Page 2 of Dead Calm (Cold Case Psychic #38)

August, present day…

Chaos swirled around Ronan O’Mara. Fitzgibbon had arrived ten minutes ago with the fifteen-passenger van he and Jace had rented for their vacation to coastal Rhode Island.

They were scheduled to leave in fifteen minutes and he could only find one of Ezra’s shoes.

His son was famous for hiding them, preferring to go barefoot.

Ten told Ronan to leave his shoes in their room, on the tall dresser, where Ezzie couldn’t reach them, but the advice slipped his mind.

“Ten! I could really use some help here!” Ronan called up the stairs.

“I packed the suitcases, Ronan! It’s your job to get the kids into the van. That was the deal, remember?” Ten sounded practically giddy.

Ronan remembered all right. He’d figured getting everyone out of the house was the easier job.

Packing required making lists, checking them twice, doing a literal metric ton of laundry, and folding the clothes.

Only then did the actual packing start. He was exhausted just thinking about everything that Ten had done over the last three days.

Making matters worse was an earlier argument with Everly, who insisted on bringing an entire tote bag filled with unicorn stuffies, in addition to her backpack.

Each of the kids was only allowed one bag in the van.

Ronan knew if Everly had two then Aurora would throw a fit if she didn’t have two as well.

He’d meant to text Fitz an hour ago, but between taking a shower, making breakfast, getting Ezra dressed and trying to find his shoes, he hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

Hitting his knees, Ronan bent to the floor to peek under the sofa to see if that’s where Ezra hid his elusive shoe.

“I’m ready to go!” Everly announced, walking down the stairs like a princess. She offered Ronan a devious smile. “I’ve got a deal for you. I’ll tell you where Ezzie’s shoe is, if you let me bring my tote bag full of unicorns.”

Studying his daughter, he could see his answer written all over his tiny psychic’s face. “You win. Where’s the shoe?”

Everly let out a joyous giggle. “Here, Daddy!” She tossed Ezra’s missing shoe.

Ronan caught it with a grin. “You had it the whole time?”

“You always tell me to be prepared for anything. So I was!” Everly turned toward the front door. “Oh, and don’t worry about Aurora being upset because I have a second bag. She’s got one too. We were in on this together.”

“You little pirates!” Ronan reached out to grab Everly, but she darted away from him with a high-pitched scream.

“Who’s a pirate?” Ten asked, wearing an amused grin. One-shoed Ezra was in his arms.

“ Your daughter.” Ronan rolled his eyes.

“Oh, so when she does something deviously brilliant, she’s my daughter, huh?” Ten chuckled. He set his son down. “Have Daddy put on your shoe, okay?”

“DA! DA!” Ezra ran to Ronan and held up his foot. He wobbled for a second, but managed to catch his balance.

“Make sure you lock the door and set the alarm on the way out.” Ten grabbed his sunglasses from the front table. “Vacation, here I come!”

“Here, buddy, let’s get your shoe on so we can have a vacation too!”

“Fwimming?” Ezzie asked, holding out his foot.

“Yeah, we’re gonna do a lot of swimming at the beach.” Only ankle deep, if Ronan had anything to say about it. He’d seen Jaws too many times to go any deeper into the ocean.

“’Harks! Me see ‘harks!” Ezra jumped up and down.

“You want to see a shark?” Ronan asked, silently praying the only toothy predators he saw were on the television.

“Big ‘hark!” Ezra spread his arms out.

“Let’s get going and find out, okay?” Ronan wrangled Ezzie’s foot into his shoe and scooped up his son before he could get into more trouble.

Ronan grabbed his phone and the keys to the house and set the alarm. He dashed out the door and locked it.

“Come on, slowpoke!” Jude shouted from the van.

“Poke!” Ezra stabbed a bony little finger into Ronan’s cheek.

“You wanna be poked?” Ronan bopped Ezra’s nose and climbed into the van. His son laughed hysterically.

“Ten did you grab Ezzie’s bag?” Ronan asked, when their son was strapped into his car seat in the row beside Lizbet. She wore headphones and was watching Finding Nemo . On the tray in front of her was a bowl full of yogurt melts. He stuck Ezra’s headphones on and set out his snack.

“Yeah, it’s in the row behind the littles,” Ten said.

Ronan peeked his head over the seats and saw both Ezra and Everly’s backpacks. His daughter, Wolf, and Aurora sat in the last row. The girls were playing with what looked like a hundred stuffed animals, while Wolf kicked back with a book.

“Take a seat, dumbass!” Fitz shouted from the driver’s seat. “We’d like to get the show on the road before there’s too much traffic.”

Throwing a mock salute toward Fitzgibbon, Ronan took the seat beside Jude and put on his seatbelt. “Rhode Island, here we come!”

“I’m so glad Fitz picked the place this year,” Jude said. “If it sucks, then maybe you’ll all forget what happened last year in Maine.”

Ronan snorted. “Not likely. The Four Star Motel will live on in our nightmares.” If he were being honest, Ronan would admit the motel wasn’t that bad. Everyone had fun, which, in the end, was all that mattered.

“What’s the plan, Fitz?” Ten asked. “You’ve been pretty quiet about what to expect at the hotel.”

“Jace, show them.” Fitz waggled his eyebrows at his husband.

The television monitors in front of Ronan, Jude, Ten, and Cope came to life with a picture of the hotel.

“This is Hurricane Pointe. It was built in 1854. Back then it was called Holbrook Pointe, after Davidson Holbrook, the man who built the house. He was a prominent doctor, who unfortunately lost his only son, Henry, at Gettysburg during the Civil War,” Jace said, sounding like a tour guide.

“As you can see, it’s a gorgeous three story, stone-faced building.

The first and second floors have wrap-around farmer’s porches with rocking chairs.

Atop the third floor is an hexagonal widow’s walk.

The building was turned into a hotel in 1911.

The Taproom is a bar located in the basement of the hotel.

Back in the days of Prohibition, it was a speakeasy serving bathtub gin and red hot jazz.

Singers from New York would come to spend time at the shore during the summer.

Josephine Baker performed for a week in 1933, one month prior to the hurricane that nearly wiped the house off the map.

Our rooms are on the second floor overlooking the ocean.

” The picture changed to a view of the rocky Rhode Island shore.

“The beach is private and lounge chairs are provided.” The picture flipped again to show chairs with brightly colored umbrellas and little tables for drinks, sunblock or a book.

“Damn, that looks amazing, Jace. Are there things for the kids to do?” Cope asked.

“They have arts and crafts classes in the morning for the kids so that the parents can sleep late, have breakfast in peace, or get a little lovin’.”

“That sounds amazing,” Ten practically purred. “I can’t wait to sleep late. Ronan, you can take the kids to class and have breakfast sent up to me.”

“Me too!” Cope said.

“When do I get to sleep in?” Ronan asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“How about the other fifty-one Sundays in the year?” Ten shot back.

“Seriously!” Cope agreed.

Ronan opened his mouth to shoot back, when Jude’s hand on his arm stopped him. “They’re right,” Jude said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Let them win this one. We don’t want to end up sleeping on the lounge chairs on the beach instead of in those soft, fluffy beds.”

“Indeed, Jude,” Jace agreed. “The beds are all emperor king-sized, seven feet by seven feet. There’s a soaking tub in each bathroom and the suites have two bedrooms. One for us and one for the kids, although I have a feeling we’re gonna have a moving sleepover every night.”

“I’m staying with Everly tonight!” Aurora’s voice came from the back.

“YES!” Jace and Fitz said together. Both men high-fived each other. “We’re gonna have an incredible night!”

“Can it, asshole,” Jude said. “No one wants to hear about your upcoming sex marathon.”

“Sex?” Jace asked with a laugh. “We’re gonna order room service, snack in peace and read a book.

Fitz and I decided to have our own little book club.

” Jace held up Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.

“I’ve always wanted to read it and when I told him about it, Fitz did too. So we each got one.”

“Hey, that sounds like fun,” Cope said. “Maybe there will be a bookstore near the hotel that will have copies of it.”

“I’d love to sit and read a book on the beach.” Ten sighed happily.

“We thought you might say that, so I grabbed copies for all of us.” Jace grinned when Ten and Cope applauded. “I also got those little sticky tabs and cool bookmarks. We’ll have a little book club discussion group on Friday night.”

“Sounds good,” Ronan agreed. Now that the kids were older, he and Ten could get back to doing things they’d loved before Everly arrived and turned their lives upside down.

He couldn’t believe Jace wanted to read a book about murder when that was Fitz’s stock in trade, but who was he to go against the grain?

Ronan was going on vacation with his family and his best friends. They were going to have one hell of a time and if not, he’d spend the next year mercilessly ribbing Fitzgibbon about the trip. Either way, it was a win in Ronan’s book.