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I sighed. “Elias Kesside. The mayor sent my friend’s pass to me by mistake. Can you swing the bridge so I can come over and show you?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m on the island. Waving at you with a pass in my hand.” I motioned with wider arcs of my hand over my head. “Let us come over to show you the pass.”
“Fine. But don’t try no funny business. You know the rules. You and that Billy Morton always thought you could get away with hijinks, but I’m onto you boys!”
Elle said something to me after getting her phone back to her ear. What it was I didn’t hear due to the metallic bridge gears thumping and creaking. It took a few minutes, but the bridge was finally open. I ran over with Gibson on my heels as tourists and natives on both sides just moseyed around on either side of the channel. They were used to it. All part of the charm.
Oy.
I gave Elle a quick hug and waved at Katy seated in the front passenger seat looking like she was ready to blow a gasket. The woman had no patience whatsoever and did not suffer fools—or a nonagenarian in a bicorn hat—well.
“Portman, hey.” I walked up to the shack. Several gulls blinked down at us, roused from their sleep by all the hubbub. “Here’s the pass.”
He pressed his nose to the glass and glanced at me. The man truly needed to trim his nose hairs. They were wild. I wasn’t sure how he could breathe.
He coughed and spit on the floor of his shack. “Fine, but the next time you have fancy Hollywood people coming over make sure they got their passes!”
With that, he slammed the window shut. I turned to find Gibson smirking, his arms folded over his broad chest, as Elle stared at me flatly.
“Okay, we’re all good here.” The people in the cars hooted. “Elle Sterner, this is my good friend Gibson Vale. Gibson, my agent Elle. That foreboding woman in the front seat is my personal trainer Katy Heath.”
Elle and Gibson shook hands. Katy flipped me off. Ah, I had missed her.
“Follow us. We’ll lead you back to the inn,” Gibson said. I nodded, gave her cheek a peck, and then ran back over the bridge. Traffic began to flow again, people heading out to eat or shop knew to be back by midnight. Portman did sleep. Not much at night as I assumed he spent most of his working hours napping in his stuffy shack.
“That old man has no idea how close he came to being shot putted into the sea,” Katy said when we’d reached the Kesside Inn.
“He’s been here forever,” I said by way of explanation. “We all fear that one day the bridge won’t open and someone will find him dead in his shack but so far that hasn’t happened.”
I hugged her close and then rushed around to take their bags. “Why don’t you visit the bar while I get the girls—” They both cleared their throats. “Sorry, while I get these beautiful professional women checked in,” I said to Gibson.
“That sounds great. Ladies, what would you like to drink?”
They told him their orders. Gibson leaned in to kiss me, then ambled into the hotel, calling out a hello to my father at the main desk.
Elle and Katy stared at me. Openly. Without blinking. “We might be dating casually,” I mumbled and herded them inside before they could start peppering me with a million questions.
Dad and Kimmy both gushed over my friends from Tinsel Town. Kimmy sat at the desk while my father and I got them settled into my old suite. The room was open to the sea, the linens fresh, the floors vacuumed, and a small gift basket filled with chocolates from the candy store in town sat on the nightstand. That was something new. I liked it though.
“Do you want to freshen up?” I asked while placing their bags on a luggage rack in the corner. Dad fussed around with towels and then showed them where to find the remotes for the air conditioning unit over the bed and the TV in the cupboard.
“Maybe? It was a bumpy flight,” Elle said, giving Katy a worried look.
“I’m fine. I just get queasy with turbulence,” Katy replied as she worked her fingers through her long hair. “I’m ready to get some food into me, though.”
“Come along then,” I said, smiling at my father as he opened the door with the same kind of flourish the doorman at the Ritz-Carlton had shown me a few years ago.
“I’m going to check on the linens. You kids have fun.” Dad gave me a pat on the back and excused himself.
“Your father is really handsome. I can see where you get your good looks,” Elle said as she took one arm and Katy took the other. “Also, we will needallthe tea on that sexy bear Gibson.”
“We’ll talk later, I promise.” We made our way down the corridor, thankfully not running into any other guests along the way.
“You look good,” Katy said as we neared the stairs. “Not too paunchy.”
“It’s been less than a month since I left L.A. Did you think I’d go to pot that quickly?”
