Page 65 of The Beach Hut on Plum Island
Shake it off, Harriet, she chided herself.Things have a way of working out like they should.She repeated her grandfather’s words to herself.
“Goodnight, Harriet.” Finn leaned in and kissed her forehead. “I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Sure!” Harriet gave him a tight smile. “Tight sleep…” She shook her head. “Sleep tightly.” She drew in a breath. “You know what I mean.”
Finn gave a soft laugh, pulled her to him, and kissed her tenderly on the lips. “Yes, I do.”
The door opened, and Harley stood on the threshold, waiting for Finn. “Sorry, Finn, but it’s getting late, and we have to be up early.”
Finn nodded. “I feel like I have a manager pushing me all over the place again,” he admitted to Harriet, rolling his eyes then kissing her on the forehead. “Goodnight, Princess.”
Harriet smiled and waved them out the door instead of trying the goodnight thing again because clearly, her brain and tongue were having a dispute over how words are formed. Either that, or they were messing with her and having fun at her expense, making her look like an idiot in front of Finn.
Harriet had just finished having a nice shower, making some ginger tea, and had hopped into bed when her phone bleeped. She looked at it and frowned. There was a message from a blocked number:
You’re going to be sorry for what you’ve done.
“Okay!” Harriet stared at the message. “You didn’t give me a number to message back so I can clarify the reason.” She shook her head. “Why do ominous messages always have to be so cryptic?”
She sighed and switched off her phone, putting it on her nightstand and switching on the television to watch an old movie while she drank her tea. Half an hour later, Harriet was dozing when an alarm went off in the building, and the next thing she knew, her room was being stormed by her security detail.
“Sorry to wake you, princess,” the one man said, handing her a gown and slippers. “But we need to evacuate. There’s a fire alarm.”
Harriet’s sleep-addled brain took a while to register before she slipped into the gown and pushed her feet into the slippers. She checked her finger to make sure she had her ring and grabbed her phone as she was ushered out of her suite. Harriet’s brain felt foggy, like she was walking through a dream. It took everything she had to make herself walk.
As Harriet was ushered into the parking lot, she saw her brother and Dawn.
“Harriet,” they called and rushed over to her. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure.” Harriet stifled a yawn all she wanted to do was lie down and sleep. “But I think the hotel may be burning down.”
“There’s no smoke,” Dawn pointed out. “There’s Liam.” She waved, and he came over.
“Hi,” Liam said, “I’m so sorry about this. But someone hit the fire alarm. Even if it’s some sort of prank, we have to wait for the fire department to clear the building.”
“Can we go sit in my car?” Harriet looked at her brother.
“I didn’t bring the keys,” Gray told her. “Sorry, I didn’t think to stop and grab the car keys as I was being ushered from my room while the building was potentially burning down.”
“I grabbed my phone!” Harriet stated as she showed them.
“Sorry, next time I’m in a potentially life-threatening situation, I’ll remember to search for the car keys before running for my life.” Gray’s voice was laced with sarcasm.
Harriet pulled a face at him and yawned some more. “I don’t know why I’m so sleepy.” She rested her head on her brother’s shoulder.
“You’ve had a long day,” Gray told her and put a supportive arm around her.
“Mmm,” Harriet said, not able to keep her eyes open as her body started to feel weak. “I’m just going to close my eyes for a few seconds.”
Her body folded as sleep reached out and yanked her into a dream world.
“Harriet!” Gray and Dawn shouted at once, catching Finn, who’d been called in as a volunteer firefighter who was the closest to the hotel, attention.
His head shot around in time to see Harriet collapse. His heart froze in his chest right before a spurt of adrenaline pushed him forward through the crowd to where Gray was holding Harriet’s slack body.
“What happened?” Finn stared at Harriet in horror.
“She collapsed,” Dawn told Finn. “She said she felt so sleepy and then collapsed.”
