Page 62 of Nightcaps at The Beach House Hotel

“I intend to have our lawyer write her a letter explaining what she’s done so we have a paper trail to avoid any further problems with her,” said Bernie.

“Vaughn refused to take her phone calls. Though the article claimed they were friends, nothing could be further from the truth.” Even now, my lips thinned at the idea.

“Annie and I checked the Presidential Suite after Lily checked out. I was afraid she might’ve done some damage there, but aside from stealing both robes and little stuff like a soap dish, it was fine. I didn’t even get a sense of a ghost.”

“Great news,” said Ana Gomez, head of housekeeping. “One of my workers was afraid to work there. I’ll tell her you said it’s safe, Rhonda.”

“Even a ghost would be scared off by Lily,” murmured Rhonda.

“Now on to new business,” said Bernie, and we heard a report from Lorraine about upcoming weddings.

###

An hour later, Rhonda and I moved to our own office, relieved to put that wedding behind us.

“The holidays will be here before we know it,” said Rhonda. “I’m already working on ads for Thanksgiving even though we have a couple of months before that happens.”

“I’m meeting with Dorothy soon to start organizing our annual Christmas party. She’ll update the invitation list for us.”

“She told me she has friends willing to help with the employee Christmas party,” said Rhonda. “What would we ever do without her? She keeps us tied to the neighborhood.”

“Maybe we should start a publicity campaign to counter any negativity from Lily’s interview. I want people to believe us when we say we protect guests’ privacy.”

“Let’s ask Angie and Liz to work on that,” said Rhonda. “They love working on projects together, and we need their help.”

“Perfect. They both need something creative to do after dealing with toddlers every day,” I said. “Vaughn is spending some time with the kids today. Then, he’ll take Liz to lunch so they can relax and talk.”

“It’s nice that they are close,” said Rhonda. “Will and Reggie are very close, but sometimes it’s too much—working and doing family things together.”

“How’s Will doing with the stress of the business?” I asked. “I’m concerned about him.”

“I understand Reggie had a heart-to-heart talk with him about it. He’s pushing to hire another employee to handle some of the smaller accounts. But you know how frugal Will is. He wants to wait and see.”

“I hope he doesn’t wait until it’s too late,” I said quietly. I knew Angie’s husband, Reggie, would be more than ready to take over the business while Will was gone. He and Will worked well together, but Reggie was looking forward to the time when the business would be his after Will retired.

###

A few days later, I got a call from Darryl, telling me he’d arrive at the hotel that afternoon.

“How are things going?” I asked him.

“Not well. Right now, the woman is making a statement to the press, but nothing is in the court system yet. What will it matter? Once my name is linked to the scandal and the news makes a splash about it, I’ll be declared guilty in the media.”

“That’s awful,” I said, feeling sick.

“My lawyer is working on things behind the scenes and is telling me not to despair. He’s working to bring suit against the woman. As you might imagine, I just want to disappear and ignore all the bad publicity.”

“We’ll keep you safe here. Why don’t you invite your sisters to stay with you at the house? That might make it less lonely.”

“I’ve already talked to them about it. One or two of them might be able to make it. We’ll see.”

I waited for him to mention Abbie, but when he didn’t, I let it go. “If they want to join you, have them talk to Bernie to get them registered privately.”

“Will do. Thanks for all your help.”

“We’re here for you, Darryl,” I said before he ended the call.

I told Rhonda about his plans.

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