Page 37 of Once Upon a Fall

That’s right, he’s still helping me with the inn. The morning after he told me he wanted to stay for the month, he was already in the Cinderella room, helping Dominic and me move furniture.

He’s my actual knight in shining armor. Only he’s currently wearing jeans and a gray T-shirt, and wielding a rubber mallet as he installs the vinyl planks.

“What did the plumber say?” he asks when he sees me.

“It’s worse than I thought. The leak got through the cabinet and under the floor. It will take at least two days of fans to dry it up.” I put my back to the wall by the door and slide down it until I’m sitting on the floor, because if any morning has earned a dramatic floor-sit, it’s this one.

“Do you think they’ll notice big noisy fans in their room?”

“I’m guessing yes,” he says.

I put my face in my hands. “What am I going to do?”

“Easy,” Dean says, and I look up at him, surprised by his answer. “Put them in the Sleeping Beauty room.”

“But that’s your room,” I say.

“And I can move out for the night.”

“Where would you go?”

He lifts a shoulder. “I’ll figure something out.”

Hope blossoms in my chest. “I could find you a place in Burlington.”

“That’ll work.”

“Are you sure?” I ask him. “That’s a lot to ask of you.”

“It’s one night.”

I let out a long breath, as if I’d only been taking short, shallow ones since I woke up this morning. “Dean, you really are my knight in shining armor.”

He crinkles his brow. “Because I’m giving up my room for your other guests?”

“Yes, and working on the floor of my inn, and making me dinner. How can I ever thank you?”

I know he’s getting tired of my thank-yous, but I don’t know what else to do. I don’t think he’d take pastries as payment.

“You can start by finding me a room in Burlington, while I work on this,” he says, giving me a little smirk before going back to hammering in a piece of the flooring.

“I can definitely do that.”

It turns out I can’t find him a room in Burlington. Every freaking hotel is booked solid for Family Weekend at UVM.

We’re sitting on the nearly finished floor of the Rapunzel room, the house finally quiet now that the quilting circle has left, while I frantically search my phone for more options.

“There’s one room at the Rest E-Z motel,” I offer. “Nine hundred dollars for the night, and the latest review is not something I’m comfortable reading out loud, but let’s just say there is a mention of bedbugs.”

Dean doesn’t look up from the plank he’s setting. “I’d rather sleep in the garage.”

I sit up straighter, then slouch again. “Hal’s truck is still there.”

It’s been nearly two weeks, and he still hasn’t come for it. And I’m going to need that garage soon. I’ve been storing all the staging furniture in the Beauty and the Beast room, but that’s also the last room I have to finish. Once I get to it, I’ll need somewhere to put everything, and right now that somewhere has a truck in it.

Not that I’d actually let Dean sleep in the garage. Still, it would have been nice to know I had it as an option. Freaking Hal.

No, I don’t mean that. Hal’s dad’s truck is safe with me. For now. At least until festival supplies start arriving. I can’t exactly stack a bunch of folding tables in my entryway. The truck will have to be gone by then. But that’s future Rosie’s problem. Present Rosie has a more immediate one: Where is Dean sleeping tonight?