I rolled my eyes at Mattie, but she shrugged.
“And she can help out at the lodge while she’s here,” Mattie piped in.
“I’m notthatdesperate,” I said, hating the idea of a handout.
“We’re busy and we really could use the help.” Mattie shot me a pleading look. I still couldn’t tell if she was being sincere or if she just wanted me to do something other than wallow in her basement.
“Well, I think that sounds great, Frankie.” My mom had switched her tone to one of encouragement instead of concern. “I’m glad you girls are spending time together.You’ve got a good plan, and everything will work out, right, Ron?”
My dad grumbled something under his breath. I could practically picture my mom elbowing him in the ribs. “Right. Right,” he finally said.
“We have to go, but we’ll catch up soon,” my mom said. “You two enjoy each other.”
“Love you,” Mattie said, leaning over to speak into the phone.
“Love you,” I said, before hanging up.
“See, was that so bad?”
“You didn’t have to ambush me like that.” I tossed her phone at her and she scrambled to catch it.
“You would have put it off for way too long. Now it’s over.”
I had to give her that. I did tend to put off uncomfortable conversations. But she did the same thing. Truly two birds of a feather.
My parents had always been supportive without crossing into overbearing territory. They’d handled the news about as well as I’d expected them to. Still, I loathed the concern that rang through their voices. I’d always had my shit together, and floundering like this had me completely off balance.
I needed a drink. More importantly, I needed to get far away from my laptop and job applications, which were basically taunting me at this point.
“Weren’t you saying something about wine and cheese?” I asked.
“And if youcould move the Smith reservation to roomfive and add a snowboarding lesson to their folio.” Mattie pointed to the screen, but I pushed her finger away.
“I got it, I got it.” I typed a few things in and dragged the reservation to a different section of the screen. This software was a breeze, especially considering Mattie had been making me work on reorganizing and finalizing reservations for the past hour.
“Wine and cheese night, my ass,” I grumbled.
As soon as we’d arrived at the lodge, Mattie had conveniently remembered she needed to get some things done. And I had been conveniently dragged along to be her little helper.
Truth was, I could moan and complain all I wanted, but it was nice feeling useful after the past few days of being a recluse, stuck in that basement guest room with no real obligations. On top of that, the lodge was beautiful and cozy, just as I’d remembered it from my stay here for Mattie’s wedding. The high-pitched ceilings. The massive wood-burning fireplace in the center of the lobby. The endless natural light spilling in from the windows during golden hour. It wasn’t a bad place to spend time. It was easy to see how my sister had taken a few steps into this place and never left.
Mattie pulled a few pieces of paper off the printer; her eyes scanned them over before she stapled them together. “I told you, I’ve got a table saved for us. I just needed to finish up a few things first.”
“And get free labor out of your sister.”
She eyed me guiltily. “I wasn’t lying when I said we were short-staffed. Besides, if you work more than twenty hours, I can add you to the payroll.”
“I will not be working more than twenty hours.” But even as the words left my mouth, they held little resolve. Mattie was right. Other than job searching, I didn’t have a whole lot going on right now. If she wanted me to help out at the lodge,was I really going to say no in favor of wasting away all day in my shabbiest pajamas?
“Am I seeing double?” An older woman with graying hair swept into a bun wearing a worn cable-knit sweater stood at the reservation desk.
“Bev!” Mattie greeted her cheerily. “You remember my sister, Frankie. Frankie, you remember Giles’s Aunt Bev.”
“Of course.” I smiled up at the woman.
“Your sister putting you to work already, huh?” Bev pulled down her oval-framed glasses.
I pouted and shot Mattie a look. “I was lured here under the false pretense of wine and cheese.”
