I’m remembering them now, the things my dad would plan. A booth at the town’s three art fairs. An entry in the cooking contests they held at the festivals. Discounts for...for what? I’m drawing a complete blank, and there’s not much to fill the gaps. My dad had a lot of his old records stored in a little shed out behind the family residence, one of the biggest homes on the club side. It burned down five years ago.

“Shit.”

“You can thank me whenever you’re ready.” Beau swings his legs over the side of the lounge chair and faces me.

It’s worse than I thought, if I can’t remember simple things like what Beau is talking about.

Like what Beau is talking about.

“Wait. Why haven’t you been doing this kind of outreach?”

He points to his chest. “Me? You didn’t command it, your honor.”

“That’s—” I flop back on the lounge chair, giving up my hold on professionalism. “Do that kind of outreach, Beau. You can get started this morning, since you’re up.”

“Can’t do it. I have a date with—” He checks his watch. “—bed. In fact, I’d better be—”

I pop back up off the chair. “No way. Who did you hire?”

He laughs. “You’re never going to believe who it is.”

“Who?”

“Genevieve Starlight.”

I was wrong before. This is how I die. “You are absolutely fucking with me right now, and it’s verging on cruelty.”

“I’m not. Not in the least. She’s going by a new name now. Jenny London. Totally reinvented herself.”

“I don’t believe you.”

There’s simply no way that Genevieve Starlight has transformed into the kind of person who can help me save my family’s resort.

“You’ll believe it when you see it.” Beau stands up, yawning. “I have to get some sleep.”

I stand alongside him. “You have to get a brain. You know this means I have to fire that poor girl, don’t you?” There’s no way. There’s just no way that I can keep her on, if she’s anything like what I remember from high school.

Beau stabs a finger in my direction. “You know this means you have to give her a chance.”

“That kind of thinking will run this place into the ground.”

“Or save it.” Beau holds up both hands, and in the process spills a bit of his drink onto the tile. “Guess we’ll find out.”

3

Jenny

I’m not the kind of girl who hides behind indoor plants anymore.