Storm on Wildflower Island Read online

  Chapter 8

  That evening the two of them planned to have dinner in the Inn’s dining room. They had fun dressing up, since it was semi-formal. It was something they hadn’t done in a really long time. They normally didn’t frequent places that they needed to dress up for. Steve was very handsome in his dark gray suit and Claire was breathtaking in a dress that perfectly matched her aquamarine eyes.

  “Wow.” Steve took in his wife’s beautiful, curvy frame. “You are a vision.”

  Claire’s face turned bright red as she smiled and cast her eyes downward. “Steve, you’re embarrassing me.”

  “Why does that embarrass you? You are always gorgeous. But tonight? Wow.”

  “You already said that.” She swatted playfully at him.

  “You know what? I think we should just skip dinner and stay in tonight. What do you say?” he asked her with a mischievous grin on his face.

  “Whatever for?” Claire teased.

  “I want to have my way with you.” That silly grin of his was still there.

  “You don’t even have the decency to deny it, do you?” she smiled back.

  “Why should I?”

  “Come on, Romeo, let’s go get dinner. I’m starving.”

  Steve followed her dutifully to the dining room. He knew he would follow her anywhere, and for the rest of his life.

  Claire immediately noticed the same man that had been staring at them in the cafe that morning. The one that the waitress said was named Heath, if she was remembering correctly. He was looking at them again. As she watched him, he actually seemed to be looking at everyone, but appeared to linger on them more than the others. It really made Claire uncomfortable. Steve just dismissed her concerns.

  “He’s probably just lonely. What else is there for him to do while he sits there and eats? It kind of makes sense that he’s people watching,” Steve told her.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Claire responded, but not really buying it. “But he kind of gives me the creeps.”

  “How is everything tonight folks?” A young man suddenly appeared at their table. Claire was so engrossed in what Heath was doing that she hadn’t even noticed him approaching. It made her jump just a little. No one seemed to notice.

  “Everything is wonderful,” Steve responded. Claire just nodded.

  “Well, I’m the owner here and if you need anything at all, please don’t hesitate to ask.” He started walking toward the next table, when Claire stopped him.

  “Actually, I have a few questions, if you don’t mind,” she called after him.

  He turned around and came back to their table. “Sure, no problem. What can I help you with?”

  “We just love your place,” Claire told him. “My parents came here many times while I was growing up and I always wanted to see it. This is our first time here.”

  “I’m glad you like it. Welcome. My name is Sam, by the way.”

  “Hi Sam, I’m Steve and this is my wife, Claire.” Steve gestured toward Claire and they both looked her way. She smiled.

  “How long have you owned the Inn?” Claire asked him.

  “Only about a year now,” he told her.

  “You are so young. What made you buy this place?”

  Steve gave her the ‘you are kind of being nosey’ look. She ignored him.

  “Well, I guess I am young. I’m just 22. I bought this place because I’ve always been fascinated by it.” Then he hesitated just a moment, contemplating what he was going to say next. “Many years ago, long before I was born, my grandparents were staying here and just disappeared one day. It’s been kind of an obsession for me ever since I was young enough to understand what all that meant.” He smiled, a little embarrassed by talking about his personal life with complete strangers. “Anyway, I don’t want to monopolize your dinner with your beautiful wife,” he said, speaking directly to Steve. “You folks have a good evening.” He left without another word.

  “He was really nice.” Claire told Steve.

  “Yes he was. You were kind of nosey,” he half chided her.

  “Maybe I was, but I was interested in the Inn. He didn’t seem to mind. Weird about his grandparents though. Don’t you think? I don’t remember ever hearing about that,” she told him.

  “Yeah, that is weird. I wonder if they ever found out what happened? He didn’t seem to want to go into detail. So, I thought we shouldn’t ask,” Steve answered.

  “I was thinking the same thing. I know I can be nosey, but it really isn’t any of our business,” Claire replied, and picked up one of the menus. “What looks good for dessert?”

  Sam was always kind of a question mark to pretty much everyone that knew him. He spent his youth mostly staying at home. He was painfully shy and never made friends easily at all. The two boys that he actually hung out with from time to time were brothers that lived right next door. Even with his withdrawn personality it was almost impossible to not make friends when they were right there, looking for someone to play with. Even then, he would often hide out in his room to avoid going places with them. The boys liked to ride their bikes to the local ice cream shop almost daily during the summer, but Sam just couldn’t bring himself to get that adventurous. So, he always made up some excuse to not go. Even his mother would urge him to join in, but it didn’t work. He was terrified of having to talk to people. His brother was a couple of years younger, and he had tons of friends. He never had time for Sam and his strange ways.

  Luckily for Sam, he gradually grew out of his shyness. By the time he was 20 years old, he had a girlfriend and a full-time job.

  Because of his withdrawn personality, Sam had a lot of time on his hands. While growing up he spent hours and hours researching his grandparents’ disappearance from the Miranda Inn. They disappeared almost 30 years before he was born.

  Sam had always been intrigued by his grandparents’ disappearance, which is why he bought the Miranda Inn when it came up for sale. He was hoping there would be some info there regarding his grandparents, but could never find anything.

  Sam’s family was full of old money. They had gotten into real estate so many years ago, no one even remembered when. Sam grew up wealthy, but never knew it. His parents were down to earth people that just wanted to live the simple life. They owned a modest three bedroom home and raised their boys in an average neighborhood. Even the neighbors had no idea that his family was so well off.

  His parents made him and his brother work for the things they wanted while growing up. They did not want their sons to grow up spoiled and they did a fine job making that happen. The boys mowed lawns, raked leaves, cleaned out garages, you name it, just to have a bit of spending money.

  All of this is why the boys were shocked to learn of a multi million dollar inheritance when their parents were killed in a car accident.

  When the money came in, the brothers promptly quit their jobs, purchased the Miranda Inn, and moved in. They felt it was the only way to finally find the pieces to the puzzle of their grandparents’ disappearance from the Inn, all those years ago.

  Sam ran the place, while Heath helped out some. Heath didn’t really want to be involved in the day to day running of the Inn. Sam was fine with that, and everything ran smoothly during their first year.

  Until that fateful weekend when the Jamisons came to stay.

  Chapter 9

  Saturday went by in a blur. The weather had cleared up and they were able to get out and go for walks on the beach, feeding birds, and people watching. They even did a little bit of shopping. But, they lived on Wildflower Island, so buying souvenirs was really not something they were interested in doing. It was just more junk that they didn't need. Claire hated dust collectors. She was a ‘less is more’ type of person. Clutter drove her crazy. Still, they bought some small gifts for their children and a ‘thank you’ gift for Sissy.

  As they walked back up the sidewalk leading to the Miranda Inn, they passed a man sitting on a bench, staring out into the ocean and feeding the seagulls wit
h a few pieces of bread he had.

  “Hi folks. Enjoying yer day?” he asked as they walked by.

  “Um, yes…” Claire responded. Her voice trailing off as she looked over at the man.

  He appeared to be in his mid-forties, and disheveled, but that wasn’t the thing that caught their attention. He was dressed like a pirate, eyepatch and all. And he appeared to be drunk. There was a bottle of whiskey, mostly empty, sitting on the bench next to him, as confirmation of his condition.

  “Storms abrewin’,” the man muttered out. “Watch yer backs. Storms can have dire consequences around here.”

  They just nodded and kept walking, without slowing down their pace at all.

  “Steve,” Claire whispered when they were out of earshot, “did you see that guy?”

  “Yeah, how could I miss him? I wonder if he is in costume for some sort of appearance, or is just some crazy old man that hangs out at the beach?”

  “My guess is it’s the latter,” Claire responded.

  The pirate forgotten, they ate in the café at the hotel a couple more times and saw Heath there each time. Claire was convinced that he was watching them, but had no idea why he would be. He was staring at them again that evening at dinner.

  “What is up with that guy?" Claire said to Steve. “He is really starting to bug me. Maybe you should go have a talk with him."

  Steve’s eyes opened wide, involuntarily. “What? You've got to be kidding me. I'm not going to go get into a fight with somebody just because you don't like that he's looking your way. Maybe he just thinks you are a beautiful woman. I know I do.” Steve smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

  “Nice try. You said that last time. No, I just mean that you should ask him to stop staring at us. He's really bothering me. It doesn't bother you?"

  "No, not really.” Steve told her. "And I'm sorry, but I'm just not going to do that." Steve grimaced just a little bit, waiting for the inevitable fight that was just about to happen.

  “Fine, whatever.” Claire spoke through clenched teeth, showing great restraint as far as she was concerned.

  Steve wasn’t going to back down though, no matter how angry she got at him. He felt it was ridiculous to risk getting into an altercation with someone just because he looked their way a few too many times.

  "Why don't you just ignore him?" Steve offered as a solution.

  “All right. I’ll let it go. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this.” Steve winced at the glare he received.

  Their valet, Tim, walked through the cafe then and waved at them. Claire and Steve both waved back.

  “He is a really nice young man,” Claire told Steve, trying to get past their little disagreement. “We have to remember to leave him a nice tip when we check out.”

  “Come on, let’s go walk on the beach,” Steve suggested. Claire agreed readily.

  As they walked hand in hand along the water’s edge, the sun was just about to set. It was spectacular, all in shades of orange and red, and they stopped for a few minutes to watch the sun dip down below the horizon.

  “I’ll never get tired of the beautiful sunsets on this island,” Claire remarked.

  Continuing along, the two of them talked about their children, Dustin and Hope, though they had made a vow not to. They really couldn't help themselves. The kids were a huge part of their lives. They also talked about their future and other things of no real importance. They just loved being together. It didn't matter to them what their topics of conversation were.

  A little bit after the sun went down, they could hear music playing from the bar at the Inn. Out of nowhere, Steve twirled Claire right there on the beach and they began dancing cheek to cheek. They seemed to be the only two out in the sand at that moment and it was very romantic. Dancing in the moonlight near the water made them both very happy.

  After another hour of dancing and walking on the beach, and the two of them filling the air with laughter, it started getting a little chilly. When a huge a gust of wind came out of nowhere and sprayed freezing cold water on them, they couldn't help but laugh even more. They were having such a great time that nothing could get them down. As they stood on the beach, thinking that it was probably time to go in, several huge, black, stormy clouds began rolling in and their nice evening on the beach suddenly turned ugly. They ran hand in hand laughing all the way back up to the Inn.

  As the Jamisons walked through the front doors, they saw that there were quite a few of the Inn’s guests milling around in the lobby. They could hear excited chatter filling the room.

  “What’s going on?” Claire asked one of the women standing closest to the door.

  The woman said nothing, but pointed toward Sam, who was standing on the reservation counter, in an attempt to get everyone’s attention. It worked.

  Chapter 10

  On the Jamisons last night at the Miranda Inn, all of the guests were notified by the hotel staff that a huge storm was on the way, and would be arriving shortly. They had already experienced high winds and rain, but the worst of it was still coming.

  As the Inn’s visitors were milling around in the lobby, trying to figure out what to do, many of them said they were going to head home early, to beat most of the storm, but the owner had bad news for them about those plans.

  “Folks, please!” Sam had to yell over the storm and the voices of everyone in the lobby.

  It grew quiet, though the storm outside was thrashing against the windows and doors, as if trying desperately to get inside.

  “Everyone, please listen. I have spoken with the sheriff’s office and they are asking that everyone stays put here. This is going to be a huge storm, almost hurricane like, and it will be very dangerous to be out driving in it.”

  “We don’t get hurricanes in California,” a voice from the crowd yelled. Sam couldn’t see where it came from.

  “I don’t know what to tell you. That’s what the sheriff’s office told me,” Sam responded. The irritation in his voice shone through.

  Whispers began around the room as the front lobby door flew open with such force from the wind that it swung around and slammed into the wall. Sam braced himself for the inevitable crashing of glass. He let out a deep breath when that didn’t happen. Everyone turned to see Tim, the valet, walk in. He was soaked from head to toe and was woefully underdressed for the weather.

  “Sam!” Tim yelled as he fought with the door. Steve ran over and together they closed it against the driving wind and rain. “No one is going anywhere today. There are two huge trees down across the road that goes out of here.”

  “You can’t keep us here. We want to go home!” A plump woman in her mid seventies yelled. Sam could see that she was probably a beautiful woman in her younger days. She was still stunning, even in her old age.

  “Ma’am, no one is trying to keep you here against your will.” Sam fought the urge to roll his eyes in her direction. “You just heard Tim say that there are trees blocking the road. You will all just have to stay here until the storm passes and they can get the trees removed.”

  “Well that’s unacceptable. You need to figure out a way to get us out of here. There must be another way out.” Clearly this was a woman that was used to getting her way.

  “There is no other way out. That is the only road that leads to the Inn. I suppose you could walk out. I can’t stop you.”

  The look on Sam’s face said ‘I dare you, go ahead and walk out of here.’ And he half hoped that she would do just that. She was already getting on his nerves and he didn’t want to have to deal with her for another day or two, until the storm passed by them.

  At that moment, the lights went out all around them. They found themselves standing in almost pitch black darkness, save for a bit of moonlight that came in through the front windows.

  “Go get some candles.” Several of the hotel employees scrambled the second the words came out of Sam’s mouth. In the meantime, he maneuvered his way back over and once again climbed up on the reception desk
.

  Sam put his hands up in a calming gesture. “Everyone just stay where you are until we get some candles lit and you all can see where you are going,” Sam ordered. “Tim, please go start a fire.”

  Thankfully, everyone did as they were told. No one wanted to start bumping into complete strangers in the dark. Steve held tight to Claire’s hand. She was shivering and he wrapped his arms around her as he tried to calm her. Within five minutes, the lobby fireplace was blazing and a dozen candles were lit. Though they didn’t give off a lot of light, it was enough.

  As Sam climbed down from the counter of the reception desk, he again spoke to the crowd. “Okay everyone, please go to your rooms and stay there. We will keep you informed of any updates as quickly as possible.”

  The crowd dispersed. Tim put a box of flashlights up on the counter and several people took one on the way back to their rooms.

  Three minutes later, and safe inside their own room, Steve immediately started a fire. Claire held up the flashlight for him to work by. At least they would have light and heat from the fireplace. Once the fire was blazing, Claire decided to go back down to the lobby to see if there were any updates. It had only been a few minutes, but Claire was not one to sit around waiting for news.

  When she entered the lobby again, she heard Sam yelling at one of his employees about boarding up the windows. She stood there patiently and waited. As soon as he was done with the young man, Claire jumped in front of him as he was quickly moving on to his next task. He almost ran her over.

  “Excuse me,” Claire said, as she grabbed Sam’s arm to keep from being knocked down. She stumbled a bit.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” he asked, as he steadied her.

  “Yes, I’m fine. It’s my fault that I was in the way. Sam, do you have a minute? I just want to find out if there are any updates,” she asked him.

  Sam sounded exasperated with her. “Not right now. What’s it been, like five minutes since my last announcement?” That time Sam did roll his eyes and he didn’t care if she saw him or not.