The Lakeside Inn, Leeanna Morgan [rosie project TXT] 📗

Penny nodded. “I knew I should have kept reminding her about not putting anything on Facebook. Why would she do something like that?”

A sleepy-headed Diana stepped out of her bedroom. “I missed the first part. What’s happened to the letter?”

Katie had grabbed her cell phone. “Mom’s told everyone about the letter.” She tapped the screen, then turned her cell phone toward her sister.

Diana squinted at the screen. “What was she thinking? We don’t even know if Abraham Lincoln really wrote it.”

Penny leaned against the wall. “I should have known something like this would happen. She was so excited about finding the letter, that she couldn’t wait to tell everyone.”

Barbara read the Facebook post and sighed. “I wonder what Dad thinks?”

A horrible thought crossed Penny’s mind. “It’s not Dad we have to worry about. He’s used to Mom. I’m more concerned about Wyatt. His face appears in nearly all the photos as well as the video.”

Diana bit her bottom lip. “If a journalist picks up the story and they see him, he won’t be left alone.”

Penny ran toward the stairs. “I’m going to let him know what’s happened. If he calls, tell him I’ll be there soon.” She just hoped Wyatt was still asleep and hadn’t looked at his Facebook page. The last thing either of them needed were buses of Abraham Lincoln fans descending on Sapphire Bay. Especially if the letter turned out to be fake.

Penny ran to Wyatt’s back door. She couldn’t see any movement inside the house, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t awake and reading the community Facebook page or, even worse, his own.

Before she knocked on the door, she pressed her nose against the glass and peered inside. Wyatt wasn’t in the kitchen or the dining area, so that had to be a good thing. Just in case he was on his way downstairs, she banged loudly on the wooden frame. Nothing.

With a sigh of relief, she leaned against the door and tried to think of some way of deleting the post before he saw it.

“Are you looking for me?”

Penny froze. Slowly, she turned and looked at Wyatt. “Hi.” She took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face. “Have you looked at Facebook this morning?”

Wyatt frowned. “I haven’t been anywhere near the Internet. I’ve just come back from an early morning walk.” He reached into his back pocket. “Should I—”

“No!” Penny rushed forward, holding his hand at his side. “There’s something you need to know before you look at your phone.”

“Your mom has done something she shouldn’t, hasn’t she?”

She cringed. “Why would you say that?”

“Because the only time you get nervous is when your mom’s involved in something that could cause problems. What’s Mabel done?”

Penny cleared her throat. “You know how the lady from the Smithsonian said not to tell anyone about the letter we found?”

Wyatt groaned. “She told everyone about it on the community Facebook page, didn’t she?”

She looked down at her feet.

“It’s worse?”

“Much worse. She included six photos and a video clip of when we found the letter. And you might be in one or two of the photos.” She didn’t want to tell Wyatt just how many times he appeared in her mom’s post. That would be far too stressful.

Wyatt’s eyes widened. “Why did she tell everyone?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s probably because she’s excited about finding the letter. I don’t know what she’ll do if the Smithsonian tell us the letter isn’t real.”

“I’m sure she’ll think of something,” Wyatt muttered. He gently removed Penny’s hand from his arm and turned on his cell phone. For the next few seconds, the phone didn’t stop beeping.

With a sinking heart, she hoped those beeps didn’t mean what she thought they did. “Are they messages that have been left for you?”

Wyatt checked his cell phone. “Sixty-four to be precise. When did Mabel post the message?”

That’s what worried Penny the most. “Fifteen minutes ago.”

“You’ve got to be kidding?”

“I wish I was. I’m really sorry. I didn’t know Mom was going to tell everyone. She promised she wouldn’t.”

He opened his email account and cringed. “More than thirty people have emailed me to ask about the letter. What am I supposed to tell them? The Smithsonian is still working through all the scenarios to see if the letter is real.”

“A lot of people won’t care whether or not it’s real. They’ll be more interested in why it was written and how it ended up in Sapphire Bay.”

Wyatt took another look at his cell phone and frowned. “The local television station wants to do a story about the letter.”

“Maybe if you ignore everyone, they’ll go away.”

“No one goes away,” he muttered. “And no one is safe. If I don’t talk to them it will only take a few minutes for them to find you and your sisters.”

“We could always stay somewhere else for a few days?”

“It will take more than a few days for the interest in this story to disappear. Have you talked to your mom?”

“Not yet.”

Wyatt crossed his arms in front of his chest. “In that case, I suggest we go and see your parents now. Otherwise, your mom might do something even worse.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.”

“You might be surprised.”

Penny sighed. Nothing her mom did should have surprised her. But she was caught off-guard this morning.

“Why did you do it, Mom?”

Wyatt was impressed with Penny’s restraint. On the way across town, she didn’t make any excuses for her mom’s behavior. She’d sat quietly in the front of his truck while her sisters talked non-stop in the back seat, squashed around a confused-looking Charlie.

“I thought the community would want to know what we found. I told everyone we didn’t know if the letter was real, but most people have overlooked that comment.”

The phone rang again. Allan muttered something under his breath before pulling the cable out from the wall.

Diana frowned. “You promised you wouldn’t say anything. What if someone breaks into Grandma’s house to look at