“Have no idea, but I guess we’ll learn the art of refereeing in the next few days.” Alex chuckled. “Did you grow up to be an author? That sounds like the beginning of a pretty good book.”
“Not me. I was the vice president of a bank in northeast Oklahoma until a few weeks ago,” Tabby answered. “But hey, if things get slow around here, I just might use what I learn about the people who visit the B and B and start writing books. Lord knows I’ve read enough to learn a little about how to write one.”
Alex hoisted an army green duffel bag onto his shoulder. “Oh, really? And what kind of books do you like to read?”
“Mystery,” she answered.
“Me too,” he said as he turned and headed around the back of the other two vehicles.
Tabby stole a couple of sideways glances toward him. Hard upper-arm muscles strained the sleeves of his pale blue knit shirt that was the same color as his eyes. The lanky kid who had kissed her more than twenty-five years ago now had broad shoulders and what looked like an acre of chest. His thick blond hair touched his shirt collar, just like it had when he was a teenager, but now there were a few crow’s-feet around his eyes.
She helped carry all the baggage to the foyer and wondered what Alex had done from the time he was fourteen until he was forty, other than read mystery books. Aunt Charlotte hadn’t mentioned him, but then she hadn’t given Tabby and Ellie Mae the low-down gossip on folks in Sandcastle when she made the decision to move to Colorado and bequeath the B and B to them.
“So, you and Aunt Charlotte were friends?” Tabby asked as they stacked up all the luggage and bags at the foot of the steps.
“Yep,” Alex answered. “Mostly we were hurricane friends. She needed help to keep the generator running, and then I took care of cleanup and repairs. Neither of us had family in this area, so she was kind of like a grandma to me, and . . .” He raised a shoulder in half a shrug. “She told me I was like the grandson she never had. I hope that doesn’t bother you and Ellie Mae.”
“Lord no!” Tabby said. “Not one bit. I worried about her having so much to do with this place at her age.”
“At her age?” Alex chuckled. “She could run circles around me and not even break a sweat. I didn’t believe her when she said she was leaving Texas. She told me she was getting too old to run the B and B, but I was surprised when she passed the business down to y’all instead of selling it.”
She must’ve been waiting for me and Ellie Mae to get to the right place to turn this business over to us, Tabby thought. She wanted to be sure that James and I weren’t going to give our marriage a second chance, and then when Ellie Mae’s roommate, Sam, died, she probably thought that Ellie Mae needed a change of jobs and scenery.
“She said she was tired of fighting the storms,” Alex went on as he piled two suitcases onto the lift chair and pushed the button to send them upstairs, and then he picked up a duffel bag and took the steps two at a time.
Tabby grabbed a tote bag and followed him. “It came as a shock to me and Ellie Mae both, but we are grateful for her decision.”
“What made you two take her up on the offer?” Alex asked at the top of the stairs.
“Two months ago, Aunt Charlotte called me and said that she had friends who had relocated to a nice little village in Colorado, and they had helped her find a cabin in the mountains,” Tabby answered. “She said that she would rather deal with snow than face off with another hurricane. She couldn’t sell the B and B. There’s something in the paperwork that says it has to stay in the Landry family forever and ever, amen.” She took the suitcases off the lift chair and rolled them into the hallway. “If you’ll go back down and load the lift chair and send it up, I’ll unload at the top and the folks can sort everything out.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Alex said with that same crooked little smile that had caused her to have a crush on him all those years ago. “But what made you and Ellie Mae decide to take her up on her offer to hand this place over to you?”
“Long story short is that we both needed a change, and Aunt Charlotte provided it,” Tabby answered. “I’m surprised that she didn’t tell you about it, since y’all were good friends.”
“Charlotte has never been a gossip, and you can trust her with your deepest secrets,” he said as he went back to the bottom of the staircase.
He loaded the lift chair with two more suitcases and sent them up.
“The Charlotte you knew and the one I knew were two different people.” Tabby raised her voice just slightly. “What’s your story? Why did you come back to Sandcastle?”
“Now that’s a long story for another time,” he answered. “Maybe we’ll be stuck in this place long enough we’ll swap life stories.”
“Maybe so.” She set the suitcases on the floor, pushed a button, and sent the chair back down for Alex to reload.
Maude came out of a bedroom on the left side of the hallway. “Those suitcases belong to me. My room is very nice. I like the yellow-rose wallpaper, and although the bathroom is small, I do like having a bathroom that I don’t have to share with anyone, especially Cleo,” she fussed. “She had the room next to mine at the center, and she hogged the bathroom every night. She knew I wanted to have an early bath—but oh, no, she had to do whatever she does with all those creams she uses to prevent wrinkles. Please, tell the lady who owns this place that she is a sweetheart for letting us stay here. All the hotels in this part of the state are full, and besides, they wouldn’t have had three meals a day.”
“My cousin and I own the place now.” Tabby chose the right moment to get a word in edgewise. “But having you stay here was Aunt Charlotte’s idea. I’ll tell her that you are happy with your room. Ellie Mae and I are both glad to help out.” Tabby fought the urge to cross her fingers behind her back like she did when she was a child telling a white lie. “It’ll only be until Delilah blows over, and then things will get back to normal.” She took three garbage bags off the chair and sent it back down to Alex again.
What’s “normal”? the voice in her head asked. And what if this hurricane demolishes that retirement home—or whatever it’s called?
“Don’t even go there,” Tabby whispered.
“Go where?” Ellie Mae took the steps two at a time, grabbed the end of a bag, and dragged it to Cleo’s open doorway. “This thing feels like it’s loaded with rocks, but at least they’ve tagged these bags with names so we know where they go, and those two old gals won’t start a catfight over them in the middle of the hallway.”
Tabby checked the tag on another bag and pulled it along behind Ellie Mae. “I was muttering to myself that I hope that the center where these folks live doesn’t get much damage, and this is a temporary thing.”
“Amen to that. I wonder what the deal is with the two women. They look at each other like they could each kill the other one,” Ellie Mae said out of the corner of her mouth. “What do you think Cleo has in this bag? A dead body? Certainly feels like it.”
“I wouldn’t put anything past her. If Maude goes missing, we might have to check her room and her closet.” Tabby chuckled. “Like you just said, I’m glad whoever packed them put name tags on the ties. If Maude opened a random bag and found a dead body, she’d have a heart attack. I’m not sure we could get an ambulance down here from Anahuac right now.”