“The architect. Her sister Jess’s husband.” Adrienne thought back to Vic’s cheat sheet. “Gabe just moved back to Knights Bridge?”
“Right. He’s joined Dylan and Noah’s venture capital office in town. They’ve brought in a friend from California—a woman, quite the entrepreneur. They’re renovating a Victorian house by the library. Supposedly it’s haunted.” Felicity seemed inordinately pleased at that prospect. “Gabe and I are getting married. We’ve been friends since we were tots, and it turned into romance over the summer. Short version of that story.”
“Another Knights Bridge happy-ever-after?”
“Yes. Another one. Mind you, I wouldn’t have even imagined Gabe and me together a few months ago. More likely I’d have said I’d drown him in the river the next time I saw him.”
“I understand there’s a swimming hole on the river out by your place.”
“It’s heaven. Come out before the water gets too cold.”
Meaning it was always cold, just not too cold. Adrienne thanked her for the invitation. She loved all the various small-town connections, but she had to work at it to keep track of them—who was related, who had deep roots in Knights Bridge and who had only just arrived. Vic fell into a gray area. He lived in town but wasn’t completely a newcomer or someone with generations of relatives in a local cemetery. She didn’t have even his tenuous ties to the town.
She and Felicity got to work. Felicity was organized and could grow her business and take on employees, but she liked being a solo entrepreneur and hiring freelancers when she needed more help. “My mother has her own business,” Adrienne said. “She’s achievement-oriented in a way I’m not and never will be.”
“I thought I’d follow in my family’s footsteps and end up in finance,” Felicity said, matter-of-fact. “I hacked away in that world for a while. It wasn’t my thing but it’s helped me with my own business. I figure nothing’s wasted. Does your mother give you a hard time about your career choices?”
Adrienne shrugged, aware of Adam working nearby. “She was more optimistic when it looked like I’d be a wine guru. Now she’s given up, I think. We don’t talk about it that much. She’s happy I pay my own bills.”
“Not one for a girlfriends’ weekend at an out-of-the-way country inn, is she?”
Adrienne shook her head. “No.”
“Thought not,” Felicity said lightly. “What about you? Are you one for a girlfriends’ weekend?”
“Well, I’d have to have girlfriends.” Adrienne matched Felicity’s lighthearted tone. “I do have friends, mind you, but I’ve moved around a lot and traveled a lot. So do most of them. We’re scattered.”
“The group coming next weekend are scattered, too. They met when they were students at UMass. Three live in the Boston suburbs and the rest are in Austin, Tampa, Chicago, Reno and Seattle. They’ve stayed in touch all this time.”
“We’ll make it a special weekend.”
“Are you feeling ready?”
“No, but that’s where you come in, and if I waited to be ready before I did anything, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you, in this beautiful spot, planning a great weekend for a small group of friends.”
They cruised through Felicity’s event bible and applied the various steps to the upcoming weekend, breaking it down into simple, manageable tasks. The friends had left the details to her and Adrienne, with straightforward guidelines. By the time they finished, they had a solid schedule in place, with times, who did what—anything and everything needed to make the weekend fun for the guests. Felicity had contingency plans for almost every potential emergency, from injuries and illnesses to fires and floods. “You don’t want to have to think on your feet in a crisis,” she said. “Of course, you can’t plan for or predict everything.”
Maggie Sloan recovering from a head injury, for one. She was still down to handle food but nothing else, and there was a backup if she wasn’t up to it—although there was no reason to think she wouldn’t be. Brandon would lead the friends on a hike. The atmosphere of the inn and the local area appealed to the women, and they wanted to spend time together as well as have time on their own. Felicity was setting up keepsake books for each guest. They’d arrive Friday afternoon and leave Sunday afternoon. They understood New England’s fickle weather but Felicity and Adrienne had accounted for the possibility of a rainy weekend.
By the time Felicity left, Adrienne felt more in control of her first big weekend as Carriage Hill’s innkeeper. Olivia and Maggie had known she was new to the work, but they’d put together a solid notebook of information, templates and protocols. Adrienne liked to think not being a local had its advantages. It was possible she’d see opportunities, holes and problems where someone who lived in town wouldn’t.
Bears and moose in the yard, for instance.
At the moment only Adam Sloan was here. He walked from his work site across the lawn to the terrace. “You can come inside anytime you want,” Adrienne told him. “Use the facilities, whatever. It’s shorter to get out front by going through the kitchen. I don’t mind.”
“Thanks. Not a good idea today. I’m sweaty and dusty.”
Which somehow managed to add to his sexiness. She found herself noticing the sweat and dust on his muscled forearms. She cleared her throat. “Do you often see bears, moose, bobcats and such out here?”
“Rarely.”
“What’s rarely to you?”
Using a folded black bandanna, he wiped mortar or some other kind of dust off his forehead. “It means I don’t see them often enough to think about it. I see deer a fair amount.”
“In the yard?”
“On the edges.” He tucked the bandanna into his back jeans pocket. “Why?”
“I want to get a better idea of what to expect—for guests more than for myself.”
“Animals tend to keep their distance when a lot of people are here.”
“Makes sense. If guests walk into the woods on their own?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never had a problem.”
“Right. Okay. Good to know.”
She gestured toward the rock wall he was rebuilding. “Work’s coming along okay?”
“On schedule.”
“Do you need anything from me?”
Just the slightest hesitation as his gaze settled on her. “I’ll let you know,” he said finally.
Heat spread up from her neck into her cheeks, but she decided best to blame the late-summer weather rather than her intense physical reaction to him. “I didn’t get out to see Vic last night. I’ll stop by later today.”
“He’d like that. Come down to the lake. You two can throw sticks for Rohan.”
“He really is bored, isn’t he? Vic, I mean. Not Rohan.”
“Writing his memoirs isn’t enough for him.”
She thought Adam might elaborate, but he didn’t. “Maybe when he’s eighty. Do you think he likes having me here? Never mind. That’s not your problem. Are you sure you don’t want a glass of water or something?”
“All set.”
No chitchat. She almost brought up the photographs, but he took advantage of her hesitation to leave. She watched him cross to the side yard. He was one sexy man. No question about that, and she couldn’t be the only woman in Knights Bridge to have noticed.
She shook off that thought and, after hearing his van start, went inside.
* * *
Adrienne took the back way along the stone wall to the McCaffrey barn. She spotted two gray squirrels, a chipmunk, a robin and chickadees. As she went through a gap in the stone wall to the barn, two butterflies swooped past her into the field.
She found Tyler and Aidan Sloan on the barn deck, lining up dinosaurs on the rail, table and chairs. She said hello and went through the glass doors. Maggie was in the kitchen area, apron on as she stood at the sink. “All dinosaurs present
and accounted for?” Adrienne asked.
“That’s what they tell me,” Maggie said. “Brandon and I aren’t letting the boys out of our sight. All we need is for them to wander off again. Eric will have us arrested.” She smiled at Adrienne. “Slight hyperbole.”
“That’d be quite the local scandal.”
“Wouldn’t it? I know I probably shouldn’t be here but I couldn’t sit home. I haven’t been overdoing it. The boys were thrilled to get that last whatever-a-saurus back. Thanks.”
“Gorgosaurus. No problem.”
“How was your meeting with Felicity?”
“Great. I emailed a brief report to you and Olivia.”
“Awesome, thanks. Olivia asked me to tell you that if you get spooked being at the inn on your own, you can always stay here. You’d be on your own, but at least it’s closer to Olivia and Dylan than the inn. It’s an alternative to Buster staying with you. Don’t hesitate, and don’t be shy, okay?”
“I’m fine. I love staying at the house, and the suite’s fantastic.”
“It can’t be spookier than being at Vic’s on your own last winter. That was before renovations, too. I suppose you could stay up there. You know Adam’s living in the guesthouse, right?”
“Mm. It’s temporary.”
Maggie turned water on in the sink to wash off a colander filled with tomatoes. She looked better today, more rested, not as stiff. “The boys and I picked these at my mother’s place this morning. I can’t decide what to do with them. So many options.” She turned off the water. “The boys want to be independent and think they don’t need supervision. Phoebe and I wandered off a few times as kids but not as much as Ruby and Ava—the twins. They’re the youngest. They were completely impossible. Phoebe and I went after them loads of times. Mom—well, you’ve met her.”
“Not a worrier.”
“To say the least. My sisters and I had a lot of freedom even when my dad was alive. I don’t want the boys to be fearful, but I want them to take proper precautions. But enough of that. Do you want me to wait and read the email or do you have time to go over your meeting with Felicity?”
They sat at the table—with a good view of the boys on the deck—and Adrienne filled her in on the highlights. “That all sounds great,” Maggie said. “I’m still good for handling the food. There’s a backup plan if I had been injured worse. Felicity insisted we have backup plans once she took over our event management.”
“So she said. Makes sense. We’ll stay in touch, then.”
“Olivia and a few of us are planning a movie night before the baby comes.”
“Do you want to have it at the inn?”
Maggie sat back against her chair and smiled. “We want you to join us.”
“Oh.”
“Sorry. Olivia would have done a better invitation. We’ll figure out a good time and let you know. We always have fun. You can advise us on wine, but only if it doesn’t feel like work. We don’t want to take advantage.”
The casual invitation wasn’t unusual for Knights Bridge, Adrienne had discovered. For a small town, it wasn’t cliquish, but people weren’t intrusive, either. If you wanted space, you got space. If you wanted to do things, you could do things. Maggie was particularly social. No surprise there. Adrienne appreciated the tight friendships and deep bonds among people who’d grown up in town, but they were open to newcomers, too. They didn’t have to fit into a tidy box, either. That didn’t mean there weren’t disagreements, hurt feelings, outright fights and changes, some welcome, some unwelcome.
She walked along the road down to the inn. She wasn’t sure when or if Adam would be back. He seemed to work when it suited him. She supposed she could press him for a schedule, but she didn’t need to know, provided he didn’t intrude on guests. She grabbed her laptop and immersed herself in work, wanting to finish the basic planning and list-making she needed to do this first week on the job. She saw she had an email from a friend in Montana who was an innkeeper: You give me tips on wine and I’ll give you tips on innkeeping, beginning with smile, smile, smile.
Adrienne laughed to herself. The last time they’d gotten together, she’d been in the throes of breaking up with her boyfriend and figuring out what to do about Vic Scarlatti now that she knew he was her father. Forget him? Write to him? Was she sure her mother was right and hadn’t skipped or forgotten about another lover around the time Adrienne had been conceived?
In short, she had been miserable.
I owe you a selection of your favorite wines for putting up with me last winter. I’m off to a decent if not uneventful start as a Knights Bridge innkeeper. What’s a good time for you? I’ll call. Let’s talk.
Her friend responded an hour later, and they agreed to talk that evening.
Adrienne switched to a spreadsheet to work on Carriage Hill’s finances. They were in good shape but it was yet another reminder of all Maggie and Olivia had managed to take on the past year.
Shortly before five, Adrienne shut down her laptop and put away her files and notes for the day. She looked forward to having dinner with Vic and wanted to enjoy the gorgeous weather while it lasted. If Adam was there, fine, but she didn’t want to make life awkward for him. But she was probably projecting. She was the one who felt awkward, but she knew she didn’t need to. It was her newness in town and to being here openly as Vic’s daughter—and her uncertainties about her job, how long she’d last, if she was as up to it as Maggie and Olivia believed. Noah and Phoebe had given her a glowing recommendation. She’d worked hard and done well at the winery, but it was...well, a small California winery. Her main task had been to get the right people into place, the true experts who could take the winery to the next level.
It was a quiet, beautiful drive through the village and out to Echo Lake. She found Vic on the front porch, having wine with Elly O’Dunn and Adam. Rohan was the first to greet her. The puppy leaped up and jumped on her, nibbling her hands when she petted him. “He’s excited,” Adrienne said. “You didn’t give him wine, did you?”
“He’s just happy to see you,” Vic said. “I told you he missed you.”
Adam stood with his wine. “I’ll leave you all to chat.”
Vic looked disappointed. “You’re not staying for dinner?”
“I have a few things I need to do.”
Adrienne avoided watching Adam head inside with his wineglass. She worried Vic or Elly would notice her attraction to him for sure if she watched him, but maybe it was obvious that she was trying not to. She was surprised how off balance she was, but there was no denying he was under her skin. Maybe she was just experiencing the aftereffects of finding Maggie injured and the boys missing—and of having Vic back in Knights Bridge—and she would feel more herself in a day or two.
“Here,” Vic said, handing her a tennis ball. “Would you take Rohan down to the lake and let him burn off some energy before dinner?”
“I can help with dinner—”
“We’re fine. It’s nothing fancy. Rohan’s run my legs off today and he’s still not tired.”
Adrienne smiled. “Puppy energy. I’d love to take him down to the lake.”
“Did you bring your swimsuit?” Elly asked. “You could take a swim before dinner.”
She hadn’t brought a swimsuit. She hadn’t left one behind after she’d house-sat for Vic. She hadn’t exactly needed a suit over the winter, but she’d imagined herself swimming in the lake on a hot summer day. When she’d taken the winery job, she hadn’t known when, or if, she’d be back to Echo Lake.
“Do you want to take a glass of wine with you?” Vic asked.
“No, I’ll wait. See you in a bit.”
Rohan trotted by her side, occasionally jumping up to try to get the tennis ball. When they reached the lake, he plopped next to her expectantly. She tossed the tennis ball across the sandy beach. He fetched it and ran into the water
with it, circling back around to the shore with the ball in his mouth. Adrienne laughed, and while he was swimming proudly to her, she glanced at the guesthouse. Violet lumbered down to the beach, but she was alone. No Adam.
When Rohan ran out of the water with the ball, he got Violet energized and chasing after him on the sand. Adrienne found a stick and threw both it and the ball into the lake. While the dogs bounded into the water, she kicked off her shoes, rolled up her pants to her knees and waded in. The air was cool, but the water was relatively warm—at least warm enough.
She noticed Adam on the sand by the trees. She didn’t know how long he’d been watching her and the dogs. He smiled as Adrienne joined him. “Now I’ll have a wet dog at my feet all night,” he said.
“Does Violet sleep with you?”
“On the floor at the foot of the bed. No dogs in bed with me.”
Adrienne dropped that conversation thread right there. “How old is she?”
“Eight. She was ten weeks old and sick when I took her home. Eric told me about her. We’re a dog family and he thought we might be able to help each other. I was just out of the military.” Adam paused, a distance coming into his eyes. “Violet and I were both in rough shape. I named her when she woke me up to go out at dawn one morning. I knew she’d be okay then. The sky was a violet color that morning. It fit.”
“Violet’s a great name. She seems to like it out here.”
“Water, sand, Rohan, rocks to chew. What’s not to like?”
Adrienne laughed. “True enough. Do you like it here?”
“I don’t chew rocks but I enjoy Rohan and the lake. I get along with Vic, too.”
“He’s more down-to-earth than I expected when I first came here last winter,” Adrienne said. “I wish I’d known him when he was active as a diplomat. He told me ninety percent of what he did was paperwork, but I don’t believe him. Do you?”
Adam shook his head. “Not a chance.”
“Tough to write your memoirs if you can’t tell half the good stuff because it’s classified. Are you sure you don’t want to join us for dinner? Violet could join us, too.”
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