Introduction
Charleston native, Taylor Abbott, has just relocated to Nantucket for her dream job as a junior news reporter at the local paper. Ten years ago she was Abby Hodges college roommate and is looking forward to living near her best friend again.
Until her rental cottage is available, she's going to stay at The Beach Plum Cove Inn, Abby's mother's bed and breakfast.
Abby meanwhile is dealing with an issue she thought she'd resolved.
Rhett discovers someone that works for him is a thief and tries to figure out who it is.
Rumor is there's a celebrity or two on the island and the media (including Taylor's co-worker, Victoria), is in hot pursuit to track them down.
Chapter 1
“Do we have someone famous dining with us tonight?” Rhett leaned against the hostess stand and glanced at their reservations page for the night. He didn’t see any familiar names. But a few of their regulars who were having a drink at the bar while they waited for their table mentioned seeing two television vans outside.
Nantucket didn’t have a television station, so they were from off-island, which usually meant they knew there were celebrities there. Could they be in his restaurant? If they were, Rhett wanted them to be able to dine in peace.
Elsa, the pretty blonde hostess, was a young college student working at Rhett’s restaurant for the summer. She was friendly and quite good at the job, but she was also easily intimidated, and she looked nervous as she considered Rhett’s question.
“I didn’t notice anyone. Not at first. But I saw the vans outside too, as people have been coming in and I’ve been trying to figure out who it might be. I think it could be that couple in the corner. She looks a bit like Cami Carmichael, the actress, though her hair is darker. I saw on Instagram that she might be filming something here.”
Rhett was familiar with the actress and glanced over at the table Elsa indicated. He couldn’t really tell if it was her, though. He debated what to do, if anything—but then the girl laughed and smiled, and he knew. Her smile was famous, impossible to mistake.
“I’ll take care of it.” An idea came to him as he walked over to the table. The young couple looked up, and he recognized Nick Whitley, who was a chef at The Whitley Hotel.
“Hi Nick.” He nodded at his companion. “I hope you both enjoyed your dinners?” Their plates were bare, which was a good indication that they had.
“Everything was great. Bella loved the scallops.”
That name threw him. But then Bella smiled and Rhett realized it was likely her real name.
“I’m glad to hear it. I wanted to give you a heads up that there are some media people out front.” He hesitated, hoping he wasn’t wrong about this. But Bella’s reaction confirmed it. Her face lost color.
“I didn’t think anyone knew we were here,” she said.
Nick’s irritation was evident. “I have no idea how they found us. They must have followed us here, and we didn’t realize it.”
Rhett took his keys out of his pocket and removed the one to his truck and set it on the table. “So, here’s what we’re going to do. When you’re ready to leave, tell Amy, your server, to come find me. Take that key and go through the kitchen and out the back door and drive my blue truck home. I can get it back from you tomorrow. I’ll go out front and distract the news folks….they’ll have no idea.”
Bella looked relieved. “Thank you so much. I think that will work.”
“Rhett, I seriously owe you one,” Nick said. “I’ll drop your truck off tomorrow morning.”
Rhett smiled. “I’m not worried about it.”
Rhett left the restaurant at a few minutes past eleven. His wife, Lisa, was waiting in her car. She’d chuckled when he asked if she wouldn’t mind picking him up.
“Of course. Did your car die?”
“Not exactly. I’ll tell you on the way home. It’s a good story.”
And as soon as he hopped in the car and Lisa headed home, he filled her in.
“Cami Carmichael. The girls and I love her movies. Is she as pretty in person?” Rhett wasn’t surprised to hear that they were all fans.
“She’s very cute. I didn’t recognize her right away though as her hair is dark brown now and she was wearing sunglasses.”
“Sunglasses inside. Hmm. How did you know it was her?”
“I wasn’t sure. Especially when Nick called her Bella. But then she smiled, and it was obvious.”
“That’s so exciting. And your plan worked, obviously.”
“Yes. I went out and talked to the reporters. I asked them why they were there and who they worked for. I asked as many questions as I could think of to buy Nick and Bella some time. I had to laugh, though. They stayed for almost two more hours, before realizing they’d missed her.”
“Good. I can’t wait to tell the girls at breakfast tomorrow.” Lisa’s daughters, Kate, Kristen and Abby, joined their mother for breakfast every Saturday at the home they grew up in, which was now a bed-and-breakfast. Rhett was very happy about that as it was how he and Lisa met. He was her first guest and stayed for months while he was getting his new restaurant ready to open. And then he and Lisa started dating and eventually got married. Lisa liked to tease him that he was the guest that came and never left. It was true, and he couldn’t be happier about it.
This was his second marriage. He’d been divorced for ten years and had thrown himself into his work, which consisted of several restaurants, which he oversaw with the help of good managers. Getting into a serious relationship was something he didn’t think would happen again for him. The Nantucket restaurant, which was simply called Rhett’s, was his main focus.
“Was it busy tonight?” Lisa asked.
“Yes. It started early, and didn’t let up until a little after nine. It’s been like this every night for the past few weeks. Which is great, but I was looking over our books this morning and something seemed off.”
“Off how?”
“With the volume of people I’m seeing coming into the restaurant each night, the sales don’t seem to always reflect it. The numbers seem a little off. Down somehow and I can’t quite figure it out.”
“Could it be a mistake of some kind?”
“It’s possible. Or it could be that someone has found a way to skim some extra money for themselves.”
“You don’t really think that, do you? Who would do that?” Lisa sounded shocked at the idea.
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine anyone that works for me deliberately stealing, but you never know. It’s a big problem with restaurants. Not as much now that things are so computerized. It was easier back in the days of handwritten orders. But, something is up and I need to get to the bottom of it.”
“I can’t believe Rhett met Cami Carmichael!” Lisa’s youngest daughter, Abby, said as Rhett brought his cup of black coffee to the table. Lisa had just finished sharing the details of Rhett’s evening at the restaurant. All of her girls were already there. Kate, her oldest, was by herself for a change. She was planning to go grocery shopping and run some errands after breakfast, so her twins were home with her husband, Jack.