Page 26 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“What?” she asked.

One of the older women in line had turned and said that. “There are no pets allowed. You should read the guidelines before you just show up.”

The woman had her nose in the air and Kelsey bit back a sarcastic comment.

“Mr. Franklin,” she said. “Guess we don’t get to see the lighthouse today.”

“You could leave your dog in the car,” the woman said.

“Would you leave your child in the car?” she asked, frowning.

“No,” the woman said, lifting her chin. “But that is just a dog.”

“Let’s go, Kelsey. We can see it from here and come back another time. Maybe a walk down by the water.”

She let out a huff and let Van drag her away.

“How dare that lady get in my business and judge me.”

“I thought I was going to have to stand in front of you to keep you from taking a swing.”

She burst out laughing. “Hardly that. But I do appreciate you pulling me away before I said something I would regret. It’s not like she knew who I was, but I worry about that. No reason to bring any shame on the name.”

“Why did you say that tongue in cheek?” he asked. They were walking along the beach and Frankie was trotting next to them.

“Family joke,” she said. “We’ve always had eyes on us. Whether we lived on the island or in Boston.”

“Did you grow up on the island?” he asked.

“Yes and no. Duke and I went to school there until middle school. I swam and wanted to in college. There was no swim team in our small school. They had a few sports, but as you can imagine it’s not easy to get to games and most were on the Cape and against those small schools. Anyway, my parents bought a house in Boston. Before that they had a condo where my mother or father would stay for business.”

“Apart from each other?” he asked.

“We went too. Depends. My mother has a firm in Boston and was going to sell it when she opened the other one on the island but decided not to. My father has business ventures all over Massachusetts. He’s got four small hotels throughout Cape Cod, and two in Boston.”

“No hotels on the island?”

“No,” she said. “He wouldn’t be able to compete there and didn’t want to. There are a few chain ones and then the three big ones in our family. Want a tiny lesson while we walk?”

“Sure,” he said.

“The Bond Retreat is the oldest resort and the most posh on the island.”

“Run by Hunter Bond,” he said.

“Ahh, you did do some research.”

“I’ve got some downtime on the job and figured it only helps to get the lay of the land. I spend a lot of time reading about the island and businesses.”

“I didn’t think of that,” she said. “Then you know the tallest hotel is Atlantic Rise. That is owned by my cousins Emily and Penelope. They are close cousins where some of the others aren’t.”

“How close?” he asked.

“My father’s grandmother and Penelope’s mother’s grandmother were twins. So it’s a few generations removed but still in the same branch.”

“And the casino is owned by Eli Bond,” he said.

“Yep,” she said. “So yeah, my father wasn’t going to compete with them. They actually don’t compete with each other and work together, but my father owns more high-end motel-size places. Just two to four floors. Those kinds of hotels on the Cape. The ones in Boston are bigger but still not like chain ones.”

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