The Heartwood Beach by Elana Johnson

Author:Elana Johnson [Johnson, Elana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AEJ Creative Works

11

Sheryl stood under the umbrella she’d set up first thing that morning, almost before the sun had gotten up. Well, that was practically impossible unless she got up as early as her sister Alissa did. She was out on Big Blue by three each morning to get the fish the chefs needed for the restaurant at the inn.

She looked at her clipboard and said, “Javier, we need the grandstands to run the entire length of the beach. Where are the rest of them?”

“That’s all we’ve got,” he said.

Sheryl frowned out at the half-dozen men making sure the stands would stay put in the sand. “That can’t be right. There are only six of them. I know we have eight.”

“I thought we did too,” he said, lifting a water bottle to his lips. She’d lectured everyone at six-thirty that morning to drink enough. Come stand in the shade if they got overheated. Eat something. She had food and water on-hand, and she’d ordered all the ice cream from the grocery store last night for their end-of-setup banana split party.

The grocery store here on the island made specialty ice creams, including a banana pudding one that was killer with more bananas, hot fudge and caramel sauce. Her mouth watered just thinking about it.

“I’m going to go check the shed,” she said.

“Simon was already in there this morning.”

“I know we have more stands.” She handed him the clipboard. “Keep them working. Garbage cans are next, and Helen is bringing those in. She’ll be here in five minutes.”

Sheryl hated walking through sand in sneakers, but she couldn’t show up for work in her swimming suit and flip flops. So she wore her uniform, complete with the white sneakers to show solidarity with her grounds crew. She straddled the ATV and started toward the southwest side of the inn. The tennis courts were over here, along with that stretch of sidewalk with the flower beds she’d re-barked.

They also had a huge storage shed behind a tall fence, and she left the ATV running while she jumped down to unlock the gate with her keycard. An electronic record of every entry and exit was kept on the inn’s computer system, and she could check to see if Simon had indeed been there that morning.

But she didn’t need to. Simon was trustworthy, and he’d definitely gotten the stands out that morning. Her ATV didn’t have a wagon or trailer attached, and she wasn’t sure how she’d get the stands back even if she found them.

“Call someone,” she told herself as she motored over to the biggest door on the side of the shed. It went up with screeches and groans, and sure enough, there were no more stands inside.

Olympia would lose her mind if Sheryl told her they were short twenty-five-percent of their seating. Her sister sold tickets for those seats, and they cost more than just a spot of sand on the beach. They needed those stands.

“Missing something?” a man asked, and Sheryl spun around, her heart ricocheting around inside her chest.

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