“Gordon and I will be checking out right after breakfast,” Travis told her regretfully. “We’ve had a wonderful time, Kinley. We’ll definitely be back in the future.”
“It’s been a pleasure to meet you both,” she assured him warmly. “You’d be welcome back anytime.”
She paused by the small table where the honeymooning Mayberrys were dining and exchanged some cheery small talk with them before moving on. When she turned again, Dan stood in front of her with a well-filled plate in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
She felt her smile twitch a bit, but hoped she managed to mask the reaction by greeting him brightly. “Good morning, Dan.”
“Good morning.” He nodded toward the coffee cup in her hand. “Have you eaten already?”
“No, not yet.”
“Will you join me?”
Aware of the surreptitious attention they were getting from the other diners, she couldn’t think of a gracious way to decline. “Just let me get a plate.”
Bonnie was refilling the coffee carafe when Kinley filled her plate. “Having breakfast with Dan, hmm?” Bonnie teased in a murmur. “So maybe you listened to me, after all?”
Kinley gave her sister a look, then turned with her plate to cross the room to the window-side table Dan had chosen.
Dan nodded a bit sheepishly toward the generous helpings of food on his plate. “For someone trained in the management part of the hospitality business, your sister is an excellent chef.”
Cutting into her own smaller serving, Kinley agreed. “She trained in that, too. Bonnie’s prepared for this since she was a child. She used to play hotel with her dolls and stuffed animals. She checked them in, then fed them and suggested interesting things for them to do to entertain themselves. And then she cleaned their rooms.”
Dan laughed. “Seriously?”
“She made the rooms out of cardboard boxes, decorated them and stacked them like a hotel with the front wall sliced off. She used to charge me a nickel to let my dolls spend the night in her inn. She was five then; I was eight.”
“That’s really funny.”
“Is it any wonder she was Uncle Leo’s favorite? Every time we came to visit she tagged at his heels asking a million questions about running the inn.”
“And about the ghost?”
Kinley paused only a moment in her eating, then swallowed and reached for her coffee. She really wished Dan would forget all about the ghost. “He didn’t tell her about that until she was older. He said he was concerned that hearing about a ghost would make her nervous about staying here. Bonnie thought the real reason was because he couldn’t bear to think about that night for a long time after Aunt Helen died because it made him too sad.”
“What about your brother?” Dan asked, picking up her signals and obligingly changing the subject. “Did he bring his toys to Bonnie’s hotel?”
“No, he was much too cool for that,” she quipped, grateful for the diversion. “He’s almost two years older than I am. Even as a kid he was obsessed with computers and blueprints and that sort of thing. He designed a handicap-accessible playground for our church with a desktop computer and a CAD program when he was only fourteen years old.”
“Impressive.”
“He is.”
“It was obvious during dinner last night that you and Bonnie are both crazy about your brother, even though you both seem to get frustrated with him fairly often.”
“I’d say those are both accurate assessments,” she agreed with a faint smile. Every time she thought of their brother’s devastating illness in his early twenties, her chest tightened. She wouldn’t mention that painful year to Dan now—Logan wouldn’t want her talking about it—but she didn’t try to hide the affection that underlay her frequent exasperation with her big brother.
“I enjoyed meeting with him,” Dan said, “but he’s a bit hard to get to know, I think. Very reserved.”
“That’s accurate, too. Our brother is a great guy, but he’s had some serious challenges to overcome. That’s left him a little grouchy, but Bonnie and I are working on that.”
She could tell he was curious about the challenges she’d mentioned, but he didn’t follow up, saying merely, “It’s nice that the three of you are so close.”
Once again, she had a funny suspicion that he was comparing his own family to hers and that his came up short. Though he’d spoken rather lightly about his parents’ disapproval, she’d sensed the old pain in his voice. He’d said his parents hadn’t approved of him since his teens. It had been a throwaway line, but something in his tone had made her believe there was at least some truth to his words. She had spent almost all day with him yesterday, so in some ways it felt as though she’d gotten to know him rather quickly, but of course there was still much about him she didn’t know. And she couldn’t help being increasingly curious.
“What’s on your schedule for today?” he asked, interrupting her musings.
“I have a busy day planned getting ready for the wedding rehearsal and dinner this evening. This afternoon I have a meeting with a prospective bride and then a phone conference with a supplier. And I’m expecting another counteroffer from the sellers of the house deal I was working last night.”