Chuckling, “You bring so much joy to our boring lives.” She paused. “He stopped by here last night, you know.”
“Yeah?” What was Molly supposed to say? Like Evelyn, Molly didn’t need to say more. Betsy was going to share whatever she had.
“He provisions here every couple months. But he was here last night getting a bottle of wine and a six pack of beer.”
“Hmm. I wonder what he needed that for?”
“I’m pretty sure he took it to a lady he was interested in.”
“Hmm. I wonder who that was?”
“Don’t know, but I’m pretty sure she got lucky.”
Molly played along. “And why do you think that?”
“Because he also bought a six pack of our biggest condoms.”
Molly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Walking over to the resort offices, Molly could imagine Evelyn’s words as she moved table to table in the diner, exaggerating every aspect of the hot story of the day.
“And he bought a twelve pack of giant condoms. Poor Molly, she could barely walk this morning, but you should have seen the silly grin on her face.”
Molly was still shaking her head but, good news, she was heading for the only gossip-free zone at the resort. Mai, the petite Vietnamese woman who managed the cabins and RV sites, was all business. She kept to herself and had no interest in the local gab. Mai oversaw the cabin and RV rentals, the laundry, and housekeeping. No cabin was rented until Mai had personally inspected it, running her fingers on every window sill for dust, and making sure the fresh sheets were properly tucked. Mai’s husband, Tong, supervised resort maintenance. Mai and Tong lived at the resort in the original cabin built by Molly’s great grandfather.
“Good morning, Mai.”
“Good morning, Molly.”
“How’d the weekend go?”
Molly listened as Mai gave a detailed report of how many cabins and RV sites were rented, what the current bookings were, and a summary of issues she was working on that week. Mai was completely dedicated to her business, and Molly felt lucky to have her.
Molly moved to her office in the administration building she shared with Mai. Shadow lay down on her mat in the corner as Molly settled at her desk.
Well, the whole resort knew about her weekend. That would be good for one day’s talk. Tomorrow would bring something new. But she hadn’t expected to learn as much as she did about Bart that morning. Bart and Silas were buddies. She could visualize them standing at the corral, one foot on the bottom rail, talking horses. Bart knew his animals. His dog and jenny mule were well bred animals. And Silas probably didn’t even know about his falcon and lynx.
Molly hadn’t known that Bart had been a regular customer of the general store and diner. Bart probably had no idea the sequence of events that would publicly link his condom purchase to the night of passion with Molly, or how that would entertain the locals. Or, did he? And he had a Kindle. Well, he had a college education and majored in English. Not surprising he liked to read. But, still, a mountain man with a Kindle? Good information. Made sense not hauling a bunch of books into the mountains, but wonder how he kept that charged in the wild?
Okay, enough of that. Time to work.
Molly hadn’t expected to like the business end of managing the resort, but she did, maybe because the resort was making money and it was fun to see it coming in and growing. Her most significant improvement after taking over from her father had been instituting a computerized point of sale systembusiness-wide. Each of her business managers had a computer and was required daily to report income and expenses. They’d all screamed and protested, fighting it every step of the way, pretending ignorance, and scoffing about technology.
But Molly had persevered, and they now all loved it. They too had daily reports of their business that they could compare year over year and month over month. It made them better managers and more attuned to the bottom line. And Molly now got daily reports. She especially liked reviewing the reports on Monday morning as weekends were the best performing days and the numbers were usually positive.
Her Monday morning walk around usually consumed about ninety minutes, after which she spent the next ninety minutes reviewing finances and responding to emails from managers and staff. After reviewing the numbers that morning, Molly felt good. The business was performing nicely and on a steady growth trajectory. Every business was up year over year and the dramatic increase in winter business was making a significant impact on the annual numbers.
Molly knew she could sit back, coast, and bank a lot of money off the business. But it was a fourth generation business and the pride of her family. She loved that it was growing and a solid source of jobs for the rural area. It had become an important employer and a respected business in east Okanogan County. It brought people from all over the state, the Northwest, and Canada. And while tourists were here, they spent money at other businesses in the county. She liked being an important part of the local economy.
And, besides, what was she going to spend money on? She lived in the family cabin, had Jo and Shadow, drove a Jeep, and lived at the doorstep of the most beautiful mountains anywhere. She could ride her horse daily. She didn’t need money. She was pouring all profits back into the business, adding a new cabinon the lake each year and more RV sites. She had approved an expansion of the stables, adding ten more stalls and additional livestock. Last year, they’d paved the parking lot for the diner and general store and landscaped around it, adding flowers and hanging baskets. This year the plan was to expand the lakeside outdoor seating area for the diner featuring twin fire pits. The store was scheduled for a walk-in beer refrigerator, more than doubling capacity for that profitable business. She loved improving and growing the resort.
She also knew the real money would come later after she paid off her brother, Mack, for his ownership share and she retired the line of credit her father had built up. She looked forward to that day. She had no idea what she’d do with the money. Well, actually, she did. She’d pour it back into the resort, making it an even bigger tourist draw.
And it was probably good that Molly represented a different generation than her father and grandparents because the clientele of the resort was changing. Once a destination for crusty, old beer-drinking fishermen, the resort now attracted young people and families who came to fish, swim, hike, ride horses, canoe, kayak, cross country ski, snowshoe, and snowmobile. Couples came to honeymoon in the lakefront cabins. Retired nomads parked RVs for weeks at a time. Hikers pitched a tent in the Forest Service campground, rode horses, ate at the diner, and provisioned at the store. County residents came to eat at the diner and fish. Residents of the larger Summer Lake community bought beer and groceries at the general store.
Molly could feel the presence of her parents and grandparents every day, and she wanted them to be proud of what Summer’s End had become.
Chapter 6
