“You’ve looked at that clock so many times in the last hour, it looks like you’re doing some kind of weird neck exercise. I’d ask if you have a hot date after work, but…” Amy let the words die away as she laughed in a way that Nola felt mildly insulted by, even though the woman’s implication wasn’t wrong.
Nola rarely had a hot date after work, and probably not at all since Amy had started working in the town hall. That was partly because she used to schedule her hot dates for Saturday nights because a full day of dealing with the public was enough Friday interaction for her.
And now she didn’t date as often as she used to. She hadn’t given up. She’d just stopped chasing Mr. Right. If he was meant to be, they’d end up in the same place at the same time and magic would happen.
“Are you working at the lodge again tonight?” Amy asked, clearly determined to figure out why Nola was keeping track of the time.
“Yeah, they have guests until next Tuesday and you know how busy Rosie gets during the holidays, what with juggling guests and preparing for the family Christmas. I’ll help her out as much as I can.”
She’d stumbled into the very part-time job at the lodge almost accidentally. Her cousin Laney worked for the family, and she’d gone to see her one night and ended up helping in the dining room. She also had a knack for making drinks and it wasn’t long before Josh had shown up at town hall and asked her if she’d be interested in a second job. Nola didn’t need the money—she lived a simple life and didn’t spend a lot—but it was fun to meet people who weren’t from Whitford, where she’d lived her entire life. She’d never felt compelled to leave the town, which she genuinely loved, but she loved listening to stories about other places.
When Amy turned her attention back to her computer screen, Nola couldn’t resist another glance at the clock. Time was crawling by unusually slowly today, and she knew Ian Emerson was the reason why.
One more hour and she’d be out of here. She would run home for a few minutes and then be on her way to the lodge and she’d see him again. Maybe it was silly of her, but she didn’t care. It had been a long time since she’d felt that sizzle of anticipation and she was allowing herself to savor it for as long as it lasted.
Of course, because it was just the way her luck ran, the last customer of the day had wanted to keep arguing about his home’s taxation value even after she told him the process for appealing and getting a reevaluation, so as she pulled into her tree-lined drive, she was annoyed and tired and about fed up with people.
Until her pretty log cabin with the deep front porch came into sight, and she felt the familiar sense of peace and relief it always brought her.
She’d bought the house twelve years ago, even though it was a three-bedroom and it made no sense to pay the higher taxes and utility bills for extra space she really didn’t need. But the river ran through the back of the land, and trees surrounded her lot, giving her privacy. For three seasons out of the year, she could sit on her screened-in back porch, reading and listening to the water tumble over the rocks.
This time of year, the trees were bare and the ground covered in snow, but she still loved the view. All year round, it brought her peace and joy. Even in January, when the branches and the river rocks would be coated in ice that gleamed in the winter sun.
She’d often make herself a cup of tea, sitting and relaxing to let the view drive away any lingering annoyances of the workday before getting ready to go to the lodge. Today, she went straight to her bedroom, where she stripped out of the khaki pants and blouse she’d worn to work, and took a quick shower. She even spent a few minutes blow-drying her hair. She wore it longer than she used to and she’d stopped lightening it a few years back, and she liked the way the dark honey strands hung down over her shoulders. But to work at the lodge, she pulled it back into a ponytail to keep it out of the way.
Her hand hovered near the middle drawer of her vanity, where she kept the makeup she rarely bothered with, but then she turned off the light and left the bathroom. If she showed up with makeup on, she’d never hear the end of it from Rosie. The woman’s matchmaking radar was already pinging without Nola sending up a flare.
It wasn’t until the blue lights started flashing in her rearview mirror that she realized just how much of a hurry she was in to see Ian again. And when Drew Miller stepped out of the black SUV, she groaned and dropped her head onto the steering wheel for a few seconds. She might as well have gone in on the mascara and lipstick.
Drew was not only the chief of police, but Rosie’s stepson. And he was married to Josh’s sister, Liz, so there was an almost one hundred percent chance everybody at the lodge would know Nola had been in a hurry to get there before she even arrived.
He crossed his arms as she hit the button to lower the window. “Hey, Nola.”
“Hi, Drew.”
“In a hurry tonight?”
“I was barely speeding,” she said, and then she blushed when he arched his eyebrow at her because she really had no idea how fast she was actually going.
“You were hovering right around the line between a stern talking to and getting a ticket.” He gave her a stern look before shaking his head and slapping the roof of her SUV. “Slow down.”
“I will. Thanks, Drew.”
He’d started to walk away and her window was halfway up when he turned back and called her name. “He’s probably not even in off the trails yet.”
Face flaming, she put the window all the way up and cut off the sound of his laughter. Of course he knew about Ian. He stopped by the lodge on a regular basis to see his dad, and he’d probably sat at Rosie’s table and drank her coffee and listened to all the latest gossip. Nola flirting with one of the guests probably qualified as newsworthy in Rosie’s book.
She thought about what Drew had said and decided he was probably right about Ian not even being at the lodge yet. When their guests traveled all the way to the lodge for a few days of snowmobiling, they usually wanted to get their money’s worth, so they often rode until well after dark.
But he’d show up eventually, and she caught herself humming “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as she turned off the main road for the lodge.
“It’s not funny!”
Ian watched Maddie trying to run across the yard in full snowmobile gear and would have told her she was wrong if he wasn’t laughing too hard to talk. His daughter had never mastered the art of peeing in the woods—she’d never even attempted it, as far as he knew—and they’d covered a lot of miles since the last convenience store. The store where she washed down a pizza slice with a bottle of soda he’d warned her she’d regret.
Sometimes parents knew things, but his kids hadn’t grown into accepting that yet. Since they were more or less adults at this point, he was beginning to suspect they never would. At least not until they had kids of their own, anyway. He wasn’t ready to be a grandfather anytime soon, but he should start working on hisI told you soface for when the time came.
“If she falls, she’s totally going to piss herself,” Jacob said, and he didn’t even try to hide how much he wanted that to happen.
