Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [59]
“I’ll remember that, Miss Clark.”
“So will I,” Annie said smoothly.
Annie arrived back at the hotel to mass confusion. Hundreds of guests as well as employees were milling about chattering like magpies. She asked a young man holding a surfboard what was going on.
“Water line ruptured. All the floors are flooded. The management is going to relocate all the guests. At no cost.”
Annie stared at the mass confusion, reminded of another day, years ago, when she’d been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Her stomach started to churn. A moment later she saw two streaks of dark movement. Guests scattered as Rosie and Harry skidded to a stop, sat back on their haunches, then barked loudly for attention.
Annie tussled with them for a few minutes. “You’re scaring these people half to death. Show them what ladies and gentlemen you are.” A smile on her face, Annie watched indulgently as Rosie pranced up to the guest she’d been talking to and offered her paw. Harry waited patiently until Rosie returned to do the same thing.
“Great dogs. I don’t imagine they let anyone get too close to you.”
“You’re right, they don’t. Excuse me. Elmo, over here,” she said, waving the straw hat in the air.
“Guess you heard,” Elmo said.
“Yes, one of the guests filled me in. Where’s our stuff?”
“By the front door. They’re bussing us all to another condo. We go in the next van. You got here just in time. How’d things go?”
“They didn’t, Elmo. She was sitting tight. Parker wasn’t there. Seems his sister more or less runs things these days. She wanted an increase, and I wanted a decrease. I gave her till five o’clock to meet my terms. I guess she doesn’t have total control because she said she had to talk to her brother. Will they. forward our calls?”
“They said they would. I signed for all of us.”
“This new place will allow the dogs?”
“That’s what they said. They’re calling our names.”
“I’m sorry you had to pack up all our stuff, Elmo.”
“Are you kidding? The last time I saw unmentionables like that was sixty years ago, and then they had yards of material to them. It was my pleasure.” Elmo cackled gleefully. “The dogs watched my every move. I found that interesting. It looks to me like you aren’t in too good a mood, Miss Anna Daisy Clark.”
“I thought he’d be there, Elmo. I got all gussied up, and had it out with his sister. That’s a downer right there. Why do you suppose they have a laboratory? They didn’t have one when I was here before. This is not going to spoil our vacation.”
“Tomorrow’s another day. He’ll probably show up once we get settled. They are not going to let ten million dollars slip through their fingers. I don’t care how rich or successful they are. Maybe they need a laboratory to test the beans. Ha, I bet they’re trying to make synthetic ones. There’s nothing left today that’s natural. Everything has ten ingredients in it that you can’t pronounce. Why should coffee be any different?”
Annie frowned and shrugged, her thoughts far away under a sparkling waterfall. She licked at her lips as she remembered how good it felt when Parker Grayson kissed her.
CHAPTER NINE
It was three-thirty in the afternoon when Annie finally hung up her last wrinkled dress. The dresser drawers were full of what Elmo called her unmentionables. The dogs were snoozing on the balcony that overlooked the ocean.
“How about a nice frosty beer while we wait for your phone call?”
“Sounds good to. me. It is beautiful here isn’t it, Elmo?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if I’d want to live here.”
Annie accepted the beer bottle and carried it out to the balcony. She looked at her watch. “I’d say she’s cutting it real close.”
“She wants to make you sweat. That’s business. Maybe she couldn’t get hold of her brother. That’s a distinct possibility, Annie.”
“Maybe I should call the other condo to see if any calls came through for us.”
“You did that a half hour ago. You also