Dead and Breakfast (13 page)

“Nah. It sounds to me like you want to go back in time.” He laughed, but Autumn failed to see the humor. “You want to go back to when your parents were happily married and everything was warm and cozy.”

“What’s so wrong with that?” she asked softly.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s pointless. You can’t make that happen. Moving back to Jersey isn’t going to give you what you want.”

Autumn watched the undulating ocean waves. She knew Liam was right. She couldn’t get her family back, but Jersey was familiar. She understood how the Northeast worked. The changes in weather invigorated not just her, but everyone around her. In the Keys, the stagnant and oppressive temperatures unnerved Autumn and made her skin itch. Time stood still here and she couldn’t adjust. She was neither tourist nor a Conch. Autumn didn’t belong anywhere.

“Do you know what Cayo Hueso means?” Liam asked.

Autumn shook her head.

“It’s the original Spanish name for Key West. It means Bone Key. When the Europeans landed here, the island was covered in bones. Used to be a graveyard for the natives.”

“Really?” she asked.

“See? You find that interesting. For a girl who embraces the dead, you’re more at home in Key West than any other city in the country.”

“I don’t know about that.” Autumn spied a line forming near the boat. She stood up and smoothed down her dress. “Fish is up.”

Liam nodded and rose to his feet.

Autumn wondered if Liam could see the disappointment wash over her face. She wasn’t in a rush to go home and have her mother order her about like a scullery maid. There was something Autumn didn’t quite understand. “You pawned the ring. Why not just leave the Cayo and you’ll never have to worry about Inez?”

“The ring only brought in a little money. I need more cash.” Liam pointed to a short guy in cargo shorts and a stained white T-shirt. “You see that guy over there?”

The boy reminded Autumn of the slackers who sneaked cigarettes outside the high school gym. “Yeah.”

“That’s my buddy, Randall. He may not look like much, but he’s loyal, and he’s a good mechanic. He and I are going into business together. Randall and I come from . . . well, let’s just say our last names are not the most popular around here. But he and I are going to make something of ourselves.” Liam’s eyes gleamed. “I’m gonna grab the fish and we’ll head back.”

She said, “Sure,” and watched Liam make his way over to his friend. She hung back but could still hear their conversation.

Randall clapped Liam on the shoulder. “Good to see you, bro.”

“You too. We came for the grouper,” Liam said.

Randall pointed to a squat guy in a red, smeared apron. “Keith’ll hook you up.” Randall tilted his head and glanced beyond Liam. “Who’s the cutie?” Autumn blushed.

Liam spun around. Autumn pretended to be fascinated by the tops of her sandals. She leaned against the railing and let the breeze play with the hem of her dress. “That’s Autumn, my boss’s daughter.”

Randall laughed. “That’s a thing with you isn’t it, dude? You’re always liking the boss’s daughter. Victoria?”

Autumn bristled. Victoria didn’t have any redeeming qualities, so what attracted Liam to her? Other than her obvious good looks. Autumn hoped Liam wasn’t that shallow.

“I never worked for her grandfather,” Liam said.

“Everyone in this town works for Mick Canton,” Randall quipped. “Oh, speaking of working. You got the money?”

Liam handed Randall a padded envelope. “There’s two grand there. Be careful with it.”

“I will, don’t you worry.” Randall bumped Liam’s fist with his own. “We are in business. Keith is going to put up six. But I’m gonna need more than this. This isn’t going to cut it.”

Randall glanced past Liam and grinned at Autumn. She glared back.

“I’m working on it. But I can’t make Evelyn pay me more. Anyway, we have to sit down and figure out where we’re going to set up shop. I’d feel better once we have real concrete plans.”

“Good news is we have a spot already.” Randall handed Liam a heavy, wrapped package. “My granddad’s been sitting on a piece of land by the salt ponds. It’s not ideal, but it’s ours.”

“You’re kidding me?” Liam’s eyes grew wide. He slapped Randall on the back. “That’s awesome!”

“Even more awesome is that Granddad promised me that land one day.” Then he grumbled, “Least he could do. The drunk. Anyway, this plan of yours might work after all.”

Liam brightened. Autumn hoped for Liam’s sake this worked out. She didn’t know him well, but she knew him well enough to know he needed some good luck in his life. Also, her mother wasn’t going to keep him employed too much longer.

Randall tapped his shorts pocket where he now hid 2,000 dollars. “Gotta split. Catch ya mañana?” He walked backward and pointed at Liam. “Oh, Victoria is having a party. You gotta come, dude. Should be epic.”

“No way, man. I’m not crazy enough to get back into that mess,” Liam said.

“Bring the cutie,” Randall called back as he disappeared into the throng of people crowding the dock.

Liam joined Autumn. His cheeks held a pinkish cast and Autumn wondered if he was blushing. “Ready to go?”

She nodded, and they made their way back to Liam’s parked scooter. He placed the packaged fish in the trunk and handed her the bike helmet. Once again, Autumn couldn’t help but think that if she were back home, she wouldn’t be doing this. If anything, she’d be holed up in her room, listening to music and working on a chemistry lab. Not purchasing fish that had been caught in a net barely an hour ago and escorting it on the back of a scooter driven by a very cute Liam Breyer.

People in the Keys definitely don’t live for the weekend like they do up north.

Autumn wrapped her arms around Liam’s waist as he sped off for home. Suddenly, the palm fronds seemed greener. The roosters, with their bright red crests, paraded up and down the sidewalks as if signaling to Autumn to take notice. She watched a six-toed tabby clean its paws as it balanced on a white picket fence. The singing and laughter emanating from a group of tourists rose above the scooter’s buzzing so that Autumn felt like she was surrounded by an orchestra of joy. Autumn thought maybe Key West was finally seeping into her bones, or perhaps it was really Liam.

Liam parked the scooter alongside the curb outside the Cayo Hueso. Autumn hopped off the back.

She collected the fish from the trunk. “Thanks. I had a nice time.”

“Me too.”

Autumn hesitated, not quite ready to go inside. “Although, I’m sorry you pawned the ring. I hope your business takes off.”

Liam bit his swollen lip and winced. Autumn still couldn’t believe she had done that. Well, Inez had done that.

“I don’t want to be the reason you don’t get that scholarship. I just needed the money, ya know?”

“Oh, I know,” she said. “Money would make both of our lives so much better.”

He laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, I had my regrets about selling it.”

“Really?”

“I even went back to Louie’s the next day to see if I could buy it back.”

“What happened?”

Liam turned on the scooter. “I was too late. Someone had already bought it. See you tomorrow.” Liam waved as he sped home on his bike.

#

The next afternoon, Liam stood along the Cayo Hueso’s pool, skimming the dead bugs and leaves off the water’s surface. Except, rather than looking down, he stared across at the battered old fence that separated the Dead and Breakfast’s backyard from the neighbor’s. The fence was in desperate need of a paint job, one Liam would surely be asked to do soon. Across the way, Liam could hear some chickens clucking and the neighbor yelling at her husband.

He kept skimming the same spot over and over again. He made 2,000 dollars selling the ring, but he had to come up with another two grand to ensure his stake in the business. A business he envisioned. Otherwise, Randall’s cousin would have to bring someone else into the fold. And knowing Keith Bell, that someone would be shady and hard to manage.

Victoria’s offer of financing his business flashed in his brain, but he quickly cast it aside. Money from her had strings attached, and he knew that he did not want to be her puppet.

Liam felt the familiar buzzing in his pocket. He lifted the phone from his cargo shorts and frowned at it, recognizing the number. He decided, against his better judgment, to answer.

“Victoria, how the hell did you get this phone number?”

“Randall gave it to me,” she said, clearly not taking the hint.

Liam rolled his eyes and cursed Randall in his head. Victoria used to never give Randall the time of day, now they were chatting behind his back. “I’m at the Cayo. What do you want?” In the background, Liam could hear her friends giggling.

“I want to invite you to my party,” she said. “This Friday night.”

“I have to work.”

“Oh, come on, Liam. You probably get off around seven or eight?”

“Around then.”

“The party won’t start until later,” she said, her voice pleading. “You can even bring a friend.”

“A friend, huh?”

Liam could practically envision her smiling, thinking she had him. “Totally. The more the merrier. Pilar is single now. She broke up with Tyler a week ago. Maybe you can set her up.” Victoria must have thought he’d bring one of his high school buddies to the party.

“Good to know.” He spotted Evelyn giving him the evil eye from the lobby window. “I gotta go. Boss lady doesn’t like me talking on my cell phone.”

“Okay.” Victoria quickly added, “It’s at my house on Sunset Key. You remember where it is.”

“I remember,” he said dryly. “I really gotta go.”

“Okay, come after your shift is over and don’t forget to bring your friend.” Then she hung up.

Liam pressed the end call button and slid the phone back into his pocket. He pushed the skimmer into the water and scooped out some leaves. He knocked the net against the fence and went back to retrieve more leaves. That’s when he saw Inez’s face sneering at him. He cried out and stumbled backward, right into Autumn.

She caught him and spun him around. “Whoa, Liam. You okay?”

Liam shook his head, as if waking himself up from a dream, or in this case, a nightmare. “I’m fine.” He took a long pause before asking, “Hey, do you want to go to a party?”

Autumn leaned against the railing of the ferry and stared at the warm water, lit up by a stream of white moonlight. Liam was right about one thing. She didn’t have this in Jersey. The ferry moved quicker now, traveling from the cruise port to the pier at Sunset Key.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” she said.

Autumn’s mother had not been pleased her daughter was going out. “What about movie night?” she had asked.

“It’s Friday,” Autumn replied, as if she always went out on Friday evenings, rather than watching old black-and-white movies on Turner Classics with her mom and aunt.

“Evelyn, let the dear girl go on a date,” Aunt Glenda had said.

“It’s not a date,” Evelyn and Autumn said together. Autumn gave her mom a questioning look. What was it about Liam she didn’t like?

“I mean,” Autumn had said. “He didn’t make it sound like a date.”

Glenda smiled and tapped Autumn’s bare shoulder. “Right dear. That’s why you’re wearing such a pretty dress. Because it’s not a date?”

You know, for a kooky old woman, she sure was shrewd.

In the end, Evelyn allowed her daughter to go out. Although, she instituted a brand new curfew. Midnight. And the strict instructions that Autumn was not to touch one ounce of alcohol.

Liam glanced over at Autumn’s sour face. “Come on, it will be fun?”

“Did you just make that a question?” she asked.

“No?”

Autumn laughed. “Victoria is going to hate this.” Her eyes widened with a thought. “Is that why you brought me? Because you knew it would her piss off?”

Liam glanced down at the churning water and grinned sheepishly. “No. Maybe.”

Autumn nudged him with her shoulder. But then her voice took on a more serious tone. “Do you want her back?”

Liam jerked his head up. “No.”

“She is beautiful,” Autumn said, as if that detail alone justified his feelings.

“She is beautiful,” he repeated. “And she knows it. Victoria comes from a very wealthy family. A family used to getting what they want all the time. People like the Cantons make it hard to say no.”

Autumn nodded along as if she understood, but her dealings with the wealthy Cantons were only through Victoria, who mostly needed Autumn’s English notes to pass her exams. Autumn knew Victoria struggled with her studies and wondered what kind of ridiculous expectations were placed on the girl. For a moment, she felt a twinge of sympathy, but as the ferry docked at Sunset Key and the mansions came into focus, Autumn found it easy to brush aside any sorry feelings.

Liam clasped Autumn’s hand to help her off the boat. “Ready?”

“No,” she said, brushing her dress down. But she was smiling.

#

Autumn stood outside Victoria Canton’s Sunset Key home and stared with her mouth agape. To say it was a large house would be an understatement. It wasn’t so much that the house was tall, as most homes in Florida weren’t known for height, but that it was expansive. Liam watched Autumn twist her neck to see from one end of the house to another. Unlike Key West, Sunset Key had new and rich construction. Here, homes sat on larger pieces of land with Olympic-size pools and water slides. The Canton home was bathed in a warm orange glow from the lights embedded in the well-manicured landscaping.

Autumn’s voice came out high-pitched. “This is where Victoria lives?”

“Yup,” Liam said. “This is Canton wealth right here.”

“She could buy and sell me without thinking.” Autumn inhaled a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have agreed to let you bring me here. She’s going to know why you did it, and she’s going to make me pay for it.”

Liam chuckled. “Just be Jersey strong.” Then without thinking about, he found Autumn’s hand and intertwined his fingers. His pulse quickened when she didn’t pull away. “Come on.”

The two approached the ornate teak front door. A young girl in a bikini top and denim skirt flanked one of the columns like a soldier on guard. Probably one of Vicky’s freshman minions. She clutched a glass fishbowl. But instead of fish, cash swam inside.