Rather than interrupt Gerry to ask him my questions about Sanctuary, I let him handle Junie’s Frankie questions. I need to wrap my head around the basics Flo just told me.
I stay out of the business side of the ranch, but Mom and Dad have beef and avocado contracts with Sanctuary. If Frankie’s partners are backing out of contracts, Mom and Dad will be hit hard. They’ve already picked avocados that could have been left on the trees until the market was ready for them, and the longer they hold onto the cows, the more expensive they become.
I slide into my seat between Gerry and Junie and Larry. Barry is as enthralled byBlueyas Gerry is and hovers over Gerry and Junie, watching with them.
Larry leans his elbows on the counter and turns his head to me. “What’s the birthday plan for today?”
“Whatever Junie wants,” I tell him.
“The beach,” Junie says without looking away from the screen. “Daddy’s gonna build me a castle, like his Jo-Joe used to build him castles.”
Larry eyebrows rise. “You’re going to the cove?”
I nod.
“Good luck. It’s a mess down there.” He takes a sip of his coffee, then shoots Flo a smile that makes her eyes roll, but the seams of her mouth tug into a grin.
“I know it’s busier than usual.”
Pearl sets a mug in front of me and an entire pot of coffee. “You’ll be lucky to find enough sand to build a shack. Forget about a castle.”
Larry nods as Pearl leaves me to pour my own coffee.
“The hotel sets up beach chairs for their guests first thing in the morning. They take all the fire pits, then put up easy ups and tables, taking up enough space for a dozen or so people when there’s only three, maybe four in the party.”
Before I have time to process what he’s said, he offers more. “They’re putting in ‘landscaping’ too.” He makes finger quotes aroundlandscaping.“To make it harder to get to the beach, unless you’re staying at the hotel.”
“They can’t do that. There are no private beaches in California.”
Larry looks at me like I’m still the naïve kid who worked at Flamingo’s and let a group of girls flirt their way out of paying.
“They’re not officially blocking access to the beach, only making it impossible to walk to unless you park in their thirty-dollar-a-day lot.” He tips his head to his shoulder, like he’s daring me to say what else I think the developers can or can’t do.
“And the growers’ contracts? How are they getting out of those?” I ask.
“Finding little flaws that make the products too imperfect for them to buy or moving the goal post about what they consider ‘organic’ to an impossible marker.”
“But they signed contracts.” I let my naïve teenage self surface again.
Larry snorts. “They’ve got the money to fight any claim that’s brought against them and keep it wrapped up in court for years till the little guys run out of money. That’s how they win.”
“Why haven’t I heard about any of this?”
“They’ve kept it pretty well under wraps until a reporter started digging around.” Larry claps me on the back as he stands. “If it helps you get over her any faster, you can remind yourself, Frankie’s partly to blame for this.”
“How so?” The instinct to protect Frankie proves stronger than my worries about how involved she is with what Sanctuary is doing. I don’t want the people who welcomed her here turning on her the way her dad did.
“She opened the door for developers. I appreciate that she tried to close it, but you only have to crack the door a little bit for those roaches to scurry in, then there’s no turning back.” Larry clicks his tongue, then puts on his hat. “Happy Birthday, Miss Juniper!”
Junie waves goodbye to Larry as Flo sets her smiley-face pancakes in front of her. She squeals with joy, but when Flo hands me my plate, I’ve lost my appetite.
I’m relieved Larry didn’t mention anything about Frankie being part of Sanctuary. At least that’s still a secret. But I'm not sure what to do with the details I have that he doesn’t. Larry thought he was giving me a tangential reason to forget her, but he may have given me the most concrete one he could.
Is being found the only reason she’s left Serenity Cove? Or did she know this stuff with Sanctuary was coming? Is she running from the people who’ve kept her secret and protected her for the last three years, leaving behind exactly what she swore she’d prevented when she bought out the original Serenity Cove Inn from under Malcolm?
I don’t want to believe she’d do something like that. That she’d hurt our community and my family.
Instead of eating, I text Mom and Dad to see if they know anything about Sanctuary cancelling contracts.
