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“I don’t know what you mean, ma’am.”
“Have you seen anyone take anything out the back door that they shouldn’t have?”
“Why would I know what’s supposed to come out?” the man demanded.
Kelli set her jaw. The man had a point, unfortunately, which meant she had to be straight with him. “I have a hunch that someone stole a painting from the foyer. It’s worth a great deal of money.”
The vendor opened his eyes wider, pretending he cared. This time, he didn’t even bother to answer.
Kelli’s arms fell to her sides. “Would you mind if I look in your van?” she asked finally. “Just in case someone snuck out the painting and hid it…”
The man laughed at her. “We are under strict orders never to allow anyone who doesn’t work for the business to enter the van. It all comes down to insurance. If you enter the van and something happens to you, we pay. And trust me, we can’t afford to pay.”
“I’ll be so careful,” Kelli said, sensing she was losing this game.
“Your version of careful could be our version of liable,” the man told her. “Now, if you don’t mind, lady, I’d really like to return to my work.” As he stared at her, he removed another cigarette from the pack in his pocket and lit it.
Kelli glowered at him. “You need to be at least ten feet from the door when you smoke that.”
Annoyed and smiling, the man took a large step back and continued to puff. Kelli peered behind him, through the darkness of the van, and tried to make out the strange shapes and boxes within. None of it looked like her stolen painting.
“If you see anything at all, will you contact me?” Kelli removed her business card and tried to pass it to him.
But the man laughed so that cigarette smoke puffed between them. “I don’t take business cards, ma’am. I got a job.”
Kelli then walked along the outer edge of the rest of the vendor vans, most of which were locked up, their drivers elsewhere. Frustrated, she continued to walk toward the edge of the cliff, where she had the instinct to scream across the frothing waters below. So many, many years ago, her grandmother had stood on this cliff and marveled at the strange and exhilarating new love she’d found with Robert Sheridan, a man who was not her husband. By contrast, Kelli’s “stolen painting” situation seemed dumb.
Still, Kelli cared about the hotel. It had been a labor of love for her, a way to link her current family with the past. And she didn’t want everything to fall apart.
ChapterSixteen
It was an hour till the wedding. Amanda stood in only her slip, then laced her legs through the opening of her gown and allowed her mother and Christine to drape the top of the dress over her shoulders. With delicate fingers, Susan joined the pearl-shaped buttons in the back all the way up to her neck, then breathed a sigh. Amanda watched the transformation in the three-angled mirror in the bridal suite, where she became the bride of her dreams.
For a moment, every woman in the bridal suite was quiet, captivated with her. Amanda’s eyes filled with tears, and Lola laughed and hurried forward with a Kleenex, which she helped place gently beneath Amanda’s eyes to ensure the tears didn’t mess up her makeup.
“I’m an idiot!” Amanda laughed, holding onto the Kleenex as her tears dripped into it. “It took almost an hour to get this makeup right.”
“It only takes a second to ruin it,” Lola said.
“I’m sure I’ll ruin it by the end of the night,” Amanda said. “But I’d like to make it down the aisle first. And maybe take a picture or four hundred?”
Audrey sniffed and pressed her hands against her forehead.
“What’s wrong?” Amanda asked.
“I’m trying not to cry, too,” Audrey muttered. “But I can’t stop thinking about how happy I am.”
Amanda wrapped her arms around her cousin, her heart stirring.
“Amanda, I just love the colors you picked,” Lola breathed, adjusting her periwinkle dress over her breasts and rotating so that she could see her back in the mirror.
“I figured it would suit all of your skin tones,” Amanda said.
“It took her eight thousand years to decide,” Audrey said mischievously. “Then again, I feel like every decision for this wedding was like that. Even your dress! Remember how many times we went back to the bridal shop?”
Amanda rolled her eyes at the memory. “I was such an anxious wreck.”
“The woman at the bridal store no longer said hello to us when we came in,” Audrey said. “She was so sure that Amanda wasn’t going to buy anything. That she was wasting her time.”
