Page 45 of Visions of You

“I’m not sure you’re right about that, big guy.”

Later that afternoon,my swim trunks dripped water on the flagstone patio as I sat at a table behind the Big House. Hailey and I had spent over an hour in the pool together, diving for objects and playing catch. I’d had enough and was drying out while doing a little work, but not my daughter. She was throwing a softball into a small floating target and making the shot a respectable number of times.

Hailey was a lot more interesting to watch than resort profit and loss statements, so I sat back and stretched my legs out. She screwed an eye shut and tossed the ball at the target. It hit the top and careened off, heading toward the house.

“Oh, shoot!”

“Stay there, angel. I’ll get it.” I was gathering myself to stand when the patio door opened, and Evan stepped out.

He saw the small ball rolling toward him and put two and two together. “I got it!”

He cleanly fielded the ball with one hand and stepped to theedge of the pool. The goal floated three quarters of the way down and on the opposite side. Evan brought the ball up to the side of his face with both hands, wound up, and launched it at the target.

It swished into the net with hardly a sound.

Hailey’s jaw dropped open as she spun around to stare at her uncle. “Do that again!”

Evan grinned. “Lucky shot. Maybe we can play in a while. I want to talk to your dad.”

As he strolled across the patio toward me, Hailey went back to the ball, mimicking Evan’s motions as she tried to toss it into the target.

“Still have your aim, I see,” I said as he sat across from me.

Evan’s brows flew up. “I certainly hope I can still hit a target that big!”

Several beers sat on ice inside a bucket at my elbow. I opened one and slid it over to him, taking a second for myself.

Evan nodded at my laptop. “Are you working instead of lavishing attention on your daughter?”

I flicked the fabric of my wet shorts. “I just finished lavishing attention on her. Unlike Hailey, I’m not half fish. I needed to dry out.”

“The resort’s doing better now, right?”

I took a drink and nodded. “Yeah, we’re not losing money anymore. But we’re not really making a profit either. Have you heard anything on your project?”

Evan had come to me with a great idea. Years ago, Calypso Key had stopped measuring which guests were first-timers or returners, and he thought we should start doing it again. I agreed and told him to get right on the project. Tracking how many guests returned was vital.

“I got the report back from the data processor yesterday. Our return guest rate is fifteen percent.”

I almost dropped my beer. “Shit! That’s much worse than Ithought.”

“Yeah. Me too. After I started thinking about it, though, I realized I haven’t seen too many familiar faces in the last few years.”

“We need to send every former guest an offer for twenty percent off a new booking.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Evan said. “What about lowering prices across the board? We’re running about sixty to seventy percent occupancy. Lower prices could bring that up.”

I shook my head. “Dad lowered prices two years ago. It hasn’t helped.”

“Maybe it wasn’t enough.”

“I don’t think we need to lower prices.” I leaned forward and folded my arms on the table. “I want toraiseprices, Evan. Calypso Key Resort used to be one of the premier resorts in the Lower Keys. We’ve lost that because we’ve been trying to blend in instead of standing out. We’re not Sunset Siesta, for God’s sake.”

Several years ago, Dad had become worried that the Coleridges’ competing resort on Dove Key was stealing business from us. That was what led him to lower prices.

Evan took a long pull. “That sounds pretty risky, Gabe.”

“Not if we’re able to back up the price hike with an equal rise in guest experience. But that’s the problem. I took a hard look at a beach cottage last week. They need to be remodeled. Everything does. We need a large cash infusion, except we’re barely hanging on.”

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