Last Call (Book #2 - Heat Wave Series) Page 21

  Then she got to a name she didn’t have to check out: Edward P. Hardin. It was as familiar as a family name, especially since she’d written a check to him once a month for the past two years, for all of her store purchases.

  “Maybe it’s a different Edward Hardin,” Robby said, sounding desperate to find an explanation other than the logical one in front of them. When she looked up into his eyes, she realized his vision must have been as blurry as hers.

  “I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. “Here’s a list of four other names that rang a bell. I don’t know them, personally, but I think they’re from Anticue.”

  Robby spun the list around and looked at it. “Barbara Hammond? Isn’t she the woman who runs the coffee shop in town?”

  Sunny wiped a tear away and put the others on lockdown. “That’s what I thought, too.” She reached into her jar of Dum-Dums sitting on the table and rummaged around, going all the way to the bottom until she found a butterscotch. At Gavin’s raised eyebrow, she said, “They’re my favorite.” She gave a little sniffle. “I deserve my favorite right now.”

  A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. “I thought peppermint was your favorite.”

  She froze and cut her eyes to Robby to see if he was paying attention. He wasn’t, so she smiled at Gavin, hoping he understood she appreciated the humor. The mood in the room had grown as solemn as if they’d experienced a death in the family. And, in a way, she supposed they had.

  Ed had been one of their regular customers since she and Robby opened the bar. He and Joe had been on those same barstools every single night. She couldn’t believe he’d be a party to something underhanded. But she also couldn’t deny the proof sitting in front of her.

  She slumped in her chair and turned to Gavin. “I guess we found what we were looking for. What now?”

  A knock on the door caused all three of them to jump, and the conversation ceased.

  “Do you know him?” Gavin asked, twisting around to look through the glass.

  “Yeah, it’s Sam Penner from the health department.” Sunny opened the door. “Hi, Sam. It’s not time for our inspection already, is it?”

  He shuffled his feet and glanced down at the clipboard in his hand. “We… um… got a complaint about…” His face reddened, and try as he might, he couldn’t maintain eye contact with Sunny. “I got a complaint about the bar. I need to check it out.”

  “What?” She wheeled around on Gavin. “Is this the kind of thing you were talking about?”

  Gavin dropped his head and nodded. He stepped up next to her and shook hands with Sam. “I’m Gavin McLeod. I’m a friend of Sunny and Robby. Can you tell us what the complaint was?”

  Sam shuffled his feet while his eyes bobbled all around. “Someone complained that the liquor bottles were being used for… uh… personal use.”

  Sunny gasped, and Gavin let out a curse unlike any she’d ever heard. Apparently, the same could be said for Sam, because his eyes popped wide and he took a step back.

  After a second of stunned silence, Sunny swiveled her head around to Gavin. She narrowed her eyes and forced her breathing to be calm and her voice even. “How did he know that? There were only two of us in the bar.”

  “Callie was on the beach, remember?” He gave his head a hard shake and turned away. “I can’t believe she’d do this. If she did, that means…” He cursed again, unclipped his cellphone, and headed for the bedroom.

  Sunny turned back to Sam. “I did drink out of one of the bottles.” Her admission made Sam even more uncomfortable, which meant whoever reported Sunny had given him all the sordid details. She shivered, despite the heat. She didn’t want to think about someone watching her go down on Gavin. And, oh God… had they watched them on the beach, too?

  “Excuse me?” Sam asked.

  Realizing she’d spoken out loud, she snapped her mouth shut. “I have the used bottle here.” She pushed the kitchen door all the way open, so he could see into the kitchen. “Robby, grab that bottle of schnapps out of the cabinet.”

  Robby handed the bottle to Sunny, then busied himself on the laptop. If she was lucky, she’d never hear another word about this. Luck, however, seemed to be in short supply these days, and she knew this was the kind of thing her brother would never let her live down.

  She handed Sam the bottle. “I put a new bottle on the shelf. C’mon, I’ll show you.” She grabbed her keys off the hook by the door and led him downstairs.

  “Given the nature of the call and the friend in your apartment, I get the impression this report might have come from a crazy ex-girlfriend.”

  Sunny laughed. “You’re right. She is crazy, but she wasn’t even a girlfriend. Can you imagine how psycho she’d be if she had been?”

  She unlocked the door and led him across the bar to the liquor shelf. “See,” she said, taking the replacement bottle off the shelf. “The label isn’t even broken.”

  Sam inspected the label, then nodded and handed the bottle back to her. “Technically, I should make you replace all the bottles.”

  Sunny felt her face fall and her blood pressure drop.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but Sam held up a hand to ward off her protest. “I know you, and I trust you told me the truth. Considering the source, I’m not going to take this any further.”

  Relief flooded her, and she threw her arms around his neck in a hug. “Thank you. I swear to you, I would never do anything to create problems for myself.” She fought the urge to roll her eyes. She should have said she’d never intentionally do anything to create problems for herself, because getting involved with Gavin had created a shitpot full.

  Sam glanced down at his clipboard. “Did you get that leak fixed in the kitchen?”

  Sunny grimaced. “Robby’s worked on it twice, but it still leaks.” She pinched her thumb and forefinger together. “Just a tad. It’s not even noticeable… Hardly.”

  Sam shoved his pen back into his pocket. “I’ll be back in two months. If it’s not fixed by then—”

  “It will be. I promise.” Sunny followed Sam to the door, then locked up behind them. “Sam?” She waited until he’d turned to face her. “Have you heard anything about a new resort being built here in Anticue?”

  He frowned. “That’s not possible.”

  “What if the commissioners decided to change the ordinance?”

  “Well, then I guess it could happen.” He narrowed his eyes. “You planning something?”

  “Hell, no.” She shook her head. “I heard a rumor, and I wondered if anyone else had.”

  “Nope, but I’ll keep my ears open.” He yelled over his shoulder as he walked away, “Fix that leak.”

  ***

  Gavin was sitting on the stoop, waiting for Callie to call him back, when Sunny returned from the bar. “Everything okay?”

  She sat next to him and nodded. “Yeah, only because he knows me. He said, technically, he should make me replace all the bottles on the shelf.”

  Gavin’s heart lurched. Holy shit, there must be a hundred bottles on those shelves. He must have looked as frantic as he felt, because she smiled and rubbed his leg, as if trying to calm a wild animal. “Since I confessed and showed him the old one as well as the unopened new one, he let it go.”

  He blew out his breath and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Dropping a kiss on top of her head, he said, “I’m sorry for all this.”

  He was so pissed off at Callie and Max and the entire situation, he felt as if his skin would roll off his body. He didn’t do helpless well, but until he heard back from Marty, he didn’t know what the next move should be. Sitting here doing nothing was driving him crazy.

  Sunny leaned against his shoulder. “It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t been the one Max sent, it would have been someone else, right? And that person might not be as understanding or as willing to help as you are.”

  Maybe, but he kept wondering how different things would be if he hadn’t kept his head buried in the s
and all these years. He also wondered how many other families had been put through a similar hell.

  She scooted away and studied him. “Why go to all this trouble for us?”

  He picked at a piece of peeling paint and threw it over the edge of the step. As soon as this mess was straightened out, he would paint these steps for them. “I can’t say it doesn’t have anything to do with you, because it does. But it’s more than that.”

  He pushed his hands through his hair and looked out at the street. “I’ve been pretty unhappy for a while. I thought it was because I was bored, sitting in an office, pushing papers around all day. I’ve grown tired of waiting for Max to retire.

  “Every year he says, ‘One more year, and I’m finished.’ It’s not that I was anxious to be at the helm, but I haven’t always agreed with the things Max did. Or where the resorts were located. Like here. I also don’t believe bigger is better. Sometimes a small, well-placed resort would be best. If Max retired, I could do things differently. Make the company a little friendlier—”

  The vibration of his cellphone stopped him short. About fucking time. “Callie, how could you do that? I thought everything was cool between us.”

  The silence stretched on for so long, he thought she’d hung up. Just as he was about to hit the callback button, she said, “What are you talking about?”

  “Calling the health inspector was a page straight out of Max’s book. He’ll be proud of you. Or did you cook the idea up together?”

  “What? I haven’t called a health inspector.” She laughed a little. “I don’t even know how to find a health inspector.”

  As ridiculous as that sounded, he had to admit she was probably right about that. “Did you tell Max about seeing Sunny and me together?”

  “I told him I’d been to Anticue and that you were with her. But I didn’t go into any details. God, I couldn’t have possibly discussed that with my father.” She gasped. “Jen.”

  “What about her?”

  “She kept telling me I needed to call the health inspector and report the bartender for using a bottle. I told her I didn’t want to cause any problems, that I just wanted to forget the whole thing. She must have done it to get vengeance for me.”

  Holy fucking hell in a hand basket. Now he had Callie’s friends to contend with too? He rested his head against the spindle of the railing and pressed his lips shut. He wanted to howl, just walk out on the beach and yell at the top of his lungs.

  “Have you found out anything about that number?” Callie’s soft and hopeful voice sent an ache through his already fractured chest. At some point, every child realizes their parents aren’t perfect. Callie had somehow managed to make it to adulthood without the thought even occurring to her.

  Gavin felt the weight of Max’s betrayal like a tank on his chest and figured Callie must be near to buckling under its weight. “Not yet. A friend is looking into it for me.”

  “Will you let me know what you find out?”

  “Of course. You’re not at home, are you?”

  “No. I stayed at Jen’s last night, and I haven’t had the heart to go back there yet.”

  Gavin couldn’t blame her; he didn’t want to go back to Max’s house either. But he also wished she’d been around this morning to eavesdrop on Max’s conversations. “Do you know what time his afternoon golf game is?”

  “He’s scheduled to have lunch at the club at noon, and he’s playing golf afterwards.”

  Gavin figured the most incriminating files were in Max’s office, where they were safe from prying eyes. He could also make sure they were well protected and couldn’t fall into the wrong hands.

  Gavin had asked Callie to search Max’s office for folders labeled “Anticue,” but he was regretting involving her. It wasn’t that he didn’t think her capable of finding the info, but he didn’t want her hurt any more.

  And then there was the mysterious red truck. It had him concerned, and he didn’t want to leave Sunny alone. But he also couldn’t sit here any longer, doing nothing. He tilted the phone away from his mouth and whispered to Sunny, “Is Robby going to be here all day?”

  When she nodded, he said, “Callie, I’ll be back there shortly after twelve. I’ll go through Max’s office files and see what I can find. I don’t want you involved any further than you already are. Okay?”

  Silence was the response.

  “Callie, tell me you won’t go snooping before I get there.”

  “I won’t go snooping.”

  He pressed his lips together, then gave up the fight and let the burning frustration in his lungs out in a harsh burst of air. “I’m serious.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Shit. You’ve never listened to me. Why do I think you’d start now?”

  “Okay, fine.” The petulant Callie made a return visit. “It was okay for me to go digging in his office for the phone number last night, but I won’t go snooping through his files until you get here.”

  “Thanks, Cal.” He reclipped the phone to his belt and turned to face Sunny. “She didn’t call the health inspector.”

  “And you believe her?” The skeptical expression on Sunny’s face told him her thoughts on the matter.

  “Yeah. As she pointed out, she wouldn’t know where to find one.”

  She blinked a few times, as if trying to digest that logic. “What?”

  He laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her to him for a hug. “Her friend made the call, seeking revenge on Callie’s behalf.”

  She scrunched up her face, and ducked her head. “How many people saw us?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

  “That is so embarrassing.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, they weren’t on the beach with us.” He laughed at her expression and shrugged. “It made me feel better.”

  He checked his watch, then stood. “Max has a lunch appointment at noon. If I leave now, I can get there shortly after he leaves. It’ll give me plenty of time to go through everything in his office.”

  “What are you looking for?”

  He held out his hand and helped her stand. “Anything I can find. I’m still looking for deals where the landowners were reluctant to sell. I’m trying to find anything that explains why they suddenly became agreeable. It might give us an idea of what to expect. And I want to see if I can find the plans for this resort.”

  “Do we need to keep the boxes you brought?”

  He followed her into the kitchen, where Robby was typing on his laptop. “Not if you think you’ve found everyone.”

  “I’m pretty sure we have. We found five, and there are nine commissioners. That gives him the majority he needs to get things changed.” Her face twisted with the same raw determination he’d seen when he first approached her about selling. “Ed doesn’t know what he’s in for when he comes into the bar tonight.”

  Gavin stopped shoving files into the box. “You can’t say anything yet.”

  Matching silver glares from Robby and Sunny hit him. “Why not?”

  “Because we can’t risk him warning Max that we’re on to him. At least not yet.”

  Sunny propped her hands on her hips. “Fine. Then Ed won’t know anything.” She rummaged through the sucker jar while muttering, “Good thing I can take the top off a bottle and replace it without anyone realizing it was disturbed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “There you are,” Robby said, rounding the front of the building. “I was beginning to think you’d been kidnapped.” He smiled, trying to pretend he was teasing, as he climbed the stairs leading to the bar’s front deck, but the tense set of his shoulders gave him away.

  “I’m sorry you were worried,” Sunny said, patting the chair next to her. “I should've let you know I was going for a walk. I feel like I should be out there doing something. But I don’t know what that is… or where to go do it.”

  At this point, she didn’t have any choice but to sit and wait and trust Gavin to take care of things.
To deal with her frustration, she took a long walk on the beach, then ended up back at the bar, sitting on the front balcony, watching the surf.

  Robby turned the chair so it faced the ocean and sat down next to her. “Maybe we should sell the property.”

  Unclear as to whether Robby had actually spoken or if the wind was whispering crazy thoughts into her ear, Sunny cocked her head to the side and cut her eyes to him. She took in the crease lines in his forehead and the worry lines around his eyes and decided it wasn't the wind. “Why do you say that?”

  He shrugged and tugged at a piece of sea oat that had blown onto the table. “This place is a lot of work. It takes both of us to keep it up. How are you going to do that by yourself if I leave in the fall?”

  As stressful as this whole situation was, it was also a blessing. The door she’d been looking for had just opened. “First of all, there’s no if. You want to go away to college and that’s what you’re going to do. As for the bar…” She looked around at the building and shrugged. “It’s not as much work as it used to be. I’ll figure it out.”

  “If we sold, you’d be free to move. You could do anything you wanted.” Robby had grown into a fine young man. But there were times, like now, when he looked like a scared little boy.

  “I don’t want to move. I like it here.”

  He frowned, and she could almost see the gray matter in his mind squishing around with thought. “You aren’t holding out just to be stubborn, are you?” When she bit into her bottom lip, he laughed. “See… I know you too well. Even if you wanted to sell, you wouldn’t because you won’t give in.” He sat up in his chair and leaned toward her, intensity radiating from him. “That’s crazy, sis. Let’s sell it.”

  “Okay, I’ll admit, at one point, I thought that way. No one was going to bully me into selling. But that’s not what’s keeping me here. Where would Liza and Johnny go to hide out? Where will the kids go to play pool? Most importantly, where will you call home?”