Page 43 of Sunset Cove
Chapter Sixteen
The room Claire slept in that night was close to the elevators, and though noise from comings and goings made its way in, she was so tired that she barely noticed. She slept heavily, dead to the world, and didn’t open her eyes until her alarm went off the next morning.
It took her a moment to regain her senses, and memories from the night before came flooding in. There was a lot to unpack. She was excited that Lucy was visiting, and touched by how well Lucy and Marty got along.
Her feelings were less clear about her evening with Chip. It was lovely. He was so interesting and...passionate. It seemed like they were finally getting along, too, which was nice.
He wouldn’t appreciate it if she were late for their morning meeting, though, so she leapt out of bed and hurried to the shower.
The water pressure was good, but the shower itself suffered from the same issues as the others in the hotel. The fixtures were a bit loose, and the grout around the tiles was cracking and flaking. Antique charm was something she appreciated, but no one appreciated crumbling grout.
She added “shower updates” to her notebook and quickly dried her hair.
Once she was ready, she sent a text message to check when Lucy planned to stop by.
She responded quickly. “I’m a little slow this morning. Maybe in an hour or so?”
“No problem. Anytime is good for me,” she wrote back before dabbing on a touch of makeup and packing up her bag.
She was about to leave when the room phone rang.
“Hello?” she said, picking up the receiver. It was a heavy, antique-style phone, with brushed silver and gold on the rotary plate. It stood on four opulent feet, the base decorated in weaving designs.
Claire loved it. True, the rotary spinner was less useful than a push-button phone, but it was so charming. It made her feel like she’d stepped back in time.
“You’ve got a visitor,” said a bored voice. “Should I send her up?”
“I’m just leaving my room now, Gigi. Do you know who the visitor is?”
Silence for a moment. “I think she said her name is Barbie.”
Hm. “Tell her I’ll be right there.”
Claire swung her bag onto her shoulder and walked down the hall to the lobby. Margie was standing at the front desk, trying to make conversation with Gigi.
“Morning!” Claire called out before flopping her bag onto the counter. “Gigi, can you please hold this for me?”
Gigi nodded and extended a hand to grab the bag, tucking it under the desk.
Claire turned to Margie and smiled. “It’s nice to see you today. I actually had another visitor yesterday.”
Margie’s eyes grew wide. “You mean they came back?”
Claire looked around. “What? Who?”
“Claire,” Margie said loudly. “I love the Madrona trees out in the front. Can we go look at them?”
Claire had no idea what had gotten into Margie, but she agreed. “Sure.”
They walked through the front doors and into the brisk air. The sky was a gorgeous, bright blue, a shining contrast to the hotel’s sandy colored stone.
Margie kept walking until they reached one of the two large Madrona trees in front of the hotel. It towered over them, its red bark peeling in sheets that crunched beneath their feet.
Margie spoke in a lower voice. “Hank told me something concerning last night.”
“What was it?”
Margie clenched her hands together, looking around before answering. “He said that he’d gotten a report about the FBI’s most wanted list.”
