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A text from Rick awaited me.
Got my car dug out. The roads still being plowed. Hoping to find some fridges, but might be here another night. Not sure. Have spot shoveled in the parking lot in case I’m back tonight?
I started shoveling a path from the lodge doors to the parking lot. That was the easy part. Next, I started shoveling out the aisles between the rows where cars could park, and the areas cars drove through. The less snow there to pack into ice, the better. I didn’t want any accidents in the first part of the season.
The mind-numbing repetitive nature of shoveling snow elsewhere allowed my mind to wander. It ended up wandering right back to the argument we had had last night. Well, semi-argument, I’d call it. Laurel had thought me to be her ex, and as much as I wanted to say that it hadn’t hurt, I couldn’t.
The fact that she would compare me to her ex-fiancé, no matter what the reason, convinced me that she was unable to see the difference right now. I had been a little bit the same way after learning that Sarah had never meant to be faithful to me, either, but I had never taken it out on anyone else.
I had just refused to get into another relationship. Perhaps that was the problem. She wanted to move on, but the hurt was not allowing her to. That anger was a horrible thing to hold onto. Instead of holding onto it, I had turned it into walls that I didn’t allow to topple for anyone.
No one but Laurel had been able to affect me this much since Sarah.
My phone buzzed again.
Found mini fridges for $150 a pop. Can only get 1 today. If I wait until tomorrow, I can get up to 10 without special order. What do you want?
I pulled off my gloves to answer Rick. The cold stung my fingers.
As I typed my response, I kept thinking about Laurel. The more of her food I ate, the more I realized that she was actually an amazing chef. Maybe we wouldn’t be needing quite so many fridges after all.
Tues is fine. I’ll reimburse you for extra hotel costs. Get 5.
I could always order more, but starting with five seemed like the right call. I scanned the icy lot. If Rick wasn’t coming until tomorrow night, I guessed I didn’t need to shovel the entire parking lot. We’d cancelled all reservations until Wednesday, so we still had some time before we’d need to get vehicles in and out.
Cool. On it.
Rick’s response was quick and concise. I paused before putting my gloves back on. I typed out one more message.
I think Laurel might be alright.
I’d only put on one glove by the time Rick’s response came through.
Old news to me, boss. Glad you’re coming to your senses.
That was all Rick had to say on the matter. I was glad about that. The last thing I needed after all of this was Rick deciding to tease me about something. We had an unspoken rule about teasing. Some things were fine, but my feelings were entirely off-limits. Perhaps that was why he had kept the remarks simple.
I moved around to the back of the lodge and started shoveling the path outside the kitchen so that Laurel wouldn’t have to trample through the snow when my phone buzzed. Again. I sighed, stopped where I was, and put the shovel down.
When I pulled my phone out, I found a text from Wyatt. With everything going on, I had almost forgotten that they were getting ready to come to the lodge for the summer season.
Heard you got crazy snow. Seth and I were going to come tomorrow, but maybe we’ll do Thurs or Fri? Does that still work?
I appreciated the heads-up, though I had expected as much. The snowstorm had been blowing hard, and waiting until things cleared a bit more was definitely the safer call.
I gave the all clear to my cousins before putting my phone back in my pocket. With nothing happening around the lodge for a few days, I thought tomorrow would be the perfect time to take Laurel hiking.
When I’d finished shoveling the snow away from the kitchen, my stomach growled. I pushed open the kitchen door, accidentally letting in a gust of cold air. Laurel stood at the stove, stirring a pot of noodles.
“Well, come in. Don’t let the cold cool the stove off,” she snapped. “You’re just in time. I’m making some spicy noodles with cheese and chicken.”
“That smells… that smells… wow…” I said before starting to cough.
I could smell the spice in the air, and I wondered how much she had added. It tickled the back of my throat, too, but there was nothing more to say about it.
She drained the noodles, added the cheese, and then let it bake in the oven for a few minutes just to melt the cheese. Her eyes were less exhausted now. I wondered if she had slept at all, but a glance at the clock revealed I had been outside shoveling for just about five hours.
Chapter nineteen
