Page 14 of The Summer Inn on Plum Island
“All set?” Dawn smiled as he walked toward her.
“Yes, thanks,” Liam said with a nod and glanced at the clear night sky. “It’s a beautiful night.”
“It really is,” Dawn agreed, turning and looking up at the inky night sky peppered with sparkling stars. “It’s so beautiful here.”
“Yeah.” Liam sighed and nodded. “I’ve lived in a few places, but my heart has always belonged here.”
“I can see why,” Dawn told him, and they fell into silence for a few seconds. “Liam, about tomorrow, are you going to tell the staff I’m acting as a temporary manager?”
“We’ll tell them that you need some experience managing a hotel,” Liam told her. “For a script, and it couldn’t be at a better time as my manager went on maternity leave today.”
Dawn nodded. “That works out well for us.” She frowned. “What exactly do you think I should be on the lookout for? Besides the missing items, I mean.”
Liam considered her question, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Observe the staff’s interactions with each other and with the guests. See if anyone seems overly interested in the guests’ personal belongings, or if they’re somewhere they shouldn’t be.”
“Hopefully, the staff will interact with me. I find that when I’ve done something like this in the past to observe various ways something works to make my script more authentic, you get a few types of reactions,” Dawn told him. “They are either excited to work with you, annoyed that they have to make time to work with you, or are anti-working with you.”
“We need them to be comfortable with you,” Liam advised. “So just be yourself.” He smiled, and his eyes darkened. “You’ll soon have charmed them into revealing their secrets.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence.” Dawn gave him a soft laugh. “But you should know by now that I tend to live in my head, and people are not my strong point.”
“Then just pretend they’re characters in your book and write them as such in your mind,” Liam suggested. “I know how good you are at checking out a person. So all you have to do is use your writer superpowers.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Dawn said and sighed. “I’ll do my best.”
“And you’re going to do great because of it,” Liam assured her.
A knock on the door interrupted them. Dawn and Liam turned to stare at it.
“Are you expecting someone?” Liam asked, glancing at her.
“No.” Dawn shook her head. “Everyone I know is out of town or in my hotel suite.”
“Let me answer it,” Liam said, starting to walk to the door with Dawn following.
He pulled open the door to find a young man and a woman.
“Can I help you?” Liam asked, his eyes narrowing.
The man stepped forward, extending a hand. “Hi, I’m Daniel Peters. I’m looking for Miss Vanderbilt.”
“I’m Dawn Vanderbilt,” Dawn stepped beside Liam.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” Daniel told her with a charming smile. “I’m here about Tiger, my late grandmother’s cat. Tiger’s vet told me that you have him.”
Dawn’s expression tightened, and her protective instincts kicked in when she realized he must’ve been the grandson who had thrown Tiger out of his moving car. “Yes, Tiger is here. He’s safe and well cared for after we found him badly injured at the side of the road.”
Daniel’s relief was palpable. “I’m so glad to hear that he’s safe,” he said. “My sister, who’s in the car outside, would’ve skinned me alive if Tiger wasn’t safe.”
“Areyou glad he’s safe?“ Liam asked, an eyebrow raised as he folded his arms, making sure the younger, shorter man knew he wasn’t getting anywhere near Tiger unless Dawn said so. “The vet seemed to think Tiger wasthrownout of the moving car.”
While the Peters family might be the rightful owners of Tiger, the cat had been put into Dawn’s care, and there was no way she was going to let him take the cat. There was something about Daniel that made the hairs at the back of Dawn’s neck prickle.
“I can assure you,sir, Tiger didn’t get thrown from the car.“ Daniel’s shoulder stiffened, and his voice was filled with indignation. “I may be guilty of not ensuring Tiger’s travel box was secured properly, but I didnotthrow him out of the window. He somehow managed to escape his travel box and jumped out the back window.“ He glanced from Liam to Dawn. “I didn’t even notice until I got to Boston to pick up Kelly, my sister, from the airport.” He dropped his eyes, and his shoulders sagged. “It’s been a terrible week having lost our grandmother.”
Dawn exchanged a glance with Liam, who frowned, clearly skeptical. Dawn knew when a person was acting, and Daniel was putting on a top performance.
“We’re sorry for your loss,” Liam told Daniel compassionately. “I knew your grandmother. She was a wonderful person.”
