28. More Than You Bargained For

28

MORE THAN YOU BARGAINED FOR

" T his is exciting," Kelsey said the first Friday in October a few weeks later. "Almost like being a mystery shopper."

"A mystery shopper?" Van asked. "What the hell is that?"

She laughed and watched as Van grabbed their overnight bag and she got out of her SUV with Frankie and set him on the ground.

"It's someone a company hires to send into a store and be a customer and then report back how well the employees did."

"But I'm not hiring anyone," he said. "I'm doing it myself."

"Which is why I said it's almost like being a mystery shopper," she said, crossing her eyes.

He shook his head. "Don't do that. You look silly."

"That is the point. It's to get you to laugh and stop being so serious all the time."

"Let's just enjoy the night," he said.

It was almost six. She'd gotten out of work early, went home and packed for their overnight at one of her father and Van's hotels. She'd been to them all at some point or another but never had a reason to stay at them.

Van hadn't been to this one yet. The furthest from the port. Close to an hour away in Chatham. The smallest of the hotels and had the least amount of issues.

She wasn't sure why he was doing this, but it was his business.

"Are we going to do anything while we're here?" she asked. "Or just get some dinner. I mean it's dark already so not much to do and then we've got to check out by ten tomorrow. Not sure what you hope to accomplish."

"I want to see the running of one of the hotels. I've been to the other two. They know my face and someone might recognize me. What's the big deal?" he asked. "I could have come alone."

"No way," she said. "I'm not giving up one of the few nights we can do things together."

He frowned at her. "We do things together all the time during the week."

"We have dinner and sex and go to sleep," she corrected. "That isn't doing things."

"What is it you want to do?" he asked. "We've gone to lighthouses, went on a motorcycle ride and even took the ferry to a dog park. Let's not forget the hours of you analyzing financial reports for me. That isn't sleeping, food or sex."

She pursed her lips. "I guess when you put it that way, we do things."

"Maybe you are high maintenance and you've been just hiding it from me."

"Ha ha," she said. "I'm really not. How many high-maintenance women look like this and are carrying doggie poop bags in with their makeup kit?"

He looked at her in her light-colored baggy jeans. She didn't want to put anything fancy or new on. The jeans almost brushed the ground with her sneakers on her feet, but she didn't care. They weren't going to be here long. Barely twelve hours.

Maybe she should have gotten out of work earlier, but she got held up doing something and was lucky to get out when she had.

She couldn't even tell her mother what she was doing because, as Van had told her more than once, he didn't want her father to know.

She didn't understand that, but it wasn't her business either.

"If you were carrying Frankie in your purse, I'd think you were full of shit making that comment."

"Never," she said. "Not this purse. My backpack, sure, but even then he's getting a little too big for it. I hope he doesn't leave a mess in here. I don't want the owner pissed at me."

Van shut one eye at her. "You'll clean it up and be fine."

"What name did you put the reservation under?" she asked.

"Mine," he said. "Whose did you think I put it under?"

"Well, they'd know my name, but you'd need my card for that. I just wondered if they'd recognize your name."

"We'll find out," he said. "I don't think so. My suspicions are that Christian isn't saying much about me."

"And that bothers you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm trying to get a handle on things."

"I know and I think it's great. Especially since you've got another job. How much longer are you going to stay working as a nine-one-one operator?"

"I don't know," he said. "It gives me something to do."

"You've got something to do with the hotels," she pointed out.

"Not yet," he said.

She didn't ask what he meant by that and they got to the entrance so she stopped talking.

Van held the door open for her and she went in with Frankie trotting ahead of her.

As always, her pup got a ton of attention.

His copper-colored hair was brushed and shiny, looking as soft as it felt. He pranced his way to the check-in area, the wind he created with his walk sending his long ears floating behind him.

"Good evening," the woman at the counter said. "How may I help you?"

"Checking in," Van said.

"Can I get your name?"

"Van Harlowe," he said. There was no reaction from the employee so she was assuming they didn't recognize his name.

There was just some clicking on the computer. "And it's just the two of you and a dog?"

"It is," he said.

"Can I have your credit card please to scan?" the employee asked.

He handed it over and then waited while she processed everything. Explained the fees and then told them where they could find the restaurant, vending machines, ice machines and told them how to call for service at the desk if they needed anything."

"Thanks," he said, reaching for the keycard.

They went to the elevator. "She was nice," she said. "Very thorough and polite."

"Yep," he said. "Which is good to know."

"I just realized we can't go to the restaurant with Frankie."

"We could," he said. "Are they going to tell me no?"

She giggled when he said that. "Do you want to try it and see what happens? How long it takes security to tell you to leave?"

"No," he said. "I could be a dick and do it, then override them, but I wouldn't. Would your father do something like that?"

"Never," she said. "He wouldn't throw his weight around like that."

"Neither would I," he said. "I'm sure we can order dinner somewhere and just eat here. It's nice out for early October. We could eat outside by the fire pits if we wanted to."

"That's a good idea," she said. "I could feed Frankie here and then let him out with us while we get food. Do you think the restaurant would let us eat outside with him? I mean if we got a dinner there?"

"We can find out," he said.

When they reached their floor, they got out and went to their room. Kelsey started to unpack and get Frankie's food and water bowls set out. Her dog didn't have a problem finding it and eating. When it came to Frankie, nothing stopped him with food.

Van went over to the phone and found the sheet to call the front desk and was told that he could order from the restaurant as takeout and eat by the fire pits and there were menus in the binder.

"That seems easy enough," she said. "Let me see the menu."

They placed their orders and were told it'd be twenty-five minutes. Not bad for a Friday night.

The place wasn't packed by any means, but it was active with people that she'd seen when they checked in.

Once Frankie had cleaned his bowl, she got his leash and hooked him up.

"Are you going to walk him alone?"

"Not unless you want to do it and scoop up his poop? I know there are areas only for this, but I don't trust him to make it that far."

"We can go together," he said. "Then we'll find some seats and wait for the food outside."

If she found it sweet he didn't want her alone, she held it in.

At least she hoped it was sweet and not that he was worried about her safety.

When her father found out about Bill, she got the worst lecture of her life. No amount of explaining herself helped and she realized she'd made a mistake doing what she had.

But she assured them her days of dating apps were done.

She had a man she loved.

Her father only rolled his eyes at her, but he finally stopped pacing.

She'd even pointed out that Van had taken care of it.

Which her father had appreciated. If her father and Van talked about it, no one shared that news with her.

She didn't want to know either.

Frankie walked around on the grass and did his business. She plugged her nose as she bent down to get it with the baggie. At least at home she was far enough away to scoop with a shovel.

"Now I know what a dirty diaper might be like," she said.

"You'll find out soon enough when you're babysitting for your niece or nephew."

"Good point," she said. "Let's go get a seat and our food should be done soon."

There were three different fire pits. One had another couple at it that were talking as if more people were joining them. She didn't want Frankie to get worked up, so they moved to the one furthest away.

When it was time to pick their food up, she stayed there while Van went to get their dinner. It wasn't as if she could bring Frankie in.

Slowly more people were joining that first couple and there was a lot of laughter and noise. Seemed as if they were having a good time.

"Looks like there might be a party over there," Van said when he returned with two containers.

She'd gotten a chicken sandwich and fries. Van a burger. Things easy to eat and carry.

"Could be," she said. "I thought I overheard them mention a birthday and beer coming."

"I hadn't planned on doing much other than seeing the services here, but maybe I'll see firsthand how it could be handled."

"I for one just want to people watch and eat my dinner," she said. She grabbed her sandwich and took a bite, then made a few faces as she chewed.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's not bad. It's just not great. There is no flavor other than salt and pepper on the chicken and bacon." She took another bite. "I got some sauce this time and it's a little better, but not wonderful. Here, taste it."

She handed it over and he took a bite. Before he could say anything she grabbed his burger to try that.

"It's on the bland side," he said. "I'd expect more for a restaurant. I could do this at home. The same with the burger."

"Phew," she said. "I'm glad you said that. I didn't want you to think I judged everything on Duke's cooking."

"No," he said. "As I said, not horrible, but just basic. I would expect better. Guess I need to at least address this with your father and then Christian."

"Why not just go to Christian since you wanted my father out of it anyway?"

"I didn't want him out of it," he said. "I just didn't want him to know we were doing this."

"Why?" she asked. She picked up a fry and bit in. Just frozen ones stuck in a fryer. Passable but nothing much more than that.

"I didn't want him to give me a warning or heads up with what to look for. I'm not sure if he would. It's better to come in cold like this."

"Oh," she said. "I didn't think that."

"What did you think?" he asked. He had some fries he was munching on too. He didn't seem as fazed as her that they were frozen and not fresh.

"I'm not sure, to be honest, but it wasn't that."

They finished their dinner and listened to the group getting louder a little away from them. Frankie was pacing and wanting to check it all out, but she kept him calm.

Though they had the beach and water view in the distance, the noise took away from this being relaxing and they returned to their room.

"I saw a warning on the post that noise had to be lower past ten," he said. He looked at his watch. "It's eleven and they are still out there laughing, yelling and howling at each other."

They'd been back in their room with the TV on for a few hours. As much as she wanted to sleep, she agreed with Van that it might not happen. She had a crude vocabulary, but someone was putting her to shame outside.

Their windows were shut and the curtains drawn. Even the heat had turned on and that background noise combined with the TV didn't stop the activity outside of their room a few stories down.

"Maybe call and report it," she said. "See how long it takes."

He let out a sigh. "I don't want to do that, but I think I will. I'm trying to look at this as an owner right now and not a guest. There are rules that aren't being followed and staff aren't enforcing them even if someone isn't reporting it."

"I guess you're finding out more than you bargained for," she said.

He picked the phone up, nicely asked if there was a way that the party outside could tone it down.

"She said I was the fifth call and that they've been out a few times to talk to the party and were trying to track down security."

"They don't know where security is?" she asked.

"It didn't seem that way," he said.

"That is one of your issues, right?" she asked.

"Yep," he said.

He pushed the curtain back and watched one of his employees go down to the group which was getting rowdy. They were now giving the staff a hard time and saying they'd paid for the room and were just having fun.

She saw Van grind his teeth when some swear words were tossed around.

"What are you going to do?"

He let out a sigh. "I didn't want to do anything, but I'm starting to think I'm going to have to. I don't want my employees treated like that."

"Good for you," she said.

Ten more minutes went by and nothing was changing.

No security to talk to them yet and the noise was almost getting louder in defiance for getting talked to.

She and Van were watching from the window.

"Shit," he said.

"What?" She looked over and saw two people getting into it.

"Looks like another guest is going to take matters into his own hands."

She watched Van get up and walk out the door. She left Frankie where he was and followed after him.

"Wait up," she said.

"Go back to the room, Kelsey."

"No," she said. "It's not just you that owns this."

She had no problem throwing her name out there if someone gave Van a hard time.

He was racing down the stairs and out the door and by the time they got there, a security officer had shown up and was screaming at the party to settle down and holding the guest back.

There was no control over the situation and the security guard almost seemed to escalate it more.

Van got out there and stood in front of the security office. "Everyone. Enough!" he shouted.

"I've got this," the security officer snapped at Van.

"Obviously you don't. If everyone doesn't settle down I'm calling the police. In the meantime, as the owner of this hotel, I'm giving you one warning. Go back to your rooms and call it a night. If you don't settle down I'll be forced to have you removed from the premises."

There were a lot of grumbles, but everyone left and went to their rooms. Kelsey could tell the men had a bit too much to drink. Some of the women too, but the tone of Van's voice actually got them in order.

"Listen," the security guard said, coming over to Van. "I don't know who you are, but you had no right to do that."

"I'm Van Harlowe," he said. "I own half of this hotel."

The security guard shook his head. "Kyle Raymond owns this hotel now and Christian Cromer runs it. I've never heard of you."

"You should get your facts straight then," Kelsey said. "But it seems to me you can't handle your job enough to know who owns what. I'm Kelsey Raymond. Kyle's daughter. Van does own half of the hotel with my father. We can call him and verify right now if you'd like?"

She pulled her phone out and the guy's face paled. "No," he said. "That's fine. I wasn't aware you were on the premises. But that isn't how we handle these situations. You don't know that. Maybe you should go back to letting your father run things. We could get a bad review now."

She frowned. "Over the noise or the people causing the noise? If I were you I'd be more concerned about what I'll make sure is done to you for not doing your job as we've been watching this party since before the noise ordinance hit."

"The ones you just threatened," the guard said, sending a look to Van. Maybe she should have just kept her words to herself, but she wasn't one to hold back.

"I'd be more worried about those guests that called to complain about the rules not being followed rather than the ones breaking the rules and being told to cut it out," he said.

Van turned and left, grabbing her arm and urging her to go too. She wouldn't fight him off in front of people but wasn't thrilled she didn't get to say more than she had.

"Well, my father is going to find out soon enough. I'm sure Christian will too," she said.

"I expect it," he said.

"Why did you pull me away and not stay longer?"

"Because they were filming us. If there's one thing I've learned, it's a video can be altered and the internet is forever. It was better to leave to diffuse."

She wasn't thinking that and should have. Hadn't she realized that already with Bill on the online dating apps?

"I guess."

"And if I don't hear from Christian before we are back on the island, that is going to be a bigger issue in my eyes."

"You know, Van. I like this side of you. Sexxxxxxxxyyyyyy."

He grunted and she laughed. So much for trying to get him to smile.