Page 2 of Once Upon a Fall

I tilt my head to the side. “Yes, a man. Are you worried that he’s going to hate all the pink in his room?”

“No.” He shakes his head, but then he stops, his brow pinching. “I mean, it is a lot of pink.”

“He’s a paying customer. It could be a room wallpapered with fairies, and he’d just have to deal. Oh my gosh.” I stop, the curtain rings clinking against the rod. “Should I add fairies?”

No fairies in a Sleeping Beauty room? How did I forget that?

“You don’t have time for fairies.”

“True,” I agree.

Note to self: add fairies.

I pull my phone out of the front pocket of my pink overalls and add it to my “things to fix or add” note. It’s a mile long at this point.

“So let me get this straight—a man is going to be staying here for a week? Just you and him?”

I look to the side, tucking some of my blonde hair behind my ear. “Until the third,” I say under my breath.

“Oh. Only two days?”

“No, October third.”

“A month?” His words echo around the small room.

“Yes, a month,” I say, a little more confidently this time, tucking my phone back in my pocket.

“Who comes to Autumn Ridge for a month?” my brother asks.

It’s a valid question. One I also had and considered asking. But my bank account dictated that I didn’t need to know the reason.

“To visit our quaint little town, of course,” I tell him.

“What if he’s a weirdo?”

I draw my head back, scowling. “He’s not.”

“You don’t know that. You’ve never met this guy.”

“Well, if he is, then I will do my best to avoid him while taking his weirdo money.”

Dom rolls his eyes. “I don’t have time to worry about this.”

“Thank goodness I’m a full-grown adult.”

He eyes me like he’s considering whether that’s true or not.

Dom is one of the few people who know what I’m up against right now: a balloon payment on the loan I took out to do renovations, due in November. Only two months away. Only he and our older sister, Emma, know—which means if our dad finds out, I’ll know who told him. And there will be a wedgie in that person’s future. So, if someone does, it better be Emma. Because it’s been over a decade since I could properly wedgie Dom. He’s much bigger and stronger these days.

My dad can’t find out, though. He’s already been worried about me since I bought the inn, and knowing about the debt I’m in would only confirm his fears.

“I’ll be fine,” I say. “And besides, I need the booking. Between his month-long stay and my October reservations, I can make the payment.”

Barely. Assuming nothing else breaks.

I give Dom my best easy smile while anxious butterflies flutter around in my stomach.

It took me nearly four months to finish this one room, and now I have to complete the other four in a month. I can’t afford to hire anyone, so it’s all on me. And it has to be done in time for the fall festival, which I’ve also somehow been put in charge of. Pam Vasser has already texted me twice asking whether I’ve confirmed the vendors, and I haven’t even opened the spreadsheet she sent me.