Page 21 of A Winter Thaw

Michelle nodded, beaming at the woman. “Well, that’s a plan then.” All at once, the guests felt like family instead of strangers she was anxious to impress. “Let’s get on upstairs and I’ll show you to your rooms. Then I’ll return in just a minute with clean sheets and a welcome basket for the kids’ room.”

She led the guests upstairs, and got the cold couple settled in the tiger lily room first. She heard the woman start talking excitedly about taking a hot bubble bath as soon as the door closed. Michelle chuckled and continued on down the hallway, leading the other guests to where their rooms were.

Once the family was settled, she hurried back down the stairs to get a clean set of sheets and a welcome basket for the kids’ room. She stopped by the kitchen and threw a few extra granola bars and a bar of chocolate into the welcome basket. They were being so kind, she wanted to be extra kind to them too.

“These rooms are just wonderful,” the woman said to Michelle as they started putting fresh sheets on the bed in the kids’ room together. “So charming and inviting.”

“So cozy!” piped up the preteen, who was sitting in the armchair, snuggled under a blanket already. “I could read here for hours.”

Michelle chuckled. “I’m so glad. If you need any extra blankets, there are some in a cupboard in the hallway. And if you need anything at all, please just let me know.”

For a moment, she had a vision of herself trying to manage requests from every guest in the hotel all at once and she inhaled, reminding herself that nothing of the kind was going to happen.

I’ve survived the first hour, she joked to herself. Maybe it’ll all be downhill from here.

She showed the family how to work the remote for the Christmas trees, and the kids were practically squealing with glee over it. Laughing, Michelle left them to their fun and made her way downstairs.

Her coffee was still resting on the desk, but it was cold. She was grateful for it regardless, and gulped half the mug down right away. Sighing and shaking her head, she sat down in front of her laptop and started making her way through the unread emails.

She’d finished replying to three of them—her fingers typing at lightning speed—when she realized she hadn’t listened to the voicemails yet. She got her notebook and pencil ready again and hit play on the first voicemail. It was a short and sweet voicemail from a family that had just left, talking about how much they’d loved their stay.

Michelle smiled and saved the voicemail, feeling excited to share it with Audrey and Elaine when they got back. She started to play the next one, tapping her fingers against the desk in her impatience to get through all of the work she had to do. She felt a sense of urgency, as if all the people who had called and emailed were standing in front of her, clamoring to be heard.

Her eyes widened when she heard the voice of an elderly woman who was speaking at a snail-like tempo. Michelle leaned forward, tapping her fingers faster, as if that could make the woman’s message start going faster. The old woman rambled on and on about the last time she’d been to Coral Sands and what a great time it had been. Michelle was scrunching up her face in frustration by the time the woman finally stated that she was hoping to visit The Birchwood House in January and she wondered if they had any rooms available.

Michelle heaved a sigh of relief as the message ended, and she jotted down a note to call—no, email the woman back and let her know that they had rooms available in January.

I feel bad, she thought with a wince. But if the voicemail was that long, heaven knows how long a phone call would be. I’ll call her later today once I’ve gotten everything under control, but I’ll email her right away.

She listened to the rest of the messages, jotting down information quickly. One man spoke in such a garbled manner she had to listen to his message three times before she could understand what his name was. Finally, all the voicemails had been checked, and she turned back to her emails, her brain buzzing.

She noticed her yogurt parfait and grabbed it, bringing the spoon to her lips with a sigh. In all the flurry, she’d forgotten to eat, but she was still incredibly hungry. She ate the parfait while she worked on the emails, some of which were long and confusing but most of which were short and easy to deal with.

Finally, an hour later, Michelle had replied to every email and sent a message to everyone who had left a voicemail. She leaned her head back in her chair and let out a faint groan. She felt as though it was seven p.m., when in reality, it was just barely lunch time.

I don’t think I’ve ever properly appreciated just how nice it is to have a team running this place, she thought, shaking her head and downing the last of her coffee. We need lots of hands to keep things running smoothly when a rush like this hits. I’ve never had to deal with something like this before, because every time I turn around, Mom and Grandma are taking care of the little details that need doing.

She smiled, thinking about how great Elaine would be at calling back the long-winded elderly woman and having a pleasant chat with her, and how Audrey would have had the rooms cleaned the second the previous guests vacated. For a moment, she wished they were back at the hotel with her with all her might.

Then she remembered the looks of excitement on their faces as they’d set off across the airport. She was determined to deal with everything that needed doing in an efficient and professional manner, no matter how hard it was. She didn’t want to have to call her mother or grandmother and tell them she needed them to come back, and she didn’t want them to come home and find that things were falling apart.

I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do a great job, she thought fiercely. I’m going to reassure Mom and Grandma that things are going great here, and it’s going to be true.

She shut her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. Her brain felt messy, as if everything that she’d carefully organized in her thoughts had been tossed around and knocked over. She steadied herself, wondering what she should do next. There was some cleaning to be done, some social media work to be done, and she would need to feed herself lunch. After that, she would need to check the email and the voicemails again, and she should probably call that woman back…

“Arf!”

Michelle’s eyes opened wide and she straightened up in a hurry. “Puddle!” she gasped.

Puddle sat on the floor in front of her, wagging her tail and looking up joyfully. Something white was poking out of her mouth. It looked like a feather.

“You—what?” Michelle stammered. She glanced down the hallway, feeling confused. For a second, she wondered if she’d fallen asleep and was having a bizarre dream. “I put you in your closet.”

Puddle stood up and wagged her tail so emphatically her whole back end moved back and forth. Michelle stood up too, feeling concerned about the feather in Puddle’s mouth.

“Good thing we don’t own chickens,” she muttered. “Or I’d be really worried.”

She was just bending down to pick Puddle up when she noticed another feather on the hallway carpet. Her eyes traveled to the grand staircase, where she saw three more feathers.