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Finally she agreed to charge them half price, and Caleb took the deal, mostly because he’d more than repay the amount by taking up Serenity’s torch for the town but also so they could move on. Rowe’s bad side had to be hurting him, though he’d cut his tongue out before complaining. That’s why Caleb had to watch out for him. His brother did a crap job of taking care of himself, and Caleb had a lot to make up for.
It wouldn’t be awful for Caleb to shut his eyes for a bit either. Tired didn’t begin to describe the weariness he felt down in his bones, which he’d blame on driving the better part of two days if asked.
Serenity chatted about the history of the hotel as she guided them through the front door into a foyer that had seen grander days. Naturally, the place had seen some action as a house of ill-repute during the town’s oil boom days at the turn of the century and then morphed into a respectable hotel.
“You can feel the souls of the people who used to spend time here,” she explained as she touched the walls reverently. “They speak to me often.”
Caleb bounced up and down on the splintery hardwoods when Serenity wasn’t watching, testing its strength to be sure a foot placed the wrong way wouldn’t go through it. Seemed solid enough, but he made a note to go over the bones of this building with an expert at the first opportunity.
This hotel had all the hallmarks of a place that could easily be the crown jewel of Superstition Springs. Apparently no one could halt the resort from being built, but if the expensive cut of Havana’s boyfriend’s hair was any indication, mere mortals couldn’t afford to stay there. Plus the resort would be positioned outside city limits. The town needed a facility to house guests to the area, family and friends of residents for example, who wanted to be in the center of things and cared nothing about resort-type things like playing golf or going to the spa.
The guys all got settled in their individual rooms, one each in the five rooms on the second floor. Serenity showed him to his room last, and he didn’t think that was an accident. Odds were good she had a healthy bit of curiosity about what he’d said to Havana but hadn’t had a chance to ask after he returned to the diner and found the others in the middle of hashing out the sleeping arrangements.
The sparse room didn’t have much to recommend it other than a bed and a simple nightstand, but it did feature a door that led out to the balcony overlooking the street. And it beat sleeping in dirt, one ear cocked for the sound of hostile footsteps or a stray word in Arabic that meant you’d be woken in a very unpleasant manner by someone wearing a balaclava.
“Thanks, Serenity,” he told her and took one of her hands in his. The skin under his thumb felt paper thin, and for the first time, it occurred to him that Serenity was old enough to be his birth mother. “This is great.”
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. He’d like to say he knew her well enough to guess what she might have on her mind, but they’d become acquainted via the written word, which she’d used often to express her thoughts. Now he could only go on instinct. Or ask her to write down what was bothering her, which sounded silly.
“Don’t worry,” he said and squeezed her fingers lightly. “I’ve got Havana handled.”
“You’re the one I’m worried about.” Her laugh at least sounded genuine, and he liked that he could amuse her.
“I can take care of myself. She’s got a lot of bark but not much bite.” Though he’d had an unavoidable fantasy or two about some other things he might do with her mouth now that he knew she had one on her.
Man, Havana was something else. He’d always assumed hot-tempered redheads were a stereotype, but she’d done her part to live up to it. All that fire and standing her ground had done something to his insides that wasn’t going away anytime soon. He did enjoy a spirited woman. Good thing she was taken. Some other guy could figure out how to put all that energy to use.
“She didn’t irritate you?”
Caleb cocked a brow at Serenity. “Not really. She called me mister. That was kind of funny, truth be told.”
Actually, he’d gotten to the point where he almost couldn’t wait to hear what came out of the woman’s mouth next, from her G-rated expletives to her insistence that she didn’t remember what it felt like to be in his arms immediately after admitting that she did. Strong women turned him on. He couldn’t help it. Took a lot of pluck to keep up with him, that was for sure.
Relief spread across the older woman’s face. “Okay, good. She can be a little off-putting, but she doesn’t mean any harm.”
“I can’t honestly say that she did anything that could be described as off-putting.” But she’d managed to pique his curiosity a good bit. Did Serenity not realize that Havana’s tendency to say what was on her mind was her best quality? There was some tension between the lady and her niece that he didn’t understand. “I told her the shopping center wasn’t happening and left it at that.”
Serenity’s eyes widened. “Just like that? You told her? What did she say?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I stopped listening. There’s nothing she could come up with to sway me, so I’m letting her think on it awhile.”
That’s how you had to treat the enemy. No quarter. Traditional rules of war didn’t apply anymore, not when an al-Qaeda suicide bomber wore the same clothes as a noncombatant and often hadn’t picked up his first shaving razor yet. You couldn’t afford to give anyone a pass. Even if you really liked her.
“That’s amazing.” Serenity seemed
pretty confounded by a simple thing like laying down the law, which meant Caleb had arrived on the scene none too soon. “She’s used to running things her own way. My fault. She came to me already set in her ways, used to taking care of everything, and I always let her. Her two sisters worshipped her, and they were their own little unit. What did I know about raising young girls? Nothing.”
“You did the best you could.”
Not that he’d been there or had any special insight, but wouldn’t anyone in that situation? He’d stepped up to take care of Rowe, who’d been four months on the back side of eighteen when their parents had died. Convincing him to join the Navy had been a no-brainer, because then they’d be together, making Caleb’s job much easier.
Fast forward a decade—it turned out that stepping up didn’t give a guy superhuman strength to pull Volkswagen-sized chunks of a building off his brother. It had taken all of them to dig Rowe out, but there was never a scenario when Caleb would have left a man behind, regardless of whether they shared blood.
Never a scenario that would make it okay that he’d led Rowe—and the rest of his team—into danger. But he’d do what he could to balance the scales as best he knew how. That promise to himself and everyone else kept him going even in the face of this wretched uncertainty that overtook him sometimes.
Serenity nodded her agreement. “I did do my best. Gave those girls everything I had, took them into this community and gave them a home. Makes this whole shopping center all the more upsetting. This is the town that welcomed three orphaned girls. Why can’t Havana honor that?”
The sheer disappointment lacing Serenity’s tone wrenched at something inside him. This wasn’t his town, and yet here he was trying to save it. You’d think someone with history might take a step back and reevaluate when met with resistance. Not Havana apparently.
