Honeymoon at the Lovelock Inn (Valentine Key Book 4), page 1
Honeymoon at the Lovelock Inn
Katie Prescott
Scott Street & Second Publishing
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
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Newsletter
About this book
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
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Epilogue
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About this book
Honeymoon at the Lovelock Inn, Valentine Key, Book 4
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.
Colleen is starting to doubt her ability to make a success of Buy The Book. When her big idea to put thoughtful book genre displays in the picture windows of her business runs afoul of the Valentine Key town council, she’s unsure if this friendly Seven Sisters challenge is going to work out for her. What will she do if the town council shuts her down?
Prologue
Lily Lovelock took a deep breath of fresh morning air and gazed out across her back patio with appreciation. She watched the amazing ocean view, just as the sunrise lit up the sky.
While she loved coming out to see her gardens at any time of the day, mornings, especially early mornings, were truly her favorite.
She walked over and sat down in her favorite chair and sighed in pure contentment. Settling back into the cushions, she took a restful moment to think about how well things were going. All of her nieces were settling very well into life on Valentine Key. While Darby had settled in a long time ago, because she’d lived here for more than twenty years, Lily sensed a renewed spirit in not only Darby, but her whole family and that was so nice to see.
Victoria was a treasure every single day. What she had been able to accomplish so far was nothing short of miraculous. Not only was she working hard to help Lily with the renovation of the Lovelock Inn, she helped everyone. It was as if she took her role as the eldest of Horatio’s daughters very seriously, doing her best to be an inspiration and guide to all the rest of them.
Mari Roselli, the surprise daughter and the youngest of the seven amazing women, was newly married and had a baby on the way. She was certainly a strong contender for the most dramatically changed life award.
Not for the first time, she wondered what Horatio would think seeing them all here together. Not the cold, distant businessman he’d become, but the caring older brother who had helped her so much when she needed him the most. The brother who had been so in love with his first wife, Isabella, and their sweet daughter, Victoria.
That was the man Lily chose to remember.
Yes, the seven girls were settling in beautifully… Well, except maybe Colleen.
Though Lily’s ultra-confident niece—the eldest of the three girls from Horatio’s second marriage—met every challenge head on, lately, she seemed…off. Lily couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Sure, there was the stress of planning her upcoming wedding. Lily well understood that! But she couldn’t quell the niggling suspicion that there was something more going on with her.
Taking a soothing sip of her steaming tea, Lily pondered that. She would just have to keep her eyes open for an opportunity to help Colleen with whatever was troubling her.
Chapter One
Valentine Key Public Library
Colleen listened to the others at the Seven Sisters Council meeting talk as she played with the folded note in her hands. Should she tell her sisters about it? She wasn’t sure. Maybe. Maybe not. In the meantime, Darby was filling them in on the surprise pet in her life, thanks to two of her four daughters.
“I’ve got to hand it to them,” Darby said. “I’m impressed they were able to keep Mr. Mutt happy and hidden for so long. Of course, that doesn’t say a lot about me and Nate as parents that we didn’t notice we’d acquired a family pet.”
Darby didn’t even seem to mind that the other members of the Seven Sisters Council gathered around the conference table were getting a good laugh at her expense. She was laughing, too.
All in all, Colleen thought this was the least dramatic monthly meeting they’d had to date. Nervously, she flipped the folded note over a couple more times in her fingers then shoved it back into her purse. To share or not to share—that was the question. She didn’t have an answer yet.
She had shared a knowing look with Mari, their youngest sibling, when Victoria, the oldest of the Lovelock girls, had come in looking all dreamy-eyed. She suspected there had been developments of the elevated-relationship kind on the Miles front. Mari smiled in a way that said she thought the same thing. Mari had a hand resting low on her belly, which Colleen thought was sweet. She would be a great mom.
Naturally, that made her think of her own mother, Kelly Lovelock Abbott. Colleen and her two full sisters, Darby and Evaline, loved the woman—she’d birthed and raised them, after all—but calling her high maintenance could sometimes be an understatement.
And that was why Colleen, who had been told she was usually the most put-together of all the Lovelock sisters, felt somewhat frazzled. No surprise there. She was the fraying rope in the wedding-planning tug-of-war her mother had going on with Alex’s mother.
Kelly and Patricia were vying for the top award of which mother would be most capable of driving Colleen to scream at the top of her lungs and beg to be released from wedding planning hell. They were evenly matched, with Kelly ahead one moment and Patricia ahead the next. It was a minute-by-minute slugfest, making Colleen want to cancel the whole wedding altogether.
But she couldn’t. She’d promised Alex that she would get along with their respective matriarchs and just get through it. She would endure.
As Darby finished up her pet story, Colleen thought she looked marvelous. Gone was the stressed-out woman she’d become used to seeing over the past couple of months. Of all the sisters who’d accepted their late father’s final challenge to run a business in Valentine Key for one year, Darby might just have it the worst.
Not only was she a mother of four, but she and her husband had their hands full running their convenience store, Heart’s Desire. Darby’s husband also moonlighted as a tax accountant to bring in extra money and was on the town council of Valentine Key. That meant poor Darby had more than her fair share on her plate, and adding Racing Hearts Rentals to her schedule had ramped up the pressure, including in her marriage.
Colleen was glad that everything seemed to have worked out between Darby and Nate after his recent trip to the hospital in the back of an ambulance. It was funny how a health scare could remind one to pay attention to what really mattered: the people they loved.
Evaline looked suntanned and healthy in a way that made Colleen envious that she didn’t get to spend more time outside. Evaline appeared to be finding her groove with Follow Your Heart Tours.
Colleen was glad for her youngest full sister. She’d been surprised when Evaline dumped her life and eagerly made her way to this new life. Evaline wasn’t someone who made big, unexpected changes in her life at the drop of a hat, or the reading of a last will and testament.
Still, they’d all pretty much dropped everything to come here and live on Valentine Key, for one reason or another. She guessed each Lovelock sister had her own reasons, public and private.
Whatever those reasons were, Colleen was enjoying not only getting to know all of her half-sisters better, but spending more quality time with Darby and Evaline. As they’d each left home, they’d become caught up in their adult lives, as one did. She welcomed the chance to appreciate the wonderful women they’d become.
Jessica had brought them each a pretty mini arrangement fr om Hearts And Flowers, while Jacklyn opened the meeting by uncovering a plate of treats from The Sweet Heart Bakery with dramatic flair. They’d fallen on it like starving hyenas.
“Well, I guess we should get down to business,” Victoria said, informally calling the monthly gathering of the Seven Sisters Council to order as she casually wiped a few cookie crumbs from the corner of her mouth. “Anyone have news to share? Problems to solve? Tears to cry?”
Colleen glanced from face to face before saying, “I guess I do.”
Victoria lifted her brows. “Do tell. We’re listening, caller.”
“Ha. Funny.”
“I like to think so.” Victoria shifted her grin into a mock-solemn expression. “What’s up, Colleen? You look serious.”
Colleen took her purse from where it was slung over the back of her chair. She reached in and pulled out the folded note she’d shoved inside moments ago and placed it carefully on the table in front of her.
“This was slipped under my door at Buy The Book. I think it’s a threat.”
“A threat?” Darby sat up taller in her seat. “What kind of threat?” She had that ferocious mama bear look in her eyes. Colleen appreciated it being rendered on her behalf.
“Read it out loud,” Victoria said.
Colleen cleared her throat, picked up the note, unfolded it and read, “You should reconsider all of the untoward decisions you are making.”
She put the note down and gazed from face to face.
“Is that it?” Darby asked, her spine relaxing back into her chair.
“Yep.” At Darby’s deflated tone, Colleen decided that perhaps this note didn’t quite reach the level of the word “threat.” Maybe she should calm down.
“Untoward? What does that even mean?” Mari asked.
“It means troublesome,” Colleen said. “I looked it up.”
“What ‘troublesome’ decision did you make?” Jessica asked, curling her fingers in exaggerated air quotes.
Colleen pushed out a long sigh. “I don’t know. I think maybe moving to Valentine Key, for starters.”
“If that’s true, then we’re all in the same boat, having made the same troublesome decision.” Jessica shook her head. “I don’t think I’m ready to believe that yet.”
“What is clear to me is that I’ve made someone unhappy. I just don’t know who. Since they didn’t sign their note, I don’t know how I can fix what’s broken when I don’t even know what the problem is.
“But if any of you hear anything while you’re out and about in town, please let me know. I’m not saying I’m going to change my wicked ways or anything but at least I’ll know which direction the knife will be coming from.”
“That’s dark and disturbing,” Evaline said, adding under her breath, “Drama, drama, drama.”
Colleen rolled her eyes at her youngest full sister. “In the meantime, the only thing I have left to worry about is the head of the town council getting all mad because he doesn’t like the recent mystery genre display that I put in the front windows at Buy The Book, if you can even believe it.”
Jessica sat up straight in her chair. “I love that new display in your front window! I think it’s awesome. It totally looks like a mystery novel setting. I was really glad to see you use the space for something worthy.”
“Thank you. But that makes only two of us. And since I’m the one in charge there, I’ve made the command decision that I’m not taking it down. Well, unless they threaten to shut down my business or something. They can’t do that, can they?”
Everyone shrugged, as if to indicate that they didn’t know nor were they particularly bothered by the town council’s likes and dislikes. Which was basically the way Colleen felt, too, in that she was going to shrug off the criticism and try not to worry about it.
Even so, Colleen planned to have a chat with Darby’s husband, Nate. Soon. As a member of the town council, he’d be the one best placed to give her the skinny on whether she should be worried about the head of the town council. She’d pull Darby aside after the meeting and ask her about the best time to corner Nate and pick his brain.
Mari asked, “Do you think one of the town council members wrote the note that was slipped under your door?”
Colleen shook her head. “I don’t think so. Something about it seems like some rogue English teacher sent it. Besides, I’m not sure that the note is connected to the town council’s unhappiness with my front window displays. No one has specifically said a single word to me about the displays. I have overheard gossip around town from a few customers who told me that the town council’s head honcho thinks the display is too graphic.”
“Graphic?” Jessica asked, letting out a delicate snort of disbelief. “There are children’s commercials that are more graphic.”
Colleen smiled. “I don’t know about that, but I think my display is perfectly fine.”
“What does it look like?” Evaline asked. “I haven’t had a chance to check it out. Or is it the kind of thing I have to see for myself?”
Colleen shrugged. “I put a taped-off chalk outline of a body on the floor with a couple drops of red paint. I put an envelope with fake cash spilling out of it nearby on the small desk, along with an old-fashioned phone, the receiver dangling off the hook over the desk’s side and a big stuffed bird on a bookshelf with a bunch of other shadowy clues next to a stack of mystery novels for sale.”
“Was it the Maltese Falcon?” Victoria asked. “The bird, I mean.”
“No. It was a big black bird I found in the back storage room. A raven or crow, maybe? I don’t think it was meant to be the Maltese Falcon, but what do I know.”
Victoria said, “Show of hands—who wants to help Colleen by telling everyone you know or meet in the next month that her window display is awesome?”
The women laughed and they all raised their hands, bringing a successful close to another Seven Sisters Council meeting.
The unreserved support of her sisters gave Colleen an emotional boost as she gathered her things and said her goodbyes, asking Darby to wait so they could walk out together. She doubted anything she’d done in her shop’s window display would rise to the level of a secret note writer being unhappy or irritating anyone else, for that matter.
Therefore, she vowed not to let it bother her. She would carry on and refuse to change her path forward until some real person with a legitimate complaint stepped up, and ignore any gossip about people with wild imaginations who were supposedly clutching their pearls.
Chapter Two
Lily strolled out on the back patio, her fingers wrapped around a warm cup of tea. She had planned to grab a cup of orange pekoe from the breakfast buffet before Becky was finished cleaning things up, but she’d missed her opportunity.
Becky was very efficient and had everything cleaned up in the dining room lickety-split. Lily had no complaints there.
While she had to go into her own kitchen and brew herself a cup of tea, it was okay. The benefit of brewing her own was that instead of having plain breakfast buffet tea, she could make herself a cup of jasmine tea with half a teaspoon of sugar.
Jasmine tea was one of her favorites. She brought her cup close to inhale the light jasmine scent, relaxing her frame of mind as she walked.
Once she’d crossed the flagstone patio to reach her garden, she took a deep breath of morning air, feeling absolutely incredible. She had a spring in her step that she hadn’t felt for months. Life was good.
Lily knew exactly why, too. For several weeks, she had been faithfully taking her iron pills, prescribed for her by Dr. Cedric. He told her it would take about two to four weeks for her to start perking up and he was right.
Possibly, it was the power of positive thinking and even a placebo pill would make her feel better, but she hoped not. She chose to believe that the pills the doctor had given her were working. She felt tremendously better and filled with more energy day by day.
That was not to say she wasn’t still grabbing the occasional nap here and there. She liked her afternoon naps. The difference was that now when she took a brief rest after lunch, she wasn’t dragging around like a zombie directly afterward. She was springing up and feeling rested from her afternoon power naps.
