Since Mac had no idea where to even begin, he sent her a grateful smile. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

By the time Mac opened the door to his tenth and final room, he could safely say he’d never worked harder in his life. Even with Daisy’s help, room 303 had taken two hours and all of Mac’s plumbing skills to restore it to pristine condition. Daisy told him that guests who left such messes were permanently banned. Unfortunately, there were plenty of others just like them looking for a place to bust loose for a summer weekend.

When he saw nothing too gross or out of the ordinary in the last room, he breathed a sigh of relief. He’d already had enough contact with foreign DNA to last a lifetime. As he stripped the bed and quickly remade it, he decided something had to be done about the deplorable way Maddie was treated here. No wonder she’d called her employers bastards. They were!

“Having fun, darling?”

Speak of the devil. His mother leaned against the doorframe. “I’m having a blast.”

“This is entirely inappropriate, but of course you know that.”

“How’s it inappropriate for me to help a friend?”

“She’s not your friend! You just met her yesterday, for heaven’s sake.”

“Be careful, Mother. I’m not a child who needs you to define friendship for me.”

“I just don’t understand this, Mac. Why in the world would you want to lower yourself to” —she waved her hand around— “this. . . just to prove a point to me.”

He stopped what he was doing to stare at her, incredulous. “It’s got nothing to do with you! God, you’re unbelievable! You think everything revolves around you.”

“I think no such thing.”

“What I want to know is why Maddie gets all the crappiest rooms. Did that direction come right from you? Or does Ethel do that on her own?” He glanced at her in time to catch her guilty expression. “That ends today. Do you hear me?”

“You can’t come in here and start barking out orders.”

“Do you want my help at the marina?”

She had the good grace to at least squirm a little. “You know I do.”

“Then you’ll make sure she’s treated fairly here from now on, or I swear to God, I won’t lift a hammer down the street.” He had no intention of making good on that threat, because he planned to help his father no matter what. But he could let her think that he’d walk away if it meant improving Maddie’s situation.

“I can’t imagine what’s gotten into you to talk to me like this.”

“I’ve gotten an eyeful of the way you treat one of your employees today, and I don’t care for it.”

“She’s gotten her hooks into you, hasn’t she?”