by Tim Myers
“How charming,” Michelle said.
As Alex headed for the door, Michelle urged her husband, “Tip him.”
Jackson started to reach for his wallet when Alex said, “That won’t be necessary.” He felt it wasn’t appropriate for the proprietor to get tips at Hatteras West, and he saw no reason to change that working here.
“Don’t be difficult. We insist,” Michelle said.
Jackson pulled out a twenty and slid it into his hand. There was no sense protesting. After all, he didn’t have to be rude about it.
When he walked back into the main quarters of the inn, Elise was waiting for him. He loved the way the light hit her beautiful dark hair, and how her smile seemed to light up any room she was in. Alex was smitten, totally and completely, though he was sure he hid it well.
He was wrong.
“What did they say?” she asked.
“They want egg salad sandwiches for lunch, and they’re having dinner with us. Can you believe it? They gave me a tip,” Alex said with a smile as he held the twenty dollar bill up.
“Alex,” she said.
“Hey, I tried to decline, but they insisted. What was I going to say?”
“Maybe we can go out for some seafood with it before we go back home,” she said.
“We can, but not tonight. The Bennings will be joining us. They wanted room service, can you believe it?”
“From them? I can easily see it. Let’s see, what should I make tonight?”
“It’s your call,” Alex said.
“The larder’s getting kind of low. We should do a little shopping soon.”
“Just make me out a list and I’ll take care of it,” Alex said. As he spoke, the door opened, and a single man walked in. He was in his late forties and sported a mustache that had more pepper than salt in it, but not by much. He was handsome, in a dark sort of way.
“May I help you?” Elise asked.
He seemed to take her in for a moment, a prolonged instant of uncomfortable silence that passed between them. Alex was certain he was about to say something to Elise about her good looks, but a frown crept onto her face, and he astutely changed his mind. Elise had been a beauty queen once upon a time, but she wasn’t all that comfortable with her prettiness. “I’d like a room,” the man said simply.
“How many nights?” Alex asked.
“One to start.”
Alex pointed to the sign-in book. “Just sign there.”
The man hesitated, but then Alex saw him scribble something down. From where he stood, it was entirely illegible.
After Alex quoted him the nightly rate, the man slid a pair of hundreds across the desk. Alex started to make change, but the man said, “Keep the difference.”
It was an even more substantial tip than he’d gotten earlier. “I still need a credit card imprint for any additional charges,” Alex said. Though it was technically true, Alex was asking for another reason. He had a sudden desire to know the man’s real name.
Instead of producing a card, the man offered another hundred dollar bill. “That should take care of it. Now, if you’ll give me a key, I’ll be on my way.”
“I’ll be glad to get your bags,” Alex said as he grabbed a key to the Whaler, the room farthest from his new guests as he could manage, all the way on the other side of the small lighthouse.
“No problem. I can handle it,” he said as he grabbed the key.
Before he left, Alex made one last stab at an ID. He looked at the book and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t make this out. What’s your name?”
The man said, “Brown,” and then left.
“What was that all about?” Elise asked.
“I wish I knew. I thought Harry said this was their slow time of year.”
“Maybe it is. What do you make of him?”
“I’m guessing Brown isn’t his real name,” Alex said. He was about to say something else when Mor and Emma walked in.
They were both frowning, and Alex had an immediate sense that something was wrong with his friends.
Mor Pendleton was a big man, with thick meaty hands and a football player’s physique. Emma was no small woman, and together, they were a physical presence to be reckoned with. “What’s up, you two?” Alex asked. “We were beginning to worry about you.”
“I want to stay,” Emma said, “but Mor needs to get back.”
“Lester is having a fit,” Mor replied. “I pushed him as it was to even come here in the first place.”
“I’m not ready to go,” Emma said.
“Then stay,” Mor said. There wasn’t an ounce of harshness in his voice, but Alex was still a little unsettled every time he heard his friend and his wife discuss anything. There always seemed to be a bite to their words, whether either one of them realized it.
“Not without you,” Emma said.
Mor grinned. “What the matter, don’t you trust me being on my own in Elkton Falls without you?”
“You I trust,” Emma said. “Molly Graves is a different story.”
Alex knew that ever since Molly had moved to Elkton Falls, Emma had been suspicious of her affection for her husband. Alex knew his friend’s devotion to his wife was unwavering, but he had a habit of tweaking his wife about the attention he got, even though his life would have been easier if he didn’t.
“I keep telling you, it’s all in your imagination,” Mor said.
“Maybe not all of it,” Elise said softly. Alex wasn’t even certain she’d meant to say it aloud, but Emma jumped all over it.
“There, you see? It’s not just me.”
Mor shook his head. “Don’t tell me you’re buying it, too.”
Elise shrugged. “She does seem to break a great many things.”
“It happens, and she brings her business to us. That’s what Les and I do; we fix stuff. It’s all harmless.”
Elise didn’t look as though she was buying it, and neither did Emma. Alex’s friend appealed to him as he asked, “Surely you’re on my side, right?”
“I don’t have an opinion one way or another,” Alex said.
“Coward,” Mor said with a smile.
“I think he’s smart,” Emma said.
“You would. So, are you coming with me, or not?”
Emma seemed to debate it for a moment, and then finally said, “I’d better. After all, somebody’s got to keep an eye on you.” She hugged him as she said it, and followed it up with a kiss.
Mor’s grin broke free. “I’m glad you’re coming with me. To be honest with you, I miss you when you’re not around.”
“That’s sweet,” Emma said, and then she turned to us. “We love it here with you.”
“It’s been great having you,” Elise said.
Alex added, “Do me a favor. Pop in at the lighthouse when you get back.”
Emma raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me to check up on your friends?”
Alex shook his head. “No, it’s nothing like that. Just make sure they’re doing okay. Harry’s best friend has been over here twice since we got here, so it’s not like he won’t be expecting it. It’s just the neighborly thing to do.”
Mor nodded. “We’ll drop by tonight.” He glanced at his wife, and then added, “That is, if we get on the road before noon.”
Emma glanced at her watch. “We could have left half an hour ago if you hadn’t wanted to look for more seashells, as if we didn’t already have a trunk full of them.”
Mor seemed embarrassed by the revelation of what they’d been up to. “You know they aren’t for me, they’re for Lester. He loves ‘em, for some reason.”
“Tell him he can come himself, if he wants to,” Elise said. “We’ve got room.”
“At least for now, but the way things are going today, that might not be true soon.”
“Things picking up?” Mor asked.
“I just hope Harry and Barbara are this busy,” Alex said.
After they shared hugs all the way around, even a brief one between Mor and Ale
x, the married couple was off.
As Alex and Elise watched them drive away, he asked, “Is there a part of you that wishes we were going with them?”
“I miss Hatteras West,” she admitted, “but I’ll stick with you.”
“I’m glad of that,” Alex said as he put an arm around her.
“Because you’d miss me too much?” she asked.
“There’s that, and the fact that my cooking would probably run all of our guests off.”
Elise laughed and hugged him a little tighter. “You’ve got a point, there.”
They were just about to go back inside when a large black SUV drove down the crushed shell drive toward them.
“Who could this be?” Elise asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m not sure I like it. If this keeps up, we’re going to have to move Dutch back into his old room.” Dutch was the part-time handyman who lived at Captain Kidd. Harry had told Alex that in exchange for the occasional odd job around the place, Dutch stayed in a small cottage that was really not much more than a gardener’s shed.
“Let’s hope not,” Elise said. “I don’t have the heart to evict him.”
“I’m not sure I do either,” Alex said.
Three adults somewhere in their forties got out of the SUV, though it could have held twice as many people.
The two men wore fashionable clothing, slacks and nice shirts. They stretched as though they’d been driving for some time while the stylish woman in a navy blue suit of her own approached them. “We’re the Morrisons, and I must say, we didn’t expect a welcoming committee,” she said.
“If we knew you were checking in, we might have planned it,” Alex admitted.
She turned to one of the men. “John. They didn’t know we were coming.”
“I made reservations for the tenth, Elizabeth,” John said.
“That’s great, but it’s the ninth,” Alex replied. “And you don’t have reservations here for either date.”
“John,” she called out, and one of the men approached.
When he neared them, Elizabeth said, “The innkeeper tells me that we don’t have reservations here at all.”
John frowned. “This is the Kidd Motel, right?”
Alex shook his head. “Sorry, it’s the Cape Kidd Lighthouse Inn. The place you are looking for is on the other side of town.”
Elizabeth looked around. “I like it here.”
“So do we,” Alex answered.
“Then we’ll stay. You do have room for us, don’t you?”
“We’ve got the space available,” Elise said.
“Three rooms?” the woman asked.
“Better than that. We have three individual cottages open, if you’d like them. Why don’t we get you signed in?”
She looked at the two men before she’d budge. “Greg, stay with the car. John, perhaps you should keep him company.”
John didn’t look pleased by the command, but Greg seemed delighted. Alex got the impression that the farther he could be away from Elizabeth, the better.
She walked into the inn, with Alex and Elise trailing her. Alex was about to say something when the woman stopped at the door and asked, “Are you two coming?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Alex said.
As she checked the three of them in with a credit card, she remarked, “I’m glad we were able to beat the storm here.”
“What storm?” Alex asked.
“You haven’t heard? There’s a tropical storm moving in down the coast. It’s supposed to hit tonight. I thought you people would be savvy about watching the weather out here, isolated as you are.”
“We normally live in the mountains,” Alex admitted. “We swapped inns with friends of ours.”
“They picked an excellent time to leave,” Elizabeth said.
Elise asked tentatively, “Is it supposed to be bad?”
“Who knows? These things have a tendency to blow themselves out. Would we have come if we thought we were in any danger?”
Alex didn’t know what they might do, but he promised himself to turn on the radio and check for forecasts. They didn’t have a television at the inn, Harry had explained. Their guests liked to get away from the world, something that was impossible with around the clock access. He hadn’t missed it until now, but Alex was beginning to realize just how isolated they really were.
At least they had paying guests, though.
In fact, it appeared that the Cape Kidd inn was going to be nearly full. With that and a possible storm coming inland, it was all going to be a little too exciting for Alex’s taste.
So much for a quiet and restful vacation he and Elise had been hoping for.