#SampleSunday- The Pearl : You must have conjured him up
I am in no way ready to start sharing samples of THE PEARL.
I’m doing it anyway. Do it scared, or whatever.
This is the first sample from the forthcoming THE PEARL AT BLACK DIAMOND BAY, Black Diamond romance #3. You’ll see it sometime this summer. As soon as I’ve made significant progress I will add an entry to Goodreads and The Storygraph and of course I will have a release date once it has gone through editing.
Until then, enjoy meeting Davis Scott, who you originally met in ELYSIUM, Black Diamond Romance #2. Davis is the General Manager at the Pearl and is struggling to get his footing in a brand new resort and residential space on Black Diamond.
You’ll meet our heroine, Kari Savoy, next week.
Interested in my inspirations for this novel? Follow The Pearl’s Pinterest board.
“Mr. Scott, come in.”
I snapped the radio from my belt, brought it to my mouth and pressed the button to talk. “Davis here, Mr. Palmer,” I bit into the microphone. “Is there an emergency?”
“I’d say. Got a call from the guest in Elysium, fifth floor,” answered Gavin Palmer, maintenance supervisor. “Said water was pouring into her suite from the ceiling.”
My shoulders sagged as my arms dropped. I pushed out a hard breath and brought the radio back to my mouth. “What’s going on in the suite above her?”
“That’s where I am now. A little boy has been busy flushing all kinds of things down this toilet.”
His voice rang hollow, sounding far away. “When he tried to flush a stuffed animal, he finally found something that wouldn’t go down. Bathroom started flooding, he got scared and ran off. Nobody knew anything about it until 512 called it in.”
I heard Tim hang up the phone behind me. “Could you send my usual to my office, please?” He gave me a thumbs up and walked around me, headed to the kitchen. I made a beeline to the hotel administrative offices. “Can the toilet be fixed?”
“I stopped the water from running and working on unclogging it now,” Gavin answered. “But that ain’t even the big problem. Half of the suite is under standing water. We’ve got to move everything out and run a fan over these floors. This wood will rot and mold will grow.”
Great. “Grab a crew and get started. That’s a room I can’t book until it’s put back together.”
“I’m on it. The guests want to know when they’re going to be moved to a different room. They have plans for the day.”
I paused my trek across the property at the floor to ceiling windows with views of the largest pool on the property and stared at the radio like it had bit me in the ear. “They have plans? They’re lucky I don’t sue them for damages.”
“I’m just trying to fix this here toilet, Mr. Scott,” said Palmer, his dry, flat affect crackling over the line. “Guest business is your forte. That’s why I beeped you.”
I let out a frustrated grunt, my eyes rolling in exasperation. “I’ll have guest services take care of it. Let me know when the toilet is fixed and everything in the suite is dry.”
With an irritated flick of my thumb, I released the talk button and clipped the radio back onto my belt. As I passed the front desk, I placed requests to process a move for Elysium, suite 612.
“How do you already look beat down?”
Vance fell into step with me as I headed to my office. Despite his casual attire of a dark blue Wanderlust polo and crisply ironed shorts, he looked ready to tackle the day ahead. Back in college, people often mistook us for brothers due to our similar appearances, but we had become close friends over the years. Even after I moved from Texas to Louisiana, our friendship remained strong. When I moved to Black Diamond to run The Pearl, I knew I could count on Vance’s travel expertise to bring in more guests. His clever idea of combining his travel services with the hotel’s accommodations and amenities had significantly increased occupancy rates.
“Would it be too much to ask to go a single day without an issue? My very busy flagship restaurant might run out of bread, which would be a nightmare, in case you didn’t know.”
We approached the entrance to the offices. Vance held the door open, then followed me through.
“Then one of my guests let their son flood a unit and they want to know how soon they can be moved to a different unit. I should make them check out and shove them to a cheap hotel up island, but that’s sure to hit the grapevine and I don’t want to hear Calhoun’s mouth.”
“No, we don’t want that,” said Vance, as if he’d ever met Calhoun.
He had only lived on property for a few months. He and his fiancee, Athena, bought a condo a few floors above me. She spent her days as a travel nurse serving the growing population of Black Diamond and Corpus Christi, while Vance operated a thriving global travel agency from his suite at The Pearl. It was great to be able to see my good friend every day and he had given so much to keep The Pearl afloat. Unfortunately, while there had been improvement, it wasn’t enough.
Vance trailed me to my office, where neat stacks of of work awaited my arrival. Financial reports, my assistant’s summaries from departmental staff meetings to review before my stand up with the management team, property improvement plans and occupancy reports all begged for attention. And I was hungry, which was throwing me off. I couldn’t concentrate.
I reached for the phone to ask about the progress of my meal, but the main line blinked, warbling a soft alert. I was set to ignore it and hunt down my breakfast, but the name Harlan Calhoun, a Texas business man who fancied himself a tycoon, scrolled across the screen.
“Shit,” I hissed, feeling like throwing a good, old fashioned tantrum. “Why did I speak his name?”
“You must have conjured him up,” said Davis, adding a wry, smug chuckle. “Can I sit in?”
I shrugged, punching the blinking line and set the phone to speaker before falling into my desk chair. My only consolation was the beach view outside my window.
“Good morning, Mr. Calhoun.”
“Good mornin’, my ass!”