Wandering Heart (9781101561362) (3 page)

As she filled the three bowls with the hot, fragrant soup, Daniel snapped open his napkin with a flourish. “You’re right, Liza. The lure of fame and fortune pales in comparison to Claire’s cooking. What was I thinking?”

Liza laughed. “I was never really worried.”

Claire bowed her head a moment, offering silent thanks for her meal, and Liza and Daniel did the same. When Claire lifted her head she was smiling. “Start everyone. I know it’s warm outside, but the soup will still cool down and taste pasty if you let it sit too long.”

As they started on their chowder, Daniel said, “So you never said who was starring in this movie. Anyone famous?”

“Oh, yes.” Liza quickly swallowed. “Very famous. Charlotte Miller and Nick Dempsey.”

Daniel’s expression looked blank for a moment. Liza could tell he didn’t know who she was talking about. “You know, she was in that comedy about the two sisters and one of them becomes a female
pirate? And the one about the secretary who becomes a country-western singer? She’s been on all the magazine covers the last few months. Haven’t you been in a supermarket lately?”

“Oh … right. I know who you mean.” He smiled and nodded and started eating again. “She’s pretty,” he added.

“Yes, she is,” Liza agreed. No question about that.

He met her eye and smiled. “Come to think of it, I’m lucky you didn’t hang around there that long. Some producer would be signing you up to be an extra, too.”

Liza rolled her eyes at his heavy-handed compliment, but appreciated it nonetheless. “Thanks, but I like my job. Maybe I’ll go to Hollywood if the inn doesn’t work out.”

Daniel laughed. “I know who Nick Dempsey is. I’m not that far out of the loop. He’s been in some suspense movies, playing police detectives or CIA agents. Those two truly are movie stars. I wonder how long they’ll be around. This could bring a lot of publicity to Cape Light.”

“Charlie Bates thinks so. He wants to persuade the producer to film a scene in the Clam Box. I guess he plans to be in the background, flipping burgers and shouting out orders.”

“That sounds about right.” Daniel laughed. “I hope he doesn’t give the cast and crew heartburn with his hometown cuisine.”

“Or worse,” Claire chimed in with a serious expression. She suddenly stopped herself from saying more. She rarely said a negative word about anyone. Liza could see that she regretted even that small comment. “Just seems a shame that the Hollywood people might get the impression that the Clam Box is the only type of food we have to offer here. There’s definitely more to New England cooking than fried clams and Charlie’s pasty chowder.”

“That would be a shame,” Daniel agreed. He helped himself to
another chunk of cornbread and slathered on a pat of melted butter. It just wasn’t fair; he ate whatever he wanted. Liza didn’t know where he put it. Wherever it landed, though, it looked just right on him.

Liza cleared away the soup bowls and chowder pot and brought them inside while Claire started to dish out their dessert. Behind the sound of the running water in the sink, Liza suddenly noticed someone knocking on the screen door at the front of the house.

She shut off the water, quickly dried her hands, and ran to answer it, trying to smooth out her hair with one hand as she ran.

As she drew closer, she saw a man and woman standing on the porch. The woman, who looked to be in her early thirties, nearly had her face pressed to the screen, trying to get a look inside.

Had her wish for an overflow of the town’s tourists come true? Liza sure hoped so. With her brightest innkeeper smile in place, she sallied forth to answer the door.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she greeted the couple. “I was back in the kitchen. I didn’t hear you knock.” She opened the door and welcomed them inside. “Are you looking for accommodations?”

“In a way, I guess you could say that,” the woman replied.

Liza noticed she was carrying a large black notebook that looked very businesslike. The man, who seemed younger, had a 35mm digital camera slung around his neck. Two cameras actually, Liza realized. He was looking around, his head craning in all directions, from the molding to the floors and back again.

Professional, she guessed. Her brother was a photographer, and she could spot one a mile away.

“My name is Judy Kramer,” the woman said, digging around in her big black nylon tote. “This is my assistant, Zach Engle.”

Liza smiled and extended her hand. “Liza Martin. I run the inn.”

“I guessed as much,” Judy replied. “It’s a lovely place. We were on
the island a while back and passed by. It caught my eye, but we didn’t have time to come in.”

Liza nodded. She wasn’t quite sure what this was all adding up to. She could tell they were not a vacationing couple, as she had first assumed. But she couldn’t guess what they wanted and just hoped they weren’t here to try to sell her something.

“You’ve probably noticed that there’s a movie filming in town. I work for the production company, booking accommodations and catering, that sort of thing.” The woman finally pulled out a business card and handed it to Liza.

Liza read it quickly.
Judy Kramer, Production Associate. Winding Hill Films.

“We’re going to film some scenes on the island over the next week or two. I wondered if we could speak to you about reserving the inn for the use of the cast and crew. We would probably need most of the space,” she added, looking around. “That might be a problem. I mean, if you have a high occupancy now.”

Liza stared at her and blinked. She felt like she might be going into shock.
Get a grip,
she scolded herself.
You just hit the jackpot. Say something smart or this woman is going to think you’re a total flake.
“I think we can accommodate your group. It’s not a problem at all. We have plenty of rooms available … Why don’t we go into the parlor and discuss it?” Liza quickly turned to lead the way, using the break to take a few deep breaths and compose herself.

“Would you like some coffee or tea? A cold drink, maybe?” she offered. “There’s some wonderful peach and blueberry crumble on hand. Homemade,” she added.

Judy smiled politely but didn’t look tempted. Zach seemed more interested, though. “My grandmother used to make crumble. That’s the one with crumbs on top, without any crust, right?”

“That’s the one.” Liza nodded. “We do all the cooking and baking right here. All the ingredients are fresh, most of them locally grown. Many of the vegetables come out of our own garden.”

As if on cue, Claire appeared. “Hello everyone,” she said cordially.

“This is Claire North. She’s our cook and housekeeper and … everything in between,” Liza said. “Claire, would you bring some crumble for Judy and Zach? And some iced tea? They’re with the film company that’s in town. They want to talk about lodging the movie crew here.”

“That would be very nice,” Claire said in her usual even tone. “I’ll be right back with that crumble and maybe some ice cream alongside. It goes perfectly.”

Claire quickly headed back to the kitchen, and Liza took a notepad and pen from her small writing desk. “So, tell me what you need and I’ll tell you what we can do.”

“I like your spirit, Liza,” Judy said, “but I think it’s only fair to warn you, this is a big group that includes some prima donnas. It will be challenging.”

“We can handle it. No worries,” Liza replied, sounding far calmer than she actually felt.

Judy sat back, looking reassured. “Let me start at the beginning. When we came to the island the first time, we were scouting for outdoor scenes. We found the beach below this property. It’s perfect. We’ll definitely shoot down there.”

“Really? That’s exciting,” Liza said, feeling the same goose bumps she had felt earlier that day, seeing all the cameras set up on the village dock. It was silly she knew, but she couldn’t help it.

“We’ve heard that the road between the mainland and the island washes out pretty often. So we thought it would be more efficient if
we housed the crew and some of the cast out here. Right now the crew is in a motel just outside of town. But it will cost tons of money if they can’t get over to the island to work when we need them here.”

“I see your problem. There has been a lot of rain this summer. How many rooms do you need?”

Judy told her the number. “Some of the guys can bunk together. They’re used to that.”

“I think we can accommodate that number of guests. No problem.”

They would have a full house, packed to the rafters. But Liza was thrilled. She hadn’t had that many people staying at one time since June, when the inn had hosted a wedding, and that was just for a long weekend.

“The big stars and the executive team will be staying in Newburyport. So we don’t have to worry about them,” Judy added.

Liza had been worried about entertaining the big stars and was honestly relieved to hear that they were taken care of. There were several far fancier hotels in the nearby town, some with spas and all the amenities. She could even guess where the stars might be staying.

“We sometimes have long breaks between shooting, especially outdoor scenes. The light and the weather … who knows what. Normally, the actors rest in their trailers, but it’s hard to bring the trailers out here. There’s no place to hook them up and other complications. So we will need rooms for the stars just for pit stops. Nice rooms,” Judy added, smiling a little too widely.

Liza guessed she was wondering if the rooms would be up to her standards. Liza was wondering the same thing. She had only taken over the inn in March, after her aunt died, but she had renovated almost every room.

“I can show you the rooms as soon as we’re done here,” Liza promised. “Almost every room has been freshly decorated.”

“That sounds great. If it’s anything like the downstairs, I’m sure it’s lovely,” Judy said quickly. “There is also the matter of feeding everyone while we’re filming,” she continued. “We normally do that with catering trucks but it’s hard to get those out here and up and running as well.”

“So you need the inn as home base while you’re shooting, and some of the crew will stay a few nights. Is that it?”

Judy laughed. “Basically, yes. But you make it sound so easy.”

“That’s what we do here.” Liza shrugged. “We give people a comfortable place to sleep and plenty of good food. And a little peace and quiet,” she added.

Before Judy could reply, Claire appeared again, carrying a tray of dessert dishes. She served Judy, Zach, and Liza and poured the iced tea into tall glasses decorated with sprigs of fresh mint and thin lemon slices.

“Wow … this is … outrageous,” Judy said between mouthfuls of crumble. She pointed at her dish. “I bet it has a million calories, but I can’t resist. You really made this?” She stared up at Claire in disbelief.

Claire nodded. “And the ice cream. Though it got a tad frosty in the freezer. It’s best right out of the churn.”

“Tastes fine to me,” Zach said. He looked over at Judy, and they seemed to silently agree on something.

Once the crumble was finished, which didn’t take very long, Liza gave the pair a tour of the inn, downstairs, and then the upper floors. Judy seemed genuinely pleased by the size of the rooms and the decor. She made a lot of notes and Zach took photos. She even picked out rooms for Charlotte Miller and Nick Dempsey, mentioning a few items the stars liked to have handy: favorite brands of
bottled water, organic dried apricots, ginger tea, and chocolate-coated Oreos, chilled in the refrigerator.

“I’ll e-mail a complete list,” she added. “Don’t worry about that now.”

Liza forced a smile. She did worry about it. They didn’t exactly live on a desert island; there was a well-stocked general store, and stores in Cape Light and beyond were easily accessible. But it was hard to shop by such specific brands. She could only imagine one of the stars having a hissy fit because she’d bought the wrong brand of dried apricots.

But look at the upside, Liza,
she coached herself.
A full house for several days, great publicity, and such excitement.
There were definitely more pluses than negatives to this situation.

Judy and Liza talked a bit more about the business end, the rates for the rooms and meals. Liza offered a group discount, and they agreed to confirm everything by e-mail once Judy got back to her boss, who was with the crew in Cape Light.

“This is going to be great,” Judy said, shaking Liza’s hand as she left. “I can’t wait to come back … and get more of this crumble.”

“I look forward to seeing you again. Claire will have more crumble ready and waiting,” Liza promised. She watched as their white Land Rover drove off. Then she stood by the door a moment, feeling a bit stunned and wondering if she had just imagined the whole thing. Were the cast and crew of a real movie actually coming here? It was just too unbelievable.

“Are they gone?” Claire asked quietly.

Liza turned to see her standing by the stairway.

“Yes, they left. But they’ll be back,” she quickly added. “And we have a ton of work to do before they get here.”

Claire’s pale eyebrows rose a notch or two. “How long will that be?”

“Two days.” Liza waited for her reaction. “That’s their schedule right now. They’re coming to the island to shoot some scenes on the beach in two days. So that’s our deadline.”

Saying it aloud, she honestly could not believe she’d agreed to this. But there it was.

Claire, in her usual way, seemed unfazed. “That is soon. How many will there be?”

“A full house. Some of the rooms will be doubled up, in fact.”

“Yes, I’d imagine they would be,” Claire said calmly. “We might need those cots in the attic. Maybe Daniel can help get them down. It will be nice to entertain a big group. Your aunt loved to see the inn filled to the brim. One of her favorite things was to put out the ‘
NO VACANCY
’ sign. I love to see a full table. That’s what we’re here for, don’t you think?”

Liza nodded. “Absolutely.”

Trust Claire to look on the bright side and not complain about the work. Liza was thankful to have her help, as always, and the blessing of her positive perspective.