A Thousand Yesteryears (11 page)

Eve nodded. “You always had a bowl of hard cinnamon candy at the door, and I’d grab one on the way out.”

“Gee, that was a long time ago.” The faraway look of whimsy in Doreen Sue’s eyes didn’t last long. Almost immediately her attention returned to Katie, and she dabbed her eyes again. “I think I should go look for him, don’t you?”

“Is there a problem?” Eve asked.

“It’s Amos,” Doreen Sue replied.

Eve glanced at Katie for understanding. Surprisingly, her employee looked low on patience. Despite her mother’s sniffling and tears, there was little sympathy in her eyes. “Mom’s boyfriend,” she explained.

“He’s gone missing,” Doreen Sue interjected. “He didn’t come home last night, and I’m worried.”

Out of her realm, Eve hedged. “Did you check with the police?”

Doreen Sue
pshawed
the idea with a wave of her hand. “Sheriff Weston and those deputies of his? They won’t do anything. They’ll tell me Amos is sleeping off a binge somewhere.”

“He probably is, Mom.” Frowning, Katie continued checking off items in a ledger book open on the counter. Seemingly uninterested in her mother’s problem, she moved a pencil down each line, comparing entries against a typed list. “You know how he gets when he’s had too much to drink.”

“He promised me he wouldn’t do that anymore. He said he was gonna change. What if he fell and hit his head or something?”

Katie sighed. “Mom, he’ll be home when he’s ready. For all you know, he might have found—” She bit her lip, stopping the thought before it could be uttered.

“What?” Doreen Sue pounced on the unfinished notion. “You were gonna say he might of found someone else to shack up with, weren’t you? I know you don’t like the man.”

“No, I don’t like him.” Katie slammed the book shut. “He drinks too much, cheats on you, and treats you like dirt. Just like every other guy who came down the pike before him. Why do you think I don’t like Sam visiting with you?”

Doreen Sue’s face drained of color. “So now I’m an unfit grandmamma?”

Katie flushed and hugged the ledger to her chest. “I don’t have time for this, Mom. The lobby of the Parrish Hotel isn’t the place to air dirty family laundry.” She gave a quick nod to Eve. “Excuse me.”

Before Eve could manage a syllable, Katie disappeared into the office behind the counter, closing the door with a firm click. Eve wasn’t sure if she was more mortified for herself, Katie, or Doreen Sue. Awkwardly, she looked at Mrs. Lynch, uncertain if she should say something to pacify the situation. “I’m sorry.”

“Why? It’s nothing to do with you.” Doreen Sue dabbed her eyes again, smearing black mascara down her cheek. The sight made Eve feel sorry for her. In the right light, she would look pretty, if a little hard, but now she looked a mess. Tawdry and cheap standing there in her stiletto heels, bright red lipstick feathering at the corners of her mouth.

“Girl ain’t never taken a cotton to me,” Doreen Sue said with another dismissive wave of her hand. “Thinks she’s better than me is what it boils down to.” She fished in her purse, mumbling all the while until she produced a cigarette. “Damn, I can’t find my lighter.” She glanced up hopefully. “You wouldn’t happen to have—”

“Sorry, I don’t smoke.”

“Just as well. Bad habit. Girl probably thinks I smoke around my grandson and gives him beer. Just ’cause she didn’t have a proper daddy growing up don’t mean I’ve got men traipsing through my bed.”

Eve felt her cheeks color. “Mrs. Lynch, I really need to go.”

“’Course you do. You tell that daughter of mine not to worry her head over Amos, ’cause he and I’ll do fine without her. She’s getting too big for her britches. Thinks because Rosalind put her in charge when she wasn’t around, that she’s some highfalutin executive now. Don’t let her fool you.” She waggled a finger in front of Eve’s face. “All she really knows is how to wait tables. You’ll see.” Continuing with a litany of how Katie was an ungrateful daughter for all she’d done, and how anyone could see what a good grandmamma she was, she strutted for the door, heels click-clacking against the floor.

Eve felt like she’d stepped into a time warp. She’d forgotten the history of many of the families in Point Pleasant. Growing up, it hadn’t simply been gossip about Wendy Lynch running off, or how Katie would turn out to be like her sister. The women had gossiped about Mrs. Lynch, too, discussing how “trashy” she was. Of course, that hadn’t stopped them from visiting her salon or offering artificial smiles to her face. Maybe the woman was rough around the edges, but she’d always been nice to Eve, telling her how pretty her hair looked, even if it was one of her stylists who’d cut it.

Eve waited until the door swung shut behind Doreen Sue before heading for the office. She expected to find Katie immersed in work but discovered her pacing instead, hands on her hips as if trying to work off steam.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted the moment Eve walked into the room. “That shouldn’t have taken place in the lobby. It won’t happen again.”

Eve set her purse on the desk. “Your mom seemed pretty upset. Is it unlike her boyfriend to stay out all night?”

“A man like Amos? He does what he wants.” Katie huffed out a breath and folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t know why she can’t see him for what he is. He’s just like every other scumbag Mom let into her life, including my dad.” She shook her head, tucking a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry. You don’t need to hear this.”

“If it involves you and affects your work performance, then it involves me. Especially when I have a proposal to make.” She was surprised to hear Katie talk so candidly about her mother and father. Looking back on it, she couldn’t remember a father ever being in Katie’s life.

The girls in school used to say horrible things about Katie. How she let boys feel her up, and how she liked to steal her mother’s whiskey and drink it under the bleachers at the football field. Eve had bought into the gossip at the time, even though the Katie she observed in the classroom was nothing like the image painted by the popular girls at school. She’d been part of that clique. With a name like Parrish, she’d been a shoo-in for popularity. Given her friends said those dreadful things about Katie with such authority, they had to be true, right?

Katie looked at her evenly. “Proposal?”

Eve motioned her to a chair across from the desk. Rather than take the seat behind it, she slid into the chair beside Katie, setting the tone for a casual conversation. “First, I’d like to say I’m grateful for all you did for my aunt. And I don’t just mean at the hotel. I should have been the one at her bedside, comforting her when she was dying, but I didn’t even know she passed away until after the funeral. Apparently, she left instructions with Mr. Barnett that I wasn’t to be notified until after she was buried.”

“She asked for you a couple of times.”

Eve knew her face had paled, for Katie rushed ahead as if trying to soften the blow. “She was delirious. Sometimes she talked like you were there in the room. It was important to her that you continue the Parrish family legacy.”

She’d suspected as much. “The hotel?”

Katie flushed. “I’m not saying that to keep my job, Eve. Rosie was more important to me than a paycheck.”

“Perhaps a substitute mother?” she ventured softly.

Katie lowered her eyes, fiddling with a jade ring on her right hand. Brilliant green and oblong in shape, it was housed in an antique silver setting, surrounded by diamond chips. Expensive, old, and familiar.

“She listened when I had problems with my mom or Lyle,” Katie answered her question.

“Is that Sam’s father?”

“Biologically.” She lifted her head, a flare of sudden anger in her eyes. “That’s all the bastard is. When I told him I was pregnant, he said it wasn’t his kid and told me to get rid of it.”

Eve was horrified. “He doesn’t help with Sam?”

“I wouldn’t take a penny from that creep.” Katie lifted her chin defiantly. “I don’t want a man in Sam’s life who’d deny his own son, even if it means I sometimes struggle. My dad took off when I was two, and my mom has been through a string of men ever since, each worse than the last. I want a better upbringing for Sam, and that includes keeping Lyle out of his life. Fortunately, he left town over a year ago and hasn’t been back.” She gave a soft laugh and shook her head. “It’s probably stupid of me to tell you all of this. Who wants an employee with baggage?”

“Actually, I do.” Eve smiled. Leaning forward, she put her hand over Katie’s where it rested on her knee. “I know we weren’t friends in the past, and we probably have a lot to learn about each other now, but my Aunt Rosie trusted you and that’s good enough for me. I was hoping we could set aside past opinions and start fresh. I need an ally if I’m going to keep this hotel in the family.”

Katie looked startled. “You’re not going to sell?”

“I’m not sure.” Saying it aloud was harder than she thought. Eve stood and paced to the rear window overlooking the Ohio River. The towering bulk of Point Pleasant’s flood walls obscured most of the view, but a small expanse of water glimmered in the gap between opposing concrete barriers. Adam Barnett would call in the next day or two about his potential buyer. She’d set that ball in motion, but another part of her was starting to feel like she’d come home—back to the river town that held so many childhood memories. The tug on her heart may have been nothing more than nostalgia, but sometimes it felt like a true desire to continue her family’s legacy.

“I need to take some time and not make a hasty decision. From what I’ve seen of the books, the hotel is solvent, but barely.”

Katie nodded grimly. “It helps that Point Pleasant is located midway between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. We’ve done pretty well with overnight guests who are passing through.”

Eve didn’t think the hotel would ever be the draw it was in the days when Point Pleasant was a booming river town but believed it had enough history and appeal to offer an alternative from the chain motels that had popped up across the river in Gallipolis. “If the Parrish Hotel is going to thrive, we need to play up its history and charm. Market it as a step back in time, not only in décor, but in service, too. Old fashioned service and a family-owned operation.”

“You sound like you’re keeping it.”

It was what Aunt Rosie wanted. Apparently, Maggie did, too, if she was to believe her dream. “For now. I can’t walk away from my family’s legacy without taking the time to understand it first. I’m still going to explore my options, but even when I head back to Harrisburg, it can be business as usual for the hotel. Which brings me to the proposal I mentioned.”

Katie sat straighter. She appeared poised for the worst, something that couldn’t be further from the truth. “I’m listening.”

Eve slid into her aunt’s desk chair, assuming her position as owner. “I need to learn about the hotel. Not just looking at books and expense reports, but the ins and outs of every detail. I want you to teach me. I’d also like you to officially accept the position of manager.” It was what Aunt Rosie would want, what she’d likely been grooming Katie for all along.

Katie blinked. “Manager?”

“With an increase in pay, of course. When I return to Harrisburg, I’ll be relying on you to handle all responsibility in my absence.”

“I—” Katie seemed at a loss for words. “I’m flattered.”

“You’ll accept?”

She nodded, looking a little stunned. “Thank you. Your trust means a lot.”

“It’s my aunt’s trust.”

“How can you be so sure of her faith in me?”

Eve nodded to the jade ring Katie absently twisted around her finger. “I remember that ring. My Aunt Rosie bought it on a trip she took to New York and never took it off. She loved that ring.”

“Oh!” Katie flushed as if consumed by guilt and swiftly tugged the ring from her finger. Standing, she extended it to Eve. “Here. You should have it.”

“No. Aunt Rosie obviously wanted you to.”

“But it’s wrong. You’re her niece.”

“I have plenty of things to remember her by. She gave it to you for a reason.”

Katie bit her lip. “Eve, she was lonely.”

“And you were her friend. Perhaps the daughter she never had.” She saw it now. She and her mother had left her aunt alone. Perhaps Eve had only been twelve when her mother took her away, but as an adult she could have returned often. Instead, she’d allowed her mother’s bias against the town keep her away. Aunt Rosie might have chosen not to marry, but that didn’t mean she didn’t long for companionship.

Katie’s eyes glittered with tears. “She gave me the ring a few months before she died. I didn’t understand why at the time, but now I realize she must have known she was dying. I didn’t want to take it.”

“But Aunt Rosie was stubborn.” Eve smiled softly. “I’m glad you have something to remember her by.”

“It belongs in your family.” Katie tried to offer it again.

Eve shook her head. “You were family to her far more than I was these last several years. Besides, in her own way, I think she left it as a message for me.”

Katie looked puzzled.

“So I would know I could trust you.” Eve drew a breath, decision made. She was staying, at least temporarily. “And now that we have that established, I’d like to learn more about the hotel.”

* * * *

Eve was manning the front desk later that afternoon when Sarah Sherman strolled into the lobby, released an ear-splitting squeal, and extended her arms for a hug.

“Sarah?” Eve could barely believe her eyes. “Is it really you?”

“In the flesh.”

Eve darted from behind the counter and gave her friend a tight hug. “You look fantastic!” It wasn’t a lie. Sarah’s coppery hair and dark-chocolate eyes accentuated the becoming touch of rose on her cheeks. “I can’t believe it’s really you.” She’d been meaning to look up Sarah ever since she’d returned to town.

“Ryan told me you were back. I’m on lunch break and took a chance you might be here.” Sarah held her at arms-length for a few seconds, soaking in her features, then hugged her again. “Why has it taken so long?” She blinked owlishly as if realizing what she’d said. “Oh, I’m sorry, Eve. I shouldn’t have said that. I know how upset you must be about Rosie. I didn’t mean—”