If Liz wasn’t mistaken, he added the “darling” to make Betty jealous.
“Although the Worths have asked me to leave all of next week open in case they want to use Queen of the Seas to check out Castlemara again,” he said, as he reached into his left pocket and withdrew a treat for Killer, then reached into his other pocket and took one out for Caro. “Apparently, there’s no access from the highway, because it’s cordoned off with a chain-link fence topped with razor wire. Someone’s been breaking in, even though Regina said there’s nothing left inside.”
Regina? Liz and Betty exchanged glances. Regina Harrington-Worth and Captain Netherton were on a first-name basis?
Liz left Betty and the captain and went in search of Iris. She and Aunt Amelia needed Iris’s help while they played hostess at the Spring Fling. And Iris needed to make sure the Worths remained in their suite. No one needed Regina hobbling out into the emporium, shouting and making a scene.
Earlier, Aunt Amelia had told Liz that when she’d brought up the Worths’ breakfast, Regina had told her she still planned to go to the Treasure Coast Spring Ball—even if she had to be pushed in a wheelchair. She wouldn’t let her minions down, and she planned to wear a floor-length dress that would hide her swollen knee. The same knee that had been expertly wrapped by Ryan. Aunt Amelia said the dress had been special-ordered by Brittany from one of her designer contacts. Liz hoped Brittany paid the vendor and didn’t write a bounced check like she’d done for Minna’s mixed-media piece. Aunt Amelia had also been tasked with finding a hairstylist and makeup artist who was up to Regina’s rigorous standards. She’d finally located a duo from West Palm Beach who had a few celebrities as clients. They’d assured Aunt Amelia over the phone that they could camouflage Regina’s swollen nose and black eye. Revenge-minded, Liz thought about going to the Oceana Suite and asking if Regina wanted to borrow Liz’s concealer.
Liz followed the second-floor hallway until she reached the Indian River Lagoon Suite. She knocked on the door, and Iris answered, looking like she’d had a sleepless night.
“What time is it?” Iris asked, rubbing her eyes as she tried to focus on Liz.
“Eight thirty. Can I come in?” She didn’t say yes, and she didn’t say no, so Liz walked inside. The room looked the same as it had before Iris moved in. There were barely any personal touches, unless you counted a bottle of champagne and two glasses on the table in the sitting room. Liz wondered what celebration could warrant champagne, then she thought of Captain Netherton, who was now courting Betty. Could he be sneaking down the hallway for a secret assignation with the housekeeper? She didn’t see a framed photo of Iris’s ailing mother or any children. The woman was becoming an enigma, and Liz was determined to find out more about her.
“Did Amelia send you?” she asked. Even for being so short, Iris stood with military posture. Her plain face, hazel eyes, and hair, the color of wet sand, didn’t meld with her wide, expressive mouth, which was now turned down in a frown.
“Yes. We need to make sure that you cater to the Worths today while Auntie and I oversee everything at the emporium. I hope she can count on you?”
“Of course she can depend on me. Why would there be any question of that?”
Liz wanted to say, Because we haven’t seen you in the last two days and Aunt Amelia is eighty years old. Instead she said, “There is no question. I just wanted to touch base.”
They stood looking at each other for a moment, like gunslingers at the O.K. Corral. Liz blinked and lost. She turned and walked away.
Later, after Liz said good-bye to Pierre, she left the hotel through the revolving door in the lobby. The possibility of thundershowers had been forecasted for the afternoon, but for now, Liz couldn’t have asked for a more glorious day. She took a golf cart to the emporium’s parking lot. She tried to use the Indialantic’s golf carts as little as possible, preferring to walk, especially during the spring when Florida’s weather was an eleven out of ten. No need for a gym membership when you lived in the tropics. But today Liz needed to zip around as quickly as possible. She didn’t own a car, as she hadn’t needed one in Manhattan. But Betty had given Liz the keys to her 1970 baby-blue two-door Cadillac DeVille convertible. It was the same color as Aunt Amelia’s trademark eyeshadow. Liz kept it parked at her beach house because Betty rarely drove it. She’d told Liz that living at the Indialantic was like living in your own ecosystem; everything you needed was right within reach. Every fall, when Betty taught her writing classes at the Melbourne Beach Community Center, Betty preferred taking one of the hotel’s golf carts, only driving the Caddy in foul weather. Liz doubted she even had a driver’s license and made a mental note to offer her chauffeur services come September.
Although she’d lived in New York City for a long time, Liz realized she had no burning desire to go back. Sure, there were things she missed, but for now she was content with her life in the bosom of a loving family, which included her father, Betty, and Pierre—together they were the Four Musketeers. And if she was, indeed, a writer, there was no better place to write than by the sea.
Chapter 15
When Liz reached the emporium’s parking lot, she was happy to see a white van with a black logo of a huge violin, followed by the words Strings on Wheels. Check.
A flamingo-pink camper was parked near the entrance to the emporium. Painted on the side of the camper, airbrushed in turquoise daisy-chain letters, was Josie’s Traveling Flower Shop. Check.
One
