she smiled, continued downstairs. she had a feeling she might just surprise Nathan Delaney. And herself.
"I'd go, Sam, but I have quite a few turnovers here this morning."
Kate glanced over as Jo stepped into the kitchen. Raking a hand through her hair, she sent Jo a distracted smile. "Morning, honey. You're up early."
"So's everyone, it seems." Jo glanced at her father as she headed to the coffeepot. He stood by the door, all but leaning out of it. The desire to escape was obvious. "Problem?" Jo asked lightly.
"just a little one. We've got some campers coming in on the morning ferry, and some going out on the return. I just got a call from a family who's packed up and ready to go, and there's no one to check them out."
"Ginny's not at the station?"
"she doesn't answer there, or at home. I imagine she overslept."
Kate smiled wanly. "Somewhere. I'm sure the bonfire went on quite late."
"It was still going strong when I left, about midnight." Jo sipped her coffee, frowning as she tried to remember if she'd seen Ginny around before she headed back home.
"Girl got a decent night's sleep, in her own bed," Sam added, "she wouldn't have any trouble getting herself to work."
"Sam, you know very well this isn't like Ginny. she's as dependable as the sunrise." With a worried frown, Kate glanced at the clock. "Maybe she isn't feeling well."
"Hung over, you mean."
"As some human beings are occasionally in their lives," Kate snapped back. "And that's neither here nor there. The point is, we have people waiting to check out of camp and others coming in. I can't leave here this morning, and even if I could I don't know anything about pitching tents or Ports-Johns. You'll just have to give up a couple of hours of your valuable time and handle it."
Sam blinked at her. It was a rare thing for her voice to take on that scathing tone with him. And it seemed he'd been hearing it quite a bit lately. Because he wanted peace more than anything else, he shrugged. "I'll head over."
"Jo will go with you," Kate said abruptly, which caused them both to stare. "You might need a hand." she spoke quickly now, her mind made up. If she could force them into each other's company for a morning, maybe the two of them would hold an actual conversation. "Jo, you can walk over from the campground and check on Ginny. Maybe her phone's just out, or she's really not feeling well. I'll worry about her until we get in touch."
Jo shifted the camera on her shoulder, watched her tentative morning plans evaporate. "Sure. Fine."
"Let me know when you get it straightened out." Kate shooed them to the door and out. "And don't worry about housekeeping detail. Lexy and I will manage well enough."
Because their backs were turned, Kate smiled broadly, brushed her hands together. There, she thought. Deal with each other.
Jo climbed in the passenger seat of her father's aged Blazer, snapped her seat belt on. It smelled of him, she realized. Sand and sea and forest. The engine turned over smoothly and purred. He'd never let anything that belonged to him suffer from neglect, she mused. Except his children.
Annoyed with herself, she pulled her sunglasses out of the breast pocket of her camp shirt, slid them on. "Nice bonfire last night," she began.
"Have to see if that boy policed the beach area."
That boy would be Giff, Jo noted, and was aware they both knew Giff wouldn't have left a single food wrapper to mar the sand. "The inn's doing well. Lots of business for this time of year."
"Advertising," Sam said shortly. "Kate does it."
Jo struggled against heaving a sigh. "I'd think word of mouth would be strong as well. And the restaurant's quite a draw with Brian's cooking.
Sam only grunted. Never in his life would he understand how a man could want to tie himself to a stove. Not that he understood his daughters any better than he understood his son. One of them flitting off to New York wanting to get famous washing her hair on TV commercials, and the other flitting everywhere and back again snapping photographs. There were times he thought the biggest puzzle in the world was how they had come from him.
But then, they'd come from Annabelle as well.
Jo jerked a shoulder and gave up. Rolling down her window, she let the air caress her cheeks, listened to the sound of the tires crunching on the road, then the quick splashing through the maze of duckweed that was life in the slough.
"Wait." Without thinking, she reached out to touch Sam's arm.
,men he braked, she hopped out quickly, leaving him frowning after her.
There on a hummock a turtle sunned himself, his head raised so that the pretty pattern on his neck reflected almost perfectly in the dark water. He paid no attention to her as she crouched to set her shot.