Read Return to Pelican Inn (Love by Design) for Free Online Page B

said quietly.
    “Hey, Bits,” he said. “You’re looking well.”
    “Thank you, and you are also, Manny.” She hugged herself, as if she’d felt a sudden chill. “We weren’t expecting you.”
    Rosa found her voice again. “No, we weren’t. Why are you here, Dad?”
    He scrunched up his face. “Just found myself in town.”
    “Last I heard, you were fossil hunting somewhere.”
    The phrase seemed to click something to life inside his head. “That was a blast, but after a while you get tired of digging up stuff more ancient than yourself. Cy wrote me that you had a project here, so I popped in. Where’s my boy, these days?”
    “He’s here, too,” Rosa snapped. “But we’re busy. Working on a decorating job.”
    “Swell.” Manny heaved in a breath. “Cy?” he bellowed. “Come say hello to your Pops.”
    “He’s out for a run,” Rosa said. “We’ll find him on the way to the car.”
    “Car?” Manny blinked.
    “You drove here, didn’t you?”
    “No. Took a cab,” Manny started. “Don’t have a car just at the moment.”
    “No matter.” She forged ahead. “I’ll give you a ride back to your trailer.”
    Cy had helped their father secure a trailer on one of his in-town jaunts, and somehow Manny managed to pay for the rental space in the Seascape Trailer Park some fifteen miles out of town. Or so she’d heard. Rosa had not visited the place her father called home.
    “Don’t think that will work,” he mumbled.
    “Of course it will.” Rosa grabbed her purse. Above all things, she wanted to remove her father from the inn before a certain arrogant lawyer arrived. She didn’t need any more distractions to delay the design work. It was bad enough having Pike around as both an obstacle and a painful reminder of her past.
    Bitsy shook her head. “You’re still in your pajamas, Rosa. Go put some clothes on, at least.”
    “No need,” Rosa chirped. “I won’t even be getting out of the car. Just a quick drive and drop.”
    “At least let the man stay for breakfast.” Bitsy began to gather up the pillows in such a hurry they slid from her hands and scattered across the floor. Manny helped her gather them up again.
    “He doesn’t need breakfast, and we’re really busy. Only three weeks until this place has to be shipshape, remember? It’s nice that you wanted to visit, but it’s really not a great time. We’ll reschedule for next month.” Rosa touched his shoulder. “Come on, Dad. Let’s go.”
    The door slammed open and Rosa’s heart shot to her throat, but it was Cy who barreled in, glistening with sweat from his run, curls tousled wildly by the wind.
    “Pops,” he said, a wide grin obliterating the fatigue from his face. “Did you come to root for us in the contest?”
    Rosa would have kicked him if he’d been in closer proximity. She didn’t want her father involved with their design endeavors in any way, shape or form. “He was just leaving, Cy.”
    “What’s this about a contest?” Manny asked. “I thought it was a regular decorating job.”
    “You can tell him all about it over breakfast.” Bitsy moved toward the kitchen. “Cy, I know you can’t handle bacon without upchucking, but would you mind collecting some eggs? Rocky had to go into town to run an errand for me.”
    “Sure thing, but last time Esmerelda, the chicken queen, took a dislike to me,” Cy said. “She pecked my, er, nether regions. I tried to explain that I don’t even eat her kind, but she wasn’t in a receptive mood. You can’t reason with fowl.”
    “Not a female fowl.” Bitsy laughed. “It was a love peck. That’s the way chickens show affection.”
    Cy raised an eyebrow. “I don’t need that kind of affection.”
    Manny sighed. “We all need a little love, Cy. Even us old-timers.” His gaze wandered over the knotted pine table and came to rest, ever so lightly, on Bitsy.
    Rosa watched helplessly as Cy ambled out to the chicken house and Bitsy, always the graceful hostess,