“Not all the time, no,” he said. “Before the colonists arrived, tribe members migrated all over the coast. They came to the islands seasonally, following the salmon, and to pick fruit.”

“Fruit again!” Claire said. “We should have something at the Fruit Festival about the native tribes.”

He hadn’t thought of that. “That would be nice.”

“Did you know,” she said, smiling broadly, “that Orcas Island wasn’t named after the Orcas that live in the waters here?”

Of course he knew that, but she looked so excited that he hated to kill her fun. “Really?”

A broad smile crossed her face. “I’m sure you’ve heard this.”

He shrugged, and she went on. “Okay, so, it was actually named after a Spanish military officer who explored the islands.”

He tried to look surprised. “Oh yeah?”

“Yes, Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas.”

Now he was surprised. That wasn’t an easy name to remember. “Wow.”

“They shortened ‘Horcasitas’ to Orcas. Isn’t that fun?”

He smiled. “Very.”

Claire cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Did you grow up around here?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly, but my son ended up going to college in Bellingham and I sort of tagged along.”

“I bet he loved that.”

Chip laughed. “I wanted to be close. Ah...” He paused. “It’s a long story, but we were living in New York City at the time. My wife and I were going through a divorce, and I lost my job, and…yeah. Things sort of fell apart.”

Claire raised her eyebrows. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “It’s all right. It was all my doing. I’ve always been the master of my own destruction. Honestly, I was lucky Steve agreed to hire me on.”

“Did you work in a hotel in New York?”

Chip shook his head. “No, not at all. I worked at an investment bank. Before the crash.”

“Ah, I see,” Claire said, slowly taking another drink from her bell-shaped glass. “So you caused the economy to crash?”

She was joking, but since he didn’t know how to tell her the truth, he just laughed.

Claire clasped her hands in front of her. “You were right, by the way.”

“About what?” he asked.

“This cider. It’s delicious. We have to have it at the festival.”

“Ah.” He took a sip of his – he’d barely had any. He was talking too much. “I’ll have to break it to Ken that I’ve won this battle.”

Claire laughed and agreed.

“How about you?” he asked. “What did you do before you were buying hotels?”

She intertwined her fingers and tucked her hands under the table. “I was a paralegal.”

“That’s quite a jump.”

She nodded. “You know, if I tell you how I ended up here, you might not believe me.”

Chip laughed. “I’ll be the judge of that.”