He didn’t want to appear rude, but he was also confused.
“Well, I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever it was you were discussing,” he said and paused, hoping one of them would fill him in. But neither spoke up. Allan stood there, with a pleased smile on his face, while Aunt Lenora remained quiet, her brow furrowed as though in contemplation. “Um, can I get you anything else, Allan? Aunt Lenora, did you need me to make more tea?”
Allan spoke before she could respond. “Oh, that’s all right. I think I’ve taken up enough of your aunt’s time.” He turned to her. “Lenora, you have my number. I’ll check in with you in a few days, if that suits?”
She gave a short nod and moved as if to stand, but Allan held up a hand.
“No, don’t trouble yourself. I’ll show myself out. Please thank Erin for the iced tea.” He nodded at Burke and smiled before he turned and made his way from the room. Burke thought about following him, but he was more concerned with Aunt Lenora.
He waited until he heard the front door click closed before he turned to his great-aunt.
“What was that about?”
To his consternation, she still didn’t respond. Instead, she struggled to stand, her movements awkward. Her joints were obviously stiff from sitting...for how long?
“How long was he here? And why?”
Aunt Lenora didn’t answer, and he had to will himself to patience. He stepped forward though and helped the old woman get to her feet. She hobbled toward the doorway that led to the office. She wasn’t quite there yet when Erin appeared in the opposite entry.
“I just saw Allan leave.” She looked at Burke in question. “Is everything all right? What was he doing here?”
“I don’t know,” Burke admitted. He looked back to Aunt Lenora, who was just passing through the door that entered into the office.
“Aunt Lenora, what’s going on? Where are you going?”
“For some peace and quiet, to give a body time to think!”
Burke’s jaw dropped. He looked to Erin. Her eyes were wide with surprise. Aunt Lenora had, on an occasion or two over the years, raised her voice but such a vehement reaction from her was rare.
Worried, he began to follow her from the room, but Erin’s voice held him.
“Burke. Let her go.”
He stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder. Her expression was pained.
“Just give her time to deal with it. Whatever it is. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”
Burke didn’t like it. But he took Erin’s advice and didn’t pursue Aunt Lenora even as he heard the office door close.
* * *
AUNT LENORA DIDN’T join them for dinner. She stayed holed up in the inn’s office and didn’t emerge even as they finished cleaning up and loading the dishwasher. Kitt didn’t seem to notice the tension in the house, nor Aunt Lenora’s absence. He was too busy playing with Scout. Even at dinner, Erin had to prompt him to continue eating since he kept looking in the direction of the mudroom where Scout was penned up while they had their meal.
It wasn’t until Erin and Burke had wordlessly finished their after-dinner tasks that Kitt seemed to remember Aunt Lenora. He appeared in the doorway of the kitchen with Scout in tow.
“Where’s Lenny?” he asked. “She hasn’t met Scout yet.”
Burke could sense the tension in Erin as she finished wiping down the counter. He straightened after pressing the wash cycle on the dishwasher.
“Aunt Lenora is busy right now,” Erin said. It was obvious she was distracted. She didn’t even look at Kitt as she spoke. Allan’s visit was weighing on her every bit as much as it was on him. What business did he have with Aunt Lenora?
“Where is she? I’ll take Scout to her.”
“Not now,” Erin replied, still preoccupied. “I told you, Aunt Lenora’s busy.”
“No, she’s not,” he argued. “She says she’s never too busy for me.”
Burke thought about intervening, but truthfully, he wanted to see how this played out. He sensed a bit of defiance in Kitt, something he had not seen before. The kid was the most well-behaved child he’d ever met. This was the first time Kitt had gotten belligerent with Erin, and he was curious how she’d handle it.
But for Erin’s part, she didn’t seem to realize that Kitt was pushing back for the first time in who knew how long.
“I’m sure that’s true, Kitt, but Aunt Lenora made it clear she didn’t want to be disturbed.” Erin’s back was turned, and she was still wiping down the counters. She didn’t see the way Kitt set his lips, and the expression made Burke smile. It was the same look that Erin got when she decided to dig in on something. He nearly applauded at the sight of it.
“But she hasn’t met Scout yet,” he protested.
“She can meet Scout tomorrow,” Erin countered.
“No! I want to see Lenny now!”
Burke watched silently. Scout’s tail was swishing like a pendulum, and his head was swinging from Erin to Kitt, as interested in this conversation as Burke was.
“Well, that’s just too bad because Aunt Lenora doesn’t have time right now.”
Kitt’s temper finally got the better of him, and Burke blinked as his nephew threw the plastic chew toy he’d been holding onto the floor. It hit the kitchen tile with a loud thwap!
Erin turned, nearly as surprised as Burke was by this reaction, took one look at the toy and then at Kitt. She blinked, and Burke saw it dawn on her that Kitt was actually fighting back about something. Her eyes widened, her lips parted, and then he saw the faintest twitch of a smile flit across her lips.
“Kitt Daniels, we do not behave like that when we don’t get our way.”
But there was no real reprimand behind the words. In fact, if Kitt was really listening, her tone sounded suspiciously like approval. He watched Kitt hesitate. His shoulders remained set in defiance, but his brow furrowed, as though contemplating his next course of action.
Though he shouldn’t encourage disobedience, a part of Burke was rooting for Kitt to keep pushing the issue. He wanted to see his nephew get a little fired up, just like any typical six-year-old would if they didn’t get their own way.
But he would never know just how far Kitt was willing to take his argument because Aunt Lenora appeared in the doorway at that moment and took charge of the situation.
“Kitt, let me see this dog.”
Kitt’s eyes lit up. Scout was already crossing the room, tail wagging even faster as he gave Aunt Lenora a good sniff. She patted the dog’s head and then rubbed a gnarled hand against his ears. Scout bent his head into the palm of her hand, his back leg thumping happily.
“Good dog,” Aunt Lenora said.
Burke and Erin met each other’s eyes over the heads of the rest of the family. Was Aunt Lenora going to tell them what had occurred between her and Allan?
“Now, Kitt, I want you to go upstairs with Scout. I’ll come up later and read to you before bed. Right now, I need to talk to your mother and Burke.”
“Can’t I be part of the talk, too?”
Aunt Lenora moved her hand from Scout to Kitt, resting it on his head and then moving it down to cup his cheek. “Not this time. Go upstairs and get ready for bed. Take the dog with you.”
Kitt nodded, and Burke felt a tug of dismay in seeing the familiar benign acceptance come over his features. He picked up the chew toy off the floor.
“Sorry I got mad, Mom.”
Burke felt a swell of disappointment. He wondered just how far Kitt would have pushed things if Aunt Lenora hadn’t entered the room.
“It’s all right,” Erin assured. She bent to drop a kiss on his forehead. “Go get ready for bed. You can play on your Nintendo DS until Aunt Lenora comes up.”
He shuffled from the room without further argument. Aunt Lenora waited until he was gone and then turned to
face them once more.
“Let’s go to the office. I have something I need to share with the both of you.”
* * *
“ALLAN WORTH HAS made me an offer.”
Aunt Lenora’s opening statement did nothing to calm the bees of uneasiness stinging around Erin’s stomach. Being in the office didn’t help either. Though the room was cozy, and Erin spent many hours of each week in here, it had an air of formality that didn’t exist elsewhere in the inn. This was where business was done. And clearly, whatever Aunt Lenora had to share, she meant business.
She let the silence drag on, as if building impact to her words. Erin kept her fingers locked tightly in her lap and spared only a brief glance toward Burke. His brow was furrowed—she imagined she probably looked much the same way.
“He would like to purchase the Moontide.”
When Aunt Lenora finally dropped this announcement, Erin actually snickered.
“Allan Worth wants the Moontide?” She found it ridiculous. “Obviously, that man is used to getting whatever he wants. I hope you made it clear the inn is not for sale.”
Aunt Lenora didn’t share in her outrage, and Erin felt her uneasiness return tenfold.
“He wants to renovate it into some sort of resort clubhouse. And he’d use the land to build a golf course.”
Erin could only stare as shock settled in. “A clubhouse? A golf course? But...why?”
“He feels it would attract more tourists to the area and increase our local economy. And more tourism is better for everyone.”
“Except you,” Erin pointed out, her tone defensive. “What good has tourism done for us so far? The Delphine has stolen half of our B&B business. And now he wants to just take the inn and make it his own?”
“Not take,” Aunt Lenora patiently corrected. “He’s made a rather generous offer.”
“I don’t care how generous his offer is. The Moontide is not for sale.”
Aunt Lenora didn’t seem in the least perturbed. Her expression was placid, as calm as the summer sky.
“Why the Moontide?” Erin asked, feeling slightly prickly by Aunt Lenora’s serenity. How did she not find this offensive? Allan Worth had leveraged his wealth and position to build the sprawling resort that had helped Findlay Roads evolve from a growing tourist destination to the next Hamptons. And with that move, he had put a bullet in the heart of the Moontide’s viability. For Burke and Tessa’s sake, she had never voiced her opinion about Allan aloud before, but perhaps now was the time to speak her mind.
“He has his resort. Isn’t that enough? Why does he think he’s entitled to more?”
“It’s a free country, Erin. If the man wants to expand his business, that’s his right.”
She turned, appalled at Burke’s words. It was the first he’d spoken since they’d sat down.
“You’re defending him?”
Burke shifted, obviously uncomfortable, but he didn’t back down. “I’m just saying that we can’t blame him for being successful.”
Though outwardly she maintained her poise, inwardly, she flinched. Why was Burke on Allan’s side? Was it because of Tessa? She swallowed, trying to control her emotions. Of course, it was Tessa. Less than two weeks ago, he’d walked down the aisle, prepared to marry her. It wasn’t as if his heart could have healed so quickly. She was naive to think otherwise. All the picnics and stolen kisses in the world didn’t mean Burke had so quickly forgotten the woman he’d wanted for his wife.
Just thinking those words turned her stomach. Burke still loved Tessa. And that should not matter to her as much as it did.
“He has land beside the Delphine. Let him use that for his stupid golf course. But if he moves so much as one inch over the property line—”
“He says it’s not enough. He needs more land to build the golf course. This property is adjacent to the Delphine’s acreage, and the Moontide has a nice bit of land attached to it. It only makes sense he’d want this property to build upon his own.”
Erin didn’t like the sound of this. “Aunt Lenora, you can’t tell us you’re seriously considering this.”
She didn’t reply. Erin felt as if the world had tilted.
“Aunt Lenora? Please tell me you are not considering this.”
The older woman sighed. “Not without getting your opinions. But you must know, I’ve spent the last couple of hours reviewing the inn’s financials.”
Erin blinked. That’s what she’d been doing in the office? Looking over the bookkeeping? Erin swept a glance around the room and noticed things that had escaped her attention when she first came in. Several old sets of ledgers, from the days when Aunt Lenora ran the inn without the aid of a computer, had been moved from their usual spot gathering dust on a shelf and now lay on a chair as if they’d been dropped there recently. The folder that contained last year’s tax return was on top of the desk.
Erin shifted to see what was on the computer screen. Aunt Lenora knew the bare minimum of using a computer. She knew how to check email and visit a few websites. But had part of her time in this room been taken up with figuring out how to view the records Erin stored online? The computer was cycling an array of images of her and Gavin over the years as part of the screensaver. So she couldn’t tell what Aunt Lenora had seen there. But she knew the B&B’s numbers were bad. Very bad.
She flushed, feeling as if this was her responsibility. Since she’d taken over the everyday running of the inn, things had sunk deeper and deeper into the red. She blamed the Delphine, but what if she was also at fault? Was there something more she should be doing?
She’d convinced Aunt Lenora to create a website years ago, and more recently, she’d spruced up the look of it with the help of online tutorials. She’d also created a Facebook page (they had a modest forty-one likes) and had registered the inn with several reputable B&B registries. In addition to increasing their online presence, she’d begun advertising with the local community, looking to boost their revenue via outlets closer to home, such as Mrs. Cleary’s book club.
But for every strategy she employed the Delphine had ten more, and they were bigger, more impressive, better financed, with personnel devoted entirely to marketing and publicity. Erin felt her chest tighten at the idea of trying to do more. She wanted to...but she was one person. And so far, none of her ideas had paid off in any significantly notable way.
“We’ve been in a bit of a dry spell,” Erin began, but Aunt Lenora cut her off.
“I don’t believe it’s a spell. I’ve looked at the records over a ten-year span. Things have been steadily declining for some time.”
Erin felt the bite of desperation.
“The area has been in flux for the last few years. There have been a lot of changes to the community, new businesses have sprung up—some by outsiders, even celebrities.”
She thought of her best friend, Rory, and her husband, Sawyer. They’d begun funding a charity organization last year to help underprivileged families. As a famous country music star, Sawyer had the wealth and influence to do plenty of good in the world, and he used his position to benefit others. Perhaps because of his own uncertain future with the possibility of Early Onset Alzheimer’s. But his interest in the town had caught the attention of several high-profile celebs, and the area had grown even more as Sawyer’s fame and philanthropy did.
“And many businesses and families have benefited,” Aunt Lenora agreed. “But not, it seems, the Moontide.”
“But...where would we go, if you sold it? This is our home.”
“We could rent a place for a time, until something suitably permanent could be found. I intend to make sure you and Kitt are well-provided for. You have no need to worry about that.”
That wasn’t Erin’s main concern at the moment. The loss of the Moontide and all it represented was the focal point of her fears. Erin shivered, feeling unnaturally cold, perhap
s in light of the view Aunt Lenora held. The older woman turned to Burke, who had remained silent throughout most of this exchange.
“Burke? What are your feelings?”
Erin shifted her gaze to him, feeling a swell of uncertainty. His head was lowered, as though in contemplation. She could count on Burke to back her up...couldn’t she? After all, this place had been his home for most of his teenage years. She knew he had a few negative emotions concerning the inn but surely not enough to want to see it close in place of a golf course?
But as the silence dragged on, her anxiety increased. When he finally lifted his head, he didn’t look at her but rather kept his focus on Aunt Lenora. And when he gave his answer, her heart jerked with dismay.
“I think you should sell.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BURKE WAITED UNTIL Aunt Lenora had gone to bed before he sought out Erin. It was late, and he feared she might have gone to bed already. But he found her in the library, curled up in an armchair with a photo album in her lap. He recognized it as the wedding album, a collection of some of the weddings that had taken place at the inn over the years. The oldest photo in the book, he seemed to recall, was from 1870. He knew Gavin and Erin’s photo was in there, as well, and he felt a pang at the thought.
“Hey,” he said from the doorway. Though she didn’t acknowledge his presence, he stepped further into the room anyway.
“Erin... I’m sorry.”
She flipped a page and didn’t raise her head. He sighed.
“I know my opinion on the Moontide wasn’t what you wanted to hear.”
She flipped to another page. He wondered if she was really looking at the photos now or just using the album as a way to shut him out.
“I don’t...feel the same way about it that you do. I’m sorry,” he repeated. He wished he could feel differently about the inn. But he didn’t. It wasn’t a bad place. He was sure it held many wonderful memories for a lot of people. Erin included. But for him, it represented everything life had taken away from him. His parents. Family vacations.
The Way Back to Erin Page 13