Page 65 of Bubbles at the Beach House Hotel

I told her about the condition of the couple and their hotel room. “I think it’s best to let Liz and Angela handle it.”

“Yeah, me too, because right now, I’d want to shake them both. They signed contracts to do this.”

“We’ll see about things at the spa, but again, leave it up to Liz and Angela to handle any problems.”

“Probably that’s best. Let’s go out to the beach and look at the progress on building our storage shed by the sunset deck. With Brock’s interference, it took forever to get the permit.”

“We certainly don’t want the shed to be obvious, so there was no reason for him to make such a fuss.”

Rhonda’s eyes narrowed. “It’s all about his ego.”

As soon as she finished her coffee and we’d talked about any issue that might need our attention, we rose and went outside to take a walk on the beach. It was always an excellent place to talk and plan about the future.

The day was warm and humid, and the threat of rain was present when we walked out to the beach. The waves rolled into shore and back again and had a darker tone to them without the glare of sunlight. But I still thought they were beautiful as they met the shore with a timeless rhythm. The salty hiss left behind as they pulled away was something you could hear only in quiet moments.

I was standing at the water’s edge, eyes closed, when an annoying voice said, “Well, the two ladies I wanted to talk to.”

Feeling as if I’d been smacked awake, I turned to face Brock.

“What do you want, Brock?” growled Rhonda, and I knew she was trying to hold in her temper. She had no patience for him, especially when he’d given us such a hard time with a building permit.

“I just needed to see when your new construction will be complete,” said Brock.

“The construction is complete,” I said. “As to the exterior finish, we’re working on that now. It is to be stained the same color as the sunset deck structure so it will be less obvious. But as you no doubt know, the structure can’t be seen from the beach, so the rest isn’t your concern.”

“Mind your own business,” said Rhonda, putting her hands on her hips.

Aware she was about to lose all control, I grabbed her arm and all but dragged her away from him.

Brock must have been aware of how close Rhonda was to unleashing her frustration on him, and he said nothing as we left.

“Thanks, Annie,” said Rhonda. “All I needed was another whining person near me to make me want to explode.”

“Let’s walk for a while. We can talk as we do,” I said. Rhonda might be blunt and outspoken, but she wasn’t usually this volatile. Things must be stressful at home.

During our conversation, I said, “Vaughn is going to visit Will again.”

“That would be great,” said Rhonda. “Will was going to talk to me about some of his work while we were away, but we never got to have that conversation. So, right now, any diversion would be helpful to him. He’s stewing about something.”

I told her how Will had asked Vaughn if he’d had any dealings with Arthur and was pleased he hadn’t.

Rhonda shook her head. “I don’t know what is going on between Will and Arthur, but it’s tearing Will apart. I think it might have something to do with their competition for Reggie’s attention.”

“It’s hard to have family work for you,” I said.

“Will and Reggie are close, and they’ve been working well together. I think that’s what is driving Arthur crazy. I think he wants Reggie to know he could be making a lot more money working for him.”

“Has Angela mentioned the tension between them to you?” I asked.

“Yes. She told Reggie that she trusted him to do what was right and that while she’d support the choices he made, she didn’t want to become embroiled in any disagreements. While she recognizes that Arthur is Reggie’s father, Will is hers.”

“That’s so smart of her,” I said. “But if anything serious is going on, Reggie owes it to her to fill her in.”

“Right,” said Rhonda. “Reggie continues to show his loyalty to both Angela and Will, so I don’t think the problem is there.”

The longer we walked, the calmer we both felt.

“Let’s see the storage shed. The stain should’ve settled by now.”

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