Page 23 of The Plus-One Deal

I nodded, watching a tired family pull into the driveway. The valet took their car and they stood looking lost. I took Claire’s hand and held it.

“We’re lucky,” I said. “We should go in and see if we can do anything to help.”

CHAPTER 9

CLAIRE

It turned out there wasn’t a whole lot we could do. The hotel staff had dealt with these storms before, and far worse ones. They were efficient. But they couldn’t do much about the downed cell towers, and the line for the house phone snaked through the lobby. Conrad went upstairs to bring down his sat phone and I helped a young couple with their burst suitcase.

“I swear, this trip, it’s been like a curse.” The young man sat on the suitcase while I helped his girlfriend buckle it. “First, our plane got delayed. Then we lost our tickets. Then we finally got here and our motel had roaches. So we went to this other place, and it was right by a karaoke bar. We were trying to sleep, and… Kate, what’s that song?”

His girlfriend looked up. “‘Stand By Your Man.’”

“Yeah, that’s the one. Is it a thing here, or something? Because I swear, every second song — oh, hey! You’ve got it.” He stood up, relieved, and righted his suitcase. “Thanks for your help. We’d better get this upstairs before it busts out again.”

I gave them a wave, then searched for Conrad. I spotted his phone with a tight knot of tourists, but he wasn’t with them.

“Conrad?”

I did a slow turn, scanning the crowd. He wasn’t at the front desk, or by the phone, or the doors. I couldn’t see him in the restaurant, or by the fountain. Then I turned again and glimpsed the top of his head, sticking up from behind a row of planters. I headed out to the terrace.

“Conrad? That you?”

He poked his head up. “Hey, Claire. Meet Jake.”

I skirted the planters and the scattered soil, and Conrad was kneeling to comfort a child.

“Little buddy here can’t find his folks.” Conrad smiled warmly and dug in his pocket. He came up with a keychain shaped like a fish. “You know what this is?”

The boy eyed the keychain. “Whale shark,” he said.

Conrad’s eyes widened. “You’re sure that’s a shark? Aren’t sharks more like…grrrr?” He bared his teeth, and the kid sniffed and giggled.

“Not whale sharks,” Jake said. “They’re pretty chill.” He reached for the keychain, then jerked his hand back. “Um, can I touch it?”

“Tell you what,” said Conrad. “You come on with me, up to the front desk, and we’ll find out where your folks went. We’ll ask them if you can have it.”

The kid wiped his wet eyes. “If they say yes, I can have it?”

“That’s right, all yours.” Conrad smiled up at me. “This is my friend Claire. Why don’t you come with us, and we’ll talk to your parents?”

The kid looked up, trusting. I smiled awkwardly. I’d never been great with kids, never been much around them. I was an only child, no brothers or sisters, and I’d spent my summers lifeguarding, not babysitting. Conrad, meanwhile, was swimming that shark around, humming theJawstheme, making the kid giggle.

“Now, what do they look like, your mom and dad?”

“Mommy shark,” said Jake. “She’s tall like your friend, but she has brown hair. Dad has a mustache, but he shaved off his beard.”

We headed inside, the kid skipping between us, and soon he shoutedMomand went tearing across the lobby. He barreled straight into a scared-looking woman, who dropped to her knees and gathered him to her bosom. A man with a mustache came darting to join them, covering his son’s head in tickly kisses.

“Jake! Didn’t I tell you, you’ve got to stay close?”

“You can’t go off wandering in a strange place!”

“It’s not his fault,” said Conrad, striding up to the family. He pointed at the dad’s pants, the same beige as his own. “We’re wearing the same pants, and he followed me out. Never knew the difference till I turned around. You should’ve seen his face fall, the poor little guy.”

His dad hugged him. “That true? You thought he was me?”

Jake nodded against him and buried his face in his shirt.

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