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  “We just have two suites left,” I reminded Georgia.

  “I told them as much, but they’re willing to share. Between the king-sized bed, the queen-sized sofa bed, and a couple roll away beds in each suite, I think they can make it work.”

  “If it’s okay with you, and it’s okay with them, it’s okay with me.”

  “That’s what I figured, but I wanted to check with you. They’re teenage girls, so I’m sure they’re used to sleeping three or four to a bed during slumber parties.”

  Personally, I’d never been to a slumber party, so I guessed I’d have to take Georgia’s word for it.

  “They haven’t eaten, so I won’t be back to the cottage as soon as I hoped,” she continued. “I hate to ask, but Ramos is going to need to go out.”

  “Actually, I’m huddled on the front porch waiting for the dogs to do their thing as we speak. Neither seems thrilled with the rain, so I think it will be a quick trip. I’ll give them their dinner as well, so take your time and do what you need to do.”

  “Okay, thanks. I wasn’t planning on having a full house tonight, but it seems like everyone is getting along just fine, and it does feel good to be able to help out in an emergency.”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “It really does. How is our pregnant mom doing?”

  “She’s still having isolated contractions, but Ginny isn’t worried. She said that Sandy’s body is just getting ready for the delivery, but she also said she’d check in with Sandy frequently. Sandy didn’t come out for dinner, but her husband assured me that she was resting comfortably. I have to be honest, I’m really glad that Ginny is here.”

  “Yeah, me too. Let’s be sure to comp Ginny’s stay.”

  “Way ahead of you.”

  By the time the dogs were settled and I’d changed into dry clothes, Colt had arrived. “So, how is it in town?” I asked after I retrieved his food from the oven and poured him a cup of coffee.

  “It’s fine in town. The locals are all hunkered in. It’s the roads that are a mess.”

  “I guess folks traveling through might not be happy about the road closure.”

  “The state police are taking care of that, but I imagine you’re right. Most folks are turning around, but a few have insisted on pulling over and waiting it out. At least this storm isn’t a cold one, but I don’t think a car is the best place to ride out a hurricane.”

  “Have they opened any shelters?”

  Colt nodded. “If you’re on the Holiday Bay side of the closure, there are shelters set up in three locations for anyone needing a place to ride out the storm. It’s the folks coming from the east who are faced with either turning around and backtracking or settling in and waiting it out.”

  I refilled Colt’s coffee. “So, how strong is this hurricane supposed to be?” I asked.

  “They’re predicting winds along the coast to the south of us in the category two range overnight, although a lot of folks I’ve spoken to seem to think it will weaken before it gets this far north. It looks like you’re all battened down and boarded up.”

  “Lonnie assured me we can withstand whatever Mother Nature has to dish out. Not only are the windows boarded, but we’ve inventoried candles, flashlights, and batteries, and Jeremy made sure the generator was fueled and ready to go.”

  “I’m sure you’ll do fine. Just stay here and stay off the road.” Colt finished his coffee. “I don’t suppose you have a beer?”

  “I do. I just wasn’t sure you were actually off duty.”

  “I told my guys I’d relive them at six a.m. I’ll need to leave by five since I have to go the back way, but barring a real emergency, I should be off until then.”

  “Good to know.” I leaned over and kissed Colt on the mouth.

  I handed Colt a beer and poured myself a glass of wine. I supposed I should tell him about my call from San Francisco this morning. I sort of hated to ruin the intimate mood that seemed to be developing, but I didn’t want him hearing about it from Velma and then being hurt that I hadn’t shared something so personal and significant with him.

  “I had an interesting call today,” I said, sitting down next to him on the sofa.

  “Oh. What sort of interesting call?”

  I spent the next thirty minutes telling Colt everything I knew. He had a few questions, but otherwise, he let me share the story at my own pace. I was glad he didn’t jump in with an opinion. I’d already made my decision as to how to handle things, and I really didn’t want anyone second-guessing that decision. Not that Colt would necessarily second guess my decision not to come down hard on the young mother, but he was a cop, and there were times when he saw things a bit more black and white than I did.

  He pulled me into his arms once we’d exhausted the subject. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that, but I am happy you have some closure.”

  “Yeah,” I settled my head into the curve of his neck. “Me too. It sort of spun me out at first, but now that I’ve been able to step away from it a bit, I can see that things worked out as well as they were likely to.”

  “I agree.”

  “It’s not like punishing this young mother would bring my family back. They’re gone. I hate that fact, but it is my reality. I don’t want to be bitter and hateful. I really believe that Ben and Johnathan are at peace, and I really want to find my peace as well.”

  He tightened his arms around me. I laid my head on his shoulder and willed myself to relax. It was nice sitting in silence with the man I was growing to love. The only sound was that of the wind and rain as it howled and whistled and slammed against the cottage. If Colt hadn’t been with me, I might have been frightened, but nestled snugly in his arms, I found the peace my heart longed for.

  Chapter 4

  By the following morning, the wind and rain had intensified to the point that walking between the cottage and the inn had become a perilous undertaking. As Colt said he would, he’d left in the early morning hours before first light, kissing me sweetly and reminding me not to venture out onto the roadways under any circumstances. He told me that if I had a problem or needed something, to call him.

  By the time I wandered into the cottage’s shared rooms, Georgia and the dogs were gone. I assumed she’d taken them to the inn with her. I knew she had Jeremy and Mylie to help her with breakfast, so chances were my help wouldn’t be required, but I wasn’t really keen on sitting home alone as the wind pounded the shoreline, so I took a quick shower, dressed warmly, and pulled on my raincoat. I debated what to do about Rufus. He probably wouldn’t mind being left alone, but he might enjoy the group of cheerleaders who were likely to shower him with attention. He’d hate the walk between the cottage and the inn with all the rain and mud, but I figured I could carry him. Picking him up, I hugged him to my chest, put my head down, and hurried as quickly as I could toward the back door of the inn, which opened into the kitchen.

  “I was going to suggest you might want to bring him over,” Georgia commented as I set the huge cat on the floor.

  “He’ll probably be overwhelmed by so many guests after a short visit, but I figured that he could hang out in here with us. Have you asked our guests about allergies? We usually do that when we book the suite, but the guests we have now never actually booked.”

  “So far, no one is allergic to either dogs or cats, and everyone is fine with both. Ramos and Molly are sleeping in front of the fire while the group has breakfast.”

  “The storm’s gotten worse. I imagine the people who’ve checked in will be here for at least another day.”

  “Yeah,” Georgia agreed. “I watched the weather report and came to the same conclusion.”

  “So how is everyone holding up? This must be stressful for everyone since a stay at Holiday Bay wasn’t necessarily planned.”

  “The cheerleaders and their chaperones are taking the detour in stride. Mylie has all sorts of movie marathons, games, and other pastimes planned. Joel Stafford, the retired professor, and Ginny and Phyllis Goodwin are also making the most of their visit. They’ve been chatting and getting to know one another all morning. Sandy still isn’t feeling all that well, which has Greg stressed to the max, but Ginny has been diligent in checking in with Sandy and continues to assure me that things are going to be just fine.”

  “And our guest in suite six? The one who wanted privacy?” I poured myself a cup of coffee.

  Georgia frowned. “He’s an odd sort. The man hasn’t left his suite and isn’t happy that the road is still closed. In fact, he was extremely rude to me when I dropped his breakfast off, insisting that I must know about a way around the roadblock and saying that it would be in my best interest to share any detours I knew about with him. I told him I didn’t know of another road, although I suppose Colt did manage to both get here and back into town somehow.”

  I poured milk into my coffee and then responded. “There is a gravel road, but Colt said it isn’t marked, and they don’t want tourists driving around on the bluff. Besides, when I last spoke to Colt, he said that the road was so bad when he went into work this morning that he isn’t sure if he’ll be able to use it to get back at the end of the day. I think we truly are cut off from town at this point.”

  “That’s what I thought. I tried to explain that there was a low-lying area between here and Holiday Bay and that the entire area was flooded, but he still seemed to think I was holding out on him. He seemed really stressed. In fact, a couple of the girls from the cheerleading group that’s staying in the suites beneath him told me that they could hear him pacing half the night.”

  “I guess the meeting he mentioned must really be important to him.”

  “I guess. I hope the guy isn’t sick. I noticed that he looked pale and sweaty, so I asked him if he was feeling ill, and he said he was f
ine and that he was just anxious to get going. I suppose that if the meeting he has set up really is important, that might cause him stress, but with this weather, I have to believe that any meeting he might have had scheduled would be canceled anyway.”

  “You would think so. Maybe the guy will realize as much and relax.”

  “I doubt it. Conrad was really worked up. I’m sort of dreading taking his lunch up to him.”

  “I’ll do it,” I offered. “Maybe I can get the guy to share the reason for his distress. Perhaps we can help him in some way. Make a call or something like that.”

  “Maybe.”

  I looked toward the door which separated the kitchen from the dining area. “Sounds like something is going on.”

  Georgia wiped her hands on a dishtowel. “I should check and make sure everything is okay.”

  “I’ll do it.” I turned toward the door just as Jeremy walked in.

  “We have another arrival,” he said. “A family with three kids aged one to six. I guess the road is closed in both directions now, and they’ve found themselves boxed in.”

  “We’re totally out of rooms,” Georgia reminded him.

  “I know that, but just as I was about to turn the family away, Joel came up behind me and offered to give his suite to the family. He offered to sleep in the parlor, but then Phyllis offered him the sofa bed in their suite.”

  “There is a wall and a door between the bedroom and the sitting area in suite two,” Georgia said.

  “If the sisters and the professor are okay with sharing, I’m fine with putting the family in suite three,” I joined in.

  “Great.” Jeremy smiled. “Joel went in to clear out his things, and then Mylie and I will get it cleaned. In the meantime, I told the family to help themselves to breakfast. They all look exhausted. The wife, Susan, told me that they slept in the car when they realized the road was closed.”

  “That must have been rough,” Georgia said. “Do we need to refresh the buffet table?”

  “We’re getting low on eggs, but everything else is fine.”

  “Okay. I’ll scramble another dozen.”

  By the time breakfast was eaten and the dishes were done, we had additional stranded motorists set up in both the first and third-floor parlors. Since the parlors didn’t have bathrooms, the two single women and one single man staying in those rooms would need to use the shared bathrooms that were located on the first and third floors, but I imagined that having a place to sleep, even if it was a rollaway bed, was better than sleeping in your car.

  As the day progressed, the mood of the group seemed to degrade fairly quickly. The storm had grown stronger, and the number of people sheltering in the inn seemed to create a less than serene noise level. Sandy’s contractions had grown more frequent, which I had to admit was causing my level of stress to increase.

  “So what are we going to do?” I asked Ginny, fighting the urge to panic.

  “We wait and watch. It’s hard to tell at this point if the contractions will continue, but if they do, then I guess we’re going to deliver this baby.”

  I took a deep breath. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”

  “We should be ready just in case, so I need you to gather some supplies.”

  Ginny gave me a list of items to gather. I hoped we had everything on hand. She also suggested that I call Colt and let him know that we had a woman who may or may not be in active labor and might require an ambulance at some point.

  After I left Ginny with Sandy, I gathered up the items on Ginny’s list and then headed out to the main living area to make sure all of our guests were as comfortable as they could be given the situation. Jeremy, Mylie, and Annabelle had all pitched in to provide something for everyone to do. There were two card tables set up for games, with movies playing in the downstairs parlor and Jeremy’s apartment. The library was deemed the quiet zone, and several guests, including the retired professor, had huddled up in there to read or work on their laptops. After confirming that everyone seemed to be settled for the moment, I headed back to the kitchen to see if Georgia needed help getting lunch ready. I found her standing at the door looking out.

  “It’s really bad out there,” she said. “Everyone said it would be bad, but I didn’t expect this.”

  “Have you been watching the news?” I asked.

  Georgia nodded. She had a small television in the kitchen that she sometimes listened to when she cooked. “The storm has been downgraded to a category one, which I know is better than a two but is still bad enough to cause significant damage. Everything is closed. Roads, airports, marinas, stores, schools, churches. The good news is that the storm is predicted to blow through fairly quickly.”

  “That will be nice,” I said. “Maybe things will dry out fast, and the roads will reopen.”

  “The guy on Channel Two thinks the highway to the west of us should be open by mid-morning tomorrow and the highway to the east by mid-afternoon as long as they can get the mud cleared.”

  I crossed my fingers. “Here’s hoping.” I looked around the kitchen at the platters of food Georgia had prepared for lunch. She’d had several types of homemade soup in the freezer, which she’d heated and then placed into separate serving dishes. She’d made a couple loaves of homemade bread that she planned to serve with ham she’d had in the freezer and sliced cheese. “Is there anything I can do?” I asked.

  “Do you still want to take lunch up to the man in suite six?”

  I nodded. “I’d be happy to. Do you have a tray ready?”

  “Just give me a minute.”

  Georgia ladled soup into a bowl and then arranged bread, ham, and cheese on a plate. She added coffee and bottled water to the tray, as well as an assortment of pastries she’d defrosted. I was about to grab the tray when Jeremy walked in and offered to take it. Since the suite was on the fourth floor and the tray was most likely heavy, I decided to let him take care of the errand while I helped Georgia serve the other guests, now totaling twenty-five, not including Conrad Bethel. It was a good thing Georgia had a lot of food labeled and stored in the freezer. By the time you added in Georgia, Jeremy, Mylie, Annabelle, and myself, it looked like we would have thirty mouths to feed at dinner.

  “So what are you thinking about serving for dinner?” I asked Georgia after the soup and sandwich fixings were on the buffet table in the dining room.

  “I have a lot of meat in the freezer, including a turkey, a couple chickens, pork chops, prime rib, ground beef, and several tri-tips. I also have potatoes, onions, carrots, oranges, and apples. I have plenty of ingredients to make bread and pastries, as well as eggs, cheese, and condiments. I have canned milk we can use for baking or cooking. Rice, canned vegetables, beans, and several types of pasta. I don’t think we’ll starve, but it would be nice to offer a balanced meal for dinner.” She walked into the pantry and opened the freezer to inventory the items within. “I don’t have time to defrost the turkey, so maybe pork chops with honey apple glaze, baby carrots, saffron rice, and freshly baked rolls. I can also do chicken and pasta for anyone wanting a simpler fare. We do have the kids and teens to think about.”

  “That sounds wonderful. I guess we should start defrosting the chicken and pork chops.”

  Georgia began removing clearly marked packets from the freezer and handing them to me. We were discussing dessert options when Jeremy walked in with the tray he’d left with thirty minutes ago.

  “Uh, guys. I think we might have a problem.”

  “Problem?” I asked.

  “I went back up to suite six to pick up the lunch tray and dishes from Mr. Bethel, and when I arrived at the suite, Mr. Bethel opened the door before I even knocked. He looked surprised to see me. When I explained that I was there for his lunch dishes, he turned to get them, and that was when I noticed a gun on his bedside table and an open duffle bag with cash in it on the bed. A lot of cash.”

  “Did you ask him about it?” I asked.