Next on the list was gathering interest for the wedding expo. I uploaded some stunning black and white shots of the chapel from a distance. Its rustic façade would make a great backdrop for professional wedding photos. I searched for bridal websites and took out some paid advertisements, describing Cedarwood Lodge and its amenities. Perhaps the start of December would give me enough time to organize the expo? Would that be enough time get the chapel fixed, and furnished? I wrote furiously about all the things I’d need to do in order for it to happen. I paused again, wishing Amory was here to help. We usually worked together on weddings and big events, I missed brainstorming with her. Whenever I erred on the side of caution, she pushed me over that precipice into believing I could do it.
Once notes were made I designed an e-newsletter and sent it to my contact list with a subscription link to sign up.
There was a knock at the door, and Kai stuck his head in. “You’re early,” I said, stating the obvious – he was always ahead of schedule.
“I’ve always been an early riser, can’t help it. Usually I go surfing before work, but there’s no surf here, and the lake is a little flat… so here I am.” His tousled hair was windblown, and not quite as blond without weeks of sunlight to bleach it.
“The lake?” I laughed, picturing Kai trying to surf on the still water in this chilly autumn morning. In summer it would be great for kayaks, paddle boarders, kids with boogie boards… It wouldn’t be long now before it froze, perhaps we’d need to invest in ice skates?
“Well up you get!” he said.
“Up for what?” I pulled my jacket tightly around me as the draught blew in from the open doorway.
He tutted, but his eyes twinkled mischievously. The look spoke volumes. “Time to head up the mountain before the work day starts in earnest.”
I furrowed my brow. “It’s not even seven in the morning, Kai. It’s freezing out.” Winter was creeping closer every day, the sky dark, somber. And I did not climb mountains, not for anything. I was made for heels not hiking boots.
“Then we’ll walk faster. Come on,” he took my hand, leaving me no choice but to follow, and snagged my scarf from the hook and passed it back to me. Still, I tried to extricate myself with excuses.
“Kai, it’s very sweet of you to invite me, but I’m not really a fan of exercise. You go, and I’ll have a nice hot coffee for you when you return. I’ve got so much work to do!”
“No dice. Get going.” He stood behind me with his palms against my back, pushing me like a child, before grabbing my hand and starting out in a jog. The shock of cold air on my face, and running, was almost too much to bear.
It wasn’t until we were at the foot of the mountains that I noticed he still held my hand. For warmth, I surmised, hailing from a sunny climate he probably felt the cold more than me – and it was brisk so early in the morning.
“Nothing like starting the day with some blood pumping activity. You’re lucky to live here, Clio. This is my idea of heaven. The mountains, the lake, the steep bluff in the distance. So many adventures to be had.” His voice carried up the mountain but it was all I could do to keep up. He dashed ahead and dragged me along.
My lungs burned following his hectic pace. “You’re like a mountain goat!” My body was not made for running.
“Wait until you see the sun from up here. It’ll be worth it.”
“I much prefer the little glow of yellow from my office lamp.” Why on earth did people do this? My calf muscles froze in protest.
“Didn’t you ever head to the summit when you were younger?” He was annoyingly chipper. And wholly with breath. I pulled my hand from his grasp and doubled over, hands to hips. I was going to die, I was sure of it.
Once I’d caught some semblance of breath I said, “No I didn’t climb up to the summit! But I’ve seen the postcards, that’s enough! Micah had his sporty friends for insane challenges like that while I waited in the comfort of the living room with the heater on.”
The earth was soft, and velvety from dew, and the smell of ozone was thick in the air.
Kai grinned. “This is what you need, Clio. To save you from sleepless nights, and carrying around that anxiety that you try your best to hide.”
How did he know I couldn’t sleep? “I don’t know what you mean.” I couldn’t hide the haughtiness in my voice. “As if trudging up a wet and slippery mountain could ease any pain, it will probably cause more.” Who was with this guy with his breathing techniques, extreme sports, and mumbo jumbo? And still he was peaceful – as if he was exactly where he was meant to be.
“You’ll see. Keep going, princess, we’re almost there.” Once again he took my hand and hauled me the rest of the way. Once we reached the peak, he spun me around to check out the vista. I was dizzy with disorientation.
Arms crossed and disdain evident on my face, I was set to ridicule him, but the words froze on my tongue. Under the blanket of early morning fog, the view was breathtaking, trees spanned for miles undulating on the landscape. Dark atmosphere and gray clouds sat heavily above, making the green of the ground more vivid. The sun splintered the sky, one lone ray landing on the earth like a spotlight.
I felt Kai’s gaze on me. Damn it. It was spectacular and I wanted so much to have told him he was insane for making me do this.
“It’s very… pretty,” I managed.
“It sure is,” he laughed, not taking his eyes from mine.
The air was thick with words unspoken and for one lonely minute I pictured Kai kissing me. How had I gone from abject misery climbing a steep range to floaty desire? There was something so mystical about him, like he was at one with the earth, and soaked up the beauty of nature, and it was compelling. I shook the thoughts away and blamed it on lack of oxygen at this altitude.
“Next we’ll try yoga. At midnight. I’ll make you so relaxed you’re floppy.”
I went to argue, but couldn’t form words. Midnight yoga?
***
Later that morning I was measuring the ballroom up for furniture placement, and planning table and chair combinations. In town the local party store had furniture for hire, probably left over from when the lodge closed. Eventually I’d buy my own to fill the ballroom but for now hiring would suffice. My cell phone squawked, the alarm I’d set reminding me of my cunning plan. I shuffled my paperwork together and went to hide in my office until both Isla and Micah had left for Puft.
Safely ensconced with the door locked, I texted Aunt Bessie: They’re on route. xxx
Thirty minutes later Aunt Bessie text back: Oh they make the cutest couple! They were both a little bewildered when I said you’d been called back for an urgent meeting! So far they’ve spent a lot of time looking at the table. Will interfere if I need to xxx
Micah would see straight through my cancellation but that was OK. I’d just deny it –hopefully he’d be all starry-eyed and ready to give love a chance, and then he’d forget about that tiny detail. It could happen!
Let me know how it ends up. I’m not saying I expect a marriage proposal but a date would be nice. Xxx
While I waited for news I punched purchase orders into the laptop. The paperwork side of the lodge was never ending and we hadn’t even opened yet. To keep track of what we were spending I entered it every day, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it up myself once we were busy with guests. With staff wages, purchases and invoicing, I’d need a full time book keeper to keep things on track. The costs were mounting up with the renovations, but I did some quick breathing exercises to pull me from panic, and then stopped and laughed. Damn Kai and his mumbo jumbo…
An hour later my email pinged. A bride-to-be had seen the chapel photos on Instagram and wanted to visit next month to survey it as a potential wedding venue. I could feel it in my bones that Cedarwood was going to be popular because of its unique appeal. Even with my amateur attempt at photography it was attracting enquiries. I emailed her back and told her about the bridal expo and held my breath as I sent it. There was n
o going back now. There’d be brides and bouquets as far as the eye could see at Cedarwood Lodge in December if I could pull it off. Who needed sleep anyway?
I jumped up to find Kai and see if he’d stay on and give the chapel the TLC it needed, but then the door swung open, catching me mid-flight.
“Kai, you won’t believe…” my words dried up. “Micah, oh hi. What is it?” He wore a look of mutiny and I knew damn well why. It was all I could do to stifle giggles and instead appear unruffled.
With folded arms he said, “The old set-them-up and don’t-arrive trick? I really thought your match making days were over, but I guess not.” He stared me down and it was all I could do to keep a straight face. He couldn’t actually prove I’d done it on purpose.
I put a hand to my chest. “Me? I did no such thing! As you can see,” I gestured to the multitude of paperwork scattered over the desk, notebooks filled with scrawls and the laptop glinting with pictures of the lodge on a slideshow. “I’ve been extremely busy and an emergency cropped up. Anyway, how was it?”
He rolled his eyes dramatically. “When you use that chirpy voice it’s even more obvious. It was a set up and Aunt Bessie was in on it. She was one step away from lighting candles and serenading us.”
Dang it! Aunt Bessie, like me, was a hopeless romantic, but wasn’t exactly subtle at times. “Did Isla catch on?”
“I’m sure Isla thinks Aunt Bessie is great, if not a little zealous with customer service.”
I laughed. “Well, look, you survived a real date!”
Groaning, he fell into a chair and rubbed his face. “She’s great: funny, beautiful, and totally eccentric when she talks about flowers, which she does a lot, but she’s leaving, right? When Cedarwood is finished. So what would be the point? Don’t you see, I’m setting myself up for failure if I even consider it? We both know long distance love doesn’t work out.”
“It didn’t work for me but Timothy and I were barely out of our teens! It’s completely different. This is just another damn excuse from you. It baffles me.”
“I wish you’d focus on your own love life and leave me be. You’re being the world’s biggest hypocrite, you know.”
“Did Cupid strike me with his bow and arrow?” I harrumphed. “No, he struck you! So don’t try and turn this around on me.”
“Yeah?” his lip twitched as if he knew a secret. “And you and Kai aren’t spending any time alone together?”
“That’s only by brute force. He’s got it in his adrenaline junkie head that climbing up mountains will help me sleep. And it does because my entire body aches afterwards and all I want to do is snooze so I can’t feel the muscle pain.”
He grumbled under his breath and I knew I’d won the battle.
Men. Love wasn’t that complicated, surely? My mind drifted to Kai, and I thought about him packing up his truck with all his tools, and driving off into the sunset, and I understood Micah’s worry a little better.
“Yeah, well, dating Isla isn’t a good idea,” he said. “She’s great, but she’s a nomad, going from job to job.”
“Hmm,” I mused. Really, anything could happen, right? Isla could fall in love with Cedarwood and want to stay on…
Had I broached that possibility with her?
Chapter Nine
“So I’ll organize someone to fix the stained glass windows?” Kai leaned against the stone wall of the chapel, pad and pen in hand. It was cooler inside, the thick limestone walls absorbed the frosty air.
“Yes, ideally I want to keep these windows.” Light leached through the glass and colored the stone floor in prisms of light. The stained glass was circa 1920s and I didn’t want to lose the original. Even if it cost more to find an artist to fix what remained, it was a worthy investment. The designs were eye catching, with flowers and cherubs, a landscape made from glass.
He continued: “Before we do that though, the beams have to be raised and the rot at the base fixed. Also, the vestibule is full of rising damp, some of the stones need to be replaced. Aside from that, the main issue is refurnishing it.”
The pews still sat in solemn rows in front of the pulpit but the elements had ravaged them over the years, and they weren’t restorable.
“Could you make new pews?” I asked. “It’s not as though they’re complex, are they?” Kai hadn’t signed on to renovate the chapel, and I wondered briefly if I was looking for an excuse for him to stay. Or was it that I relied on him, and I knew he’d do the job properly, safely?
“I could knock some up. If we found some nice timber they’d last forever. If the snow and rain hadn’t seeped inside these would have lasted forever. Once the windows are fixed and the damp sorted the chapel will stay dry and the furniture will be safe all through the winter.” His breath came out wispy with fog from the cold. “I’ll get them done before I leave so you can go ahead with your expo. I’ll submit our plans to the council for approval, but you’ll have to follow up on them once I’m gone. They can get lost sometimes unless you badger them.”
I nodded, feeling a catch in my throat. Perhaps it was the chill of the room. “It’ll be so strange without you here.”
He gave me a weak smile. “No one will force you up the mountain.”
“True. Small mercies and all that.”
We lapsed into silence, as I fumbled with something to say. A knock at the door saved us, Kai made his excuses and left.
“Have you got a minute?” Isla’s forehead furrowed.
“Sure, what’s up?” I wished I’d lit the fire, the room was downright chilly, and I made a mental note to have the chimney swept ahead of the bridal expo.
“The grounds beyond the lake are a little unruly, and I wondered if you wanted me to work that far along. Or are we leaving it wilder?”
Beyond the lake was the entrance to one of the walking trails, and the land was overgrown and full of brambles. “We will need to tidy that area if guests wander that far, but it probably won’t be an issue until spring. I think Kai and Micah are the only crazy ones who climb it and they know it well enough to avoid being hurt.”
“OK, well I’ll add it to the list and see how we go for time.” She shuffled around like there was more she wanted to say.
“Anything else?” I asked, giving her a wide smile.
She chewed on her bottom lip before replying, “Clio, thanks for offering me the contract for Cedarwood, I know you would have had applicants with more experience.” It struck me the bubble we had was bursting. Everyone was thinking of their next job, of leaving Cedarwood for good. I’d miss them all, and what we shared here, it was hard to believe I’d continue without them. Still, I wouldn’t pine just yet. We had a few more weeks together.
“Your resume was best suited to us. There was no question about you being the right landscaper,” I said, meaning it.
There were times Isla had a solemnity, a heaviness as though she carried a burden. When that passed she was energetic and lively but when her guard fell like now, it was obvious there was something wrong, always hovering just below the surface. I sensed she needed a confidante.
“That’s nice of you to say.” She fiddled with her gardening gloves and wouldn’t meet my eye.
Rays of saffron sun shone through the stained glass window. “Isla, what is it? You know you can talk to me as a friend.”
“Do you have sisters?” she eventually asked.
I shook my head. “No, I’m an only child. What about you?”
“Same,” she smiled. “With my job, I don’t tend to have many friendships. They’re a little hard to maintain when I pack up and leave all the time. Sometimes I wish I was more grounded, settled, you know?”
Outside the rumble of a truck started, it coughed and spluttered like it was on its last legs – I wouldn’t miss the noise once the renovations were done. “It must be hard moving on all the time.”
She dropped her gaze. “Yes.”
“Well, how about you sit down for five and tell me what’s really bothering you
? Whatever you say stays here, in this chapel.”
She gave me such a grateful look my heart nearly tore in two. Maybe that sadness she carried was pure loneliness and I understood that, I’d felt it often enough myself since returning home, but thankfully had old friends to fall back on.
She moved from foot to foot, the air in the room humming from the noise outside. “I feel like I’ll drown in these feelings if I don’t confide in someone.”
I gestured for her to continue.
She blushed, bringing out the freckles on her nose. “He makes me forget there’s anything in the world except him and we’ve barely even talked. I can’t think straight when he looks at me, it’s the strangest thing. I’ve never had those sensations before, and I don’t know what to do.”
“With Micah?”
She nodded.
I hid a smile but inside I was jumping for joy. “Why not meet for a date and see what happens?” Micah had valid reasons for being wary to plunge into love again, but I couldn’t see what was holding Isla back. Shyness, and what else?
“I doubt Micah even knows I’m alive! When we talk it’s like this halting, awkward mess.”
“Nerves, perhaps? On both your parts…” It wasn’t my place to tell her how Micah felt but I was sorely tempted, and had to allude to it. Surely she knew, could read the signs?
“Do you think he feels the same?”
I nodded. Whoops. What else could I do? Time was running out. Isla would leave soon unless something was done. “I think you’re both struggling with the same feelings and how to act on them.”
Celebrations and Confetti At Cedarwood Lodge Page 7