Meet Me On The Midway

CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE (#litres_trial_promo)

EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)

Extract (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#uad0c0979-609f-5530-9a3c-8835618016cc)

THIS SHOULD HAVE been my big day. Evie Hamilton wore a white linen dress and high-heeled sandals as she stood on the long sunny dock in the Starlight Point Marina. The project she’d dreamed up for her family’s amusement park last summer and worked on all winter was scheduled to open today. The morning weather was perfect. Reporters lined a parallel dock, and a camera crew from the local news station waited. Starlight Point would be on the cover of the July issue of the Roller Coaster Times.

“You look like an advertisement for summer in that gorgeous dress,” Evie’s sister, June, said. “Why don’t you toss your plain navy blue skirts and dress like this all the time? It’s more dramatic.”

“The role of the dramatic sister is already taken,” Evie said. “And nothing is less practical than white linen. If it rains, I’m going to look like a naked waif.”

“You might get a good offer,” June said. She stood next to Evie and smiled and waved at the reporters.

Evie shook her head. “The only offer I want right now is the offer of a signature on our occupancy permit from the local fire inspector.”

“It’ll work out,” her sister advised her. “Cut the ribbon and pretend the whole project is on time and boaters will be eating seafood at the restaurant for dinner.”

“But they won’t,” Evie whispered. “The new fire inspector refused to sign our permit yesterday even though Jack met with him and pled our case.”

“Should have gone yourself,” June said. “You’re much prettier than our brother.”

“I couldn’t. I was meeting with our construction super to see if there was a chance of fixing the supposed violations and widening the fire lane around the restaurant overnight.”

June gave her sister a hug. The sun shone brightly on Starlight Point and happy screams from the roller coasters drifted across the newly renovated marina. Gleaming white powerboats tugged at their dock lines in the gentle breeze and the blue water of the bay sparkled.

New docks for seasonal and transient boaters stretched across the marina, but the gas lines running under the docks were currently dry. Because Starlight Point was right on Lake Huron, there was a new terminal for the ferry that made fifteen round trips a day to downtown Bayside. Just off the docks, a new restaurant and gift shop blended old-fashioned amusement park décor with modern conveniences. A shower house and comfort station for boaters completed the project.

It was all just as Evie imagined it would be. She’d convinced her brother and sister to go along with the plan based on her careful calculations of return on investment. Boaters would dock, fuel up, eat at the restaurant and stay overnight. While they were there, they would buy tickets to Starlight Point and scatter their cash over the amusement park with food and merchandise purchases. It was all part of Evie’s plan to bump up revenues by improving accommodations.

But it wasn’t going to return a dime of investment if they couldn’t open in time for the summer boating season.

“It’s wonderful,” June said.

Evie loved her sister’s optimism, but there was no doubt who was the practical member of the family. “There’s no fuel in the gas docks, the restaurant can’t open for business, and even the shower house for boaters has a red sign taped to the window.”

June shrugged. “Fake it. The reporters don’t have to know the showers are dry and the ovens are cold. Everything looks perfect.”

“I wish Inspector Gotcha would show up. I might take a swipe at him with my ribbon-cutting scissors.” She brandished the oversize ceremonial scissors just for effect.

June laughed. “He’s not going to show his face. He’s probably two hundred years old and loves telling people to get off his lawn. I’m sure his lawn has a sprinkler system and a fire lane precisely twelve feet wide all around it.”

Evie sighed. “I wish the previous fire inspector hadn’t retired halfway through this project.”

Jack Hamilton, suit coat flapping around his six-foot-four body, power walked up to them and put an arm around Evie and June. “How are my two favorite sisters?”

“We’re your only sisters,” Evie said. Although she and June were both tall, their brother cast a shadow over them in the late-morning sun.

“You’d still be my favorites if I had ten sisters.”

Evie smiled. With hard work, she and her siblings had turned around a struggling amusement park and were finally hoping to see profits this year. And they would have if she hadn’t sunk all their money into her big plans.

“Before the ceremony starts and we’re swamped with adoring fans,” June said, “I want to tell you both something.”

“You’re not flaking out and heading back to Broadway are you?” Jack asked.

“My Broadway days are over. You need me here to run all the live entertainment. Besides, what I want to tell you both is—”

“You’re pregnant,” Evie guessed.

“Yes!” June said, hugging her sister.

Jack shook his head and stretched long arms around his sisters. “I have no idea how you already knew that,” he said in Evie’s ear.

She shrugged. “I’m observant. When are you due?”

“January. It’s early yet, but I had to tell you.”

Emotion rushed through Evie like a roller coaster cresting a hill. Jack’s wife, Augusta, was due to deliver a daughter later this summer, and now June and Mel would soon have a baby to add to their family.

What did Evie have? Dozens of guests who’d shown up to witness the grand opening of the Starlight Point Marina.

She took a deep breath. “Showtime,” she said. It’s going to be all show and no substance today.

Evie walked to the end of the floating dock where a red ribbon stretched across three piers. Guests lined up on a parallel dock so they could have a good view, and her speech would easily carry across the thirty feet of water between them.

“Welcome to the grand opening of the Starlight Point Marina,” she said. Quiet murmurs turned to applause and she smiled, flanked by her brother and sister.

“I’m Evie Hamilton, and it’s my pleasure to share ownership of Starlight Point with my brother, Jack, and my sister, June Preston. The past several years have been amazing for our family-owned park, and we couldn’t have done it without the support of the local community. Today we cut the ribbon on phase one of our planned capital improvement projects. When the marina project is totally complete, we will begin a massive renovation of the Lake Breeze Hotel. I won’t tease you with details about that today, but I hope you’ll come back this summer to a press conference where I’ll be glad to share our plans.”

If they are approved by Inspector Gotcha.

A cloud passed over the sun and temporarily shadowed the crowded docks. Evie glanced up. A line of rain clouds on the lake’s horizon were far enough away. She and her siblings would have at least an hour to share refreshments and tours with the local media and invited guests before the rain hit.

Evie smiled brightly and brandished the pair of silver scissors for the waiting cameras. “The Starlight Point Marina is officially open!”

Except it wasn’t...not until the fire inspector synchronized all his smoke detectors. She pictured an old man with a clipboard, a frown and a fire extinguisher hooked to his belt. Whatever his problem was, she could not let him stand in the way of the first project she’d taken on at Starlight Point.