Lunch at the Beach House Hotel
Page 26
Liz moved opposite Troy and Reggie and waited with the rest of us for Will and Angela to appear.
As Angela stepped through the door, clasping Will’s arm, a gasp filled the room. She looked positively angelic. The sound of harp music in the background made me believe it even more. The gown and the circlet on her head were perfect for her. Seeing only Reggie, she moved toward us, her smile lighting her face with joy. Unable as I was to tear my eyes away from her, I didn’t realize that Will was crying until he turned to sit down next to Rhonda. Dabbing at her own eyes, she gave him a watery smile and said softly, “I love you.”
He kissed her on the cheek and turned to listen to the minister.
I gazed at Vaughn, drinking him in with my eyes.
He grinned when he noticed me. “Next time it’s us,” he whispered.
“It’ll always be us,” I said, as sure as anything I’d never stop loving him.
Thank you for reading Lunch at The Beach House Hotel. The 4th book in The Beach House Hotel Series, Dinner at The Beach House Hotel, was released in early December 2016 . If you enjoyed this book, please help other readers discover it by leaving a review on Goodreads or your favorite site. It’s such a nice thing to do.
Enjoy an excerpt from my book, Finding Me at Salty Key, (Book 1 in the Sullivan Sisters Series), which was released in February 2017.
CHAPTER ONE
“Why are we here?” my youngest sister, Regan, asked me.
I shrugged, as puzzled as Regan as to why we had been ordered to meet with a lawyer regarding a legal matter.
“Probably some rich uncle leaving us a lot of money,” teased Brenna, the typical middle sister, who was always kidding around.
I laughed with her. We three Sullivan sisters had no rich people in our family. We were hard-workers who relied on no one else to make it through life. Well, maybe Regan wasn’t as reliable as Brenna and me. She’d always been spoiled. At twenty-eight, she wasn’t one to go too far out of her way for others. This time, though, she’d come to Boston at the command of a law firm.
As I waited in the conference room for the lawyer to show up, I studied Regan out of the corner of my eye. With her long black hair, light blue eyes, and the delicate Sullivan features, she was a knockout. Sitting on the other side of me, Brenna, with her red hair and freckled nose could only be described as cute, and funny and maybe a little annoying. But everyone loved her. At thirty, she claimed she hadn’t found her calling.
Me? I’d found my calling in a hurry when I got pregnant in nursing school. Ironic as it was, my being a nurse and getting caught in a situation like this, it changed so many things for me. With a sixteen-year-old son and a fourteen-year-old daughter I still hadn’t recovered.
I straightened in my chair as a gray-haired man entered the room. “Good morning, ladies. I’m Archibald Wilson, the lawyer representing Gavin Sullivan. I’m pleased you all could attend this reading,” he announced in a bass voice. He looked the three of us over. “Which one of you is Sheena Sullivan Morelli?”
In shock, I raised my hand. “I’m Sheena. Gavin Sullivan? Do you mean the Big G Sullivan?”
Both my sisters gasped. His name had been mentioned in the family on rare occasions and only when my father and his brothers had had too many beers.
Mr. Wilson nodded with satisfaction. “Yes, my client is Gavin Sullivan. Sheena, I will address you on most of the issues, as it pertains to the specific language of the will.”
“Will?” said Brenna, smiling. “Really? I was just teasing about it.”
The lawyer frowned at her. “This is a serious matter.” He took a seat on the other side of the small conference table, facing us.
He began to speak: “I, Gavin R. Sullivan, of the State of Florida, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do make, publish, and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament...”
Certain words faded in and out of my shocked state of mind. Though my sisters might have been too young to remember him, I had a clear image of the big, jovial man who’d captivated me with his smile, his belly laughs and the way my father grew quiet when they were in the same room together. On one particular visit, he gave me a stuffed monkey, which I kept on my bed for years. It wasn’t until the fur on the monkey was worn off that I noticed the seam was tearing. I probed the hole and a gold coin fell out.
When I showed it to my mother, she snatched it away and whispered, “Don’t tell anyone about this. It’s very valuable. Someday you’ll need it. Until then, I’ll keep it safe for you. Uncle Gavin loves you very much.” She held a finger to her lips as my father walked through the door.
Until now, I’d forgotten all about the coin.
The lawyer’s voice brought me back to the present situation. “Sheena, though you and your two sisters are now the legal owners of the Salty Key Inn, you will be in charge of taking over the small hotel in Florida, as your uncle requested. Is that understood by the three of you?”
My sisters and I dutifully bobbed our heads. The bewilderment on their faces matched my own feelings. How in the world were the three of us going to run a hotel?
“Remember,” Mr. Wilson warned us, “the hotel cannot be sold for a period of one year, and the three of you must live there together for that entire time if you are to have a share in the rest of his sizeable estate which will remain undisclosed until the end of your year in Florida. You have just two weeks to prepare. I believe Gavin Sullivan intended for this to be a life lesson for all of you.”
I nodded, wishing I’d asked my mother more about the uncle I was never to mention. It was too late now. She’d died a little over a year ago. I still mourned her death. And then it dawned on me that I’d have to leave Boston and live in Florida for a year with my two sisters. How could I do that?
My husband, Tony Morelli, was a good man who always prided himself on doing the right thing. Though we didn’t know each other all that well when I’d gotten pregnant, he’d stepped right up and offered to marry me so all my mother’s conservative church friends wouldn’t be counting on their fingers how many days after our wedding our first baby appeared. It helped that Michael Morelli started his life in the outside world a little late. Still, Tony’s consideration was appreciated. But Tony wouldn’t appreciate something like my being in Florida away from my family for a year. That would be going against his idea of my doing the right thing by taking care of my family.
The brief moment of elation at my escaping the life that had become mine disappeared in a wave of disappointment. How could I possibly do what Uncle Gavin asked of me? My family needed me.
About the Author
Judith Keim was born and raised in Elmira, New York, and now makes her home in Idaho with her husband and her long-haired dachshund, Winston, and other members of her family.
“Growing up, books were always present—being read, ready to go back to the library, or about to be discovered. Information from the books was shared in general conversation, giving all of us in the family a wealth of knowledge and a lot of imagination. Perhaps that is why I was drawn to the idea of writing stories early on. I particularly love to write novels about women who deal with the unexpected with strength and open their hearts to finding love, because no matter what our circumstances, we all need to love and be loved in return.”
“I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. If you have, please help other readers discover it by leaving a review on Goodreads or the site of your choice. And please check out the Hartwell Women Series, the Fat Fridays Group, and The Beach House Hotel series. ALL THE BOOKS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIO on Audible and iTunes! So fun to have these characters come alive!”
Ms. Keim can be reached at www.judithkeim.com And to like her author page on Facebook and keep up with the news, go to: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Judith-Keim/184013771644484?ref=aymt_homepage_panel.
To receive notices about new books, follow her on Book Bub - http://bit.ly/2pZBDXq
And here’s a link to where you can sign up for her periodic news
letter! http://eepurl.com/bZ0ICX
She is also on Twitter @judithkeim, LinkedIn and Goodreads. Come say hello!
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank my writer friends and family members for their encouragement, especially Lynn Mapp for her friendship and insight. It means so much to me. And as always, I wish to thank my husband, Peter, whose business career has always been in the hospitality industry. His insight and continuing support in so many ways have made it possible for me to keep writing the light, fun stories I love to tell. Love you, Man!
BOOKS BY JUDITH KEIM
The Talking Tree (The Hartwell Women –1)
Sweet Talk (The Hartwell Women – 2)
Straight Talk (The Hartwell Women – 3)
Baby Talk (The Hartwell Women – 4)
The Hartwell Women Series – (Boxed Set)
Breakfast at The Beach House Hotel –1
Lunch at The Beach House Hotel – 2
Dinner at The Beach House Hotel – 3
Christmas at The Beach House Hotel – 4 (November 2017)
Fat Fridays (Fat Fridays Group – 1)
Sassy Saturdays (Fat Fridays Group – 2)
Secret Sundays (Fat Fridays Group – 3 – (Coming soon!)
Finding Me – A Salty Key Inn Book – 1
Finding My Way – A Salty Key Inn Book – 2
Finding Love – A Salty Key Inn Book – 3 (Winter 2018)
Winning BIG – a little love story for all ages
For more information: www.judithkeim.com
CHILDREN’S BOOKS BY J. S. KEIM
The Hidden Moon (The Hidden Moon Series – 1)
Return to the Hidden Moon (The Hidden Moon Series – 2)
Trouble on the Hidden Moon (The Hidden Moon Series – 3)
Kermit Greene’s World
For more information: www.judithkeim.com