Out in the hall a door slammed closed, making Emily spring up and look down at James. Like they had been caught necking in the backseat of a steamy car. Like the people out in the hall knew exactly what was going on.
“Don't,” James said, his fingers sinking into her skin, begging her to stay. “Emily...”
But it was too late, she was moving off of him, running a hand through her wild red hair and moving toward the window. She stared out for a second as he sat up in bed, before grabbing the bottom and hauling it open. Before he could call to her, she was putting her legs through the opening and escaping onto the wrap around porch.
Outside, Emily sucked in a deep breath, her body feeling shaky. She looked out on the town, people milling around easily, completely oblivious to the raging torrent of emotions she was going through. A huge part of her wanted to go back in the room, lock the door, and finish what they started. Fuck the people who might know what happened. What did they matter when it felt so good?
But the other part forced her to stand there, gripping the railing, trying to remember all the reasons it was a bad idea.
Besides, he was leaving. Which would only make the whole situation easier. A little space and she would get back to her usual self. He wouldn't have such an effect on her the next time she saw him. She watched as he walked down the path with his bags and got in his car, stifling a little surge of sadness. He didn't even bother to look up at her.
Ten
She had been mostly right. Things fell back into the old swing of things. The staff seemed a bit more at ease. She caught them shirking responsibilities and gossiping and found herself going back to her hectic antsy busyness.
And she absolutely did not jump whenever she saw a silver car drive into town. She didn't feel a weird jumping in her chest when she caught sight of a man around a corner. She didn't find herself having wild, vivid sex dreams about him at night. Nope that didn't happen at all.
She also was definitely not counting how long he had been gone.
Three weeks and two days.
So much for going away for a few days. True, maybe he had said weeks too. But he seemed to imply it would only be days.
Thanksgiving would be in several days and the inn was booked to capacity from Stars Landing family members coming into town to visit relatives. Everyone would be busy. Thanksgiving meant a full dining room for lunch and dinner. It meant the staff would go down to bare necessity so the other members got to spend time with their families. Meggie would be in the kitchen since she didn't have family in town and wasn't close with those she did have. Devon would be there trying to avoid awkward dinners with his rich and opinionated family. Alec would pitch in cleaning dishes and running food because his family was all situated an ocean away.
And, of course, Emily would be there... throwing her hands into everything. Because the last thing in the world she would ever do would be to seek out her family for a holiday. Marion was the only person she ever spent holidays with. She was gone. So Emily was on her own. Which was fine. She would much rather work so those who loved and wanted to spend time with their relatives got the chance to.
James probably wouldn't come back until after Thanksgiving passed. He would probably be spending the time with Elliott and Hannah since Hannah didn't want to travel so late in her pregnancy so they wouldn't be coming into Stars Landing to see her parents like they usually did.
Even if he did come back after, he would leave again for the Christmas break.
Emily shook her head, going back to snipping the ends off of the green beans. “You seem different lately,” Meggie said, putting down the heads of lettuce she had been inspecting.
“Different how?” Emily asked, not looking up.
“I don't know. More distracted. Day dreamy I guess.”
Emily sent her a small smile. “Don't be silly. I'm too busy for day dreaming.”
“Usually, yeah,” Meggie said, lifting a blonde brow. “One cant help but wonder if maybe you're spending a lot of time thinking about... a particular person.”
“Yeah,” Emily agreed, throwing the last of the green beans into the bowl. “I have.” At Meggie's excited look, she smirked. “I have been thinking about how much George the plumber overcharged us this last visit.”
Meggie waved a batch of romaine at her. “Deny it all you want. I know what is really going on.”
Emily rolled her eyes, walking into the hall and toward reception. She looked up, about to tell Devon he could call it a day, that she would take over the front desk, when she saw him.
James. Looking carelessly put together in pair of green corduroy pants and a gold and green plaid sweater.
She froze, her arms falling numbly by her sides. She blinked twice, thinking she might have finally just lost it. She was seeing things.
“Heya sweetheart,” he said, smiling.
“Hey,” she said then shook her head as if to try to clear the fog that had settled in it. “When did you get back?”
“A couple of hours ago,” he said, shrugging.
Emily looked accusingly over at Devon who shrugged apologetically. “I was gonna say you could go home for the day,” she said, watching his eyes light up. “But now your ass is stuck here,” she finished, laughing when he squinted his eyes at her. She turned back to James, pasting a hospitality smile on her face. “How was your business trip? Make millions of dollars?”
“Yes actually,” James said, smiling wickedly. “Well... EM Corp made millions. I just get my five percent cut.”
“So just half a million then,” Emily said, raising her brows comically. “how will you ever survive?”
“Well you know... I'll have to cut coupons and get on a budget plan. Only four star hotels from now on.”
Emily smiled. “Poor baby. So are you heading back to the city for Thanksgiving?”
“God no,” he laughed. “Hannah's idea of good food lately is graham crackers smothered in Nutella with rainbow sprinkles. Everything is tooth-achingly sweet. I cant imagine what horrendous thing she would do to a turkey.”
“Well if you're staying here,” Devon chimed in, putting down his phone. “she's going to put you to work,” he warned. “scrubbing dishes, taking trash out, sweeping the floors...”
“We do Thanksgiving?” he asked, brows drawn together.
Emily ignored the little flutter when he said the word 'we'. “Yeah, it's actually really busy for us. And we are down to a half or third staff so we have to multi-task.”
“Well,” James said, tilting his head. “I think I can handle some sweeping. A broom... that's the long stick thing with bristles, right?” he laughed. He looked at Emily for a second. “You're not visiting your family for the holiday?”
“Well, that's my queue,” Devon said, walking out from behind the desk and going toward the kitchen, patting Emily's shoulder as he passed.
“Sore subject?” James asked, stepping back and gesturing toward the front porch.
Emily followed him out, unsure why she was. “Well happy households don't usually lead sixteen year olds to hitchhike for weeks to put a few states between them.”
James turned to her, watching her face: guarded, hesitant. But she was telling him anyway. That seemed like progress. “You have no contact with them?”
“Well my father was always in and out of the picture. And my mother died a few years ago.”
“I'm sorry,” he said, feeling a pang at the memory of his own mother, dead in a car crash before Elliott became the massive success he was.
“Don't be. She died in the bottle of a bottle. It was where she was always happiest anyway.”
“No siblings?” he asked, a little uncomfortable with the cool detachment she had with regard to the death of the person who gave her life.
“I had an older brother. He flew out of there the day he turned eighteen. I never really heard much from him again.”
There was a sadness in her voice then. A certa
in level of fear at the idea that she had no clue if her brother was even alive. “Well, it seems like you found a new, better family here,” he said. At her surprised look, he gestured out toward the town. “Stars Landing. You seem to know everyone and them you. It's like one big, crazy, super close family around here.”
“Yeah,” Emily agreed, shifting her feet a bit. He was right. He touched on the feeling she had always had with regard to Stars Landing. No one had rejected her when she showed up penniless and a bit wild as a teen. Everyone had just taken her in with open arms, like she had been there all along, like her sharp edges didn't cut them every time they tried to get close to her. Stars Landing was her family. Every kooky, warm, silly, outrageous, funny, serious member of that town was a part of her ridiculous family tree. Marion had always been right there, the epicenter of her world. Mother. Mentor. Then Hannah was like a sister, Eric like a brother. Maude had been the crazy aunt who told her all about sex and the divine art of making men eat out of the palm of your hand. Hank The Friendly Grocer and Aiden had always gone out of their way to try to protect her, offer unwanted advice, and altogether act like father figures to the orphaned girl who needed direction.
She couldn't imagine a life anywhere else. A family any less absurd and varied. It made her heart hurt to even consider it.
“You made a really nice life for yourself, Emily,” James said, sounding uncharacteristically serious. Her eyes found his, deep and almost unhappy. “I mean it. I cant imagine having been so decisive and responsible at sixteen. Hell, when my mother died, I went into full-on angsty teenager mode. Being a dick to Elliott who was trying to put himself through college and get a life together for us. I really should say thank you for that. Or, you know, show up to work in a suit once in a while.”
Emily's hand reached out and found his, squeezing. “You were a kid,” she said.
“So were you,” he said, attempting a small smile.
“I was never a kid,” she said, pulling her hand away and moving away from him. She walked back toward the door. “You should sleep for the next few days. You're not accustomed to the kind of work you are going to need to do on Thanksgiving.”
–
He actually surprised her. He surprised everyone. Including himself probably. He had already been up before everyone else, standing in the kitchen with the coffee already brewing, wearing an absurd bright yellow Stars Landing t-shirt and looking completely rested.
He clapped his hands together when Meggie, Devon, and Alec joined them. “Alright,” he said, sounding entirely too eager. “when is everyone getting here?”
They all looked around at each other and Emily smiled. “We are everyone. It's just the five of us.”
“For that whole dining room?” James asked, his eyes wide.
“Yup,” Emily said, enjoying his shock. “And you are perfectly right to look that petrified. It is a rough day. But then when everything is all calm, we come in here and open some wine and stuff ourselves until we need to be rolled back home.”
“Well at least there's that,” he said, trying not to lose his enthusiasm.
He held it together for the first sitting, greeting tables, being his usual charming self. He ran food. Mostly to the wrong tables, but he tried his best. He rolled up his sleeves after the last table left and loaded the dishwasher. He refilled the table caddies. He mopped the floor. All while maintaining his jovial, calm demeanor.
Then the dinner seating came in and all hell broke loose. And he lost his shit. Emily watched as she rushed past, quick but efficient. Almost effortless from years of practice. He kept running his hands through his hair, making it stick up in odd ways as he fanned himself with a server book that he had dropped at three wrong tables already. He piled used plates up in arms cradled like a baby, making the contents smash up against his belly and cover his shirt. He hadn't been paying attention when he was rinsing dishes and sprayed himself in the face.
Emily walked into the kitchen as he scalded his hand on a boat of gravy, cursing, and dropping it. It fell in slow motion, spilling and splintering across the floor. He stood there, eyes wide, panicked. A hysterical, hiccuping laugh burst out of her, making her bend forward, forcing tears to run down her face. God, he was a mess.
She looked up to see James looking at her like she lost her mind. “Sorry,” she strangled out, wiping her cheeks. “Sorry... you just... really suck at this.”
“Gee thanks,” he said, his face looking all the more strained.
“No, really. You're like the worst server I've ever seen. But you do it with such enthusiasm.”
“So I'm an amusing failure?” he asked, his lips quirking up a bit.
“You failed so hard at this,” she agreed and then he was laughing too. Meggie joined in, not understanding why, but laughing simply because they were so worked up.
Alec stormed into the kitchen, all long hair in his gorgeous man-bun and his perfect, manicured beard making him look like some kind of lumberjack model. He stopped cold, looking around at them like they lost their minds. “You all know we have a full dining room, right?”
They all sat down to dinner sometime after nine that night, everyone looking ragged, moving around like they were in pain. It had taken hours to get the kitchen and dining room back to order after the guests had left.
Meggie piled all the leftover food into bowls and they all plowed into it in greedy silence. James was across from Emily and when her food was half way picked through, she extended her leg and kicked his foot under the table. “So did you enjoy your first real work experience?”
“I have blisters on my feet,” he groaned. “and burns on my arms.”
“And you kinda smell like crap,” Devon added, sitting next to him, wrinkling his nose. “Sorry,” he said at James' horrified expression. “but it's true. Alec needs to take you out back and hose you off.”
Alec shook his head, waving his fork. “He wasn't that bad,” he said, making Meggie, Devon, and Emily break off into laughter. “Alright, fine, he was complete rubbish. But he did it with flair. I think half of those women would have left their husbands for him. Even when he brought them the wrong food for the fourth time.”
“Incompetence is in,” Emily agreed, throwing a bit of dinner roll across the table at James.
“Alright,” Meggie jumped up, seeming boundless in her energy. “I'm gonna load the dishwasher one last time and we can call it a night. We are gonna be super dead tomorrow so we can catch up on everything then.”
“Why are we going to be dead?” James asked.
Emily's eyebrows drew together and lowered. “Seriously?” she asked. He gave her a genuinely uncomprehending look and she shook her head. “Tomorrow is black Friday,” she explained. “everyone will be heading into the bigger cities to do some Christmas shopping.”
“Oh,” James said, feeling stupid. That made sense. The town really didn't have a lot of options for holiday shopping.
“So you can soak your tired feet,” Emily smiled.
“I have a better idea,” he said, standing and reaching into his pocket. He drew out a pamphlet and handed it to Emily. “I want to go there.”
Emily took the folded paper with a furrowed brow. “The lodge? Why do you want to go to the lodge?”
“Elliott is in some kind of negotiation with them. I'm just curious. I need a guide.”
Emily looked over at Devon who lifted his hands out like he had no idea what he was talking about. “I think Dev would be a better tour guide,” she suggested. “seeing as his family owns it.”
“Oh, hell no, boss lady,” Devon said, shaking his head. “I am not going up there. That's all on you,” he declared, kissed Meggie on the cheek, and headed out the back door.
James sent her a confused smile and she shrugged. “Family,” she explained. “So when do you want to leave?”
“Tomorrow morning. Eightish? We should be back by dinner time.”
Eleven
&
nbsp; She walked into the kitchen at seven, bent on getting a few cups of coffee in her before they hit the road. She hadn't expected to walk in and find James already there, arms of his blue sweater rolled up to his elbows as he carefully stacked the dishwasher with the rest of the dishes from the night before.
“Hey,” she said, her tone curious.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “It didn't seem fair to leave Meggie with all the work. I thought I would get a head start on it before we go.”
Emily nodded, walking over to the coffee machine. Of course he was up and doing the right thing. Because underneath all the charm and confidence, there was an actual decent human being.
If she were being honest with herself, she was looking forward to showing him the lodge. It would be nice to get out of the inn. Out of the boos/employee relationship. Out of the power struggle that would always be a part of being at the inn.
Emily reached into the cabinet for her travel mugs and filled them.
“So I hear the lodge has a big draw,” James said, walking back, holding out a piece of coffee cake that Lena had dropped off an hour before.
“Yeah,” Emily said, handing him his coffee. “not usually this early. But from December through March, they're typically at capacity. Which we are thankful for because we get the leftovers who still want to go and are willing to do the drive every morning.”
“How far is it?”
“In good weather... about half an hour. But it's a really steep hill so if we have any kind of weather, people get stuck on either side of the mountain. Sometimes they get our guests camping out there while we have theirs here.”
“That's why Elliott wants to put the gondola lift thing between here and there I guess.”
“Really?” Emily asked, surprised but hopeful at the prospect. It would mean a lot more business for the inn. And the town in general.
What The Heart Knows Page 8