Sand Castle Bay

“Looks like the restaurant’s been flooded one too many times, and the last repairs must have been made with poor quality materials. When we pulled up the carpets, we found sections of rotting floorboards all over the place.”

“Blast it!” Boone muttered.

“It gets worse,” Pete disclosed direly. “We discovered mold behind some of the drywall on the side closest to the bay, where the water stayed high the longest. A lot of mold. It’s pretty pervasive.”

“You have to be kidding me,” Boone said, thoroughly frustrated. If there was extensive mold now, even as quickly as it could appear after a flooding incident, this definitely hadn’t happened overnight. Nor had those sections of floor rotted since this last hurricane blew through. These were most likely things his inspectors should have caught before he bought the property.

Exhaling a sigh, he concluded he’d just have to consider this a lesson well-learned. Next time, he’d hire an actual contractor to go over any potential real estate purchase to assure that the inspection wasn’t superficial or in the seller’s favor.

“Why didn’t you call me on my cell?” he asked Pete when he had his temper under control. “I could have gotten Tommy over there today to take a look.”

“I tried, but I guess the service is still spotty,” Pete responded. “One of the cell towers blew down or something. I did get through once and tried to leave a message, but it cut me off before I could explain what was going on.”

Boone pulled his cell phone from his pocket and noted the call logged in early in the afternoon. It must have come in while he’d had the noisy chain saw going. “Sorry. I was tied up over at Castle’s.”

“I knew that, so I didn’t want to make a big deal out of something that could just as easily be handled tomorrow. I thought about calling Tommy myself, but I figured he was there with you. You’d told me you wanted him to get Cora Jane’s roof fixed. I know how you feel about making that a priority.”

“It’s okay, Pete. None of this is your fault. I’ll call Tommy now. We’ll both come by first thing in the morning so he can assess the damage and give me a timetable for the repairs.”

“You talking daylight?”

“Or thereabouts,” Boone confirmed.

“You want me there?”

“No, give yourself a break,” he told the night owl. “I’ll handle this one. How about meeting me there around nine and we’ll come up with an action plan. Looks like I’ll need you to stick around here longer than we originally talked about. Is there anything you need to get back to right away in Norfolk or Charlotte?”

“No, both restaurants are good,” Pete assured him. “You have excellent management teams in place.”

Boone chuckled. “You pretty much have to say that. You hired most of them.”

“Doesn’t make me biased, though. If they screw up, that’s on me, too.” He hesitated, then said, “I’ve been thinking we could probably start looking for that fourth location you talked about once things around here settle down.”

“You getting bored, Pete?”

“Maybe just a little,” he acknowledged. “You know I love doing the start-ups.”

“Well, we’ll get serious about the next one soon,” Boone assured him. “Start compiling the market research for me, okay?”

“Will do,” Pete said eagerly. “In the meantime, should I cancel the ads announcing the reopening for this weekend?”

“We’ll decide that after I’ve been through the place with Tommy. Maybe it’s not as bad as you thought at first glance.”

“This is bad,” Pete warned him. “If that mold has spread beyond what I saw, we’re talking major renovations.”

Boone thought of the compromise Cora Jane had reached to get Castle’s reopened. “Is the kitchen operational?”

“Good to go and spotless,” Pete confirmed.

“And we know the deck is solid,” Boone said thoughtfully.

“What are you thinking?”

“That we could serve on a limited basis out there temporarily. We’re at the end of the season. Tourists will be pouring in here again by the weekend, based on what I heard from the local officials earlier today. I’d hate for the wait staff to lose out on the kind of tips they get this time of year.”

“You’d want to keep them all on, even with limited seating?”

“Dividing the tips more ways would be better than laying ’em all off, don’t you think?”

“And you’re not worried about our reputation if we can’t handle the usual crowds and can only serve a couple of specialties, rather than our full menu?”

Boone chuckled. “If anyone’s in a rush or out here to review the food, I imagine we can put a good public relations spin on keeping our kitchen open, our food selections limited but high quality, and our people working, despite being damaged by a hurricane.” He thought of Gabi. “I know just the person to draft a press release, in fact. I imagine she can make us sound like benevolent angels.”

Pete laughed. “If she can pull that off for a couple of guys like you and me, she’s a magician. Get that done and I’ll have it distributed. Might as well do a preemptive strike and generate some good buzz.”

“Now you’re getting into the spirit of this,” Boone said. “Put that press release on the list of things we need to finalize when I see you in the morning.”

Pete chuckled. “You are such a glass-half-full man,” he praised. “I don’t know how you do it. Even after Jenny, well, let’s just say it’s one of the reasons I love working for you. I know this was lousy news, yet you’ve turned it around, come up with a plan and are ready for action.”

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks,” Boone joked, thinking of how often he’d gotten by on practically nothing just to keep the first restaurant afloat in the early days. “And making sure the action really happens on schedule is why I pay you the big bucks. See you in the morning, Pete.”

As soon as he’d disconnected that call, he punched in the numbers for Gabi’s cell phone. Other than Cora Jane’s, hers was the one Castle number he’d memorized. She’d be the closest if he ever saw a need for a family member to get here in a hurry. He’d last used it just before the storm to make sure that someone was coming to get Cora Jane away from the danger zone. He’d known she’d never choose to go on her own. If she ever found out he was behind Sam Castle’s appearance on her doorstep, she’d be furious, but he was willing to take the heat to keep her safe.

Now Gabi answered, her voice sleepy. “Boone? What’s up?”

“Sorry, did I wake you?” he asked.

“No, just settling down.”

“I promise not to keep you long.” He explained about the crisis. “Any chance I could hire you to draft a press release for me on short notice? Pete’s worried people will be disappointed if we’re not operating at full capacity.”

“And you want them to see that you’re open at all just for the benefit of your employees and your customers, even though the situation isn’t optimal,” she summarized.

“Exactly. Can you do something with that?”

“Of course I can. Leave it to me. Is the fax machine at the restaurant operating? Or do you want me to email you the document?”

“Send it by email. That’ll be more efficient for distribution, I think.”

“Perfect. What time’s your meeting with Pete?”

“Nine.”

“You’ll have it well before that. And if anything about your plan changes, just give me a call and I can do a new draft on my iPad and get it right back over to you.”

“You’re an angel, Gabi.”

“Seems to me your halo’s pretty shiny, too,” she teased. “Want me to spread the word about that to anyone in particular?”