Coast Guard Sweetheart by Lisa Carter

Author:Lisa Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

It was over. Honey’s dream ruined. Her dream of a forever home swept out to sea with the hurricane.

She felt as if she’d lost her mother all over again. The ground floor was a total wreck. Like her life. Her hard work and the money she’d borrowed down the drain. She ached with a certainty that once FEMA inspected the lodge, the engineer would declare the structure unsound and that her family home would be torn down.

Although the hurricane had downgraded to Category 2 by the time it hit the peninsula, the Duers weren’t the only ones affected by the destruction of the storm. Eastern Shore–tough, the Kiptohanockians rallied. Twenty families had been displaced by the floodwaters. But on the Eastern Shore, neighbors helped neighbors.

Surveying the devastation the day after, sadness engulfed Honey. Overwhelmed her as surely as the waves had swallowed the first floor of the lodge on which she’d pinned her hopes. She’d never felt so alone in her life.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, with the Bay Bridge damaged, the only access onto the peninsula came from Maryland to the north. The governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency, clearing the way for FEMA to speed the process of recovery. The National Guard arrived to clear road debris. A long line of utility trucks from as far away as New Jersey made the journey south to restore electricity and phone service.

Recovery, like Honey’s dream, would be a slow process. The village settled into a long haul of rebuilding.

Making a personal visit to the Delmarva Peninsula by helicopter from Richmond that first day, the governor promised he’d do everything in his power to help the locals file their insurance claims for reimbursement. But residents knew only those with deep pockets could afford to begin the rebuilding process without the insurance checks.

Some didn’t even have flood coverage. She’d been round and round with their adjustor arguing over whether the damage to the inn resulted from the hurricane winds or the tidal surge which followed. Either way, the dickering could take weeks if not months. Time she didn’t have if she wanted the inn back up and running. If that was even a possibility.

The day after the storm, a structural engineer declared the inn sound, but unlivable, until the downstairs had been restored. Sawyer relinquished the second floor efficiency he rented at Pauline Crockett’s farmhouse and insisted the Duer family take up temporary residence.

She’d seen little of Sawyer. Out of sight, out of mind. Only the first part of that equation holding true. Where he spent his nights, she hadn’t a clue. Their so-called date had been put on indefinite hold. Which was exactly the way she preferred things, she tried to convince herself.

Then out of the blue on Day Three post-Zelda, the Eastern Shore Bank in Onancock called to say they’d received money for the Duer account. She couldn’t believe the insurance had settled so fast.

“God is good,” her dad reminded her.

So they began making plans for the renovation.

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