He carried the pots over to Petunia where she was talking with her dad and set them on the counter. She gave him a smile, though she looked as if she’d had about as much sleep as he had. She rang up his selections on an old-fashioned cash register. “Heard about the trouble over at the hotel. How’re things coming along?”
He pulled several bills from his wallet and handed them to her. “As well as they can, from what I know.” Which, admittedly, wasn’t all that much. “Figured I’d drop by on my way back to my grandmother’s place just to check in.”
“Give them all my best. They sure could stand a bit of good luck, couldn’t they?”
Truer words. Jay looked at Norman. “Going to see you out at Mariana’s this Saturday, Norm?”
“What business is it of yours?” The old man nearly barked the words.
“My grandmother’s gonna have the last of her strawberry jam for the summer out there.” He smiled cautiously. “Figure the way you go through it, you’ll want to stock up while you can.”
The old man blinked. Then as if a lightbulb had come on, he nodded. “You tell Louella I’ll be there.”
Jay wished he could say that his grandmother would be there, too, but since she was still prohibited from getting anywhere near Mabel, he was already planning on manning the booth for her. He was also counting on Arabella to keep him company.
He pocketed the change that Petunia gave him and with the box she’d settled the plants into in hand, went out to his truck.
He’d just placed the box on the passenger-side floor when Petunia knocked on his window. He rolled it down. “Did I forget something?”
She shook her head. “No, I just wanted to explain about Dad. He hasn’t really been himself these days.”
Jay nodded, not really sure how to respond. “My grandmother’s already told me about the problem he has with his meds.”
She looked relieved. “I’m trying to find a solution for him, but he’s a determined old guy, you know? Independent as hell and the idea of having someone monitor anything he does is hard for him to swallow. The only person he tolerates these days is my nephew. I’m sorry if he sounded rude.”
“No worries.”
She reached in and squeezed his arm. “Louella’s always said what a good boy you are and she’s right.”
He actually felt his neck get hot. “Um—”
She laughed slightly. “Now I’ve gone and embarrassed you, which wasn’t my intention at all.” She stepped back onto the curb. “One of these days, buy Louella something besides a fern!” Then she disappeared inside her shop.
He looked down at the plant. “What’s wrong with a fern?”
It took only a few minutes to get to the hotel.
There was a sign posted on the front door that it was temporarily closed, but when he pulled it open, it wasn’t locked.
He went inside.
The lobby smelled vaguely musty but there were big fans positioned in every corner blowing air noisily across the floor. Baseboards were gone, and the lower portions of drywall had been cut away from the walls, leaving the studs exposed. Whatever repairs were going to be needed, they couldn’t even get started until everything was fully dried out.
The fans seemed to be the only occupants, though.
He looked into the office behind the registration desk but it was empty. So was the security office.
The elevators were locked on the first floor and he wandered past them, sticking his head around the door to Roja.
He earned a look from the group of Fortunes sitting at one of the tables.
Brady’s eyes narrowed when he spotted Jay. “What do you want, Cross?”
To marry your sister.
The words popped into his head, making Jay forget for a moment why he’d even walked in there in the first place.
Callum rose and walked toward him. “Something on your mind?”
Jay swallowed and focused on the older man’s face. It was a lot easier than the glaring one that Brady possessed. “I was just checking on how things were going. Insurance and all that.”
Callum’s brows rose. “You know about insurance?”
“I used to.” He looked past Callum to Wiley. He was a lawyer. Nothing showed in his expression. But Steven and his brother Dillon were contractors. Easier to read. “They’re denying the claim?”
Arabella’s other brother Kane, who’d been involved with the hotel from the start, was the only one who nodded. “Wiley’s been talking about filing a suit.”
“They’ll pay it if you’ll agree to a higher premium,” Jay said. “It’d be quicker and less expensive in the long run than a lawsuit.”
“That’s not news,” Brady snapped. “You know how much of a higher premium?”
Jay calculated a moment, then named a figure that had all of the men sitting back with surprise. He figured he was at least within a few thousand dollars of being on target.
“That’s oddly accurate,” Callum admitted. “Problem is, coming up with that much is a bit of a problem. It’s not as if it’s a onetime investment. Collectively, we can pitch in from our own pockets but—”
Wiley’s hands were fisted on top of the table. “But considering we don’t know who’s trying to sabotage the hotel in the first place, maybe it’s safer for everyone if we just cut our losses now. Nobody wants to throw good money after bad.”
No matter how many golden eggs those Fortunes had, Jay knew it couldn’t be all that easy increasing their investments to such a degree.
“The town needs this hotel,” Steven said quietly. Jay knew he was married to the mayor. “It’s coming to stand for everything that Rambling Rose is. Embraces the past. Welcomes the future.”
“Sounds straight from Ellie’s lips,” Dillon muttered.
“So what if it is?” Steven countered. “She’s right.”
Callum dropped his arm over Jay’s shoulder and showed him right back to the door. “I’ll trust you not to say anything about this before our staff meeting on Monday,” he said quietly.
Jay nodded and felt Brady Fortune’s eyes burning a hole into his spine as he left.
