Summer at the Shore (Seashell Bay Book 2)

by V. K. Sykes

  The affectionate gesture, combined with his wry comment, did her in. “Okay, tough guy,” she sighed. “I’d be very grateful if you could do that.”

  “No problem. What time is the insurance adjuster coming?”

  “In about an hour. The rep I talked to on the phone was really helpful. They have a twenty-four-hour hotline to report emergency situations.”

  “Good. The adjuster should approve hiring a restoration service right away. It’s the only way to prevent more damage and an even bigger claim.”

  “That sounds good,” Morgan said cautiously.

  She’d lain awake for hours trying to recall the details of the inn’s insurance. Her father had opted for cheap insurance because Golden Sunset was skating on thinner and thinner ice, a very bad move in light of last night’s disaster. But she’d screwed up too. She should have been quicker to upgrade the policy. Again, it had been cost that stopped her. Morgan had told herself she’d do it as soon as the inn had the cash flow to handle that and all its other expenses.

  Ryan’s gaze narrowed again. “Morgan, there isn’t a problem with the insurance, is there?”

  “Um, let’s just see what the adjuster has to say.” She brushed past him into the hallway. “I want to take a good look at the annex now. The damage to the ground floor doesn’t seem as bad as I thought it might.”

  “It’s hard to tell how all that water is going to affect the walls and floors,” Ryan said, following her. “We need the restoration company to tell us whether it can all be dried out or whether we’re going to have to rip the place down to the studs.”

  Down to the studs? Might as well give up, if that was the case. “At least the furniture looks salvageable,” she said, trying to be positive.

  “Down here maybe. It’ll be a total loss upstairs.” He paused. “Hopefully you have full replacement coverage.”

  She didn’t answer.

  As they stepped into the annex, Ryan grasped her forearm and held her back. “Morgan, what aren’t you telling me? Obviously the insurance hasn’t lapsed, since an adjuster is on his way.”

  “The policy is current,” she hedged.

  He studied her for a moment, then sighed. “But inadequate, right?”

  She waggled a hand, not wanting to come right out and say it.

  He grasped her firmly by the shoulders. “Okay, we’ll deal, whatever it is. What you need to know right now is that you don’t have to go through this alone. I’ve got pretty broad shoulders, and I’ve had to deal with my share of disasters.”

  The kind of disasters where friends and brothers-in-arms wound up getting maimed or killed, she knew. And it was a reminder that, in this disaster, no one had been hurt, or had died. While she and Sabrina were in trouble, things could have been much worse. She needed to remember that and try to be grateful for large mercies.

  She gave him an impulsive hug. “Thank you, Ryan. I’m so incredibly grateful that you’re here. I’m not sure we could get through this without you.” She pressed her cheek into the hard warmth of his chest, letting herself give in just for a moment. “And don’t think that doesn’t piss me off to admit it,” she added only half-jokingly.

  He huffed out a soft chuckle as he stroked her hair. It felt so good and so right, like somehow his embrace could restore balance to her messed-up little world.

  “I know, tough girl,” he said. “But that’s what we do here in Seashell Bay, right? We help. And we’ll do it together, Morgan, whatever it takes. You, Sabrina, and me.”

  Ryan tilted her head back a bit and gently kissed her forehead as his fingers snaked through her hair. Every part of her body urged her to stretch up and give him a real kiss. Wasn’t that what he wanted? The bulge in his jeans left no doubt about that. And she wanted it too. Wanted it as much as she wanted air to breathe.

  But she also knew she’d never been more vulnerable in her life. Now was not the time to slide into another huge emotional situation with the potential to wreck her.

  She reluctantly pulled out of his arms. “Thanks, Ryan. You can’t know how much that means to me.” Then she turned and started down the hall again. “The chief said there’s only water damage in here.”

  Ryan stayed silent, following her. Was he angry with her for breaking away?

  She kept on talking. Babbling, more like it.

  “I was hoping all night that Sabrina and I could somehow move back in down here soon. Maybe we could at least clean it up enough so that our bedrooms and the kitchen are usable.” She forced herself to step into the kitchen and then breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God. It really isn’t too bad in here.”

  Except for some pools of water on the plank floor and huge wet spots on the ceiling where water had dripped through, the kitchen seemed relatively unscathed. Sunlight streamed in through the south-side windows and bounced off the cheery yellow walls. She crossed through to the hall and stepped quickly over to her bedroom and glanced inside. It looked almost normal too, and she exhaled another relieved sigh. “Yep, that looks doable. I want us to get out of Lily’s hair as soon as we can.”

  When she turned around, Ryan was almost on top of her. His eyes were locked onto the four-poster with its gauzy, flowered canopy. She adored that bed and was so grateful it had been spared damage. And by the way Ryan was letting his gaze drift over it, he seemed to like it too. But for different reasons, she suspected.

  He met her gaze. “The problem is you won’t have power right away.”

  Right, she’d forgotten that part. “Do you think the fire department will coordinate with the power company, or should I be calling them myself?”

  “We should talk to the chief about that. I’m sure Central Maine Power won’t come near the site until they get an all clear from him. It might take a while.”

  The whisper of hope in her heart faded. “Some of the wiring must have been destroyed by the fire.”

  Ryan nodded. “I’m sure we’re going to need a full repair and upgrade through the entire structure before power can be brought back in from the road.”

  “The annex seems okay though,” Morgan said. “Could power be restored to just this part of the house?” She was starting to sound desperate, but she couldn’t help it.

  “Only the power company or an electrician can tell us for sure. Since it’s got its own panel, I don’t see why the feed couldn’t bypass the main house and go straight to the annex.”

  “I’d really like to get back in here as soon as I can, Ryan. It would be really good for Sabrina.” And for her sake too.

  He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “Let me talk to Frank for starters. And I’ll get some estimates and time frames from electricians for a wiring retrofit. But it’ll take time, Morgan. No instant results.”

  She could tell he was trying to give her the most optimistic assessment possible, which was really depressing because it was still a pretty bleak take on things.

  “Message received,” she said, forcing a smile.

  Ryan blew out an impatient breath as Dermot Delaney laboriously made some notes on his clipboard, using the hood of Ryan’s truck as a writing table. The baby-faced insurance adjuster looked about seventeen, despite his buttoned-up look and his serious attitude. Hard to believe he held the future of Golden Sunset B&B in his hands.

  A moment later, the adjuster looked up at Morgan with a smile. It obviously didn’t reassure her, since her shoulders stayed hunched up high and she kept her arms wrapped tightly across her chest.

  “Ms. Merrifield, as you know, your policy provides for replacement cost on the structural elements and finishing, less the fifteen-thousand-dollar deductible. So that will certainly stand you in good stead. You do realize though that the contents are insured for only their current value?”

  When Morgan gave a grim nod, Ryan blinked in shock. He wasn’t surprised about the stipulation on the contents of the house, but he’d never expected the B&B’s policy to have such a whopping deductible. It meant Morgan would be out-of-pocket fo
r fifteen thousand bucks, plus whatever the replacement furniture cost over and above the insurance company’s coverage. And then there was the cost of upgrading the wiring that wasn’t damaged. The whole thing could total forty grand, maybe even more. Unfortunately, after the cost of the advertising, the balance in Morgan’s bank account had to be a lot closer to forty bucks than forty thousand.

  Morgan didn’t look surprised though. She’d known exactly what was coming, which he should have picked up on by the way she’d been hedging on his earlier questions about the insurance.

  At least the adjuster had authorized a restoration service. Ryan had already lined up the company his dad had recommended. They were set to begin work that afternoon once he gave them the go-ahead.

  “I have the list of contents your father submitted to us last year,” Delaney continued. “If you could take a look at it right away and update it with any additions or deletions, it would speed the process along.”

  “My sister and I will work on it this afternoon,” Morgan said.

  “Good, because I need you to sign off on a final version before I can finish calculating the depreciated values and approve the claim.”

  Morgan nodded, her blue eyes shadowed with exhaustion. “I understand.”

  “If you’re ready, we could meet at my office tomorrow and go over the list. I’ll do some preliminary calculations this afternoon so, if there aren’t too many changes, I expect we could finalize that part of the claim and issue you a check as soon as you confirm the damage with photos.”

  “That sounds good,” she said, forcing a smile. It practically broke Ryan’s heart to see her struggling to hold it together.

  Delaney checked his cell phone calendar. “Ten o’clock, then. I’ll look forward to seeing you.” He gave her a big smile and a nod and started to walk away.

  “Don’t you want me to drive you back to the ferry?” Morgan said.

  “No, thanks. It’s a beautiful day. I love coming to Seashell Bay. It’s a little corner of paradise if you ask me.”

  Morgan’s blank look suggested that Seashell Bay was the opposite of paradise for her, right about now.

  After the adjuster disappeared down Island Road, Ryan wrapped his arms around Morgan and gave her a quick hug. “Now I get why you didn’t want to talk about the insurance policy.”

  She pulled away and sighed as she leaned against the truck. She wore jeans and a wrinkled cotton shirt, having changed earlier in her room. Her clothes were fine other than suffering from a little smoke smell. Ryan’s stuff, on the other hand, was still quarantined in his room upstairs.

  “I thought the deductible might be a disaster waiting to happen as soon as I found out about it,” she said. “But reducing it was going to cost an awful lot, so I hoped I could get away with it until the inn was making money again. I guess it’s just a case of Murphy’s Frigging Law.”

  He wasn’t about to pile on more misery. “Babe, it’s not like you didn’t have a million other things to deal with. Not to mention coping with your father’s death and taking care of Sabrina.”

  “I appreciate that, Ryan. But this is going to cost fifteen thousand right off the top, then a lot more to replace all the ruined furniture. The stuff upstairs was on its last legs to begin with. We’ll get next to nothing for it from the insurance.”

  Ryan couldn’t argue the point. The furniture in his room had all been old and in need of replacement. From what he’d seen of the other guest rooms, the same thing applied. “Maybe we can find stuff at secondhand stores and auctions that’ll do the job. I don’t see why not.”

  “Probably, but it’ll still cost tens of thousands of dollars to get the place back on its feet, and in the meantime, I’ve got a mortgage to pay and no income. I can’t borrow any more from the bank. The only option I can see is to somehow keep the repair costs down to what we get from the insurance.” She threw up her hands, finally starting to look pissed off. “How am I supposed to manage that? It’s not like I can afford to close down any of the rooms. We need all of them to be booked to keep open.”

  He leaned against the truck and gazed out at the spectacular view of the ocean. “Okay, let’s not worry about that for now. We should stick to the immediate issues, like getting the restoration company going and cancelling all the guest bookings for—”

  “Forever,” Morgan interrupted.

  Ryan shook his head. “I’d say a month. Maybe even a little less.”

  She turned to face him, slapping her hands on her hips. “Are you kidding? The place is half-burned and mostly waterlogged. What planet are you living on, Ryan Butler?”

  Boy, she was really rattled to be snapping at him like that. She was a woman who rarely lost her temper or her cool.

  “Morgan, honey, you have to start believing that you can figure this out. You’re smart and creative and you’ve got a whole island full of friends ready to help you out.” He slung an arm around her shoulders. “And you’ve got me. I’ll be here with you every step of the way until the place is back up and running.”

  Morgan squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and then shook her head. “You are many things, Ryan, many wonderful things. But I don’t think you’re a magician. And that’s what this place needs.”

  He squeezed her a little tighter. “You might be surprised.”

  She opened her eyes and looked up at him. The vulnerability and grief he saw in her gaze practically killed him.

  “Please don’t give up, Morgan,” he said. “We can do this. We can do anything if we want it bad enough.”

  As long as Morgan was willing to keep fighting, he’d be right at her side. He’d never once let a buddy down in the field, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let down the woman he’d come to care about more than he’d ever thought possible.

  Chapter 18

  Ryan could tell Aiden was giving him the hairy eyeball from behind his Oakley shades.

  “We should have taken my truck,” Aiden said. “It’s a long way down to Miss Annie’s at the speed of this piece-of-crap golf cart.”

  “The whole point of coming home was to slow down, you moron. Take it easy and contemplate life.” Ryan threw his friend a taunting grin as they passed the trash transfer station on their way to the south end of the island.

  Aiden laughed. “And how’s that working out for you? You’ve been busting your ass ever since you got here, and now you’re about to take on a Mount Rushmore–sized project.”

  Ryan had filled Aiden in on his plans earlier, after Lily had left for her lobster boat and Morgan had caught an early ferry to Portland to meet the insurance adjuster. Not that Lily wouldn’t be involved up to her neck in what he had in mind—he just didn’t want her talking to Morgan before he had some of the key pieces in place. Later, he’d made calls to three guys he wanted to rope into helping do some of the repair work at the inn. All had responded with generous enthusiasm.

  “Seriously?” he scoffed. “This coming from the guy who’s building a big-ass resort and coaching college baseball at the same time?”

  “I’m not exactly building the place. I’m just coordinating some stuff.”

  That was a hell of an understatement from what Ryan had heard. “Well, I’m thinking in the same terms about Golden Sunset.”

  Aiden snorted. “You do realize that, if you get Field Marshal Annie Letellier involved, there’s no chance you’ll be in charge of the army, right? Miss Annie doesn’t play second in command to anybody.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  A few minutes later, Ryan eased the cart to a stop on the grass beside Miss Annie’s two-story clapboard house. The eighty-year-old place sat on a piece of coastland that had belonged to the Letellier family for over a century and a half.

  Roy Mayo opened the door and sauntered out onto the small porch, barefoot and in jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt that showed off his still-fit build. The old guy was a walking example of the island’s hearty stock.

  “Well, if it isn’t Seashell Bay’s very
own baseball heroes.” Roy had been a vocal spectator at most of the Peninsula High ball games back in the day, always supporting the local kids. “You boys want a beer?”

  “Jesus, Roy, it’s not even ten o’clock,” Aiden said, stepping out of the cart.

  “So? Did the government pass a law that stops a man from enjoying a beer at home in the morning?” Roy held the door open. “But hell, if you’re going to be pussies, there’s coffee too.” His resigned shrug seemed to suggest that the world had come to a sad state.

  Miss Annie bustled out of the kitchen as Roy pointed them toward a comfy sofa covered by a red, white, and blue afghan. “So nice of you boys to drop in on a couple of old coots.”

  When she held her arms open, both Aiden and Ryan gave her warm hugs. “Well, Miss Annie, it’s always a pleasure to see you and Roy. Actually, not Roy,” Aiden said with a grin.

  “Miss Annie, we wanted to talk to you about Morgan and Sabrina,” Ryan said.

  She nodded. “I’d been hoping you boys would come see me about that.” She sat down primly in her favorite plush blue armchair. Roy remained standing, rocking back and forth on his heels. “Roy, why don’t you get these boys some coffee?” Miss Annie suggested patiently.

  The old guy rolled his eyes but trundled off to the kitchen.

  “I’m just heartbroken for the girls, and I feel bad for the guests too,” Miss Annie said. “The people who stayed here for the night said almost everything they had was ruined.”

  The fire department had retrieved the guests’ belongings from the upstairs rooms late yesterday afternoon before clearing Morgan and Ryan to go upstairs. Ryan had chucked his sodden, smoke-damaged clothes straight into the trash. The contents of his wallet had been mostly okay after they dried out.

  “A restoration company has been on site since yesterday,” Ryan said. “They say the lower floor and the annex are going to be fine, but we’re looking at repairing a section of the roof and replacing just about everything upstairs except the studs, floorboards, and plumbing. Almost all the furniture is shot, and all the wiring is going to have to be replaced.”