Return to Pelican Inn (Love by Design) by Dana Mentink Page A

garments flapping gaily in the breeze. Clearly that one wasn’t Manny’s.
    Rosa turned to Manny again with a stir of unease. “You can’t remember which one is yours?”
    “Yes, I can,” he grumbled, passing a hand over his eyes. “Just takes me a minute.”
    Pike watched in the rearview mirror and Rosa wondered what he was thinking. Probably that the Francos came from substandard mental material. With an alcoholic mom and a deadbeat dad who couldn’t find his way home, she could see where some might make the connection.
    At least my dad didn’t sink his own boat, she thought uncharitably. She pointed to a sign. “Sea Cliff Lane,” she read off. “Is that the one, Dad?”
    He smiled, relieved. “Yes, that’s the one. Turn there.”
    Pike slowed to let a couple of kids whip across the narrow graveled lane on their bikes and continued on at a snail’s pace, grimacing when a rock pinged against the side of his Mercedes.
    Rosa cringed, too. She didn’t want any more damage inflicted on Pike because of her family. The sooner they could deliver Manny back to his trailer, the better for Pike. And for Rosa.
    With everything else on her plate, her father’s presence might just push her over the edge of sanity.
    The Mercedes crept along at the specified five miles per hour.
    “It’s on the end, left side,” Manny said. “Number six ten.”
    Rosa rolled down the window and caught an odd scent, like the smell of an extinguished campfire. The grass that was doing its best to spring up along the side of the road was smashed and blackened.
    “Dad?” she said.
    “Yes, princess?”
    She ground her teeth. I’m not your princess. You don’t run out on princesses. “Why does it look like there’s been a fire around here?”
    “Because, there has,” Pike said, pointing to the charred remains of trailer number six ten, Sea Cliff Lane.

CHAPTER SIX
    R OSA GOT OUT of the Mercedes and moved closer to the burned wreck, as if closing the distance would somehow correct her misbehaving eyeballs. The trailer remained stubbornly fixed in her line of sight, ugly and black. The door was wrenched off its hinges and the linoleum floor was brown and bubbled like a poorly cooked pizza. The stench of burned plastic stung her nostrils. “Dad,” she said, “your trailer is burned up.”
    Manny looked at the ground. “Yes.”
    Yes? Did he think that would be sufficient explanation? She rounded on him. “Well, what happened?”
    Manny spoke softly, perhaps so Pike would not hear. “There was a mishap.”
    “A mishap?” Rosa was beyond trying to conceal anything from Pike. “This thing is charcoal. We’re way beyond mishap here. What happened, exactly?”
    He screwed up his mouth, as if considering. “I put a pot of ramen noodles on the stove to boil, and then I had a craving for ice cream so I walked to town and went for some Rocky Road. When I came back, the fire department was here and...well...that’s that. My car burned up, too. I’ve been staying in an empty unit for a few weeks now, but they found somebody to rent it.”
    Rosa made a conscious effort to close her mouth. “Why would you leave your trailer with the stove on?”
    “Just slipped my mind.” His lips tightened. “It happens to people, doesn’t it?”
    Slipped his mind. She worked on breathing some more. “Not really, Dad. People do not generally leave their trailers to burn down while they go on an ice cream run.”
    “Actually, technically speaking, it isn’t my trailer. It was a rental. Stan owns the park and he said the insurance would cover it, no sweat, which is nice, isn’t it?”
    One small bit of good news. She’d take it.
    Her father continued. “But he wasn’t keen on renting me another.”
    “So, that’s the real reason you showed up at Bitsy’s place?” Pike interjected.
    “Yes.”
    “Lost your trailer so you’re expecting her to take you in like she did your kids?”
    “It’s not the time, Pike,” Rosa said, sweeping an arm