Summer at the Lovelock Inn (Valentine Key Book 3), page 1
Summer at the Lovelock Inn
Valentine Key, Book 3
Katie Prescott
Scott Street & Second Publishing
Summer at the Lovelock Inn, Valentine Key, Book 3
By Katie Prescott
Their father’s ambition made them strangers. Now his final challenge will bring the Lovelock sisters together as they discover the meaning of family on Valentine Key.
Darby, while happy about the newfound friendship with her sisters, is going through a rough patch with her husband, Nate. Why has he been so secretive lately? What is he really doing when he shuts his phone off for hours at a time? Tax season is almost over, so what is he working on?
And why can she not get through a single day at Racing Hearts Rentals without crashing into another problem? At first, their father’s challenge to run a business for a year seemed like a chance to change the direction of her life.
Now, she’s starting to believe it’s one big, fat detour to nowhere.
Copyright © 2024 Katie Prescott
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, organizations, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to a real person, living or dead is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Printed in the United States of America
Dedicated to my readers far and wide. Thank you.
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Contents
Title Page
Summer at the Lovelock Inn, Valentine Key, Book 3
Copyright
Dedication
Newsletter Sign-up
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
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About The Author
Books By This Author
Prologue
Lily Lovelock wandered through the garden in her backyard just past the edge of the flagstone patio. She didn’t have any vegetables, just flowers, but she loved this area. Many was the time she’d sat back here with a cup of hot tea—or sometimes iced tea, depending on her mood—and just gazed upon the colorful flowers she had planted.
As per Victoria’s instructions, Lily had put “update the garden off the back patio” on the grand list of things she wanted to renovate or improve at the Lovelock Inn.
However, there were so many other things that needed to be done that were very important to the overall goal of making the inn more profitable.
She might not be able to remodel this area anytime soon. And that was a shame.
Lily thought back to when she had planted this lovely garden area. Well, the original garden had only been about eight feet by eight feet with a red brick frame around it. It wasn’t elevated, but she had wanted the space defined.
The first year, she had carefully tilled the ground in her little square garden and added a premium layer of soil up to the top edge of the red bricks. She had taken several packets of petunias in a variety of colors and thrown them in a bowl. She mixed all the colors together and sprinkled them randomly throughout her little garden bed. She watered it every evening with a hose strung from the back porch.
The blooms had come up in a riot of colors with no rhyme or reason, as far as the color scheme went, but they smelled heavenly. Several of the inn’s guests had asked what the design was and stared into the flowers as if a hidden picture was going to emerge. But it wasn’t. There was no picture. There was no design.
Lily had told them all, “It’s just random. A random design.” More often than not, she was met with a curious stare, as if the concept of random colors did not compute. Some smiled and kept moving, and looked at her like she was a mad scientist or something.
What she wanted to tell those guests who didn’t understand it or were puzzled by her choice of mixing everything together was, “What’s wrong with random? Why does everything have to be in a neat little row?”
But she didn’t. She just pressed forward as if she didn’t hear them or understand their concerns.
Other guests looked quizzical and wanted to ask more questions. It was as if they thought more information was needed so they could understand a random design.
Lily wasn’t sure there was any explanation.
Luckily for her, there were several guests who simply nodded and smiled and understood completely, because what they told her was, “Those flowers look beautiful and they smell amazing.” She didn’t disagree.
The second year, Lily built another garden plot next to the patio opposite the first one in exactly the same size. Instead of random petunias, she chose different flowers and she did put some of them in neat little rows.
Lily had gone to the nursery and randomly selected flowers that made her happy along with some of Victoria’s favorite flowers. She had one row of tall sunflowers. And she did a row of snapdragons. And a row of peonies. A row of zinnias. A row of verbena. And so on and so on.
So she had one garden was random and one that was ordered. There was balance in her world, as far as garden designs went, anyway.
Over the next decade, Lily had expanded her gardens and created more flowerbeds, neatly marked with red brick in square shapes and a couple of circles and even a couple of triangles. Maybe she’d add more shapes if she was able to expand her garden as part of the renovations. A trapezoid, perhaps.
She smiled at her own ridiculous notions.
Lily made her way back to the patio, her eyes pausing on the perennials. Not very many annuals popped up through the ground. Sometimes, annuals would reseed themselves and pop back up the next year. More often than not, she had to replant them.
She didn’t mind, though. It was one of her favorite springtime chores.
While she hadn’t talked to Victoria about it yet, she hoped she would be able to keep up with her annual tradition of planting new flowers in the back garden. She knew that, practically speaking, it wasn’t really in the budget. And that was too bad.
She was interrupted by the arrival of her grandniece, Ava.
“Aunt Lily,” the young woman said, relief in her tone. “Here you are. I looked all around for you inside.”
“Sorry, dear. I came out to woolgather a bit and stare at my flowers. What do you need?”
The expression on Ava’s sweet face darkened. “I hate to do this, but Bella needs me at Heart’s Desire. We can’t reach either of our parents. Mom said she’d be busy today and might not be easy to get ahold of. Looks like she was right.”
Lily nodded. “And your Dad’s also tied up, I’d imagine.”
Ava said, “Yes. He’s very busy with the things he needs to do for the Valentine Key town council and finishing up the taxes for his clients who have extended past the original deadline. I know he has been especially busy finishing all those tax forms up. I promise, I’ll just go over and help Bella out for a little while and then I’ll be back to finish up the rest of the rooms.”
“Are all the rooms we need for the guests who are arriving today ready?” Lily asked.
Ava hedged. “Almost. I have about five left.” She looked so earnest and so serious, of course Lily told her to go. “About five” was probably more like seven, but she didn’t press.
“Go on ahead and help Bella out. But if you can’t get back in an hour or so, please call and let me know. I’ll have to get someone from the breakfast staff to finish up the rooms, all right?”
Ava looked like she had been socked in the gut. Lily knew why. She was paid a flat fee on a room-by-room basis. Ava checked in with Mavis regularly to let her know which rooms had been completed and were ready for the next guests, and she was only paid for the rooms she cleaned, not the hours she worked doing it.
If she wasn’t able to come back in time to finish the rooms, her paycheck would be smaller this week.
“I promise I’ll be back in time to finish the rest of the rooms before the new guests arrive to check in, Aunt Lily.”
“Okay, then, off you go. Tell Bella I said hi.”
“I will. Thank you, Aunt Lily. I won’t let you down. I promise.”
“I know you won’t, Ava. Also, when you get back, I’d like to discuss something else with you.”
Ava had turned to go, but stopped short. “What do you want to discus s?” She looked so stressed out and shocked that Lily put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down and let her know it wasn’t anything bad.
“Nothing to worry about, Ava. I just wanted to see if you had any interest in helping me with a special project.”
Her grandniece perked up and looked intrigued. “A special project?”
Lily nodded. “Yes. I’ll give you a hint so you can think about it today and we can chat later, all right?”
“Okay.”
“I’d like to throw a ‘better late than never’ wedding reception for Mari and Keller. I think it would be nice to celebrate their union,” Lily said. “Just because they eloped in Key West doesn’t mean we can’t get together and celebrate it with family and friends. What do you think?”
Ava practically radiated joy. “I think that’s amazing. I’d love to help.”
“One more thing—I’d also like to do it while Keller’s sister is still in town. The rumor I heard is that Juliette will only be here another two weeks, maybe less, so that’s all the time we have. I’d like to do it on the weekend, so more people can attend.”
“I agree. The more the merrier.”
Lily smiled ruefully. “Of course, I’ve got to do it on a shoestring budget, as always.”
Ava said, “No problem. I don’t even know how plan anything with more than a shoestring budget.”
“Good. Thank you. We’ll talk in more detail this afternoon.”
Ava lit up. “Excellent! I’m excited to be the primary party planner. Say that three times real fast.” She grinned and then tapped the side of her head with her forefinger. “I’ve already got some ideas, but I’ll think of more. I can’t wait to meet up later to talk about it.”
Lily smiled. “Good. I can’t wait, either.”
Ava hugged her once and then dashed away, headed through the inn and on to Heart’s Desire to solve an immediate problem there.
Lily tried to be understanding and give Ava as much time as she could to field emergencies for Heart’s Desire. She knew that, as Darby’s eldest, she tried to help out while her mother was trying to make a success of her new business, Racing Hearts Rentals. That girl was spreading herself thin, though, between housekeeping at the Lovelock Inn, working at her family’s convenience store and taking night school classes for college.
Even so, Lily had her own business to run. There were strict times for when people had to check in at the Lovelock Inn. It wasn’t fair to her guests if their rooms weren’t ready when they arrived. It hadn’t happened yet, but it had been close more than a few times.
She had been hesitant about adding to Ava’s load with the party for Mari and Keller, but needed the help and knew it was the kind of thing the young woman would love to be part of. She was glad Ava seemed so excited about it.
Lily wondered if she should talk to Darby about this issue with Ava having to be the daily emergency contact for Heart’s Desire.
All of her nieces had been working at their respective businesses over the past few months, but Darby seemed to be the one having the most trouble with the competition. Of course, she was the only one who was trying to add managing a second business into the incredibly busy life she lived as a mother of four.
With Darby and Nate already responsible for Heart’s Desire, Lily thought running Racing Hearts Rentals seemed like quite a lot to add in. While they had engaged their four girls to help more at the store and around the house, they could only do so much.
It wasn’t fair for Ava and Bella, the two older girls, to be shouldering so much responsibility, especially Ava, who had another job and went to school, too.
This was always the point at which Lily talked herself out of saying anything to Darby. The whole family was under a lot of pressure. She certainly didn’t want to add any fuel to an already gasoline-soaked situation.
Perhaps she would talk to Nate. Maybe he didn’t understand the situation. Was Darby shielding him from what was going on? Lily didn’t think so. That didn’t sound like the Darby she knew.
Lily would wait another couple of weeks before making an effort to talk to either Nate or Darby, or maybe both of them. She doubted Ava would ever complain to them about what she was going through. Someone had to speak up for the girl.
That decided, Lily pushed any and all problems out of her mind for the time being. She gazed across her beautiful garden, again smiling at the glorious colors she’d created.
Somehow, she’d find a way to get this project higher on Victoria’s renovation to-do list.
∞∞∞
Victoria was on her way into the Lovelock Inn just as Ava Tyler was on her way out the front door. Her niece gave Victoria a quick finger wave as they passed each other. She looked like she was in a tremendous hurry, so Victoria didn’t try to slow her down.
Over her shoulder, the younger woman called out, “Aunt Lily is on the back patio looking at her garden, if that’s who you’re looking for.”
Victoria shouted, “Thanks,” as Ava kept moving. She quickly leapt into her small car, started it up and away she went. Victoria guessed she was likely headed to Heart’s Desire to help out her mother.
It wasn’t a secret that Darby was having some issues trying to keep her old business running while starting up a new one.
She made her way to the back of the Lovelock Inn, waving at her aunt’s right-hand woman, Mavis, on her way past the reception desk. Mavis was helping a guest, and nodded at Victoria as she walked by.
Victoria found Aunt Lily exactly where Ava said she’d be, standing on the back patio, gazing out at the lovely gardens she’d created years ago.
She especially liked the one that had all of her sisters’ favorite flowers in it. Likely, dahlias would join the beautiful array, if Aunt Lily had her way. Mari’s favorite flower would need to be added to that special garden bed.
Victoria had heard all about the quilt and towel set Mari had received from Aunt Lily with her favorite dahlia embroidered on them. Mari had been over the moon about the quilt, telling Victoria she loved it so much she practically teared up every time she saw it.
“That’s because you’re pregnant,” Victoria reminded her. Mari would smile and protectively rub her still-flat belly.
It reminded Victoria of the joy she’d felt when she carried Angelica, though that was more than twenty-five years ago. She couldn’t wait until Mari had her baby and gave her a new niece or nephew to love on.
“Aunt Lily,” Victoria said as she approached.
“Aren’t the flowers lovely?” her aunt asked, sounding like she was calm, cool and collected, as she often did when strolling through the gardens and gazing out at her flowers.
“Yes, they are,” Victoria agreed, falling into step beside the older woman.
“I know you’re tired of changing the renovation to-do list, but I’m thinking about moving the garden up a few notches. What do you think?”
“First off, I’ll never be tired of changing the renovation to-do list. And second of all, I agree that if you love something as much as you clearly love these gardens, then they absolutely need to move up on the list. We’ll find a way to make it work, okay?”
Aunt Lily tore her gaze away from the gardens to smile at her. “Thank you, Victoria.”
She nodded. “I just saw Ava flying out the front door. She’s headed to Heart’s Desire, I guess.”
“You’ve guessed right.” Aunt Lily sounded resigned to the idea that she had to share poor Ava’s time with another business.
“Ava always seems like she’s busy. I’ve heard here and there that she is the primary on-call emergency solver at Heart’s Desire when they can’t reach Nate or Darby.”
“That’s true.” Aunt Lily didn’t say anything else, which didn’t surprise Victoria. She wasn’t prone to gossip about members of the family, especially if they were having trouble of any kind. It was very likely she had much more to say on the subject. The trick was getting her to open up.
“Is there anything I can do?” Victoria prompted. She wanted to help if she could.
