Page 18 of Sunset Tides
He was nearly through his east side tour when he got a call from his boss.
Rob smiled as he answered. He was probably calling to congratulate him. “Hey Rick. Good to hear from you.”
“Is it?” His voice boomed through the car’s speakers. “Even though you blew it?”
“Whoa, whoa. Blew what?”
“Carriageway. They’re done.”
Rob rolled his eyes. Rick was a jumpy guy. “They’re looking the deal over. Don’t scare them off. The plan is to sign at the end of the week and – ”
“They just filed for bankruptcy. Does that sound like a company that’s ready to make a deal with you?”
Rob’s breath caught in his throat. “What?”
“Oh, now you’re surprised? Thanks for catching up.”
“This has to be a mistake,” Rob said.
“Yeah, your mistake! I thought you were on top of this. Why did I send you out there if I wind up knowing about things before you do?”
Rob was used to being yelled at, but sometimes it was impossible to get through to Rick when he was in a mood. “All right, this will be fine. If they’re filing for bankruptcy, we’ll just buy the land at auction. It might go up a bit, but we can – ”
“They filed for Chapter 11, you idiot. Do you know what that means?”
Rob’s heart sank. Of course he knew what it meant. It meant he’d failed, and he was probably going to get fired.
Rick continued. “Yeah. That’s right. They’re keeping the land, and auctioning the rest of the crap. Completely useless to us.”
Rob might have been a failure, but he was still a quick thinker. “I’ll find a new location for the developers.”
“Oh yeah, just find a new one, he says.” Rick kicked something and loudly swore. “Like we haven’t thought of that before. You’ve lost us millions on this deal.”
“I’ve got an idea.”
Rick’s voice had dropped to an almost comical snarl. “It had better be a good one.”
“What was that hotel we were looking at initially? On the island?”
Rick paused. “It was called The Madrona Grand, or something.”
“That one!” Rob said.
“That’s not going to work. The owners wouldn’t sell, and it wasn’t worth the hassle to chase them out when Grindstone was circling the drain.”
Rob slowed down as he pulled onto The Grand Madrona Hotel’s long driveway. The hotel stood tall, beautiful and proud, with the ocean sparkling behind it.
Rob took a deep breath. “I have a plan. Let me work this.”
Chapter Eleven
After four days in the hospital, one CT scan, two MRIs, and countless tiny cans of ginger ale, Claire was cleared to go home. Her final diagnosis?
Dehydration.
Lucy was shocked when she heard it, so much so that she spent fifteen minutes interrogating the first man who wandered into Claire’s room wearing a white coat.
She’d assumed he was the head neurologist. However, it turned out he was the physician’s assistant for the family medicine group.
