Free Marisa Carroll - Hotel Marchand 09 by Her Summer Lover

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    “I’ve got to go, Mama. Dana needs the bathroom. I’ll think of some way to get into Past Perfect.”
    “And how are you going to do that if you don’t know how to turn off the alarm?”
    “Merde.”
    “Cecily!”
    “Pardon, Mama. I didn’t know Maude had installed an alarm for the place.”
    “The owner, or at least the lawyer, insisted on one. But Maude was always forgetting to set it. Most days she didn’t remember to turn the deadbolt. Maybe Sophie doesn’t know about it and it’s still turned off. We’ll have to find out before we break in.”
    “Grandma! I have to go. Now.”
    Cecily’s head hurt. Her feet hurt. She’d put in a ten-hour day at the hospital and still had laundry to do. Instead of sitting in her recliner with Dana on her lap, reading a story, she was planning a B&E over the telephone with her seventy-five-year-old mother. It was bizarre.
    “Are you still there?”
    “Yes, Mama.”
    “You’ll think of something. In the meantime I’ll call Estelle and Willis and tell them not to worry, we’ll get Willis’s medicine for him by the end of the week.” Yvonne broke the connection from her end.
    Cecily stood up. The end of the week, eh? It was her weekend off. At least she wouldn’t have to use up vacation days if she ended up in Alain’s jail.

CHAPTER SIX
    “H EY , WHAT ARE you doing still awake?” Alain opened the bedroom door so that light from the hallway crept over the hardwood floor to the edge of Dana’s bed.
    “I’m not sleepy,” came the reply from the mound of pillows showing snowy white in the shadows. Dana claimed to hate anything girly, but her room was definitely feminine: pink-flowered wallpaper with sheer ruffled curtains at the window—like a garden, she insisted when he teased her about it, not like a girl. Alain sat down on the side of the bed and Dana, her eyes shining in the reflected light, scooted over so that her leg rested against his thigh.
    “Why don’t you try closing your eyes and thinking sleepy thoughts. That always helps.”
    “Not tonight.” She was twisting the edge of her sheet between her fingers. When she was little she’d carried a fraying piece of her favorite baby blanket with her everywhere until it had literally fallen apart in her hands. She’d outgrown the need for a security blanket, but when she was tired, or upset, he would catch her twisting a lock of her hair, or worrying a bit of fabric the way she was now. “When I close my eyes I think of Momma.”
    Alain blew air through his nose. “What did Momma have to say when she called?” His mother had told him Casey Jo had phoned just before he got home from work and Dana had answered the phone before Cecily could get to it. He should have known his ex would try an end run around him to get to the kids. He’d attempted to get hold of her the last three nights to tell her there was no way he was going to allow the Disney World jaunt when it meant taking them out of school even for a couple of days, but she’d avoided his calls with more success than he and Cecily had avoided hers.
    “She wants to come and get me to go to Disney World.” Dana’s eyes lit up at the mention of the theme park. “I…I told her I have to ask you first.”
    Alain ground his teeth and tried not to let his anger at Casey Jo show on his face or in his voice. “I know you’d really like to go.”
    “I would.” She frowned. “But Guy doesn’t want to. He told Momma he couldn’t go because he has driver’s ed classes. I can’t believe he doesn’t want to go to the Magic Kingdom. Can you?”
    “He wants to get his driver’s license really bad. Enough to give up a trip to Disney World it seems.”
    “Well, not me,” Dana said with a great deal of certainty. “Momma says I can have breakfast with Cinderella and Snow White in the castle. Why doesn’t Guy want to do that?” Her green eyes shone with anticipation and he couldn’t suppress a smile. She looked so much like Casey Jo