“I’m coming down!” Casey called and dragged her gaze from Finn, the moment gone. She still felt weak with need but also with relief. The last thing she needed to do was complicate this already-confounding situation. Not to mention that she was lying to him. That didn’t make her any better than Megan.
“I’VE BEEN LOOKING all over this place for you,” Vi said disagreeably as she glanced up the stairs as if searching for something. Or was it someone? Had she heard Casey and Finn talking up there?
Finn was nowhere to be seen, as if he’d guessed that she didn’t want Vi seeing them together. Or had that moment they’d had together affected him the way it had her, and he wanted some time before facing anyone?
“Well, now you’ve found me.” Casey could just imagine what this was about. She’d expected Vi would come by as soon as she’d heard she was in town. She guessed she was lucky it had taken the woman this long.
“Let’s go down to the main hall,” Casey said. “It’s not as dusty down there.” She would have preferred the stairs, the way she’d come up, but for the older woman she pushed the elevator button, and the two of them rode to the ground floor.
The woman had some papers she was holding and a determined look on her face. Casey hoped this wasn’t about trying to get the hotel on the historic register and stopping the sale. She motioned to one of the Victorian couches and excused herself to put the tea-party set away in her grandmother’s office.
When she returned and had taken a seat, Casey began. “Vi—”
“Coffee,” the woman interrupted.
“Coffee?” Casey realized it wasn’t an offer; it was a request. “I’ll see if there is some in the kitchen. Let me check.” She got up and walked down the staff hallway to the kitchen. Finn had apparently made another pot. There were also pastries with a note saying he’d picked them up at the bakery and to help yourself. She was touched by his efficiency and his thoughtfulness.
Casey felt her stomach growl as she poured herself and Vi a cup of coffee. She put the cups on a tray along with some pastries. She thought about bringing out a carafe for refills but was determined that, whatever Vi wanted, it wouldn’t take that long.
The woman’s eyes widened as Casey put a cup of coffee and a turnover in front of her. “Are these Bessie’s?” Vi asked and took a large bite. “Oh, they are. She does make the best pastries.”
Casey sat down and picked up her cup. She cut off a forkful of one of the turnovers. It was sweet, buttery and flaky, the berries inside bursting in her mouth. No one baked like Bessie.
“Aren’t they heavenly?” Vi said as she devoured hers and then slurped most of her coffee. “I can imagine how much you must miss Buckhorn and Bessie’s sweets and your grandmother. This old place has to remind you of her.” The woman shuddered. “It must be so hard for you, staying here all alone.”
“I’m not alone,” she said, as if Vi didn’t already know that.
“Oh, yes, that...that man who’s been staying here.” Another shudder conveyed what Vi thought of Finn. “He seems...dangerous, don’t you think?”
Vi had no idea what having such a man like Finn around was like—let alone a half-dozen murder suspects.
“I heard some other people have moved in as well,” Vi said. “More homeless?”
She hurriedly changed the subject. “I’m sure that’s not why you’re here.”
“I don’t want the hotel destroyed,” Vi said, putting down her cup a little too hard.
Casey shook her head. “Why?”
“Because it’s a local landmark. I can’t bear the idea of someone tearing it down. Half this town worked here at some point in their lives. All of us in town are a piece of it.”
The woman was right. A lot of the locals had been a part of the hotel, not to mention all the teens who’d worked at least a summer here. It had almost been a rite of passage to work at the Crenshaw. Now it was the end of an era.
Vi cleared her voice, finally getting to business. “I want to buy the hotel.” She tossed the papers in Casey’s direction.
Casey gathered them up, shocked. She’d wanted to sell the hotel and grounds for months. Where had Vi been all this time?
“What would you do with it?” Casey asked without looking at the papers.
“Does it really matter to you? Isn’t my keeping the Crenshaw better than razing it and building a truck stop?”
“I think a truck stop would be more useful,” she said honestly. Picking up the offer, she saw that it was ridiculously low. “This is generous of you, Vi, but I’m sorry—the hotel is already sold.”
“What? But Devlin told me—”
“I didn’t sell to Devlin.”
“You can’t have sold it that quickly. You have to give me a chance. At least consider my offer.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve already agreed to another offer.” She tried to hand back the paperwork, but Vi refused to take it.
“Think about what your grandmother would have wanted.”
After being in the tower, sensing her grandmother there, Casey felt too vulnerable to have this conversation right now. If there were any way to keep the hotel, to make it viable, she would know. She’d been in this business for years. Vi had no idea how to run a hotel or what was involved. It wouldn’t be a year and the place would be closed again. How long would Vi hold on to it before she sold the property just as Casey planned to do?
“Look at this place,” Vi said, taking in the huge main hall. “You can’t destroy it. It would break Anna’s heart.”
“Vi, the answer is no. The deal is done.” Which wasn’t quite true, but close enough. “I’m sorry. My grandmother knew I had to sell it.”
“Not to have it torn down.”
Casey
