Love In Catalina Cove

“Hey, wait a minute, Vash. I’m still here.”

Vashti smiled, remembering how her childhood friend had stuck with her through thick and thin. “Yes, you’re still there, which makes me think you need your head examined for not moving away when you could have.”

“I love Catalina Cove. It’s my home and need I remind you that for eighteen years it was yours, too.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Look, I know why you feel that way, Vash, but are you going to let that one incident make you have ill feelings about the town forever?”

“It was more than an incident, Bryce, and you know it.” For Vashti having a baby out of wedlock at sixteen had been a lot more than an incident. For her it had been a life changer. She had discovered who her real friends were during that time. Even now she would occasionally wonder how different things might have been had her child lived instead of died at birth.

“Sorry, bad choice of words,” Bryce said, with regret in her voice.

“No worries. That was sixteen years ago.” No need to tell Bryce that on occasion she allowed her mind to wander to that period of her life and often grieved for the child she’d lost. She had wanted children and Scott had promised they would start a family one day. That had been another lie.

“Tell me what I need to do to beat the zoning board on this, Bryce,” Vashti said, her mind made up.

“Unfortunately, to have any substantial input, you need to meet with the board in person. I think it will be beneficial if the developers make an appearance as well. According to their representative, they’re willing to throw in a few perks that the cove might find advantageous.”

“What kind of perks?”

“Free membership to the resort’s clubhouse for the first year, as well as free tennis lessons for the kids for a limited time. It will also bring a new employer to town, which means new jobs. Maybe if they were to get support from the townsfolk, the board would be more willing to listen.”

“What do you think are our chances?”

“To be honest, even with all that, it’s a long shot. Reid Lacroix is on the board and he still detests change. He’s still the wealthiest person in town, too, and has a lot of clout.”

“Then why waste my and the potential buyer’s time?”

“There’s a slim chance time won’t be wasted. K-Gee is on the zoning board and he always liked you in school. He’s one of the few progressive members on the board and the youngest. Maybe he’ll help sway the others.”

Vashti smiled. Yes, K-Gee had liked her but he’d liked Bryce even more and they both knew it. His real name was Kaegan Chambray. He was part of the Pointe-au-Chien Native American tribe and his family’s ties to the cove and surrounding bayou went back generations, even before the first American settlers.

Although K-Gee was two years older than Vashti and Bryce, they’d hung out together while growing up. When Vashti had returned to town after losing her baby, K-Gee would walk Vashti and Bryce home from school every day. Even though Bryce never said, Vashti suspected something had happened between Bryce and K-Gee during the time Vashti was away at that unwed home in Arkansas.

“When did K-Gee move back to Catalina Cove, Bryce?”

“Almost two years ago to help out his mom and to take over his family’s seafood supply business when his father died. His mother passed away last year. And before you ask why I didn’t tell you, Vash, you know why. You never wanted to hear any news regarding what was happening in Catalina Cove.”

No, she hadn’t, but anything having to do with K-Gee wasn’t just town news. Bryce should have known that. “I’m sorry to hear about his parents. I really am. I’m surprised he’s on the zoning board.”

For years the townsfolk of the cove had never recognized members of the Pointe-au-Chien Native American tribe who lived on the east side of the bayou. Except for when it was time to pay city taxes. With K-Gee on the zoning board that meant change was possible in Catalina Cove after all.

“I need to know what you want to do, Vash,” Bryce said, interrupting her thoughts. “The Barnes Group is giving us twenty days to finalize the deal or they will withdraw their offer.”

Vashti stood up to cross the kitchen floor and put her teacup in the kitchen sink. “Okay, I’ll think about what you said. Ten million dollars is a lot of money.”

“Yes, and just think what you could do with it.”

Vashti was thinking and she loved all the possibilities. Although she loved her job, she could stop working and spend the rest of her life traveling to all those places her aunt always wanted to visit but hadn’t, because of putting Shelby by the Sea first. Vashti wouldn’t make the same mistake.

* * *

THE NEXT MORNING, for the first time in two years, Vashti woke up feeling like she was in control of her life and could finally see a light—a bright one at that—at the end of the road. Scott was out of her life, she had a great job, but more importantly, some developer group was interested in her inn.

Her inn.

It seemed odd to think of Shelby by the Sea as hers when it had belonged to her aunt for as long as she could remember. Definitely long before Vashti was born. Her parents’ home had been a mile away, and growing up she had spent a lot of her time at Shelby, especially during her teen years when she worked as her aunt’s personal assistant. That’s when she’d fallen in love with the inn and had thought it was the best place in the world.

Until...

Vashti pushed the “until” from her mind, refusing to go there and hoping Bryce was wrong about her having to return to Catalina Cove to face off with the zoning board. There had to be another way and she intended to find it. Barely eighteen, she had needed to escape the town that had always been her safe haven because it had become a living hell for her.

An hour later Vashti had showered, dressed and was walking out her door ready to start her day at the Grand Nunes Luxury Hotel in Manhattan. But not before stopping at her favorite café on the corner to grab a blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee. Catalina Cove was considered the blueberry capital in the country, and even she couldn’t resist this small indulgence from her hometown. She would be the first to admit that although this blueberry muffin was delicious, it was not as good as the ones Bryce’s mother made and sold at their family’s restaurant.

With the bag containing her muffin in one hand and her cup of coffee in the other, Vashti caught the elevator up to the hotel’s executive floor. She couldn’t wait to get to work.

She’d heard that the big man himself, Gideon Nunes, was in town and would be meeting with several top members of the managerial and executive team, which would include her.

It was a half hour before lunch when she received a call to come to Mr. Nunes’s office. Ten minutes later she walked out of the CEO’s office stunned, in a state of shock. According to Mr. Nunes, his five hotels in the States had been sold, including this one. He’d further stated that the new owner was bringing in his own people, which meant her services were no longer needed.

In other words, she’d been fired.

CHAPTER TWO (#ue1cdafdb-e4c5-5483-b9f9-248ab2d71d79)

A week later

VASHTI GLANCED AROUND the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Although she’d never returned to Catalina Cove, she’d flown into this airport many times to attend a hotel conference or convention, or just to get away. Even though Catalina Cove was only an hour’s drive away, she’d never been tempted to take the road trip to revisit the parish where she’d been born.

Today she took the time to recall the day she’d left fourteen years ago for college. Since this was the closest airport to Catalina Cove, her flight had left from here. Her parents and Aunt Shelby had been there to see her off and the parting had been bittersweet.

To this day she often wondered if her parents had forgiven her for the embarrassment she’d caused them when she’d gotten pregnant. They had thought sending her to that home for unwed mothers would have her coming around to their way of thinking, until she’d informed them she had no intentions of giving her baby up for adoption. That had caused a huge discord in the family. It seemed the only person who’d been in her corner had been Aunt Shelby. Vashti hadn’t caved in to her parents’ demand to know the father of her child. To this day, they still didn’t know. The only person who knew her secret was Bryce, and she knew her friend would carry the information to the grave with her.

“Welcome to Nawlins. Need help with your luggage, ma’am?”

Vashti smiled at the baggage handler. “No, I’m fine. I didn’t check in any luggage.” She just had her carry-on since she intended only to stay a couple of days.

As she headed toward the car rental counter she thought how different her life had become in a week. She was still absorbing the shock of having been fired from her job. Fired. There had been five of them in all—all part of the executive team—that had been given their pink slips.

There hadn’t been any warning, not a single word around the office that Mr. Nunes had had plans to sell off any of his hotels. No one had suspected a thing. The new owner hadn’t even let them linger. They’d been escorted out the door in the time it had taken to clear her desk and grab her purse. The only good thing, if you wanted to call it a good thing, was that Mr. Nunes had been awful generous with their severance and had even offered some jobs at his other hotels if you were inclined to move out of the country. Some had jumped at the offer. She had not. So here she was, in New Orleans and about to rent a car to drive to the town she thought never to see again.

With no job and more time on her hands than she really needed or wanted, in addition to the fact that there was ten million dollars dangling in front of her face, she had returned to Catalina Cove to attend the zoning board meeting and plead her case, although the thought of doing so was a bitter pill to swallow. When she’d left the cove she’d felt she didn’t owe the town or its judgmental people anything and likewise, they didn’t owe her a thing. Now fourteen years later she was back and to her way of thinking Catalina Cove did owe her something. The right to sell her land to whomever she wanted and for them to build whatever they wanted on the land.

“Welcome to New Orleans. What kind of car would you like to rent today?”

Vashti smiled at the young college-aged woman behind the counter. “Umm, what do you have?”

“A couple of sedans, some midsize vehicles and a couple of SUVs. And if you feel like being daring, we even have a two-seater sports car.”