The Inn at Dead Man's Point

by SUE FINEMAN

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Blurb

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Backlist

  Author’s Bio

  Author’s Note

  THE INN AT DEAD MAN’S POINT

  Donatelli Family: Book Four

  by

  Sue Fineman

  The Inn at Dead Man’s Point

  Copyright © 2011 Sue Fineman

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from Sue Fineman.

  Published by Amazon KDP

  Seattle, WA

  Electronic KDP Edition: October, 2011

  This book is a work of fiction and all characters exist solely in the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any references to places, events or locales are used in a fictitious manner.

  Alessandro Donatelli, the youngest of the Donatelli brood, has a promising career as an architect, but he needs a quiet place to work. He buys the rundown inn at Dead Man’s Point from a ninety-year-old woman. She gives him a good price, but part of the deal is that he has to let her live out her life in the inn, the only home she’s ever known. He wants the inn, so he accepts the deal. How many more years could a woman that age live?

  When the old woman breaks her arm, her great-niece comes to take care of her. Jenna Madison’s parents supposedly bought into the inn before they died. Uncle Charlie said the inn would be hers someday, but she can’t find a record of her parents’ investment. And Al Donatelli claims he owns the inn.

  Jenna and Al knew each other in high school, when he was a shy nerd and she was the class slut. One kiss is all it takes to forget the past and fuel their passion, but life at the inn isn’t easy. The old woman has other plans for the inn, and she doesn’t care who gets in her way.

  Prologue

  The old woman stood at the edge of the hill, looking down at the rocks on the beach below where her husband of over sixty years had died five years ago. He’d been shaky and unsteady, and his mind wasn’t always clear, but that wasn’t the reason she’d pushed him over. He’d wanted to give her inn to his bastard daughter.

  Mattie had left his body on the rocks long enough to be sure he was dead before she called 911. He’d gone out for a walk and disappeared, she’d told the woman on the phone. He was old and sick, and she was worried about him. It didn’t take them long to find his body. She’d called the girl then, as was expected, and they had a nice funeral service for Charlie. Nobody had suspected a thing, Mattie still had her inn, her home, and his bastard had returned to Seattle. Charlie’s hand-written will had curled and turned to ashes in the fireplace. The girl would never get her hands on this inn.

  Mattie turned to walk back toward the inn, her home since the day she was born. The county wanted money for taxes, but she couldn’t find the money Charlie had hidden away, and she couldn’t pay the bill. If she didn’t sell it, they’d auction it off, and she’d end up in a nursing home, a place where old people went to die. And she wasn’t ready to die.

  The young man who’d offered to buy the inn agreed to let Mattie live on the main floor of the inn for as long as she could take care of herself. She told him she’d think about it, but she was running out of time. The county auction was scheduled for the end of the month.

  The wind picked up and howled through the trees and around the inn, chilling her to the bone. The sky darkened and the first big drops of rain splattered in the weedy grass around her. She hurried back to the inn to call the young man. Yes, she’d sell him the inn.

  If she didn’t want to die in a nursing home, she had no choice.

  Chapter One

  “No, Brian, she’s not spending a week with you and your parents.”

  “She’s my daughter, and I have a right to spend time with her.”

  “Yes, you do, but not a whole week with your parents.” After a two-hour visit, Katie came home wheezing from Brian’s father’s cigar smoke. An entire week would put her four-year-old daughter in the hospital for sure, and Jenna no longer had health insurance. That went away with her job two months ago.

  She wouldn’t mind letting Katie spend a week with Brian if he didn’t take her to his parents’ home, but he always did, and Katie always came home sick. Jenna hadn’t been able to convince Brian’s parents that Katie couldn’t handle the smoke. Brian’s mother talked so much she didn’t hear the wheezing, his father always blamed it on a cold, and Brian was oblivious.

  Jenna glanced at the clock. “Brian, I have to go get Katie from pre-school.” She hung up and grabbed her purse. Before she could get out the door, the phone rang again.

  She picked it up. “Is this Jenna Madison?” the woman asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Miss Madison, this is Margaret Lofgren from Allenmore Hospital in Tacoma. I’m calling about Mattie Worthington.”

  Her breath caught. “What about her?”

  “She fell off a ladder and broke her arm. The doctor is reluctant to release her without someone at home to take care of her. He suggested a nursing home and she refused. She said to call you, that you’d take care of her.”

  Fell off a ladder? Aunt Mattie was ninety years old. What was she doing on a ladder? “How soon will she be released?”

  “The doctor wants to keep her for a day or two, maybe longer. At her age, fractures can be quite serious, and she’d apparently been on the floor for at least two days before someone found her. She’s dehydrated and weak.”

  Jenna took down all the pertinent information and ended the call. Poor Aunt Mattie. Bad enough to break something without lying on the floor for two days.

  Her great aunt was a handful to deal with. Uncle Charlie had always been a sweetheart, but Aunt Mattie was outspoken, opinionated, and critical of others. Especially Jenna. When the inn was open, nobody wanted to work for her, and her surly attitude had often chased customers away.

  The thought of taking care of her aunt gave Jenna a headache, but there was no one else. Aunt Mattie and Uncle Charlie had never had children of their own, but they took care of her after her parents died, so she couldn’t refuse to take care of her aunt now.

  Jenna picked Katie up from pre-school, drove through McDonalds for a Happy Meal, and then headed to the hospital in Tacoma. Her aunt was zonked out on pain medication, so Jenna had a long talk with the nurse. Aunt Mattie had always been a robust woman, but now she looked thin and frail and very old. One side of her face was black and purple, and the white cast on her arm looked bigger than she was.

  How long had it been since she’d seen Aunt Mattie? A year, two years, or three? Katie wasn’t walking yet, so it must have been over three years. They’d talked on the phone occasionally, and Jenna always got a lecture on morality. She’d tried to explain why she wouldn’t marry Katie’s father, but Aunt Mattie wouldn’t listen. To her, it wasn’t right for a woman to have a baby unless she was married.

  “She’ll probably sleep for most of the afternoon,” said the nurse. “The bruise on her face
isn’t as bad as it looks.”

  Jenna took a deep breath. Was she prepared to take care of a ninety-year-old woman with a broken arm? Aunt Mattie wouldn’t be able to do much of anything until that cast came off. Feeding herself would be awkward, if not impossible, since she’d broken her right arm.

  Better check out the inn. She hadn’t been there since Charlie’s funeral.

  Jenna strapped Katie in her car seat and drove across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge toward Gig Harbor. Minutes later, she pulled off the main road at the faded sign for The Inn at Dead Man’s Point and drove down the single-lane drive under a dappled canopy of green. Uncle Charlie used to trim the trees back from the drive, but he’d been gone a long time.

  Jenna stopped at the clearing at the top of the hill and gazed down at the big old house with the wrap-around porch, her home from the time her parents died until she left for college. The siding was streaked and dingy, and the patched roof was covered with moss. The inn had been neglected for so long she wanted to cry. The Japanese maple that she and Uncle Charlie had planted when she was twelve had gotten so big she could barely see the water beyond sparkling in the sunshine. The tree they’d planted in memory of her parents needed to be pruned and the flower beds torn out and replanted. It was mid-May, when the flowers should be blooming and the grass thick and green, but it looked like the weeds and moss and blackberry vines had taken over.

  She drove down the winding drive to the front door, hoping the inside didn’t look as bad as the outside, yet knowing it must. There was a car parked in front. Unless Aunt Mattie had bought another car, someone was here. Jenna parked beside it. Katie was sleeping in her car seat, so Jenna rolled down all the windows and left her there. It was a cool day, so she should be all right for a few minutes.

  Opening the front door of the inn, she called, “Hello.”

  A man walked to the door. Tall, dark, and handsome barely touched it. This guy was gorgeous, but who was he and what was he doing here?

  “Can I help you?”

  “I’m Mattie Worthington’s niece, Jenna Madison.”

  “Alessandro Donatelli.”

  Al Donatelli? Jenna didn’t mean to stare, but she couldn’t help it. His skinny frame had filled out, and he’d grown into a handsome man. A lifetime ago, they’d gone to high school together. Al was the class nerd, the quiet kid who’d never fit in. If only they could see him now. The thick black-framed glasses were gone and his dark hair was cut and styled just so. He wore tailored slacks and a tapered button-down shirt instead of the ill-fitting hand-me-downs he wore back then. If she’d met this guy in a bar or at a party, she’d definitely give him a second look. He oozed success and something she would never have thought possible. Sex appeal.

  He backed away from the door. “Come on in.”

  She waved toward her car. “I left my daughter in the car.”

  He walked outside with her and they stood on the porch. “I don’t know how long Mattie had been on the floor when I found her. I was in California for a few days on business, just got back yesterday.”

  “What kind of business?”

  “I’m an architect. My brother runs the California division of Max and Company, so I took him a few house plans for a retirement community they’re building.”

  A slow smile tugged at her lips. “You’re kidding! An architect?”

  A little face peeked out the car window, and Jenna walked out to open the car door for Katie. She was a little shy with strangers, but when she spotted the black cat walking out the door behind Al, she squealed, “Kitty,” and ran right up to pet the cat.

  “Careful,” Al said. “That one is a little feisty. Sit down on the porch and talk to her. Let her come up to you, and don’t try to pick her up.”

  Katie plunked her little behind on the porch by Al’s feet and called the kitty, and a minute later, the cat was rubbing against Katie’s arm and purring. Katie looked up at Al and gave him an adoring smile.

  Al followed Jenna inside. “Do you think Mattie will be able to live here again?”

  “Not without someone to take care of her. I’ll give it a try for awhile, but I don’t know how long I can stay. She’s…” Jenna sighed. “She’s impossible at times.”

  Jenna walked into Mattie’s bedroom, pulled a tote off the closet shelf, and packed a few things to take to the hospital. “This place is filthy.” If she had the money, she’d hire a cleaning crew.

  “I’ll take care of my rooms upstairs,” said Al.

  Jenna stuffed Aunt Mattie’s bathrobe in the top of the tote. “She’s renting rooms?”

  “No, I bought the place.”

  Jenna dropped the tote and gaped at him. “Bought? But I thought… She can’t sell the inn. My parents owned half of it, and my uncle said it would belong to me someday.”

  “Mattie had the legal right to sell it. I had a title search done and checked it out with my attorney. The county was about to auction the place off for back taxes.”

  “You took advantage of an old woman?”

  “I did her a favor by buying it, so she’d have a place to live.”

  He waved his hand around. “Look around you. The furnace filter hadn’t been changed in years, there’s at least one leak in the roof, and the house has more dust than Arizona. There were things growing in the refrigerator, and I doubt Mattie could see well enough to tell if something was fit to eat or not. She has no business driving, yet she’s buying her own groceries and getting herself to the doctor and drug store. She’s been trying to take care of herself on next to nothing, and judging from the stack of overdue bills on the kitchen counter, she’s about to have the power turned off.”

  Jenna walked into the kitchen and thumbed through the bills.

  “She has the money to pay them now, but I don’t think she can see well enough to write the checks. I was going to offer to help her find a companion.”

  Jenna leaned on the kitchen bar and rubbed her temples. Aunt Mattie never said she needed help, and she never mentioned selling the inn. She knew Jenna intended to return here someday. Feeling defeated, she dropped her hands to the counter. “Fine.” She shoved the tote bag into his hands. “You can take this to the hospital, you can bring her home, and you can take care of her.”

  He plopped the bag on the counter. “That wasn’t part of our deal. If she can’t take care of herself, she has to hire someone to help her. If she can’t find someone to help her, she goes to a nursing home and I get full possession of the inn.”

  “You’re not taking possession of my inn.” She grabbed the tote and walked out the door. “Come on, Katie. We’re going back to the hospital, and then we’re finding an attorney.”

  Al watched Jenna strap her child into the backseat of her car and drive away. She was angry with him for buying the inn, when she should be angry at Mattie for selling it without talking with her first.

  Jenna Madison was the last person he expected to see here. He had no idea she was related to Mattie. She was pretty in high school, and she was even prettier now. Her blond hair was shorter, but she still had a great figure. He used to dream about touching her body. Now he didn’t even want to look at her. He wondered if she was still with Brian Baxter. Brian was a dirt bag and she wasn’t much better in high school. Maybe she’d grown up and moved on, but he couldn’t count on it.

  He’d both loved and hated Jenna in high school, and he loathed her sometimes boyfriend and the crowd they hung around with. In the ninth grade, she was a nice enough girl, but as she moved into Brian Baxter’s group, she started stepping on people and doing hurtful things to please her new friends. He didn’t want her here, but how could he keep her out? She was Mattie’s niece, and Mattie needed her.

  One step at a time. Maybe the doctor wouldn’t let Mattie come home. Maybe Jenna wouldn’t want to stay with her. And maybe he was fooling himself. Jenna was not only moving in, she was hiring an attorney to fight him for the inn.

  He’d been delaying the move until he got the roof repa
ired, but if he didn’t claim his space now, Jenna could lock him out. He didn’t want to fight her for possession, but he would if necessary. He owned the inn now, and she’d better get that straight in her head.

  He needed to move soon anyway. Since his nephew and his girlfriend moved into Ma’s house, where Al had been living since college, home wasn’t a nice place to be. Vincent’s girlfriend listened to hard rock day and night, which must have caused brain damage, because DeeDee was dumb as a post. She was built, but it was a small trade-off. Al liked sex as much as the next man, but he wanted more than sex from his women. He wanted intelligence and good taste. His nephew obviously had different standards.

  He spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning his rooms upstairs and washing sheets and towels before he went home to pack. He’d move in today, and tomorrow he’d move his office. He’d be settled and back to work before Mattie came home from the hospital.

  If she ever came home.

  He had his doubts.

  <>

  After another brief visit to the hospital, Jenna drove home to Seattle. Brian sat outside her apartment in his new SUV, and from the look on his face, he was not happy. He got out and slammed the door. “Where in the hell have you been? Katie was supposed to be with me this afternoon.”

  She released Katie from her car seat and unlocked the apartment door. “Family emergency.”

  “You don’t have any family except… Did the old witch finally kick the bucket?”

  After shooting him a look meant to wither, she took Katie inside. He followed. “What do you want, Brian?”

  “Dinner with my daughter.”

  “She’s tired and fussy, and this is not a good time for her to be around your girlfriend and her little monster.”