Forbidden Guest House novel · Chapter 30 of 32
Chapter 30: The Beam
I tried for nine days.
I brought him coffee and looked past his shoulder. He took the coffee and shut the door.
I sent Hedy down with lemon bars. She came back without the bars and said, "It's a beam."
On the fifth night I went down at two in the morning with a flashlight.
He'd padlocked the tarp to the sawhorse.
Labor Day came up gold and windy, the lake full of whitecaps.
By noon the lawn was full.
Every regular from the supper club came, and half the town came with them.
The old man in the plaid sport coat had kept Room Three a week past August, for the first time since 1970.
The church ladies brought a folding table of bars.
The young teller from the bank came too, the one with the nervous ponytail who'd counted my cash out loud.
She found me by the grill.
"The new people kept me on," she said. "I'm head teller now."
"Congratulations."
"I check every entry twice," she said. "I mean it."
At two o'clock we had the canoe race.
Gran's cedar canoe for me. A dented aluminum one from the marina rental for Leif.
Out to the swim buoy and back.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of Forbidden Guest House are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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