AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Because you miss Grace.”
I wasn’t doing this. I wasn’t going to talk about Grace. Junie would ask if I’d read the note yet, and I didn’t want to admit that I’d tucked it away in my drawer alongside Amy’s necklace, unopened.
Was Junie going to mention whatever was going on with her and Mason? I’d had enough of that radio and talk of Christmas to last for a lifetime.
Not waiting for midnight, I tipped the sparkling cider back and downed it in one gulp.
“Happy New Year, Junie. Good night.”
* * *
Days passed.Guests came and went, though not as many as we’d had during the holidays. That didn’t bother me, though. This was how things had always gone.
The inn’s traffic would stay slow until Valentine’s Day, when couples liked to come for a mountain getaway. Then they’d trickle down again until summer when the lake thawed. Then the hayrides and camping parties would pick up in the fall.
Inevitably, there were family members who had no interest in camping and would bunk at Harper’s Inn instead. And undoubtedly, the rooms were already booked for next December by now.
I did my best to avoid my cousin at all costs. I spent the majority of my time in the barn, looking after the horses and repairing dents in the sleighs or at my cottage, drowning in as many books as I could read.
I couldn’t help overhearing conversations, though. Junie’s voice as she talked on the phone carried through while I passed with one of her totes of decorations that she’d asked me to retrieve.
“I’ll be holding interviews this weekend,” Junie said as I pushed into the office.
Interviews? What was she talking about? I didn’t ask.
She and Aunt Meg had always handled the inn. That was probably still the case even if Aunt Meg was living in Southern Utah during the cold winter months.
I wasn’t going to intervene.
On my way out of the office, Junie stopped me with a hand on my arm and held her phone aloft. “Hang on a second. Mom, didn’t you want to ask Boone something?”
I faced her, waiting while Junie tapped her screen to put the phone on speaker.
“Boone?” Aunt Meg said through the phone. Her chipper voice wasn’t unlike her daughter’s. I pictured her—she was tall and thin, with freckles and a bit more wrinkles than Junie had.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“You still have all of Grandpa’s books at your place, don’t you?”
I flicked a questioning glance at Junie but she only shrugged, lifting the phone.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve been making my way through them.”
Grandpa Harper had an old collection of stories written in the early 1900s. The writing took some getting used to and was much slower paced, but I enjoyed the stories and their messages.
“Perfect,” she said. “Junie found one that I’d like you to add out there, if you would please. I think it goes with one of Grandpa’s collections.”
Junie lifted a leatherbound with worn edges from its spot on her desk, waving it and smiling.
“I can do that,” I said as excitement slicked through me. I’d made my way through those old books a few times now. “Having something new to read will be great.”
“How are you doing out there, anyway?” Aunt Meg asked.
Junie tilted the phone toward me, angling her head with curiosity as if she wanted the answer to that as well.
Meddlesome women. I was sure Aunt Meg meant well, and it’d been several weeks since I’d spoken to her at all.
I refused to glance at Junie. “Fine, thanks. I’d better get going.”
