Not Quite Mine (Not Quite #2)(12)
Author: Catherine Bybee

“Those were the very words Mr. Prescott left for us to deliver.” The young woman behind the desk lifted her brown eyes and appeared to fade before Katelyn’s.

“Not one foot?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

If there were two things Katie couldn’t stand, it was someone telling her what she couldn’t do, and the other was to be called ma’am.

She glanced at the woman’s name tag. “I’m going to need a favor, Naomi.”

Naomi’s eyes grew wide. “I’m told the hotel is at your disposal.”

“Right.” It was…but it also needed to be her ally. “I’ll need a rental car while in town. My preferences are in my file. I’d like the lunch special delivered to my room in thirty minutes and I need you to deliver a message for Mr. Prescott if he calls again.”

Naomi poised a pen over a hotel pad of paper and waited.

“Let Mr. Prescott know that I take orders from no one.” She turned and strode to the bank of elevators. Her stiff disposition fled once the elevator doors shut.

She was exhausted. Leaving Savannah in the care of Mrs. Hoyt while Monica left for work had to be the hardest thing she had ever done. Staying with Monica wouldn’t be within her character and red flags would be flying with the likes of Dean if she didn’t pretend to be staying at the hotel.

Once inside the family suite, she stashed her suitcase deep in the closet, removed several outfits, and hung them up. She selected what she considered a typical Katelyn Morrison skirt that reached a full hand span above her knees and hugged her hips like a second skin. The cream color brought out the bronze of her skin, kissed by the Texan sun. After slipping into a silk shirt and applying a dab of lip gloss, she called housekeeping and asked them to press the outfits that hung in her closet while she was out.

She slipped on her high heels as room service arrived. She thanked the waiter she recognized from the last time she’d stayed with her brother in Ontario. “Thank you, Mario. You can return in an hour to retrieve the dishes.”

“Shall I put in your order for dinner?”

Katelyn lifted her chin and offered a smile. “That won’t be necessary. I have a…companion in town and probably won’t be back in until late. But thank you.”

Mario had been with the hotel staff long enough to understand the undertone of what Katie had told him.

Companion meant lover…later meant in the morning if at all.

Katie had told many a staff member these things in the past and had never been questioned. There was no reason to believe anyone would start to now.

Mario tilted his head to the side and let himself out. Twenty minutes later, she pulled out of the hotel valet in a red convertible and let the top down.

Don’t step one foot on the property until he arrives, my ass.

Dean must have forgotten who he was talking to.

She might be tired for lack of sleep, but she wasn’t catatonic…not yet anyway.

Dean knew the moment he spotted the red sporty convertible with a rental car sticker on it, that Katelyn had ignored his request. In a strange way, he was pleased. Maybe all his worries about her were for nothing. Jack’s worries, he corrected himself. It was Jack who thought something wasn’t right with his sister.

Dean swung out of his truck, reached into the backseat of his extended cab, and grabbed a hard hat before plopping it on his head.

Under his feet the dirt mixed with weeds as he made his way to the construction trailer on the site. He assumed Katelyn would be in the air-conditioned office since there wasn’t much for her to do inside the hard shell of Jack’s hotel. The rough framing had been done with exterior walls added for support. The plumbers and electricians were scheduled to start work within the week on the interior building. Already miles of pipes crisscrossed the grounds delivering electricity to the exterior lighting. Everything about the job site was a well-orchestrated symphony of work. Organized chaos he often called it. It calmed him, in a strange way. He enjoyed watching a project come together like an artist enjoys the last stroke of the brush to a canvas. Working with Jack had been a dream so far. They both talked about the project and had a clear picture of how the hotel would work and run after it was completed.

Jack wanted a posh hotel for families. He wanted something most could afford or, at the very least, save to splurge on. The hotel would host many of the amenities of his father’s fancier establishments. There would be hotel cars, with car seats, and minivans. Each room was a suite complete with a door between the rooms so parents could close off sleeping children, or children could close off noisy parents. Child safety was paramount but that didn’t mean every corner and edge of the hotel had to be rounded. It simply needed to be constructed with safety and families in mind.

Dean was the oldest of four kids. His baby sister was already married and on her second pregnancy. He loved his nephew, Robert, and couldn’t wait for the birth of his niece. Syrie, his sister, already knew the gender of the baby but still had a few months left before the birth. She and Dean had had a couple of conversations about three-year-old Robert and how fast he could escape her childproof home. Some of her suggestions for safety had been implemented in the plans for the hotel.

Dean kicked his steel-toed boots onto the straw mat at the door leading into the trailer and braced himself to see Katie.

Jo, his on-site receptionist, sat at her desk right inside the door. She glanced up when he walked in. “Morning, Mr. Prescott.”

“Hey, Jo,” he said, glancing around the room. The door to his office was closed, the one to the center of the small building was wide open. Plans were spread out all over the desk, which wasn’t abnormal, but no one hovered above them as he expected.

Where was Katelyn?

As he removed his hat, Jo stood and gathered a bunch of papers in her hands. “I placed the messages that could wait on your desk. Mr. Simpson called this morning to schedule the next inspection. I told him you’d call him later today. Faltworth came in this morning to tell me that half of the roofing materials that arrived over the weekend were the wrong color. He has already called the manufacturer and scheduled a truck to take the materials back.” Jo took a deep breath and smiled. “How was the wedding? I’ll bet Jessie was just beautiful. Did everything go without a hitch?” Jo was the best damn secretary Dean had ever had. He swore she had caffeine in her bloodstream and a firecracker under her ass.

“Jessie was the blushing bride. Jack’s a lucky man.” And because he knew Jo would ask he added, “Everyone arrived on time, and nothing happened that wasn’t expected. It’s almost like you’d planned it.”