So Inn Love (14 page)

“B
ut Miss Crossley—”

“You love the beach,” she said.

I nodded. “I know. I do. I really do.”

I wanted to say: And any other day, even tomorrow, it might be okay. But not this morning. Please, not this morning.

“I was just hoping…I really got into typing that book the other day. I kind of can’t wait to see how it turns out. I was thinking maybe I could work with Mr. Wallace again.”

Miss Crossley dusted her telephone while she talked. “That would be extremely difficult, seeing as how he checked out yesterday morning.”

“No, he didn’t,” I said. “He couldn’t have.”

“What? Do you know something I don’t?”

“He—he can’t check out! He didn’t even tell me he was leaving!” I protested.

Miss Crossley shifted in her office chair, looking a little uncomfortable. “Oh no. Do you and Mr. Wallace have some kind of personal, ah, relationship—”

“No, of course not. Nothing like that.” I shook my head. “We were friends, that’s all.” And I had been hoping to lean on him today, like a crutch, I thought. He could tell me how love sucked, how high the divorce rate was, and what a load of garbage romance was, and I’d completely agree with him for once.

Forget about being optimistic. Optimism sucked.

“I liked working with him. It was kind of an apprentice thing,” I explained.

“I see. Well, he did leave. I’m very sorry,” Miss Crossley said. “So, can you be ready for the beach in about half an hour? Will Talbot is in need of a beach buddy.”

I let out a deep breath, trying to release all the tension in my body.

It didn’t work.

“Sure. Of course I can,” I said. “I
love
the beach.”

It’s just that I’d love it a lot more if Hayden was assigned to another beach. Say, on Cape Cod
. Just for a few days, just long enough for me to get my act together and fall back
out
of love with him.

I felt a hair color change coming on. Unfortunately I didn’t think I had time to book an appointment at the Inn salon in the next ten minutes.

“Hey, you look great this morning,” Hayden said when I showed up, trailing behind Will, who plowed straight ahead. He didn’t even take off his sneakers before he sprinted into the water. He got his toes wet, then stopped, dropped to the sand, and started digging.

I glared at Hayden. “As opposed to other mornings?”

“What?” Hayden asked, looking confused. He apparently thought we’d made up; but since we hadn’t talked since the night before, I didn’t see how.

“Or as compared with Zoe,” I said under my breath.

My attempt to be cool and pretend I wasn’t hurt and that I was completely over him was failing. Badly.

“Is that the infamous fourth bathing suit?” Hayden asked.

I didn’t answer him.

“Nice.” He nodded as he stepped back to appraise me.

“Whatever,” I said. “I think I’ll focus on Will, thank you very much.”

“Liza, swim with me!” Will yelled as he ran toward me.

“We’re not swimming yet, but we can in a little bit,” I said. I had it on good authority that Will had just eaten a late breakfast, so I wanted him to wait before we plunged into the ocean.

“No, now,” he said.

“No, later,” I said.

“You know what, buddy? Let’s go on a shell hunt,” Hayden offered.

I appreciated the gesture, but it was annoying as well. Did he think he needed to save me? I could handle Will on my own. “You’re a
lifeguard, not a nature lover,” I said.

“I can’t be both?” Hayden asked.

“Not when people are depending on you to save their life, no.”

“There’s nobody swimming,” Hayden said.

“Maybe they heard you’re the one on duty. Didn’t feel like drifting out to sea while you searched for shells,” I said.

He started to laugh. “Man, are you mad.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I replied.

Hayden was looking over my shoulder at something, or someone. “Caroline?” he said. I turned around.

“Your presence is requested in the dining room.” She sounded as if she’d rather be anywhere else than talking to the two of us.

“What?” I asked.

“Yours, too,” she told Hayden.

I was puzzled. “What’s this all about?”

“I don’t know what it’s about, but Mr. Talbot wants to talk to you, over lunch,” Caroline said in a bored tone.

“But ah—we’re not dressed for the dining room,” I protested.
And I don’t want to go anywhere with Hayden!

“Obviously. I can see that,” Caroline said. “So Hayden, you go get cleaned up and changed as soon as Lindsay gets here to take over for you. Liza—you can go now.”

“Who’s going to replace—”

“
I
am, all right?” Caroline said, exasperated.

I backed away slowly, watching her attempt to play with Will. He took two giant handfuls of sand and threw them at her. Poor Caroline, I thought. And then, poor Will.

And then I thought—poor
me
. This could only be a good-bye lunch, if it was me, Hayden, and Mr. Talbot. He knew about the time we’d been on the deck—and he must have some new information on us. How embarrassing.

I bumped into Hayden on my way out of the dorm. I’d changed into a khaki skirt and a flowered blouse. My hair was tied up in a loose bun, sort of, with lots of tendrils falling out.

I expected Hayden to say something about my appearance, but he didn’t. He just glanced at me and kept walking toward the Inn, not looking at me. It was like the two of us were bracing for a firing squad.

When we got to the dining room, Guess Who was working as both server and host.

“Right this way, please,” Zoe said.

I hadn’t even seen her since the infamous wedding.

This was exactly why Claire warned me about no hookups. The place was closing in on all sides.

“This isn’t some weird Dr. Phil intervention to make us all talk, is it?” I asked her.

“What?” Zoe looked at me as if I were crazy.

“Never mind,” I said as she led us to the Inn’s best corner table, by the biggest window, with a clear view of the ocean. An older gentleman was sitting there—it was Mr. Talbot
Senior
. And across the table from him was…

“Grandpa?” I said.

“Drove down this morning.” He stood up and I gave him a hug. “Surprise!”

“Yes, it’s surprising, all right,” I commented. “It’s so nice to see you! Is Grandma here, too?”

“Yes, but she’s visiting an old friend—she’ll be by this afternoon.”

“I’ve arranged for you to have the afternoon
off to spend with your grandparents,” Mr. Talbot Senior said. “Miss Crossley’s been notified.”

“Wow. Thank you!” I said.

“You too, Hayden.” Mr. Talbot nodded. “Enjoy the time off.”

“Uh…thanks.” Hayden opened his napkin and set it on his lap. I’m sure he was wondering, like I was, what the heck he was there for.

But then I vaguely remembered telling my grandfather about him, back when I was visiting him at the hospital. I sank down a little in my chair. I hoped my grandfather would be discreet, but then again, Hayden wouldn’t be here now if I hadn’t been indiscreet and blabbed about our possible relationship.

But you know what, I thought. If he was suffering and uncomfortable now, being here? That was too bad. He was the one who’d kissed
me
that night, before I left on the train to go home. He let me think we were in a relationship, and I’d only acted appropriately.

I wasn’t the one being weird and hiding and going out with my former girlfriend just for appearance’s sake. Not that I had a former girlfriend, but still.

“I understand you’re feeling better, sir?” Hayden said to my grandfather.

“Oh, yes. Feeling just fine.”

“Was something wrong?” Mr. Talbot asked.

“Just a touch of the flu, Bucko.” My grandfather sipped his glass of lemonade. “Nothing serious.”

“Grandpa,” I said.

“It was a little warning from the old ticker, that’s all,” he explained. “A minor heart attack.”

“I had one of those myself,” Mr. Talbot said. “Maybe two or three.”

I’m having one right now,
I thought.
I don’t know if I can sit here much longer.

“So what have you two been up to?” my grandfather asked.

I shrugged. “Not much, really.” Just sneaking away to closed beaches.

“Somehow I doubt that,” he said. He turned to Hayden. “Are you treating her well?”

“Grandpa,” I said through clenched teeth.

“You know, I’m always pleased when staff members become friends,” Mr. Talbot said.

My grandfather chuckled. “Oh, Bucko, they’re more than friends.”

“Grandpa,” I said again. If I gritted my teeth any more, sparks would fly off of them.
It’s not like that—not anymore!
I wanted to scream. Why wasn’t my grandmother there to rein him in?

“To young love.” Grandpa raised his glass, just as Zoe came to the table to take our order.

“Excuse me,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

I pushed back my chair and practically sprinted for the women’s room—except it wasn’t that, it was a “ladies’ lounge,” with an elegant, antique sofa in an outer waiting room.

Once I was safely inside, I went to a sink and turned on the cold water, letting it run over my hands and wrists. I splashed my face and was searching for a towel to dry off when one was handed to me. I pressed it to my face, dried off, and looked up.

“We have to talk,” Zoe said.

“I
ran into Claire this morning, in the hallway,” Zoe went on. “Actually I think she was sitting out there waiting for me. I don’t know how she found out what room I was in, but—”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Here, in the Inn. You know I stayed with my sister last night—I mean, my whole family was here,” she explained. She stepped up to the mirror and fixed her hair a little.

“Don’t you need to get back to your tables?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Let them wait. The kitchen’s running slow so far today, anyway.” She leaned forward and touched up her lipstick. “So Claire told me about you and Hayden,”
she said casually.

This didn’t seem like someone who was upset, but I wasn’t completely sure.

“I had no idea you and Hayden were seriously involved. I’m really sorry you got the wrong impression last night. I’m still seeing Brandon, you know.”

“That’s what I thought,” I said. “But then I see you and Hayden at the wedding…I mean, I saw you and Hayden together, and Brandon wasn’t there…you have to admit that looked pretty bad.”

“It was supposed to look good. To my parents,” she said. “They love Hayden—or they love Hayden’s family’s money, anyway. When we broke up they were furious with me, all because Hayden’s dad is some big-shot corporate guy and his family’s so big and important in the community, and they thought it would be their ‘in,’ you know.”

“Their ‘in’?” I asked.

“They freak out about whether or not they’re going to be accepted. We’re sort of new in town. Anyway, I’m not seeing Hayden. My
family doesn’t approve of Brandon, that’s all. We fought about it constantly. So I told them we were over, and I was back with Hayden.”

“So is it like that on his end? Hayden’s family wouldn’t approve of me, either?”

Zoe shrugged. “What’s there not to approve of?”

“I don’t know. You tell me,” I said.

“Well, we do come from kind of a snobby community, it’s true. And our parents did want us to date, but that’s not enough reason to actually stay together. Look, Claire said you guys argued, and I want to make it clear there was no reunion, or anything like that. We’ve been over since a year ago.”

I wanted to believe Zoe, and for the most part I did, but a few things still didn’t make sense. One, why did Hayden insist on being so secretive? And…“Then why did you kiss him?”

Zoe laughed. “I had a glass of champagne with my sister at the beginning of the reception—it went to my head. That’s it. It didn’t mean anything. Anyway, order the clam chowder and the lobster—it’s the best stuff on the
menu.” Zoe opened the door and walked out of the ladies’ room.

I fixed my hair for a second, then headed back to our table, where Hayden, Grandpa, and Mr. Talbot were all laughing about something. I opened my cloth napkin and smoothed it on my lap.

I couldn’t believe Hayden hadn’t taken the opportunity to bolt, without me there. But how could he? The owner of the Inn was dining with us. Neither one of us could leave.

“So,” Grandpa said, turning to me. “What would you two like to do this afternoon?”

Hayden and I looked at each other across the table. I wondered if he was thinking what I was:
I’d like to get this lunch over with as soon as possible.

Around 5:30 I was saying good-bye to my grandparents at the Inn’s front entrance, by their car, when my grandmother said, “Is that little Carrie Farlane?”

I turned and saw Caroline walking up from the dorm. “Caroline, Grandma,” I said. I tried
to smile as I said it, so she wouldn’t ask what was up.

“Caroline, how nice to see you!” my grandmother said as Caroline came closer.

“Hello, Mrs. McKenzie. Mr. McKenzie.” She reached out her hand to shake theirs, but my grandparents insisted on hugging her. She looked embarrassed, but sort of happy, too.

“Wow. Look at the two of you, all grown up. I remember when you two ruled the roost,” my grandfather said.

“We did what?” I asked.

“You were the dynamic duo. You were Lewis and she was Clark,” my grandfather said.

I looked at Caroline and rolled my eyes. “Whatever, Grandpa.”

“Enjoying your summer?” my grandmother asked Caroline.

“Definitely,” Caroline said. “I mean, not everything is perfect, but—”

“You wouldn’t want that,” Grandpa interrupted as he walked around to the passenger side door. “Perfect is boring.” He opened the door and slid into his seat, and I leaned in the open
window and gave him a quick good-bye kiss on the cheek.

“We’re on our way to meet friends, so we can’t hang around. But it’s so nice to see you, Caroline. Take care, Liza,” my grandmother said as she got into the car. “Take care of each other, will you?” She waved out the window and called to us, “Have fun!”

I guessed I had never mentioned the fact that Caroline and I weren’t exactly best pals anymore. We stood there waving at my grandparents, and I felt kind of awkward, as if we were kids again and they’d just dropped us off at the beach.

“How was lunch?” Caroline asked glumly as we watched them drive away.

“Okay. Weird, embarrassing. You know my grandfather, how he likes to joke around. So he joked about me and Hayden. Ha ha. So funny,” I complained. I sat down on the wide steps. “I felt like it would never end.”

“I don’t know what you’re so upset about,” Caroline replied. She sat a few steps above me. “One, Hayden really likes you. Two, you had
lunch with Mr. Talbot.
Senior
.”

I decided to ignore the first part. “So?”

“So, I’ve been here two years and I’ve never had lunch with
any
of the Talbots,” Caroline said.

“Oh. Well, it wasn’t that fascinating,” I said. “Confidentially and all.”

“Still. It’s not fair. You come here and in like two seconds you’re part of the in crowd,” Caroline complained.

“What? I am not,” I said.

“Yes, you are,” she said. She sounded really hurt about it, and I wondered if that was why she hadn’t been glad to see me show up for the summer.

“Look. The only in crowd in my opinion is the one that you happen to be in. You know what I mean? It’s your friends. It’s something you create yourself,” I said.

“Easy for you to say. It took me two months to make good friends last summer,” Caroline said. “It was really hard. I mean, maybe if we both started here at the same time…it would have been easier, you know?”

“Yeah, it probably would have been. But you didn’t make it easier on me when I showed up here,” I reminded her.

“No. I guess not. I was so worried you were going to tell a bunch of embarrassing stories about me.”

“Maybe I would have,” I admitted. “If I knew any really
good
ones.”

“Don’t you?” Caroline asked.

“Not really. I mean, we were kids then,” I said. “We did stupid things. It didn’t matter—we had fun. Anyway, why do you care so much what everyone thinks?”

“Because! Don’t you?” Caroline asked.

“Maybe at first,” I admitted. “I definitely didn’t like showing up and feeling like an outsider. But then, I knew my way around town, and I was working pretty hard so I didn’t have time to worry about it, and I got to be friends with Claire, and Josh—”

“And Hayden—”

“And I kind of stopped worrying about it,” I said. “But earlier, you were saying…Hayden really likes me?”

“Liza, you sound like when we were twelve,” Caroline laughed. “You wondered all the time whether that boy at Sally’s coffee shop liked you.”

“Well, yeah, didn’t
you
?”

“No,” Caroline said in a haughty tone. “I
knew
he liked me.”

“And you were going to ask him out—but then I was going to ask him out first—and then we saw him making out with that girl—”

We both burst out laughing.

“Oh my God, I was so crushed,” Caroline said. “Totally devastated. I wrote about ten pages in my journal that night. Which reminds me, I have got to burn that thing.” She smiled and stretched her legs out on the step. “So…how come we were so sure of everything back then?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of funny. I don’t know,” I said.

There was a loud beeping sound and I pulled the pager out of my pocket. “Do you think Miss Crossley was standing up there in her office, waiting for my grandparents to drive
off?” I asked Caroline.

“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Caroline said under her breath. We started to laugh, and then Caroline said, “
Don’t
tell her I said that. Promise me.”

“I wouldn’t,” I assured her. “See you later.”

I realized I’d never really gotten an answer to my question, as to whether Caroline thought Hayden was still interested in me. But it didn’t matter, really. At the moment I was just glad that we’d had at least one good conversation, and I wasn’t totally crazy. We had been really good friends once. Maybe we wouldn’t be again, but we didn’t have to be enemies, either. I should thank my grandparents, probably.

I went up to Miss Crossley’s office and poked my head into her office. “You rang?” I asked. “Do you need me?”

“Yes, uh, we—wait a second, Liza.” She shuffled some papers on her desk. “We’ve just had word from Mr. Wallace. He’s changed his mind and is heading back to the Inn, so I’d like you to go on the shuttle with Hayden to the train station. I think he’d appreciate if you welcomed
him back,” Miss Crossley said.

“But…can’t Hayden do that by himself?” I asked.

“You’re the one he has a connection with, since you worked as his assistant. It would be best if you went too. Meet Hayden by the shuttle at 6:30, all right?”

Miss Crossley? I’ve been really, really flexible. For days and weeks now. I’ve done everything you asked,
I wanted to say.
But please don’t make me do this, because I’m not ready to see Hayden and spend time alone with him yet.

“Okay, fine,” I said.

Fortunately we had guests to bring to the train, so Hayden and I didn’t have to be alone—or talk—during the ride into town. We dropped them off, then waited for the train from Boston to arrive. I paced around the platform, trying to keep my distance, while Hayden leaned against the van looking bored.

Why did Miss Crossley do this to us? Couldn’t one person easily handle this task?

When the train showed up, I didn’t see C. Q.
anywhere. I looked up and down the platform, watching every train door for a glimpse of him. But nobody appeared.

“Do you think he missed the train?” I asked as I walked back to Hayden. It was pulling away from the station. “Or maybe he fell asleep and missed the announcement for this stop?”

“What are you saying? He wasn’t on the train?” Hayden asked.

Had he fallen asleep standing there? “Do you
see
him?” I asked.

“No, I guess not.” Hayden tossed the set of keys into the air and caught them. “Oh, well. I’m not going to worry about it, I’m sure he’ll call. Let’s head back. Unless you want to grab an ice cream first?”

“Aren’t you worried at all?” I asked as I climbed into the van through the sliding door.

Hayden turned around from the front seat, a puzzled expression on his face. “Aren’t you going to sit up here?”

“No, I hadn’t planned on it,” I said.

“Well, it just feels weird, like I’m a taxi driver.”

“Well. Aren’t you?”

Hayden narrowed his eyes at me. “You know, your grandfather is a lot nicer than you are.”

“Let’s not get into discussing the topic of nice. You’re the one who went on a date with someone else without even warning me.”

“It wasn’t a date,” Hayden said as he started the van.

“Whatever. Let’s get back to the Inn and tell Miss Crossley her favorite guest isn’t checking back in.” I scrunched down in my seat and tried to ignore the fact that even the tiniest glimpse of Hayden, from the backseat, was attractive.

“What are we doing here?”

Hayden parked the van outside the closed, dilapidated hotel. He got out of the van and walked around to open the sliding door. “I wanted to stop someplace private on the way back—somewhere we could be alone and talk.”

“We could have been alone at the train station. We
were
alone. So why not then?” I asked.

“Just…come on. Walk on the beach with me,” Hayden urged. He held out his hand.

This isn’t fair,
I thought as I got out of the shuttle, on my own.
Revisiting the scene of a crime of passion. Or just…the scene of passion
.

“This doesn’t mean anything. That I’m willing to walk on the beach with you,” I said.

“Okay, fine, it doesn’t mean anything,” Hayden said. “You’re just here for the sea air and exercise.”

“Don’t make fun of me,” I said, but I was trying not to smile.

“I’d never,” Hayden said.

We walked through the broken-down gate on the side of the hotel that led to the beach.

My eyes widened as I saw dozens of flowers strewn all over the sand. I wandered closer, stepping over a ring of white, pink, yellow, and red roses, mixed in with daisies and lilies. “How did these—where did you get all these?” I asked.

“One was a bouquet I stole from the front desk. Caroline turned her back.”

“She should know not to do that when you’re around,” I said, and Hayden grinned.

“The rest I borrowed from the Inn’s flower garden,” Hayden said. “It was overflowing—I doubt anyone will notice. And before you
say anything, it’s not that I wouldn’t buy flowers for you, but I really didn’t have the opportunity—”

“No, it’s okay. It’s really nice,” I told him.

I looked around and noticed a couple of the Inn’s deluxe beach towels, folded and sitting atop a cooler.

“In case we feel like swimming. And I brought some mineral water and some shrimp cocktail because I heard you really like that,” Hayden said.

And I was so about to get sucked in by the love undertow, which was quickly turning into a riptide. I dug my heels into the sand to stop myself.

“No, you’re not doing this again,” I said.

“What?” Hayden asked. “Doing what?”

“You have no problem being with me out—out here,” I said. “If no one’s around, then that’s fine. You’re wonderfully sweet and everything. But then in public, you have to either be single, or with Zoe, or—I don’t know. But I’m not okay with the whole Privacy Please thing.”