The first events had been hosted, but they were still working out the kinks of having real hotel guests.
“Hear me out, because this is not a stretch,” Monica said. “We’ve already nailed down baked goods from Honey. She’ll be doing an exclusive Russell House scone for the room bakery boxes every morning. But then we were thinking, do we want to have coffee makers in all the rooms? Or would it be better to have an espresso bar in the lobby and do in-room deliveries?”
Robin said, “It would basically be a coffee stand like you started out with. The hotel would just be paying you a certain amount to make coffee in the morning. Anything above that would be yours.”
Hmmm. Could be interesting.
Monica said, “We’re doing a lot of business day-conference things since Jake finished building the ropes course. You know you could make extra money during events like that.”
Val perched on a chair. “I like the idea, but I just went through that whole expansion drama last year that didn’t work out, so I’m feeling a little wary, and also—no offense—but I want to make sure I don’t cannibalize my business here, you know?”
“Makes total sense.” Robin slid a folder across the table. “I put a couple of ideas and numbers together for you to look at.”
Val took the folder. “Of course you did.”
“It’s just some thoughts about how you could make it work if you wanted to.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “I had time.”
Monica and Val exchanged a look.
“How’s life without Emma?” Monica asked.
Robin’s youngest had shipped off to university in Washington State the previous fall, leaving Robin and her husband Mark official empty nesters.
“It’s good.” Robin nodded. “It was nice to see her and Austin over the holidays, but… it’s also nice to have the house back to ourselves again, you know?”
Monica whispered loudly, “They’re having freaky sex in whatever room they want now.”
Val whispered back, “That’s what I figured too.”
Robin rolled her eyes. “Listen, weirdos, this is me and Mark, not…” Robin’s eyes lifted when the bell over the door rang. “So, speaking of freaky sex…”
Val whipped her head around, only to see Sullivan Wescott, sheriff of Glimmer Lake and a partial source of Val’s headache, walking into the coffee shop.
She immediately spun around. “Shut up, Robin.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“You were thinking it.”
Monica raised her hand. “No, that was me, actually. I was the one suspecting you and Sully of having freaky sex.”
Val hissed, “In what universe do I have the time to have freaky sex with anyone?”
“That wasn’t a denial.” Robin held her fist out to Monica, who bumped her knuckles. “We were right.”
“You’re both ridiculous.” Val glanced at her watch. “And your time is up.”
Monica leaned over to Robin. “She’s leaving us so she can get his order.”
“Of course she is,” Robin said quietly. “I mean, who else is going to make flirty eyes at Sully? She can’t have Eve doing it. She’s young enough to be his daughter.”
Val turned, flipped both her best friends off, then walked back to the register.
Chapter 2
Val made it to the register just as Sully stepped to the front of the line. Val was tall, but Sully towered over her at well over six feet. He was wearing his uniform, along with his old-fashioned felt Stetson, which was dusted with snow. His sandy-brown hair was getting long in back and fell over his jacket collar.
“Hey, Sully.” Val kept her voice even. “What can I get you?”
“Large coffee.” His blue eyes were on her. “How’s your day going?”
“It’s going.” Val got a paper cup out. “To go?”
“Yeah.”
People liked Sully. He was considered trustworthy and the kind of man who didn’t need to shout to get attention, both qualities that fostered confidence in old-fashioned Glimmer Lake. Also, he was a massive guy. He looked and talked like someone who worked in timber, which made the old logging guys in the county vote for him.
Instead of just handing the paper cup over like she did with most customers, Val filled it, then added the amount of cream he liked before she put the lid on. “Here you go.”
Down-home, trustworthy sheriffs who walked grandmothers across the street and marshaled Christmas parades were not Val’s type.
“Thanks.” Sully reached for the cup and their fingers brushed, sending a thrill up her arm and reminding her too much of a stolen night and unwise decisions from a year and a half ago.
He might not be her type, but Sully was incredibly attractive. Not that Val would call him handsome. His jaw was square, and his mouth was a flat line across a usually serious face. His nose had been broken when he was playing football in college, and he looked like he was perpetually scowling.
To be honest, the scowl might have been the most attractive thing about him. Val constantly wanted to needle him just to see if she could make him laugh.
His eyes were the only soft thing about him, a brilliant sky blue that made Val think of a summer day on the lake. His beard looked pretty soft too, but he only wore that in the winter, so she didn’t have firsthand knowledge.
“How’re your boys doing?”
“Good.” She finally looked up. “Your parents?”
“Dad’s complaining about the weather, and Mom’s talking about planting bulbs.”
“So normal then.”
A slight smile touched the corner of his mouth. “Pretty much.”
“Two bucks,” Val said.
“For a coffee?”
“No, for fucking awesome coffee.”
“Oh, in that case…”
She could tell he wanted to roll his eyes, but instead he slid two bucks from his wallet and handed them over before he dropped a dollar in the tip jar.
Sully had lived in Los Angeles and worked there before moving back, as so many of their old classmates did, to be closer to aging parents. He’d run for sheriff in their rural mountain county twice now and won both times. He was divorced, no kids, and the one time they’d had sex had been way better than Val had anticipated.
Way, way better.
But who had time for that?
She realized she’d been staring. “Okay. Have a good one.”
The corner of his mouth lifted a little more, and he tipped his hat. “See ya, Valerie.”
Her lips parted, and she was grateful he walked away when he did. She didn’t want him to see her reaction.
Dating did not fit in her life. Men did not fit in her life, period, unless it was the ex she was forced to occasionally deal with or the two mini-men she was trying to raise. Which was why—when Sully asked her out after their one night together—she’d said no.
He’d been pissed.
Not that she’d turned him down, but all the reasons she listed.
“You know, you’re allowed to have a life.”
“It’s so obvious you don’t have kids, Sully.”
He had walked back in his bedroom and shut the door, and Val snuck out of the house, hoping no one saw her walking back to her car where she’d left it at Chaco’s. It was early, but there were always nosy people around in Glimmer Lake.
And now they mostly ignored each other. Mostly. Every now and then—like he had last night—Sully would text her.
Come over.
I can’t.
I’ll make it worth your time.
I have no time.
And that would be it. Val would lie awake in bed, thinking about all the ways she wanted to say yes and cursing how she wasn’t living her life. This wasn’t what she’d planned when she was young. She hadn’t really made any plans past the next concert or the next road trip, but she knew her life wasn’t supposed to be like this.
But she was the one—the only one—doing All the Things for her kids
and her parents and her employees.
So she would ignore Sully, and he would go silent for a few months. Until he picked a random night to mess up her sleep and make her wish her life were different.
She watched him walk out the door and get into the green pickup parked at the curb.
“Val?”
“Huh?” She turned to Eve.
Eve leaned over. “You were staring.”
Val winced. “Sorry.”
“It’s understandable. He has a really great ass. And I’m not a uniform person.”
“You’re also young enough to be his daughter.”
“So?” Eve shrugged. “Doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes.”
* * *
She arrived home about fifteen minutes before her kids. When they’d been younger, it was the only thing that allowed her to keep her sanity, those fifteen minutes of silence. Now, as they got older and retreated into their rooms and their phones and their individual social lives, Val dreaded the quiet.
It was all going too fast. Her oldest had earned his license in November. Now Jackson drove to the library to study, to his father’s house when Josh had time for a visit, out with his friends on weekends. Jackson even drove Andy to school, leaving Val feeling particularly useless.
She walked to the kitchen and grabbed the giant bottle of aspirin that lived by the microwave before she went to the shower to wash the pervasive smell of coffee and kitchen grease from her skin.
She’d done it to herself. She’d raised Jackson to be an independent kid, and he was. How was she supposed to know that one day she’d wish he was a clinger?
The front door slammed shut as Val was getting out of the shower, her skin exposed to the world like a raw nerve.
Unless she was doing chores, she tried to keep from wearing her gloves at home. She didn’t want the boys to notice and wonder about her turning into a germophobe or anything that might cause questions. She definitely needed them if she cleaned their room, but for the most part, her own small home provoked nothing but good memories. Those she could deal with.
Andy’s cheerful voice echoed down the hall. “Hey, Mom!”
“Hey, kiddo!” She rubbed a towel through her hair and thought about cutting it again. She needed a trim. She’d shaved the sides and back a couple of years before and never looked back. She kept the top long, but her hair was insanely thick and pin straight. Having the sides shaved let her do some fun things with the style and gave her neck a break. It also highlighted the tattoo work she’d gotten done on her upper back and neck.
She squinted at the foggy mirror.
You still got it. You’re still rock and roll.
Val reached in the medicine cabinet and grabbed a packet of the vitamins Monica had forced her to start taking when she hit forty. She downed the small handful in a single gulp. She was rock and roll. Headaches from not getting enough sleep and iron deficiency were not.
She pulled on a pair of yoga pants and an old concert T-shirt before she left the bathroom. She’d only been able to buy the house five years ago, and her parents had to cosign because she was self-employed, but she made every payment and it was hers.
Two bedrooms and one bath, it sat within walking distance of Misfit Mountain and the grocery store. It was more of a cabin than a house, but Val still loved it. She’d given her boys the larger room since they had to share and had taken the smallest room at the southwest corner for her own sanctuary.
“Hey, guys!”
Andy came barreling toward her. “Hola, madre.”
Val grinned. “I see someone had Spanish today.”
“Sí.” Andy adored school. He adored learning anything new. He loved languages and had a list of them he wanted to learn so he could visit far-flung parts of the globe. He got excited about group projects. He loved tests, for heaven’s sake.
Andy was an alien.
Val thought that probably one of Robin’s kids and hers got mixed up somehow, because neither she nor Josh were school people. Whatever. She wasn’t giving him back. Andy was too wonderful.
Dark eyes shaded by a fall of thick brown hair met her gaze from down the small hallway. Ah yes. Jackson was Val’s Mini-Me with his father’s good looks.
“Hey, handsome.”
Jackson cracked a smile. “Hey, Mom.”
“Any news I need to know about?”
The look on his face said there was news and she wasn’t going to like it.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Andy disappeared into his room—probably to read Tolstoy or Austen or Aristotle like the lovely alien he was—and Val walked toward her oldest.
Jackson sighed. “I got my chemistry paper back.”
“And?”
His face said it all. “D.”
“A D?” Val’s heart fell. It was a huge project, and she knew it was a big part of his grade. She wasn’t the strictest mom, and she had no illusions about Jackson getting straight As—he didn’t like school and he’d always struggled—but he was also insanely smart and science was usually his strong suit.
“What happened?” She sat at the table. “I saw you working on it. Did you not—”
“Stupid shit,” Jackson muttered. “It’s not English class, so I don’t know why they’re being so picky about grammar and shit.”
“So what if it’s not English?” Val said. “It’s still a paper. Did you not format it correctly? Didn’t you edit? You told me I didn’t need to look at it because a friend was editing for you.”
“She did, okay?” The guilty look on his face told a different story. “Don’t be uncool. I guess she’s not as good at editing as you. It’s not her fault.”
Val held out her hand. “Let me see.”
A single touch of the science paper gave Val a flash of a very cute girl and her teenage son making out in a corner of the library. The paper sat on the table beside them.
Ew. No, thank you. Val dropped the paper.
This wasn’t Jackson not understanding, this was him not doing the work. Val rubbed her temple, trying to wipe the image from her head. “What the heck, Jack?”
He rolled his eyes and Val came to her feet. “I don’t think so. First off, lose the attitude.”
“Mom, it’s one paper. Don’t overreact.”
“It’s your grades. It’s your future. Next fall you start applying to colleges, and you cannot have Ds on your transcripts, kid. That’s not the way it works. You know you have to get scholarships, Jackson.”
“Or I go to community college. We’re not rich, Mom. You know that’s what’s going to happen anyway.”
“Not if you get scholarships!”
“Why do you care so much?”
“Because I don’t want you to end up like me and your dad, okay!”
The look on Jackson’s face killed her. “You think I’m like Dad?”
Why couldn’t anything they argued about be easy anymore? Val looked to the heavens and bit her lip hard before she responded. “You know that’s not what I mean.”
“’Cause”—he was clearly pissed off—“I’m the one who picks Andy up from school and takes him to soccer practice and tells him about shaving and does all that shit. So like, I’m already doing better than Dad.”
Val walked over and put both her hands on Jackson’s face. “Look at me and take a breath.” She could see the waves of hormones and anger rolling off him. He was sixteen and had been taking on adult roles since long before a kid should have to. “Deep breaths, Jack.”
Her son inhaled and got himself under control.
“Listen to me,” Val said quietly. “I am so proud of the man you’re becoming. You’re twice the man your father is, and the fact that you have any relationship with him at all is a testament to the man you are and not the man he is. Do you understand me?”
Jackson nodded.
“When I say I don’t want you to end up like me and your dad, I meant the options you have. I didn’t think school was important and so I blew it off
, and when I needed some kind of foundation for being on my own, it wasn’t there. I had no degree. I barely had a high school diploma. I worked, but I had to work twice as hard to prove myself.”
“But you did,” he mumbled.
“Eventually. Yeah. But why make life more difficult for yourself if you don’t have to? And your dad? He’s a brilliant mechanic. He is an absolute artist with bikes and cars. But he has no idea how to run a business, so he’s always losing money. He didn’t get the training he needed to be successful. I do not want that for you.”
“You never rag on Andy—”
“Your brother is probably gonna be a professor or something and write textbooks and make us all look like idiots, okay?”
Jackson started to smile.
“School is like a walk in the park for Andy.” Val let him go and took a step back. “I know it’s not the same for you, because it wasn’t that way for me either. It doesn’t mean you’re not as smart as he is, it means you have to work for it. And that’s okay. That means you’re gonna know how to work better than your brother does.”
Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. I hear you.”
She tapped her fingers on the paper. Quickly. She couldn’t mention anything about Jackson and the girl, but this grade was clearly a result of her son not doing the work he needed to do. “There have to be consequences for this. You know there have to be.”
“Am I going to lose car privileges?”
Her father had given Jackson his old, beat-up Ford pickup. It wasn’t much to look at, but it ran and Jack loved it. It was freedom.
“No, you’re not losing the car.” She pointed to the paper. “Yet. Don’t let something like this happen again or you will. I’ll think of something. It will not be overly heinous, and in the meantime, ask Mrs. Fletcher if there’s any extra credit you can do to make up for this.”
“Okay.”
“Do you understand me about your grades? Four-year college. Bachelor’s degree. That’s your goal. Scholarships. Forging your own identity and finding amazing friends and doing all the cool stuff.” She tossed the paper on the table. “I want you to have that. You deserve to have that. But you’re not getting it unless you put the work in.”
Semi-Psychic Life: Glimmer Lake Book Two Page 2