Page 55 of Suddenly Single
“Ah...I donna know either surname.”
The young man’s face turned slightly pink.
“Look, I need to talk to them.If you could just phone up.”
“I wouldn’t know who to call, sir,” he said coolly.
“Fine,” Edan said, and tapped his fist on the sleek mahogany reception desk. “Then I’ll wait.”
He waited until nearly eleven.He had dozed off in a plush easy chair—they could do with chairs like this at the inn—and was jostled awake by someone passing too close.That’s when he saw Vanessa walking up the stairs.
He quickly followed her, but couldn’t quite catch her before she went into a room.
A few steps behind her, Edan knocked on the door.Several moments passed without a response.He knocked again.This time he heard something hit the floor that sounded like a stack of books, and in the next moment, the door swung open, and Brooke braced herself against the frame, wincing painfully, a palm pressed to her forehead.“Don’t. Knock. Again,” she said darkly.
Her hair looked like a bird’s nest.She was wearing a tiny T-shirt and sleep shorts.She squinted at him, and he could see that it took a moment for her to register who he was.“What areyoudoing here?”
“I need to speak to Jenny,” he said. “Is she here?” he asked, trying to see past her.
“My God, the lights in this hall are bright,” Brooke moaned.
“May I speak to her, please, Brooke?”
“She’s not here, Romeo.Vanessa took her back to her room last night.Now go away,” she said, and fluttered her hand at him in the signal to go.
God, but he was a bloody idiot.In his haste he hadn’t thought to check room 215? He sped back to the inn and strode inside and straight to her room.He knocked loudly, but there was no answer.
“Edan?”
Edan whirled around to see Rosalyn standing behind him with an arm full of linens. “Have you seen Jenny?”
“She’s gone on to Black Springs.”
Edan blinked.“How? She doesna have a car.”
“Lorenzo.He’s already back,” she said, and nodded in the direction of his room.
Edan walked past Rosalyn and down the hall, to the large room Lorenzo always took. He pounded on the door.
Lorenzo opened it at once.“Good morning, Eddy,” he said brightly.
“Where is she?” Edan asked.
“Who?”
“Jenny Turner!” Edan said impatiently.“Where is she?”
“Ah, but she’s gone,” he said.He suddenly smiled. “My plan, it has worked.See, Elizabetta, my plan has worked!”
Elizabetta said something impatiently in Italian.
“What plan?” Edan asked.
“To make you jealous,” Lorenzo said, and poked his chest. “A man, he likes to do the chasing, no?”
Edan grabbed Lorenzo’s collar.“Where is she, Lorenzo?”
“Black Springs,” he said. “She takes the train.”
