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Boone
I wokethe next day after a fitful night of sleep. Angela hadn’t complained once about the state of the rooms she’d had to clean, and her answer about going back up north had been an adamantno. Staring up at the ceiling, I lamented my situation. Apparently I was stuck with her until Grace came back. And she should have to come back early just for making me deal with this entitled—
My alarm clock sounded before I could mentally finish the sentence.
What was she anyway?Bitchwas too strong a word, because she hadn’t done anything overt since returning. Recalling how she’d captured my gaze yesterday both walking across the street to the bank in the morning and then again at the hotel, I settled onsiren. She was evil disguised as a temptress.
“You worked her pretty late last night,” my aunt noted when I wandered into the kitchen.
I ignored the comment. “Last night you said there was a Wi-Fi problem?”
“That’s right.”
I went to the back room and checked the Wi-Fi repeater I’d installed for Grace. As I suspected, it had been unplugged, so I rectified that.
“Fixed,” I announced when I returned to the kitchen.
“So why did you work her so late?” Marge asked.
I opened the fridge and grabbed the orange juice. “Jeannine and Sarah-Sue walked out yesterday, leaving us high and dry as far as housekeeping goes. We had a lot of rooms to clean.”
She appraised me over her coffee mug. “Couldn’t some of them have waited until today?”
I shrugged and poured my glass of juice. “That’s not a proper way to run a hotel. She wanted a job, and that’s the job.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Grace asked me to find her a job, and I did.”Demandedwas more like it. I needed Grace more than she realized.
“What do you have against the girl anyway? She seems nice enough to me.”
“Nothing.” Maybe I should’ve expected this line of questioning from Marge, but I wasn’t prepared. “I’ll have you know I cleaned some of the rooms myself as well.”
My aunt put a finger to her chin. “Didn’t you date her once upon a time?”
I gave her a one-shoulder shrug. “It was a long time ago.”
“I see,” Marge said slowly. “Well, sometimes the old hurts are the hardest to deal with. Time often magnifies minor affronts. So, promise me you’ll be nice to her today.”
There was nothing at all minor about what Angela had done to me. “There’s nothing to deal with. And who said I wasn’t nice yesterday?”
“Have it your way. Promise me you’ll be even nicer to her today.”
“Maybe if she’d been willing to wait, we could have found her something higher class.” I sipped my juice. “Something that didn’t require getting her hands dirty and doing real work.”
A grin crept across my aunt’s face. “Interesting.” It was never a good sign when she found something interesting, and it was rarely the end of the conversation.
“Where is she, by the way?” I asked, checking my watch for effect.
“Haven’t seen her yet this morning.”
Setting my juice down, I walked to the door. “I better go check on her. It wouldn’t look good for her to start late on her first full day.” Mostly this was a way to escape my aunt’s interrogation.
Marge nodded as I left. “Pancakes are staying warm in the oven, just waiting for you two.” She emphasized the last words as if we were inseparable.
I could see a light on inside the cottage through the curtain over the sink, so at least I wasn’t waking her up. Why did I care about waking her up? What I really needed was an air horn, a cow bell, or something equally loud, something she’d hear without me having to walk over to the cabin to rouse her.
I knocked.
