Big Daddy Sinatra: There Was a Ruthless Man(39)
And she remembered what he had said. He wasn’t giving her any pass. He would crack the whip if he had to. It was a lot to take in all at once.
“Welcome to the Inn,” Beatrice said cheerfully as Jenay walked up to the desk.
Jenay returned her smile. “Thank-you.” She also noticed the other one standing beside her. She wasn’t even pretending to be cheerful. She was too busy staring daggers at her.
“Do you have a reservation?” Beatrice asked.
“No, actually, I’m Jenay Franklin. I’m here to see Beatrice Moynihan.”
Paige nor Beatrice could still believe it. She looked so young, thought the fifty-year-old Beatrice. She looked so black, thought the forty-year-old Paige.
“I’m Bea Moynihan,” Beatrice said as she extended her hand.
They shook. “Nice to meet you, Miss Moynihan.”
“Bea please. Or Beatrice. Charles told me you were coming.”
“Yes. He mentioned you as well.”
“Well, I know you’ve had a long drive. He said you were coming from Boston?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“I have the VIP suite prepared, as he instructed me,” Beatrice said, “and I’ll be happy to show you to your room. We don’t have Valet parking here, but I’ll get one of the staff to retrieve your luggage.”
“Actually,” Jenay said, “I’m not ready to see my own room. I would like to see the Inn first.”
Beatrice wasn’t accustomed to anybody, outside of Charles Sinatra, going against her suggestions so easily. “You would like to see it?”
“Yes. Specifically the guestrooms.” Jenay was convinced that if the rooms were lacking, so was everything else. If the rooms were in tiptop shape, so was everything else. She had to know what she was up against.
“You want to see the rooms now?” Beatrice asked, as if she’d never heard anything more ridiculous.
Jenay didn’t think she had asked anything odd. She remained steadfast. “Yes.”
Beatrice smiled that smile again. “I know you’re tired,” she said. “You’ve had a very long drive.”
“It wasn’t that long,” Jenay pointed out. “Little over three hours.”
Beatrice and Paige exchanged a glance. Beatrice looked back at Jenay. “I suggest you get some rest,” she said, “and start fresh in the morning.”
“I would rather start fresh now. I would like to look around. At the guestrooms first and foremost.”
Beatrice exhaled and looked to Paige for help.
“That’s really not necessary,” Paige said to Jenay.
Jenay looked at her. “You work here also?”
“No.”
“Then what’s not necessary?”
“Your insistence on seeing the guestrooms. You just got here. Bullying the staff is not necessary.”
Bullying the staff? By making a request? Jenay was floored. “And you are again?”
“I’m Paige Springer,” Paige said proudly. “I’m Charles’s girlfriend.”
Jenay was taken aback by that assertion, but she wasn’t surprised by it. It was only two days ago that Charles had decided that they should see where their brand new relationship led. She was certain she wasn’t going to come to his hometown and find that he had no love interests already here. She expected to find plenty love interests. She was just surprised to find it in her face so quickly.
But she wasn’t about to let the girlfriend know her true feelings. She looked at Beatrice. Charles hired her to do a job, and she was going to do it. “Show me every available guestroom,” she ordered.
But if she thought it would be as easy as giving an order, she was mistook. “There are none,” Beatrice said, and Paige smiled. They were a united front.
“There are no vacancies?”
“None,” Beatrice said, grabbed her clipboard off the countertop, and began to walk around the desk. “But I’ll be happy to show you the facilities if you like. We can begin in the kitchen.”
Paige grinned. Exactly where she needed to begin, she wanted to say.
Jenay knew she wanted to say it too, and it would not have mattered. She wasn’t about to lower herself by arguing with some girlfriend and a woman who was actually her subordinate. They wanted that. They wanted the conflict and some knock-down drag-out so that they could run back to Charles and tell him what a major mistake he made by hiring that woman. But it wasn’t going to happen. Jenay actually smiled. “I’d love to see the kitchen,” she said. “Lead the way!”
Beatrice hadn’t expected that response. And Paige either, whose grin was gone. Black girls had hot tempers, or so she’d heard. She was expecting fireworks. What in the world?