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Travis turned on the light switch and winced in the harsh light. He had to adjust himself to kneel at the service port for the washer in question. Several of the other washers were churning along in their duties, and the piles of dirty laundry were epic, even though housekeeping was probably still stripping down beds as guests checked out.
She has a service port we could use, Lynx said slyly.
You are a dirty, dirty tomcat who ought to be fixed, Travis replied. Tex’s mate, remember. Tex’s mate!
He replaced the worn-out motor bearing that he knew was the cause of the washer’s problem, gritting his teeth and ignoring Lynx’s continued insistence that they fling the door to the mechanical room open and chase their mate down, fighting off Tex or anyone else who tried to stand in their way.
The dryer fuse was next to replace, as Lynx continued to demand that they pursue her, now, now, and Travis tried to shut out his persistent voice. Travis even moved laundry from the washer to the dryer when one of them stopped, and loaded up the two empty machines with new laundry from the piles.
He might have hidden in the mechanical room until night, but Lydia, the black swan shifter who ran the spa, opened the door and wheeled in a cart of laundry.
“Don’t you have the day off?” she asked, in her rich Spanish accent.
“I slept in,” Travis protested. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the spa?”
“Everyone’s gone, thank the stars,” Lydia said, scooping towels and sheets and massage table covers out of the basket to add to the piles. “But we’re down at least two housekeepers, so I’m helping out where I can.”
Some of the staff had only been temporary, hired for the duration of the World Mr. Shifter event that had just ended. Travis hadn’t expected to lose them so quickly, but Scarlet was nothing if not efficient.
“Did they take the extra staff back to shore in the boat, then?” he asked. “It’s on my list to tune up the second engine.”
Lydia stared at him. “You haven’t heard! Oh, it was awful - the boat blew up with Tex and Laura in it! They barely made it back with their lives!”
Travis blinked stupidly at her. “I didn’t hear about any of that,” he said. His gut clenched at the idea of his mate - Tex’s mate! He reminded himself - in danger. Also, “They sunk my boat? What about the whale watching tour?”
Lydia laughed, a musical sound. “You slept through quite a story…” she started.
Then the door opened again, this time with Bastian pushing another cart of laundry.
“One of the casters on this thing is off,” the dragon shifter said, wiggling the cart to demonstrate. “Aren’t you supposed to have the day off, Travis?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on the beach?” Travis countered crossly.
The lifeguard shrugged. “No one is there. One of the girls needed a hand with the laundry.”
“I’ll fix that,” Travis said with a sigh. He kept a basket of extra casters in the back of the laundry room.
“Have you seen Tex this morning?” Bastian asked, with what Travis thought was exaggerated innocence.
Did staring at his mate from across the pool deck count? “Not really,” Travis decided to answer, fishing through the basket for the correct caster.
“Had to pull him back to shore on the last sorry piece of your boat,” Bastian said. “Guess his mate’s friend-of-the-family wasn’t such a great friend after all. The Civil Guard has already been here this morning to get him.”
Travis stared. If the Civil Guard was involved, there must have been quite a story. “Is that who was trying to kill Miss Smith?” He had to rein Lynx’s out of proportion desire for revenge.
“And her sister!” Lydia exclaimed.
“Though it turns out it was the French housemaid who poisoned her latte,” Bastian added, shoveling laundry into the washer until Lydia clucked at him to stop and unpacked the over-stuffed drum.
Feeling very left out, Travis popped the new caster onto the bottom of the cart. “It sounds a pretty far-fetched story.”
“Are you coming up to the staff room for dinner?” Lydia asked. “We can catch you up on it.”
Travis bit back the question of whether Tex and his mate would be there. It didn’t matter; she wasn’t his mate.
Is too, Lynx insisted like a child, complete with stomping his big feet and pouting.