Page 31 of The Summer Inn on Plum Island
“He was driving home from New York to the Hamptons and lost control of his car.” Dawn’s voice dropped and became hoarse with emotion. “The doctors say he lost control of the car because he suffered a massive heart attack.” She cleared her throat. “He was probably dead when the oncoming truck hit his car and sent it flying down an embankment.”
Liam sat staring at her wide-eyed. He was no stranger to loss and losing a parent. He and his sister Jennifer had watched their mother suffer from a hereditary heart disease before she died. But what Dawn and her brothers had been through was horrendous—losing both parents to violent car crashes.
Liam closed his hand over hers and told her he understood the pain of losing your parents. While they’d lost their mother to a hereditary heart disease, their father had left them two years before that and just disappeared. They fell into silence for a few minutes, each lost in their memories, before Dawn broke the silence.
“Good grief, how did the conversation become so morbid?” Dawn said with a snort. “And I think that pizza must be so cold by now.”
“I’ll go home quick.” Liam stood.
“Okay,” Dawn nodded. “I’ll stay here with Hicks, and I’m sure my brother has someone watching out for me anyway. They’re probably doing some stealth surveillance.”
“A silent ninja stalking through the shadows, watching your back,” Liam said with a teasing smile. “It makes me feel better about you being here alone with a secret passage leading off from your room.” He glanced at her bedroom. “Maybe close and lock the bedroom door for now.”
“That’s a good idea,” Dawn said. She moved to her bedroom and took the key from the inside lock before pulling the door close and locking it. “There, now I feel safer.”
Liam nodded and looked at the documents lying on the coffee table. “If you want to keep your mind off things, I don’t mind if you want to start going through the information.” He gave her a small smile. “I may even have another journal for you, compliments of the Summer Inn Hotel.”
“Thank you, Liam,” Dawn said, “I’d appreciate that.”
“Okay, but for now,” Liam moved to the table near the suite door, pulled open the drawer and got out a notepad, handing it to her, “you’re going to have to make do with this.”
“Okay.” Dawn took the notepad before flopping back onto the sofa with Hicks faithfully by her side. “I need a pen too.”
“Where’s your lucky pen?” Liam asked her.
“In there.” Dawn pointed at her locked room.
Liam nodded, walked back to the table beside the door, and pulled a pen from the drawer. “Here you go, compliments of the Summer Inn Hotel.”
“Thank you.” Dawn smiled. “I’ll get stuck in here while we wait for you to get back.”
“I won’t be long.” Liam looked at Hicks, who was lying in front of the sofa by Dawn’s feet.
He left and hurried toward his house. When he got there, he collected everything he needed. He was about to leave when Ritz plopped in front of him, nearly scaring the heck out of him.
“Ritz!” Liam growled, picking up the crazy iguana. “What on earth is up with you?”
He started walking her back to her portable home, which she never stayed in anyway. At Finn’s house, she had a vivarium that took up one wall in the entertainment lounge of his house.
“In you go,” Liam said to the iguana and put her back in her mini vivarium, which was a large fish tank. “Now stay there.”
But Ritz wasn’t having it and climbed back out to follow Liam, which was creepy, especially the way she moved her entire body.
“Are you trying to tell me you want to come with me?” Liam couldn’t believe he was talking to a freakin’ reptile.
He sighed and got the crazy iguana leash. Who even thought of making an iguana leash? Ritz even had special jumpers for the winter months. People had gone crazy over their pets. Liam shook his head as he put the harness on Ritz, who he could’ve sworn smiled smugly at him.
“Come on.” Liam picked her up and put her in the large dog bed that he took to his SUV before going back to collect the pizza and Hicks’s bowls, along with some food. “Your doggie brother is having a sleepover tonight.” He told Ritz as he climbed into his vehicle. “Now stay in the back on the bed okay?” Liam looked at the iguana in the mirror before pulling off and heading for the hotel.
When he pulled into the hotel parking lot, he called the night duty manager, who came to help him. Simon was not amused when he saw Ritz and screamed like a baby.
“You could’ve warned me,” Simon, his night manager, hissed and glared at Liam, who was laughing. “Why on earth do you have a giant green gecko in your car?”
“Ritz is an iguana and doesn’t like to be called a gecko,” Liam warned him, dropping his voice. “She’s very sensitive to it.”
“You’re crazy,” Simon told him. “I’m taking the dog food and bowls. You take Godzilla and the dog bed, or is that her bed?”
“Nope.” Liam shook his head and grinned. “It’s a giant dog bed.”
