Page 25 of Nightcaps at The Beach House Hotel

Sunday morning, while Vaughn was reading a script for his agent and Robbie was next door at his friend, Brett’s house, I slipped away to the hotel. The Bridal Brunch was about to end, and I couldn’t stay away.

When I arrived at the private dining room, Rhonda and Annette were there. Annette was, as usual, doing a fabulous job of overseeing the celebrations. Rhonda was greeting the guests as they rose to get ready to leave the hotel.

Elise called me over to her. “I want to thank you and Rhonda for a wonderful wedding. We got off to a shaky start with the kids, but it has turned out to be a very special occasion thanks to your encouragement. I know many of my friends will be having children wanting to get married. I’ll be sure to let them know about The Beach House Hotel.”

We both looked up as Lorraine came hurrying over to us. “Elise, I’m delighted to meet you. I apologize for being too sick to be here sooner.”

As Elise and Lorraine shook heads, I was impressed that Lorraine had done her homework on her clients and knew exactly who Elise was.

“Thank you for your enthusiasm,” I said, leaving Elise with Lorraine, who’d make sure she got the names of those friends Elise talked about.

Janelle and Rhonda were talking, and I went over to them. “Such a beautiful wedding, Janelle. It’s always nice to see such a delightful couple together.”

“All’s well that ends well,” said Janelle smiling. “We adore Alyssa, and I’m thrilled we’re going to have a grandchild, even if the timing is off.”

We continued to chat with the wedding guests until the last one left the room.

Rhonda turned to me. “This is one of the better weddings we’ve had. Why do I have the feeling there’s trouble ahead?”

“Hush,” I said. “We don’t want any problems sent our way.”

“You’re right, Annie. But in all the years we’ve run this hotel, we’ve always had something to deal with because we’re working with people. Do you remember, dear Wilkins Jones? That was our initiation into the hotel business.”

We’d been horrified when a magazine reporter had expired when making love with a woman who wasn’t his wife. There hadn’t been any other deaths since that time, and we certainly didn’t want one. But it had been a wake-up call to both of us that anything can happen at a hotel.

CHAPTER TEN

Monday morning, after seeing Robbie off to school and taking Vaughn to the airport for his flight to Canada, I raced to get to the hotel in time for Bernie’s staff meeting.

Thankfully, Rhonda was already there as I slid into my seat a few minutes late. Bernie was used to the idea that as mothers and grandmothers, Rhonda and I had other responsibilities and with us, family came first unless there was an emergency.

Bernie was speaking. “The wedding over the weekend was according to everything I’ve heard a success with staff stepping in to help with Lorraine’s absence. Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?”

“I’d like to say that Annette did an outstanding job of handling the details. I recommend she be included on the wedding planner’s staff as a part-timer,” I said, turning to Lorraine.

“I would very much like that,” Lorraine said. “Laura is a wonderful employee, but we need more help. As we all know, weddings here at the hotel are very special because of the service we provide.”

“Our wedding clients seem willing to pay for the extras we offer them,” I added.

“Since she’s your wife, Bernie, I’ll speak to Annette today and make her an offer,” said Lorraine.

Bernie nodded his approval. “And how are we doing with our VIP guests in the two houses?” He turned toInes Salinas, our new VIP coordinator.

“So far, it seems to be working out well. Tina Marks and Darryl Douglas are satisfied with the arrangements. We’ve been providing food service along with the usual maid service. And Manny has assigned reliable groundskeepers to those properties. The guards haven’t had any real problems with access to the guesthouses except with Brock Goodwin. But they quickly took care of it.”

“What an ass,” Rhonda murmured.

“Any requests for either of them to leave the houses on the property?” Bernie asked Ines.

She shook her head. “Not that I know of.”

“We’ve had a new problem arise. Darryl’s ex-wife, Everly Jansen, who was scheduled to stay in the Presidential Suite next week is now arriving a week early,” said Bernie. “We need to make sure she has no inkling that Darryl is with us. And we certainly don’t want any bad publicity for the hotel.”

“But she’s a woman who seeks attention,” I said. “The publicity about her isn’t favorable.”

“Yeah, she’s making up all kinds of things about Darryl hoping to get more money out of him,” said Rhonda. “She thinks he cheated her out of a fair divorce settlement. At least that’s whatHollywood Newssays.”

“Well, I don’t depend on news from Hollywood to tell me how to run a hotel,” said Bernie in his stern way. “We’ll carry on as we usually do.”

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