Page 91 of The Summer Inn on Plum Island
Dawn, Liam, and Scott nodded.
“If you don’t mind,” Tracy looked at Betty and Sam. “I’d like to come with you?”
“Of course,” Betty said as Tracy stood and she put a supportive arm around Tracy’s shoulders.
Betty, Sam, and Tracy took the teenage girls to get ready for L.A. while Dawn, Hicks, Liam and Scott went to Liam’s office.
Once inside, Dawn began to recount everything the girls had confessed to her on the boat. “They found my book and decided to bring it to life for me and…” She cleared her throat. “Well, they pulled Liam into the adventure.” She saw Liam and Scott’s raised eyebrows and more questions burning in their eyes. “They were doing something good and what they thought would be…” She cleared her throat again, feeling the heat on her cheeks. “Romantic.”
“I believe Tracy and Wade went through Dawn’s book.” Scott looked at his sister. “Speaking of which, why didn’t you tell us your secret fan left you a note and thumb drive with a copy of your manuscript they fixed for you?”
“What are you talking about?” Dawn’s brow furrowed. “What secret fan?”
“We found a thumb drive and a note,” Liam answered, picking up Dawn’s journal that was still on his desk and handing it to her. “It was in the jacket cover of your journal.” He pointed to the book. “We put them back where they were.”
“We’re sorry about how it looks,” Scott told her as Dawn saw it looked like it had been through a war. “But Hicks doesn’t know how to turn pages, and he was trying to show us that there was something in your journal.”
“This came out of it,” Liam reached over the desk and pulled open the cover and pointed to the thumb drive and note, which he picked up and handed to Dawn.
Dawn’s eyes scanned the note, and her blood turned a few degrees colder:
Your book is fantastic. It just needed a few amendments. I hope you don’t mind. Your number one fan.
“I didn’t know this was even in there,” Dawn told them as she remembered listening to the recording from Carl’s bio band:Returning something with a little extra.She reached over and patted Hicks’s head. “You are such a clever boy.”
Hicks barked in agreement and swathed Dawn’s hand in doggie kisses.
“Tracy and Wade went through your book,” Scott picked up the conversation, giving Dawn a warm smile. “She said it was worthy of being made into a television series.” He read off his phone. “Sorry, she sent me a voice message a few minutes ago with the update.”
“Oh, tell Tracy, thank you,” Dawn said. “But I wasn’t thinking of it being a movie or television show. I was just dabbling with novel writing for a change of pace.”
“Being in this business for as long as our family has,” Scott told her with an encouraging smile, “you should know that it can be both. You also know that Tracy is a harsh critic, no matter who you are.”
“Did Tracy say if she could tell what changes were made to the manuscript?” Dawn looked at Tracy.
“She said that your number one fan wanted you to see their changes, comments and suggestions and has marked them withinitials…” Scott’s voice trailed off as he stared at the phone, his features dropping.
“Scott?” Dawn looked at her brother with a furrowed brow mimicking Liam’s curiosity. “What is it marked with?”
When Scott raised his head Dawn’s brow creased a little more at the look of disbelief and shock in her brother’s eyes, his voice was barely a whisper as he said, “YNOF.”
“What did you say?” Dawn brows.
“YNOF,” Scott repeated, his eyes fixated on the screen of his phone.
Dawn’s heart lurched, and her head shot up, her eyes colliding with equally shocked ones of her older brother’s.
“It can’t be!” Dawn’s voice was barely a whisper.
“No, of course not!” Scott agreed although he didn’t sound too sure. “It’s impossible.”
“What’s going on?” Liam asked, his eyes narrowing as they moved between Scott and Dawn.
“When Scott and I were still at school, our father would check our homework, any script we’d want him to read, and so on,” Dawn told Liam. “He would mark any comments, advice, etc. YNOF - My dad’s shortened version ofYour Number One Fan,“ Dawn said as the shock still reverberated through them. “He was always our number one fan.”
“But it couldn’t possibly be, Dad,” Scott stated. He looked at Dawn. “That’s absurd.”
“Did you say he died in a car accident?” Liam’s brow furrowed.
