think I sealed off their entrance into the inn.” Rocky took off his beekeeper’s hat. “I’ll come back and make sure there are no strays.”
It was a dream come true. The horrid bees were gone. It would be back to work in the morning. She hardly felt the rain pattering down on her head.
“And there’s the comb problem.”
“The what?” She circled around behind him as if he was a man-eating tiger.
“The comb. I removed most of the bees, but they’ve built a pretty massive honeycomb in the walls. Gotta remove it all.”
“The walls, plural?”
“Yeah. It extends through the downstairs and into the first floor bathroom. Some in the wall that adjoins the sitting room.”
Her moss-green and pearl-gray stripes. She took a breath. “Do you have to cut it out? Right now?”
“If you leave it in, the bees are just going to keep coming back. Other bees might decide to take up residence, too.”
“I’ll be running an inn for bees?” Bitsy said. “Leo would have found that hilarious.”
“There’s nothing hilarious about it,” Rosa wailed. “I’ve got two weeks left for this project. How can I finish with holes cut in walls and bees on the loose?”
“I’m good with drywall and texturing,” Manny said, munching on a roll. “I’ll deal with the repairs.”
“But what about the bees?” Rosa tried to glean an answer from the bewildered faces of her helpers. “How can I work with stray bees flying around?” She saw the solution in Rocky’s hands and grabbed the beekeeper’s hat, the netting fluttering in the wind.
So it’s come to this, Rosa thought, grimly. She put the hat on and fired a look at Cy and Pike. “If either one of you so much as giggles...”
Cy and Pike almost managed to hide their grins.
CHAPTER TWENTY
IT WAS NOT EASY painting in a bee suit. After several sweaty hours, Rosa stripped off the outerwear, opting instead for a long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans tucked into her sweat socks. She did keep the netted hat on, as she’d spotted a bee hovering just under the ceiling in the sitting room.
Pike managed to shoo the thing out the front door while Rosa cheered him on from the kitchen, yelling encouragement. She tried to ignore the sawing noises as Rocky cut a hole in the downstairs bathroom wall and removed the shelves of honeycomb. He filled bucket after bucket and shuttled them outside into the storm-drenched morning.
Rosa was in awe. “How many bees were at work in there?”
“Probably fifty thousand or more. They’ve been at it for a while, so the combs are extensive,” Rocky explained. He pointed to some of the capped cells in the comb. “Going to get some honey out of it.”
“Great,” she said. “Maybe it will offset the cost of the Sheetrock. Are you done? Can we start on the repairs to the bathrooms while you do what you have to do in the sitting room?”
He nodded. She pulled her father off the window seat project, which was done except for the last coat of stain, and set him to work in the bathroom. “Be careful of the...”
“Marmoleum, I got it,” he said. “You can trust me.”
Trust him. That was still a stretch. Her relationship with her father seemed to be undergoing as much change and flux as the old inn itself. No time for that. She watched as Manny measured the hole carefully, then went out onto the porch to cut the Sheetrock to size.
She rejoined Pike in the sitting room. She noticed he’d gotten a haircut and was freshly shaven.
“I can be here for a while longer,” he said. “Then I’ve got a lunch appointment.”
“Something interesting?”
“Going to meet Mr. Lassiter’s brother Sterling.”
“Is this your big chance to convince him to take you on?”
Pike flashed a cocky grin. “Convince him? He’d be crazy not to.”
She laughed. “That’s the spirit.” She surveyed the room through her netting. “We’ll have to repaint the south wall once Rocky finishes. Maybe we can work on curtains right now, since they’re on the far end.”
“Curtains it is,” Pike said. He pulled a battery-powered screwdriver from his pocket as if he was the gunslinging hero of a Western. “Got this from Cy. Bring on the curtain rods, ma’am.” He twirled the screwdriver and dropped it to the floor.
She shook her head and fetched the electrical conduit pipe that would serve as a curtain rod. Ten feet for two dollars plus the cost of the bronze spray paint left plenty of money to splurge on wooden finials and antiqued curtain rings. With Pike’s help, she began attaching the brackets.
At the far end of the room, Rocky had removed a section of drywall about the size of a manhole cover.
“Does the hole have to be so big?” Rosa complained.
“Lot of comb in here,” he said. “Uh-oh. A few stray bees.”
Rosa swung around, pipe in hand, toward the insects t
hat zipped out of the hole, smashing the makeshift curtain rod into Pike’s shin.
“Oww,” he groaned, clapping a hand to the injury. His screwdriver fell from his hands again.
She tried to both apologize to Pike and protect herself from the bees.
This time, the end of the pole connected with Cy’s open can of stain left on the floor in the foyer
“Hey,” he shouted as the can toppled over, spreading stain across the tarp. “Watch it.”
Struggling to control the wobbling pipe, Rosa kicked the screwdriver and sent it rolling into the foyer just as Bitsy came in, arms loaded with grocery bags. Bitsy’s left foot skidded on the screwdriver and she fell with a cry, sending apples, tomatoes and a baguette tumbling into the stain.
“Bitsy,” Rosa cried, forgetting the bees and running to her aunt.
Bitsy answered with a groan, her face creased in pain. “My ankle. Oh, it hurts.”
Tears gathered in Bitsy’s eyes as Rosa clutched her hand. “I’m so sorry, Bitsy. I am so, so sorry.”
Pike scrambled down from the stepstool and raced over with Rocky, who gently eased up Bitsy’s pant leg.
“Lots of swelling. Probably broken. Gotta get to the doc.”
“I’ll take her,” Pike said immediately. “We’ll go to the emergency clinic in Half Moon Bay.”
“You can’t, Pike. You have that important meeting. I’ll take her.” Rosa ran for her purse.
“I’ll reschedule,” Pike said. “You need me to drive you.”
“No, we don’t,” Rosa snapped. “I can drive her.”
“There are four able-bodied people to assist me,” Bitsy said, with more of a grimace than a smile. “Go to your meeting, Pike. Manny, will you please help me up?”
Manny dropped to a knee and put an arm around her shoulders. “Of course, Bits. I’m right here, honey.”
Bitsy gave him a watery smile.
Pike glowered, but Cy pushed in on Bitsy’s other side and together they raised the fallen woman. Rosa flung open the front door and they helped Bitsy to Rosa’s car just as a white van pulled into the parking lot. The driver rolled down his window.