Summer at the Willow Tree Inn

  Naples Beach Series

  Book One

  SAGE PARKER

  Copyright © 2024 by Sage Parker.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  The book is a work of fiction. The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Continue the Story!

  More Books by Sage Parker

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  The first thing Grace Evans noticed when she stepped out of the sliding automatic doors of the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers was how bright everything was.

  After living in Boston for so many years, where even in the summer, the sun was often blocked by skyscrapers or overcast clouds coming in off the water, she had sort of forgotten what it was like to have the full force of the sun’s rays bearing down on her. It was hot, and she worried her SPF 15 wasn’t doing enough to protect her pale skin. But still, it felt good.

  She hadn't been back to her hometown of Naples for a long time, and coming here this summer had been a sort of snap decision. It was made on the heels of giving up her law practice, and just a year after her husband's unexpected passing. Grace wasn't sure exactly what she was doing there, but she hoped to find the answers to that question, as well as the many others that had been bouncing around her head for months, soon. She was there to see a childhood friend, to get away from her old life for a while, and hopefully to move past some of the grief and guilt that she hadn’t been able to shake ever since losing Neal.

  Grace carried her three bags with her to the curb and hailed a cab. Sliding into the backseat with all her things, she gave the driver the address of Susan’s Inn, The Willow Tree, and the driver smiled at her in the rear-view mirror.

  “Welcome to Florida,” he said, most likely thinking she was a mere tourist.

  “Thanks.”

  “Do you have any fun adventures planned while you’re in town?”

  Grace shrugged. “Not really.”

  He pulled out onto the street and laughed. “That’s the best way to do it in my opinion, a vacation, that is. You don’t make any plans, just get there and see where the trip takes you. The address you gave me says Naples. It’s gorgeous over there. If you have time, you should definitely check out some of the beaches. How long are you staying?”

  “Not sure. At least a few weeks. Maybe longer.”

  He whistled. “You must be one of those people who can bring your work with you then, huh? Or did you save up all your vacation days and take them all at once?” He kept talking before she could answer, not that she really cared. “I did that for my honeymoon a few years back, and it was nice, but then I was staring down the barrel of eleven straight months with no real time off, and that was rough. But to each their own, I suppose. What made you decide to come to Florida?”

  Grace wasn’t in the mood for small talk, and since she didn’t even really have answers to some of the questions the cab driver was throwing out there, she figured it was best to try and back her way out of the conversation as politely as possible.

  “Sorry,” she said, taking her phone out and pretending to be engaged with something important. “I just got a work email that I have to respond to right away.”

  “Sure, sure,” he replied, nodding. “I get it. Do what’chu gotta do.” He turned the dial on the radio and the car filled with the sounds of soft jazz music.

  He was quiet after that, even after Grace stopped pretending to be busy on her phone. She looked out the window and stared at the scenery passing by. On the right was the water, and on the left were a lot of new housing and retail developments that hadn’t been there the last time she visited. She tried to recall how long it had been since she had been back in her home state but couldn’t think of an exact date. She knew Neal, her late husband, had gone with her, and they had stayed with her sister in Everglades City, just about an hour South of where the two women had grown up. It was fun, spending time with Hannah and her kids, but that had been back before she and Grace started drifting apart.

  After Neal died, a lot changed.

  Grace found herself lost in thought, thinking about the months right after Neal’s passing, and how she had gone out of her way to cut nearly everyone out of her life, including Susan, whom she hadn’t spoken to in nearly a year when she called up a week ago to ask if she could stay at The Willow Tree.

  Now the driver was weaving his way through downtown Naples, which had also changed quite a bit, and Grace nervously tried to come up with something to say to her longtime friend when she saw her in person for the first time in over three years.

  “Hey” didn’t seem like it would suffice. Then again, “hello” was all too formal. Perhaps she wouldn’t have to say anything. She could just hug Susan, and through that small gesture, she could convey everything she wanted to say without even having to open her mouth. That would be ideal, but perhaps it was optimistic to hope for such an easy reunion.

  “I’ve never stayed at The Willow Tree myself,” the cab driver said, speaking for the first time in nearly thirty minutes. They were pulling up the building. “But I’ve heard good things.”

  “It’s wonderful,” Grace agreed. “My friend is actually the owner.”

  He laughed. “Isn’t that something? I’ll bet’chu get a pretty good discount then, huh?”

  She smiled softly. “You could say that.”

  When Grace had requested a room for a few weeks at The Willow Tree, Susan wouldn’t hear anything about Grace paying for it. She insisted that Grace could come and stay for as long as she liked, and seemed excited by the prospect of getting to show off all the new upgrades and improvements she had made since the last time Grace was in town. Susan was raised by a single mom, Jenny, who left the inn to her daughter five years ago after losing her battle with breast cancer. At first, Susan had been reluctant to change anything about the business her mother built from the ground up, but over the years, she had come around to the idea that some changes were necessary and wouldn’t affect the charm or erase any memories The Willow Tree encapsulated.

  “Well, I hope you have a great trip,” the driver said as he brought the car to a stop in front of the main entrance. “And take one of my business cards back there in case you need a ride anywhere else while you’re in town.”

  “Thanks,” Grace said, taking a card before gathering her things from the back seat. She had packed light, if only because these days she didn’t have much to carry around in the first place. She paid her tab, opened the door, and stepped once again out into the Florida sun. It hit her face dead-on, warming her cheeks and forcing her to squint as she approached the front door. She regretted bringing so many sweaters and blazers and made a mental note to hit a thrift store soon to purchase a few tank tops and t-shirts.

  Working for so long as a corporate lawyer in the city, her wardrobe consisted mainly of button-down shirts and form-fitting pencil skirts that were made out of whatever the opposite of a “breathable fabric” was. Fabric that suffocates.

  She opened the door to the inn, and the bell above her head rang out and announced her presence. Susan poked her head out of the door to the back room behind the front desk and grinned. “You’re here! You’re really here!” She ran to Grace, throwing her arms around her old friend the moment she stepped over the threshold. Grace dropped her bags at her feet and hugged Susan back.

  So maybe it really could be this simple…

  “It’s good to see you,” she said, breathing in the smell of Susan’s strawberry shampoo.

  “It’s good to see you!” Susan’s eyes were lit up with excitement when they pulled apart. “I can’t believe you actually came. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe it until you were actually standing here in the lobby.”

  “Believe it,” Grace said with a little shrug. “Because here I am.”

  “We’re going to have so much fun,” Susan said. “Oh, let me help you take your things up to your room. You’re in the biggest one, and the one with the best view of the water. Come, come, follow me.”

  Susan was wearing a flowy dress with cap sleeves and a tie that cinched in at her waist. Her graying roots were showing, creating a stark line that indicated it had been months since she had last gone to the salon to get it dyed. Grace, on the other hand, had started embracing her gray ever since she lost Neal. The ladies were in their mid-forties, so for Grace, the gray hairs weren’t taking over her whole head yet, but they popped up every now and then, and she didn’t hate how they looked, woven in with her dirty blonde ones. Susan, however, didn’t seem ready to let go of her chocolate brown hair, and Grace didn’t judge her for it. She knew Susan liked to look her best, and having grown up with so little, she understood just how important it was to her friend to appear professional and put together as an un likely business owner.

  “Susan, you really don’t have to give me the best room,” Grace said as they made their way down the hall to the last door on the left. “Especially since you’re not even letting me pay for it. Just throw me in whichever room was already empty and call it a day.”

  “Absolutely not. I want you to have the best room,” Susan replied. “It’s important to me that you get the best experience while you’re here.” She smirked as she opened the door. “That way when you go back to Boston and tell all your rich coworkers about your stay here, they’ll want to come check it out for themselves. I’ll make them pay premium rates since we both know they can afford it.”

  “Right,” Grace said, laughing awkwardly. “When I go back…”

  Susan frowned, clearly picking up on the hesitancy in Grace’s voice, but Grace still managed to push passed both the comment and Susan herself and went into the room. She made a b-line for the window on the far side and stared out at the ocean, which stretched as far as the eye could see. “Wow, this is stunning,” she remarked. “I forgot what an amazing piece of land this inn was built on.”

  “So amazing that they don’t even let people build on it anymore,” Susan said.

  Grace glanced over her shoulder. “What do you mean?”

  Susan put the bag she had been carrying for her friend on the floor by the bed and joined Grace near the window. “Everything around here is now considered protected land so nobody can develop anything. We got a pass since this building was here long before my mom even converted it into an inn, but there are new, very strict rules we have to follow to keep the ecosystem as safe as possible. Not that I mind. I’m just happy the place is still standing, and as far as I’m concerned, protecting the ecosystem is the best way to protect all that is sacred about The Willow Tree.”

  Grace smiled. “I agree.” She turned to Susan. “This place is really special, and I think your mom would be proud of how well you’ve taken care of it since she died.”

  Susan looked away, and if Grace didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought her friend had started blushing. But it was the rosy-cheek expression of someone who had just received a compliment, but rather the deep red blush of someone feeling shame or humiliation.

  “Susan, I didn’t mean to—”

  “So how long are you staying?” Susan asked, walking away from the window and keeping her head down. “You didn’t give me an exact date on the phone. In fact, you barely gave me any details at all. You just said you were coming and asked if I had a room for you. For a second there, I thought you were pulling some sort of prank, it was so out of the blue.”

  “Yeah, well…” Grace cleared her throat. She wasn’t sure what had just transpired between the two of them, but she could tell her friend didn’t want to talk about the inn or her mother anymore, so she decided to let it go. “The thing is, I don’t have all the details figured out myself. I—I did something kind of crazy a few weeks ago, and I’m not sure if it was the right thing to do or not, and I thought maybe coming back to Naples for a while would help me get my head on straight.” Susan raised a brow, visibly curious. Her face was slowly returning to its original color and she was finally looking back at her friend. “I sold my half of the law firm to Jacob, you know my old partner?” Susan nodded, looking surprised but not shocked. “I just wasn’t happy there anymore. In fact, going to work every day felt like it was draining the life out of me. I had a lot of money saved up, and selling to him also gave me a little bit of a nest egg, and I decided to just get out of Boston for a bit. I gave up my apartment, and so I actually don’t have a place to return to. Everything I packed into those three bags I brought with me is all I have.”

  Susan smiled and sat down on the bed. “I had a feeling something like this might have been going on. I hadn’t heard from you in such a long time, then you called and said you were coming within just a few days. It just didn’t seem like the most… thought-out trip. Which isn’t exactly like you. I guessed that there was more to the story.”

  Grace had to laugh. “I know. It’s not like me at all. Most of the time, I take weeks...months even, to plan a trip, and I book everything well in advance. But ever since Neal died, I haven’t been acting like myself in many ways. I never thought I would give up my work, or move out of the city, but without him… life just isn’t the same.” This was true, even if it wasn’t the full truth.

  “And I’m sure everything in Boston reminded you of Neal,” Susan said. “I can’t even imagine how painful that must have been.”

  “Yeah, there were a lot of reminders of him in that city…” Grace ran a nervous hand through her shoulder-length hair. “But really, I left the firm because there was just no reason for me to be there anymore. I’m not even sure I ever enjoyed being a corporate lawyer. I decided to take the job back when Neal and I first got married because he was so passionate about being a public defender. He took on a lot of cases pro-bono as well, so somebody had to pay the bills.”

  “You sound almost bitter about that arrangement.”

  Grace shook her head and slapped a smile on her face. “No. Not at all. I wasn’t bitter. It was just that after Neal was gone, I looked around one day and asked myself what I was still doing at the firm. I didn’t need to support my husband anymore, and I had money in the bank, so…” She trailed off.

  “You no longer had a reason to stay there,” Susan finished Grace’s sentence for her. “There was nothing you were working towards.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I get it,” Susan said. “Before my mom passed, I had all these dreams of making enough money so that I could help pay off some of her debts so that I could take on the responsibility for some of her medical bills. But then she was gone, and I realized that all I truly wanted to do was run this inn, keep her memory and her spirit alive, even if it didn’t make me any money in the end.”

  Grace sighed as she came to sit next to Susan. “I’m really glad to hear you say that. I was worried that everyone in my life would not be very supportive of this decision. My old partner certainly wasn’t very excited about it. But it had to be done. By the end there, I was so tuned out that my clients were complaining I wasn’t doing my job well. I would have ended up dragging the whole firm down if I stuck around much longer, and I couldn't do that to everyone else who worked there.”

  “Then it sounds like you absolutely made the right decision.” Susan patted her leg encouragingly. “And I for one am proud of you. It’s not easy to walk away from a life that’s already established and safe. But you did it, and now you’re here, and I couldn’t be happier.” She hugged Grace once more. “And I’m going to help you move on... from everything. Neal’s passing was such a shock, and I knew it must have torn your heart in two, but there’s no better place to find happiness and start rebuilding yourself than here in paradise, right?”

  Grace smirked. “I guess…”

  Susan shook her head as she let go and got to her feet. “There’s no guessing about it. Naples is beautiful, the people are nice, and you’ve got your best friend by your side. So what else could you want? Plus, Hannah is less than an hour away! That’s a plus too. I think you’ll soon find that it’s impossible to be sad while you’re here.”

  If anyone was going to be the exception to that rule, Grace thought to herself as she forced a smile, it’s probably going to be me…

  Chapter 2

  Susan left Grace alone after that, to shower and get settled after her long day of travel. She stood under the hot water for a while, washing off the smell of airplane seats and sweat. She wrapped herself up in a fluffy towel afterward and laid down on the fresh sheets. The moment her head hit the pillow, her eyes started to close and she fell asleep within minutes.

  She was exhausted, not only from waking up early for her flight that morning but also from keeping so many of her emotions in check since arriving in town. There was a part of her that nearly broke down earlier when Susan was talking about rebuilding and moving on. Of course, Grace wanted all those things, but did she really deserve them?

  That, she wasn’t so sure of.

  Grace napped through the afternoon and didn’t wake up until the sun was already down. Her eyes fluttered open as a gentle breeze wafted through her open window, filling her nostrils with the scent of the salty sea. She smiled, feeling a moment of pure relaxation for the first time in months probably. She was still carrying a lot of pain and guilt with her and figured she would for the rest of her life, but at least she wasn’t in Boston anymore. At least here, nobody besides Susan and her sister knew about Grace’s husband’s death. Nobody would look at her with pity in their eyes, or ask her if she needed anything when all she really wanted was to be left alone.

 

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