Page 77 of Escape to the Sun

“Okay,” she said after a moment. “So he went to town. Was he going to pick up the new guests?”

“New guests?”

Heather turned to her mother. “Yes. That’s what we do here. We have guests.”

“But you don’t have any now.”

“We have you.”

Her mother’s mouth opened and closed silently. Heather looked at Camila. “Do you know?”

The girl shook her head and Heather tried not to sigh. “Okay. I’ll have to go get them tomorrow.”

But she didn’t have a boat. Ash would have taken the boat. How could he have left without telling her? Especially with guests coming.

Okay. Calm down, Heather. You can solve this, too. You’re strong and capable and you don’t need Ash to help you out with this stuff. Hadn’t she just told Sherri that she wasn’t going to be able to rely on Ash for her expansion plans? This was a good test of that. She wracked her brain and landed on a fantastic alternative. “Camila? Does Luis have a boat?”

The girl nodded with a smile. “Si, señorita.”

“Would he take us into town tomorrow?”

“Us?”

“Yes, us.” She looked at her mom. “You don’t want to come?” Secretly, Heather might have been hoping to find her mother a new place to stay, but she didn’t say that out loud. Besides, there was room at Casa del Sol. She could stay.

“I have no interest in returning to that town,” her mother said. “Besides, this place is much nicer and I’ve only started to discover it.”

She wasn’t sure about leaving her mother there on her own, but after a quick discussion with Camila and the girl’s assurance that her mother could in fact stay with her and she’d show her how to cook some of the local dishes, the matter was settled and mother and daughter took their salads in hand and headed out to the covered deck to eat them.

* * *

Ash madeit to town in record time. He tied up the boat and set off to find Mick at the Bitter End before making his call. The older man was exactly where Ash knew he’d be: behind the bar. He handed Ash a beer the moment he sat down.

“It’s been awhile,” Mick said. “You’re keeping pretty busy out at Casa del Sol, huh? Or maybe I should say—”

“You probably shouldn’t say anything.” Ash laughed and took a swig of his beer. “Not if you and I want to stay friends, that is.”

“Fair enough. You staying for a bit or just passing through?”

He’d thought about it on the boat ride over. He had two options. He could make his phone call, turn right around and go back to Casa del Sol where he wanted to spend the night. Or, he could make his phone call, and about a dozen others on his list, load up on some supplies, secure some finances, pick up Heather’s new guests and spend the night at the Bitter End. He knew which one of the options he really wanted to do.

He also knew which one was the responsible one.

“I’ll be here overnight,” he told Mick. “Can I get a private room?”

“Private?” Mick wiggled his eyebrows. There’d been only one reason he’d wanted a private room in the past, and that was because he was planning to entertain a woman. Even then, he didn’t always bother with it. After all, at a place like the Bitter End, there wasn’t much in the way of privacy anyway. But that was the old Ash. That was the Ash before he’d met Heather. The Ash who was still running away from everything. The new Ash was different. And he wanted a private room for a very different reason.

Privacy.

“Definitely private.” He wasn’t about to encourage Mick’s behavior. He may be an old friend, one of his only friends, but he also didn’t feel like getting into a big conversation about everything. Not right then anyway. He had more important things to worry about first. “Do you have any?”

The man nodded. “Just so happens, I do.” He turned and reached under a counter before producing a key. “You can have room five. I know it’s your favorite. Right at the top of the stairs.” Mick winked. “Easy access.”

Ash tried not to shake his head. There would be no convincing Mick his reasons for a private room were pure. At least not right then. “Thanks, man.” He took the key. “You spoil me.”

Mick slid another beer across the counter. “I try.”

“Thanks.” Ash gathered up the key and the beer and slid off the stool. “I’ll be back. I have some things to take care of before it gets too late.”

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