A Valentine Wish (Gates-Cameron 1)

Who was she? Would he ever see her again? He told himself he wondered only from mild curiosity. Certainly not for any more compelling reason.

He saw Mark Winter several times during that first week. Dean liked the dry-humored newspaper publisher, and thought it possible he’d made his first real friend in town. A good sign—if one believed in that sort of thing, of course.

On the first Sunday afternoon after arriving at the inn, Dean was kneeling on the front porch, pounding nails into a new board, when his aunt appeared in the doorway, her red hair humorously askew, her face liberally smudged with dust. “Dean, you have a telephone call. It’s Bailey.”

Setting his hammer aside, Dean climbed to his feet, grinning at his aunt’s appearance. “What have you been doing, Aunt Mae? Wrestling dust bunnies?”

She smiled. “I was in the attic when the telephone rang.”

He almost stumbled on his way to the front door. His grin quickly disappeared. “The—er—attic? Why?”

“Just curiosity,” she answered, apparently surprised by the sharpness of his tone. “Is there some reason I shouldn’t go up there?”

“No,” Dean said after only a momentary pause. “No reason. Just, um, be careful on the stairs, okay?”

“Of course.” Mae looked at him a bit oddly as he picked up the telephone in the lobby, but then left him in privacy to take his call.

Dean’s younger sister. Bailey, was an antiques dealer in Chicago. “Dean, you’ll never believe it,” she said with characteristic enthusiasm. “I’ve found a fantastic buy on a turn-of-the-century sitting-room set for your inn. Sofa, love seat, two wing-back chairs

and a footstool. It will be great for the honeymoon suite we discussed. All you need to add are a couple of tables and a lamp, and the room’s done.”

“Sounds great, Bailey. Thanks.”

“I’m still looking for bedroom pieces. Got my eye on a 1914 twin-bed set with a matching bureau and a 1926 full-size maple bed with a triple dresser and a matching nightstand.”

“Whatever you can get,” he replied, having already discussed his needs and his budget with her.

“So, how’s it going? Aunt Mae said the renovations are well under way.”

“There’s a lot to be done, of course, but we’ve made a good start. I hope to be able to open for business sometime around the first of July.”

“Whew! You’re really pushing it, aren’t you? Considering how much you said had to be done.”

“Yeah,” he admitted ruefully. “We’re practically tearing out some walls and building new ones. But I’d like to cash in on at least the latter part of the summer tourist season, and be well established by the time horse-racing season begins in Hot Springs in February.”

“Then I’d better get busy filling your bedrooms, hadn’t I?”

He smiled at her matter-of-fact tone and agreed.

They chatted for a few more minutes. Sensing that something was troubling his sister, Dean asked if anything was wrong.

“Oh, no,” she assured him with an airiness that made him even more concerned. “I’m just tired, I guess. We’ve been pretty busy at the shop.”

“How’s the new romance coming along?”

There was a notable pause before she answered. “I really couldn’t say.”

Dean shook his head.

His sister would persist in getting involved with guys with emotional problems. She’d earned herself the reputation of “Miss Lonely Hearts” because of her inability to turn away anyone she felt needed her. Dean had been warning her for years that someday she was going to realize that she’d taken care of everyone’s needs except her own—and she would regret it.

Unwilling to intrude on her personal life, he kept silent. If she wanted to tell him about her problems, she would, in her own time.

Bailey changed the subject by bringing up the ghosts. “Aunt Mae told me all about them,” she said. “If I were you, I’d do some research and find out as much about the legend as possible. Your guests will probably want to know all the details.”

He sighed. “I keep telling everyone, I have no intention of capitalizing on old ghost stories. I’m running an inn, not a haunted lodge.”

“Dean, it was the age and the history of the inn that appealed to you in the first place. Don’t you want to know all the details, even the legends connected to it?”