Page 51 of Sunset Tides
“I’m good. What’s up?”
“Well…” She paused. “We got some bad news at the hotel.”
Chip’s voice boomed in the background. “Terrible news!”
Lillian looked at Lucy. Her eyes were as wide as a kitten’s. “What happened?”
Her mom sighed. “The hotel is going to be condemned.”
“What?” Lillian shook her head. “That makes absolutely no sense. Is this a joke?”
“Not a joke!” yelled Chip. “We should’ve taken that guy at the berry stand seriously.”
“What berry stand?” asked Lillian.
“There was a man who offered to buy the hotel from me at the Fruit Festival,” her mom said. “He made a vague threat, like I’d regret it if I didn’t sell, but nothing ever came of it.”
“It could be unrelated,” Lillian said. “Maybe this was just a mix up in an office somewhere.”
“It doesn’t feel like a mistake. It feels connected.”
Lucy sprung from the couch and started pacing the room. “First the farm, now this?”
“Is that Lucy?”
“Uh, yes,” Lillian said. “She’s here too. You’re on speaker.”
“Don’t worry,” Lucy said, shouting into the phone. “We will fix this.”
“I don’t want you getting upset,” she said. “You’ve had enough excitement for the month and – ”
“Oh no,” Lucy said, her voice still too loud. “Don’t try to keep me out of it. It’s not going to work. When is it being condemned?”
“There’s a hearing in two and a half weeks,” Chip yelled back.
Lillian shook her head. Surely no one could argue The Grand Madrona Hotel was in such poor condition that it needed to be condemned? It was outside of the realm of possibility.
“Why is it being condemned?” asked Lucy. “Chip, did you cheap out on some important renovations?”
“No!” he said. “Everything is up to code. Everything.”
“Then they have no case,” Lucy said confidently. “I’ll be over in twenty minutes.”
Lucy ended the call before anything else could be said.
“Are you coming?” she asked, grabbing her purse from the counter.
This was the sort of thing she had missed out on by living so far away. There was no way she was going to leave now. Maybe when Mason got back from his next month-long assignment this would all be settled and they could get back to normal.
She beamed. “I’m in!”
Chapter Twenty-three
Once at the hotel, Lucy joined Chip in ranting about how ridiculous the notice was, howtheyhad no time to prepare, and also how they were going to bury whoever was behind it.
After half an hour, Lillian interrupted them. “Are you two done?”
Lucy crossed her arms. “For now.”
