The Inn at Misty Lake: Book Two in the Misty Lake Series (3 page)

“See? It goes real fast then when the road ends, it has to try to jump over the river—”

“I said no!” she screamed and the boy sank back into the pillows.

He looked at her for a minute, waiting for her to say she was sorry like she usually did when she yelled at him, but she didn’t say anything, just stared out the window. Eventually, he resumed his game, driving the car back and forth over the bedspread, but being careful not to make any noise.

The woman raised a shaky hand to her mouth and took a long drag on the cigarette before dropping it on the floor and absently crushing it out with the toe of her tennis shoe. She leaned against the window hoping it would cool her aching head, but was met with glass heated to blistering by the desert sun.

3

By ten o’clock the next night Susan was exhausted. She knew Riley was watching her, as were Sam and Jake, so she fought the yawns and tried to keep up some lively conversation. It had been a long, long day. It’s a Lake Thing had been busy with customers and with a shipment that had come in and needed pricing and displaying. After her shift, she had grabbed a quick sandwich and coffee then headed to the B&B where she had been taking down doors, removing doorknobs and hinges, and working at the last of the carpet for the past five hours.

“I don’t know how long Cindy was here today but she seems to have gotten a lot done. Having some good temporary lighting is wonderful. I was worried for a while that I’d be limited by the daylight.” Had she already talked about Cindy getting lights in? She couldn’t remember. Probably. Dammit. What else could she talk about? She racked her brain then was grateful when Sam spoke up and she could stop thinking for a minute.

“Do you want help moving these things to the barn?” Sam asked referring to some boxes and furniture that had been left behind by the previous owners, as well as the doors and hardware they were currently working on. Susan hadn’t wanted to toss anything without looking it over thinking there may be some things she could use and she hadn’t gotten to everything yet. She had already decided some of the wooden furniture and maybe a couple of bedframes could be salvaged with a little work.

Susan looked at Riley before answering. He raised his eyebrows at her, obviously wondering why she hadn’t told Sam about her plans for the barn. Rather than giving a direct answer, Susan did her best to sidestep the question.

“I still need to look through some of the boxes and check out some of the furniture. I’m going to try to get it done by this weekend.”

“It seems like it will be in the way when Riley starts tomorrow, though. Shouldn’t we haul it out to the barn and just stash it in there so it’s out of the way?”

Susan was grateful when Riley spoke up, figuring it would buy her some time.

“I can work around things for a while. My first step will be demo, I’ve got to knock down some walls, get down to the framing. I’ll take it one room at a time so we can move things out as Red goes through them.”

Susan gave Riley a quick nod and was relieved when Sam accepted his explanation. “Maybe what we can do yet tonight is box up some of the hardware and label the boxes so I know what’s what later on.”

“You’ve got some nice looking things here to work with, Susan,” Jake said turning a glass doorknob over in his hand. “Is the plan to keep everything fitting with the time period of the house?”

“To some extent, yes, I’d like to try. But, I’ll mix in some modern, up-to-date features as well. My idea is to give people a relaxing experience with a little taste of the past, but to keep them comfortable with things like air conditioning, mini-fridges, and Internet access, if they want it.”

“How about the whole themed thing?” Jake continued. “Seems like the B&Bs I’ve seen have whole rooms centered around a quilt or something.” The regret registered on his face before he finished speaking the words.

Sam gave him a questioning look. “Seen a lot of B&Bs, have you?”

Jake looked panicked, but Sam came up behind him and reached her arms around him. “Maybe you’ll take me one of these days?”

“Whenever you want,” he answered, turning and kissing her on the top of the head.

“Maybe Mom still has brochures for the places the two of you stayed.” Riley barely got the words out before doubling over with laughter.

Jake’s eyes shot daggers at his brother as Riley laughed even harder. “Shut up, Riley,” he snarled.

Sam did her best not to laugh but Susan had joined Riley and was chuckling as she asked, “You and your mom? At a B&B? Care to explain?”

“Not really,” Jake mumbled as the blush climbed up his neck to his cheeks.

“Come on, Jake, tell them all about your night in the honeymoon suite.”

Sam couldn’t hold back any longer and the laughter bubbled out as she squeaked, “The honeymoon suite?”

Jake’s voice was low and menacing. “I swear, Riley, you’re going to pay.”

“Oh, come on, Jake, you have to tell us now,” Sam prodded.

Jake took a long, slow breath while staring at Riley, an internal debate raging on whether to slug him now or later. Eventually, he shrugged, defeated. “It’s really not a big deal. My junior year of high school mom took me to look at colleges. We drove from here to Colorado stopping at schools along the way. We ran into some bad weather and our schedule was thrown off so we didn’t have hotel reservations.” He sighed and glared at his brother again. “A couple of times we couldn’t find any place with a vacancy except a bed and breakfast.”

When he didn’t say anything more, Sam coaxed, “And…the honeymoon suite?”

“It wasn’t the honeymoon suite.” Jake said, looking at Riley and willing him to keep his mouth shut, but Riley could hardly get the words out fast enough.

“Okay, not the honeymoon suite, but what was it called? Cupid’s Delight? I think that was it.”

“It was the only room they had left,” Jake said resignedly.

“The old woman who ran the place and was checking them in looked Jake up and down then whispered to Mom, ‘Good for you!’”

Sam clapped her hand over her mouth and turned away, but Riley and Susan broke out in renewed fits of laughter. Jake let them have their fun then finally said, “So, about the quilts?”

Half an hour later the four had accomplished everything that Susan had asked of them, and more. Susan thanked Jake and Sam, teased Jake once more about the B&B, then sent them on their way.

Riley noticed an instant shift in her mood. Doubt seemed to creep into her eyes and her hands fluttered as she tried to busy them. “What’s up, Red?”

“Oh, nothing.” Clearly a lie, but before he could respond, she added, “Do you think we should start on these walls?”

She really was crazy, he decided. “No, I don’t work twenty-four-hour days. It’s almost eleven o’clock. I want to go home so I can come back tomorrow.”

“Okay, I just thought if we got some done tonight you’d have a head start tomorrow.”

She seemed tense, tying and retying her hair in a ponytail as she paced around the room. Walking to her, Riley grabbed her hands, quieted them, and looked her in the eye. “Susan, tell me what’s wrong.”

Using her real name and, he liked to think, the fact that her hands were in his, had the desired effect and he had her attention. She stared at him for a minute then dropped her gaze as she muttered, “I guess I’m a little scared.”

Riley put a finger under her chin and lifted it. “Hey, that’s normal. I’ve had customers tackling much smaller projects than this call me in a panic the night before I was set to start. Any big decision is a little scary. I’d worry about you if you weren’t scared.”

“Really?”

“Really. Once I had a job remodeling a bathroom. At about ten o’clock the night before I was scheduled to start work, the woman called me crying, saying she’d changed her mind. I listened to her babble incoherently for several minutes before her husband realized she was on the phone and picked up an extension. Then I listened to the two of them argue. The husband told her over and over it was the right thing to do; she cried, said it was a mistake. At some point the tables turned and he was saying maybe they shouldn’t go through with it while she tried to convince him they should. It was madness. Every so often one of them would say something to me or ask me a question but for the most part, they continued as if I wasn’t there. Eventually, I just hung up, showed up at their house in the morning, and got to work as if nothing had ever happened.”

By the time he finished, Susan was smiling. “So, I’m not crazy?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Sometimes it just hits me that I have taken on this huge project and that I really don’t know what I’m doing. I have all these ideas but how do I know if it will work?”

“There are never any guarantees, but that doesn’t mean we stop trying. Plenty of people thought I was nuts when I started my business. I heard over and over that I should look for something with more security, something where I’d know what my paycheck was going to be every week. In spite of all that, or maybe because of it, I was determined to make it work. So far, so good,” he shrugged.

“I’m pretty sure Sam thinks I’ve made a mistake.”

“Sam wants what you want. I think she’s a little worried about you, worried that you’re going at this too hard, but she’ll support you no matter what you decide.”

Susan nodded but Riley still saw the doubt in her eyes. Gently, he ran a knuckle down her cheek. “Hey, you can do this.”

Before he could change his mind, he leaned toward her and softly pressed his lips to hers. He saw her eyes widen before he closed his and lost himself in her.

She first stiffened, remaining firmly rooted in place, but before Riley could try to make sense of her reaction, she began to relax into him. The lips that started out shocked and stiff softened and moved against his. Then it was as if someone reached in and slapped him upside the head, telling him to come to his senses. She needed a friend, not someone to take advantage of her. He pulled away, pulse racing and much less steady than he’d ever admit.

When he opened his eyes, he found Susan tipped forward, eyes still closed, and lips slightly pursed. Almost before the image registered, she began blinking furiously in, what he guessed, was an effort to clear her head…if her head felt anything like his.

Gathering herself, she said, “Well. Thank you for the pep talk. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Riley considered a smart reply but, instead, just grinned. “See you tomorrow, Red.”

4

“What do you mean he kissed you?” Sam was squinting against the light and trying to make sense out of what Susan was saying.

It was late, but Susan had gone straight to Sam’s room and thrown herself on the bed replaying the events of the night for her cousin.

“What’s not to understand? He kissed me.”

“Okay, but I’m not clear on the details. Was it a friendly kind of good night kiss? Was it a ‘this is just the beginning’ kind of kiss? Did he say anything before he kissed you?”

“I don’t really know what kind of kiss it was. We were talking, he was actually trying to calm me down since I’d had something of a breakdown, so maybe it was just a ‘calm down, you’re going to be fine’ kind of kiss.”

Sam looked alarmed. “Wait a minute, what do you mean you had something of a breakdown. What’s wrong?”

Susan threw her hands up in the air. “It was nothing, just some nerves, but that’s getting away from the main issue here. Riley McCabe kissed me. What the heck?”

Sam still wanted to get to the bottom of the breakdown or nerves or whatever Susan wanted to call it, but she leaned back and studied Susan. She knew her well enough to know that she didn’t react to a simple kiss the way she was reacting right now. She had a thing for Riley.

“Well,” Sam began, “Riley’s a good guy. He might act tough, but he wouldn’t deliberately hurt you or take advantage of you. And, since he looks a lot like his brother, I can honestly say the man is drop-dead gorgeous. That’s a heck of a combination. My guess is he’s either interested in you or he’s deeply concerned about you. Maybe a little of both. I think you need to figure out how you feel and then let him know. Subtly, of course.”

“Of course. But what if I don’t know for sure how I feel?”

“You have time. The two of you are going to be spending a lot of time together, things will work their way out.”

“Maybe.” Susan didn’t seem convinced.

“Trust me. I know a thing or two about McCabe men,” Sam winked. “They don’t stay dark and mysterious for long.”

“You’re in love. You’re biased.”

“That, my dear cousin, is true. But, I’m still right. You’ll figure Riley out sooner rather than later.”

The next morning, Susan tried her best to act as if nothing had happened. She failed miserably. Every time she’d try to talk to Riley she’d stumble over her words and blush, unable to meet his eyes. Riley, for his part, acted the same as always. He started tearing out walls in the kitchen and worked comfortably with Cindy. Susan fumed as she sorted through boxes and pulled cast off things from closet shelves.

Much of what she found was worthless. Moth-eaten, stained linens and clothing filled several boxes. She found some cracked and chipped dishes and glasses that were useless, stacks of old newspapers and magazines that definitely were not, and various knick-knacks, some of which were cheap and broken, but some which delighted her. It was hard not to sit down with the newspapers and page through the stories of fifty years ago but she fought the temptation and, instead, boxed up what was still in good condition to pull out later when she had time.

As she carried load after load to the dumpster, her mind began wandering and she wondered about the people who had lived there. What had their lives been like? Were they happy? Why had they left so many things behind? Had they planned to return? She imagined births, deaths, prosperity, and hardship and longed to know the true stories. When she finally had the garbage cleared out, she knew she couldn’t put it off any longer and would have to ask Riley what he wanted done with those things she had decided to save.

“Hey, McCabe, do you have a minute?” she called to him from upstairs. Easier than facing him, she decided. Her pulse quickened as she heard him tromping up the stairs. Fool, she chided herself, get it together.

He stuck his head in the room and looked around. “You’re making some progress.”

“Do you think we can put some of these things in the cellar?” she asked, indicating the boxes sitting around her.

“I hate to do that, I’m afraid it’s too damp down there. Why don’t we move things to the attic? Nothing much is going on up there right now, we’ll just need to reinforce some of the floor boards and replace the windows later on.”

She had been afraid he was going to suggest the attic. She debated with herself on whether to just go along with him and haul things up there or to tell him another one of her ideas.

“Actually, I was thinking about the attic. I think we should put another room up there, it’s really just wasted space otherwise.” She kept her back to him as she spoke, but could sense his reaction without seeing him.

“Another room.”

“Well, yes. It’s huge, we might even be able to split it into two rooms, but I’ll leave that up to you to figure out.”

“Leave it up to me.”

She turned to face him, not liking the way he was quietly repeating what she said. His eyes were dark and dangerous and his hands were opening and closing in fists.

“You can’t argue that the space is perfect. The sweet little dormer windows and the sloped roof would make such a cute, cozy room. Or two. I think I’d keep it rustic up there, use log furniture, darker colors, but we’ll see…”

When he didn’t speak at all this time, she continued. “But, I suppose we could move things up there now and just move them again when you get started on the room. Or rooms. We really need to decide if it will be one or two. Or do you think it could be three? That might be tricky with the stairs, though. Oh well, you know best.”

“You can’t…” he sputtered. “It’s not...plans are done…” He glared at her for a minute then said, “Leave this crap here, I’ll talk to you later.” With that, he spun around and stormed back down the stairs.

“That could have gone better,” Susan muttered. But then she smiled as she realized things were indeed back to normal with Riley.

Later that evening, after Cindy was gone and Susan was thinking about heading home, Riley came upstairs with a scowl on his face. “I’ve been thinking about the attic.”

Susan waited but he didn’t elaborate. “What about it?”

“I wish you’d just tell me every crazy idea you have all at once rather than prolonging the agony. I can’t keep making changes to the plans. I have to schedule people to come in and help, I need to know what I’m dealing with.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she conceded. “I was just worried if I sprang too big a job on you all at once you never would have agreed to it.”

“You may be right about that.”

“Do you think the attic could work?”

“Of course, it could work. Whether it makes sense is another question entirely. Have you thought all this through? You were talking six rooms with one of them being for you. Now you want to add one, two, or even three more? You’re talking about the potential for up to eight rooms filled with guests. That’s a lot of work.”

“I know that and yes, I haven’t done much but think things through. I can’t guarantee I’ve always come to the right decision, but I can guarantee I’ve put a lot of thought into things.”

“When you say things…tell me now if there are more things I need to know about.”

Susan balked. There were more but she didn’t like the way Riley was looking at her. She busied herself taping boxes and tried to figure out how to best answer.

“I’m waiting.”

“Okay, okay.” She stood up straight, mustered her courage, and let fly. “I want to put an addition off the kitchen with a room for me. I don’t want to be so close to the guests, I think a little distance would be a good thing. I’ll need another bathroom there, of course.”

“Of course,” Riley replied stonily.

“I think there should be a gazebo down towards the lake. People like to be outside in the evening but you know how bad the bugs are.”

“Can’t have bugs bothering the guests.”

Susan was looking at him sideways now, a little frightened by his quiet, monotone voice, but since she had started, she’d continue. “Now, some of these things don’t have to be done right away, I could always add things as I go, but since you asked, I’d like a shed to store a few outdoor games, things for people to do while they’re here—I’m thinking with a little work one of the small outbuildings would be perfect for that; I’ll need a dock, that goes without saying; a fire pit down on the beach would be good; and a chicken coop.”

Riley didn’t respond, Susan didn’t think he even blinked. She was worried he was going to throw his tool belt down and walk out. But, she wasn’t quite done. “One more thing…the barn will need to be done by September because I want to have Sam and Jake’s reception here and I’m pretty sure they’ve decided on Labor Day weekend.”

After what seemed like an eternity, Riley finally growled, “Is that all?”

“Well, there are some more things in my notebook, but it’s mostly inside stuff, ideas for décor, food, and so on, so nothing you need to worry about.” She attempted a weak smile but Riley didn’t return it.

“Your notebook?”

“I’ve been jotting things down waiting for the best time to talk to you about them.”

He just shook his head. “A chicken coop?”

“Well, think how nice it would be to have fresh eggs. People up here from the city would probably get a kick out of feeding the chickens, collecting eggs, that kind of thing.” When she saw his icy stare she backed off. “But I guess that’s something I could do without. I mean, what do I really know about raising chickens?” Her laugh died on her lips when he continued to scowl at her.

Susan twirled her hair around her finger and chewed on her lip as she waited for Riley to respond. Twice he opened his mouth as if ready to say something, but then closed it again without making a sound. Finally, he took a deep breath, leaned his head against the wall, and pinched the bridge of his nose.  She prepared herself for the worst.

“Here’s what’s going to happen. You are going to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night. You’re going to bring that damn notebook and you’re going to show me every single page. We will discuss every page. I will tell you what I will and what I won’t agree to. If you don’t like it, you can find another contractor. Any questions?”

“Nope. All clear.”

“Good. Now I’m going home.” He began heading towards the stairs.

“Wait, just one more thing.”

He stopped and waited without turning around.

“What should I wear?”