The next day Andie was happy to tell Emily she and Maxi had managed to find cabinets that were in stock and got a great deal on some granite for the countertops. Fixtures were on back order but should only take a few days.
“It’s really coming together,” Emily said.
Andie couldn’t tell if she was excited or terrified. Maybe a little of both, she decided.
“What about the ad? Did you get advice from your sister?”
“She liked it… but there was something she pointed out. Let me show you.”
They went into the kitchen, where Emily’s laptop was open on the burnished antique pine table. She had the window open, and the lacy curtain she’d hung over the sink fluttered in the warm ocean breeze.
With a few quick keystrokes, Andie navigated to the online boutique hotel magazine site and brought up the page with the ads. She turned the screen to Emily and pointed to several different ones. “Each of these have a unique selling point that helps bring guests into their hotel. We don’t really have that.”
As Emily studied the ads, Andie glanced down the hallway. Shane was working on the doorway that led into the space where the rental units were.
He was standing on a stepladder, plastering. Trowel in one hand, hopper in the other, he spread and scraped, and Andie couldn’t help but notice how each movement showed off the taut muscles in his broad shoulders.
He still looked as good today as he had thirty years ago. Well, he’d matured, obviously, but he’d done it very well.
“So, you mean like this bit about the widow’s walk?” Emily asked.
“Uh-huh.” Andie answered her without really knowing what she’d answered to. She was completely distracted now by Shane’s movements.
“I don’t think we had anyone famous,” Emily continued. “My relatives never said…”
Emily went on about her relatives and the mostly colorless history of the house, her voice a mere murmur Andie barely took note of. Emily was repeating what she’d already heard a few times from family and friends, and none of it was interesting enough to distract Andie from the view she was currently enjoying.
Watching Shane was much more thrilling than the fairly dull history of a decades-old house. She sat there in silence, just watching… until his arm stopped, and he glanced her way!
Andie turned away quickly, embarrassed to have been caught staring at him. More like ogling, the voice in her head taunted. But… wait… had he winked at her?
“Something like that?”
Andie turned to find Emily looking at her expectantly, but for the life of her, she had no idea what Emily might be expecting.
“What? I’m sorry…” Andie dropped her gaze to the screen where Emily was pointing at a line of text that talked about how guests could sleep in the exact same room President Theodore Roosevelt had slept in. Oh right, the ad. “Yes, like that. Something specific to your place and its history. Something your guests can connect with and experience for themselves.”
“Darn. I don’t know if we have anything.” A frown pulled at her brow. “I mean, we do have the quilts, but that’s about it. Do you think it’s enough?”
Sally had come in and was chugging a glass of lemonade from the tray Emily had put out for them. Apparently she’d also been listening in on the conversation. “Sounds like you need a hook, and I know exactly what you can use.”
Andie and Emily both turned to stare at her in surprise. “You do?”
“Ayuh. Rumor has it there’s a secret passage in here. Used it back in the Underground Railroad days. It provided a secret escape exit into the attic. Folks could hide up there if anyone unfriendly came knockin’.”
“That’s just a rumor, Sally. My mother told me there definitely was no secret passage,” Emily said.
“If you say so.” Sally didn’t look convinced as she guzzled the rest of her lemonade. Tipping her now-empty glass in Emily’s direction, she continued. “I’m pretty sure back when I was a kid, someone I knew actually saw it.”
Emily and Andie exchanged a questioning glance.
“My mother has mentioned it, but I thought it might just be her faulty memory.” Andie hadn’t taken her seriously, of course. With her memory issues these days, nothing she said could be taken at face value.
“Now that I think about it,” Emily said, “Mom was overly adamant about it not being true. Maybe she was afraid we’d find it and get stuck in there or something? Of course, my brother and I were way too terrified to look for ourselves.”
“Maybe.” Andie shrugged. “You know, there is one way we might find out...”
Emily understood. “We need to talk to our moms.”
Andie nodded. “Exactly. And the best thing I can think of that might jog their memories is to bring them both right here to this house.”
Since Jane frequently brought their mother out to lunch and Emily took Sadie home on a regular basis, it was fairly easy to get Addie’s and Emily’s moms to leave Tall Pines without too much confusion.
Luckily, the two elderly ladies were in a friendly mood today, Andie thought, as she and Emily helped them get situated in Emily’s car.
“You sit right beside me,” Sadie told Emily, patting the seat next to her as Addie climbed into the car. “Mother has a pot roast ready for dinner.”
Andie’s eyes met Emily’s. Andie shrugged. Hopefully, Sadie would forget about the pot roast by the time they got home.
Shane was in the kitchen, washing out a paint brush, when they arrived. His eyes lit when he saw Addie. “Mrs. Miller! It’s so nice to see you.”
Andie shot him a look then bit her lip to keep from saying anything until her mother got her bearings. She might get confused and uncomfortable if she didn’t recognize Shane.
Addie squinted at Shane for a minute then brightened. “Shane Flannery? Is that really you? Oh, how lovely it is to see you!”
Addie motioned him forward for a generous hug, and Andie couldn’t help but remember how close the two of them had once been. Now that she thought about it, her mother had been quite angry Andie had broken things off with Shane.
Their eyes met over her mom’s head. Andie offered an apologetic smile—whether for the moment or for the past, she wasn’t sure. Shane dipped his head in acknowledgment.
“The kitchen looks different than it did this morning.” Sadie ran her hands along the Formica counter tops. She stopped, a frown wrinkling her brow. “Hey, where is the Mr. Coffee?”
“We got this new maker, remember?” Emily pointed to the brand-new Keurig.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been here. Things are different.” Addie looked around with a confused look on her face until her eyes fell on an old cupboard with antique dishes inside, and she smiled. “I always loved those mulberry dishes.”
“Do you remember a lot about the house, Mom?” Andie asked.
“Oh, sure,” Addie said, but she frowned, her gaze narrowing as she turned a glare on Sadie. “Maybe now would be a good time to get my Nancy Drew books back.”
“I told you, I don’t have them,” Sadie said, her tone suddenly belligerent.
“You most certainly do! Remember? You wanted to read The Secret of the Old Clock,” Addie insisted.
“I returned that,” Sadie muttered, exasperated.
Addie screwed up her face, and her head tilted to one side as if she were trying to remember whether or not Sadie was telling the truth. Apparently unsure, she said, “Maybe it was The Mystery at Lilac Inn, then.”
“Ladies, would you like some lemonade?” Shane asked, holding up a pitcher and a couple glasses. Glad to have his interruption save them from a potential argument, Andie mouthed, “Thank you.”
The two older women took their lemonade and wandered around the house, pointing at this and that. Each of them had memories for different pieces of furniture, or an old picture, or some knickknack. Andie and Emily let them reminisce until Sadie found her way into the new area they had sectioned off for the rental units.
She stopped abruptly, taken aback. There was a mixture of confusion and anger in her voice when she demanded, “What is going on here?”
Emily rushed to ease her mind. “You remember, don’t you, Mom? You sectioned it off because the house was too big.”
“Oh… right. Yes,” Sadie said, but then she pointed to the new wall, where Sally was busy skim coating the seams on the drywall. “But I didn’t know we were splitting it up like this.”
Sally turned with a smile and waved at Emily’s mother with the trowel she was holding. “Hiya, Sadie. Remember you told me to do this in case your kids want to move in?”
She looked at Emily and then Andie and attempted a bit of an explanation that she ended with another kindly smile. “Sort of like an in-law apartment, but in reverse.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” Sadie sounded doubtful, though, as if she were trying to convince herself she did, indeed, remember.
Andie led her mother and Sadie through the unit, hoping to get them into the main room before anything else could come up, but Addie stopped again in the portion that served as an entrance for the two units.
Addie’s face screwed up as she glanced from the original wall of brick and paneling at the end to the new wall with the doors to the units. “I don’t remember it looking like this.”
Casting an accusing glance at Sadie, she asked, “Where’s the old bookcase? My books could be in there.”
Sadie rolled her eyes. “Probably in the next room on the other side of the wall.”
Before Addie could rush off into the next room to search, Andie caught her by the arm and said, “Wait, Mom. You can look for your books in a minute. I was wondering if either of you remember there being a secret room here in the house?”
Addie and Sadie exchanged a sharp glance. Sadie shook her head. “Nope, I don’t remember anything like that. Do you, Addie?”
“Nope,” Addie insisted while shaking her head. “No, siree, no secret room here.”
Andie looked at Emily. Her mother’s expression said she was telling the truth. Of course it would be true for her. She knew about the room so it wasn’t a secret! But the flush of color on her cheeks was what let the cat out of the bag.
Andie grinned and nodded at Emily, urging her to continue. They were definitely onto something!
“Come on, you can tell us,” Emily encouraged kindly, but she could see in their mutinous expressions that neither woman intended to share.
“Nope.” Sadie mimed zipping her lips.
“You told me about it before, remember?” Andie tried, since Emily’s gentle prod had failed. “You won’t get in trouble for admitting it now.”
“Of course we won’t,” Addie said without looking at her daughter. In fact, Andie might say she was specifically avoiding doing so. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Addie’s eyes kept darting to the chimney and to the paneling at the end of the room. Probably still thinking about her books, Andie thought, but right now she wanted her mother to think about the alleged secret room.
“Mom, it’s okay if you tell me about it. I’m grown. We won’t get lost or hurt. We’re all adults now, and—”
“Oh, I remember where my books are!” Addie hurried toward the paneling at the end of the hall. She pressed around near the bricks a bit and then…
To everyone’s surprise, a panel slid open, revealing a three-foot-high opening and a set of rickety, narrow stairs that went behind the chimney. And what was sitting right on those stairs?
A Nancy Drew book. The Mystery at Lilac Inn.