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Chapter Eight
Morning couldn't have come soon enough.By the time Holly had stumbled up the stairs to her childhood bedroom, she had drunk half the bottle of wine. It was more than she had planned on drinking, and if she was honest with herself, it hadn't done much to help the problems at hand. It numbed them more than anything.
And combined with all the stress, it had led to a rough, sleepless night. Holly had fallen asleep almost the moment her head hit the pillow, but it sure hadn't felt that way. She had tossed and turned the entire night, and when the sun had finally peeked in around the edges of her curtains, she felt no more rested than when she had gone to bed the night before.
She figured if the sun was up, then she might as well get up. Holly tried to ignore as much of her room as possible, not wanting to go down that nostalgia trip right then and made her way to the bathroom for a shower. The sleep hadn't helped very much, but the shower certainly had. Standing beneath the hot spray helped loosen the knots in her shoulders in addition to washing away all the grime from the previous day.
The cup of coffee she made before leaving the house helped even more. There was nothing like some fresh, hot caffeine first thing in the morning to really get her going. It wasn't a fancy latte or anything, but truth be told, Holly had always preferred just simple coffee.
It was something she'd gotten from her father. If you had dared to look at his cup of coffee with sugar or milk in hand, you'd end up getting your hide tanned. He drank his as black as possible and wouldn't have dreamed of having it any other way. And that was how Holly had drunk hers for most of her life.
She had learned to enjoy the occasional latte, or whatever fancy concoction Starbucks had come up with that year, but she always had a preference for plain coffee, especially when she was stressed. And today, being stressed didn't come close to describing how she felt.
Before heading out, Holly ducked into the room that had been her father's home office. Despite him having been gone for over two years, not much had changed. Nostalgia once again threatened to overwhelm her the moment she opened the door, but she managed to plow past it long enough to snag a notebook and pen and then fled like the devil himself was after her.
She would have to muster enough strength to face all those demons. But there would be time for that later, she told herself. Her personal demons weren't going anywhere. But if she didn't do something soon, the inn would go under. So, for the time being, that had to be her priority.
She had gotten a basic idea of some of the inn's problems yesterday, but now she wanted to get a detailed look at everything and get it all written down. Then, she could start coming up with a game plan of some sort. What that plan would end up being, she wasn't sure, but again, that was a problem for later!
One step at a time, she told herself.
She wandered the grounds first, jotting things down in the notebook as she spotted them. The grounds were mostly maintained, with the basics taken care of, at least. But it didn't have the same splendor it'd had years ago. Unless they had updated the pictures online, Holly could see why guests might be annoyed when they showed up.
She made notes about the paint, the few shutters that looked loose, and the parts of the roof that looked overdue for maintenance. Then, it was time for the truly daunting task. As much as the exterior was in need of some TLC, Holly could only imagine how much of the interior had been neglected over the last couple of years.
At first, Holly wandered around by herself, writing down the things that caught her eye. If she noticed them with the naked eye, then there was no doubt the guests noticed too. And if the guests noticed, then it needed to be fixed as soon as possible. Inns like this lived and thrived on happy customers, and so far, it appeared like at least some of them were pretty far from happy.
Holly was almost afraid to venture online and see what the reviews said about the place. She would have to, though, just to make sure she addressed everything in some manner. But again, that was a problem for another day.
Once she had gone through the entire inn and made her notes, she headed back to the front desk. The same girl from yesterday was there again. Natalie, she had learned, was only eighteen and fresh out of high school. Nelly had hired her last year to work the summers since Natalie was planning to go to school for hospitality management in the upcoming fall.
When Holly asked Natalie to give her a tour around the place and point out any of the problems, the girl squealed with enthusiasm. God, had Holly ever been that energetic when she was that young? She doubted it. And Gabby certainly hadn't been. But Natalie seemed to be bursting with energy and led Holly to each of the rooms, pointing out the complaints she had received about each of them.
As it turned out, Room 109 wasn't the only one with a busted shower. Room 302's shower hadn't been working for at least a week, either. That had to be tackled right away, and Holly instructed Natalie not to rent those rooms out to anyone until she could hire someone to fix them.
Holly went through page after page in her notebook, jotting every single thing down, so she wouldn't forget any of it. By the time she returned Natalie to the front desk and headed in the direction of the inn's restaurant, Holly was exhausted. Well, more exhausted than she had already been at the start of the day.
This time, when a waitress brought her a steaming hot cup of coffee, it didn't do much to take the edge off of things. It was no wonder her mother looked so run down. Holly had only been there for a day, and she was overwhelmed with the sheer size of the project she had agreed to take on.
How in the world was she going to manage to bring the inn back to its former glory all by herself?
After bringing Holly's coffee out, the waitress seemed to have vanished. Holly looked around for a bit before finally spotting the woman, darting from table to table. Holly sat and watched, and the woman hardly appeared to have time to breathe, much less juggle the number of tables she was assigned.
She only spotted one other waitress working as well. So either the rest of them were slacking off somewhere, or they were seriously understaffed. When the young woman finally returned to Holly's table, Holly really took in her appearance this time. Strands of hair had started to escape her tight ponytail. Her makeup was smudged in places, though from sweat rather than tears.
"Is Chef Stevens working this morning?" Holly inquired after giving the woman her order. When the woman nodded, Holly continued. "Can you ask him to swing by my table when he gets a chance? It's not an emergency, so tell him not to rush."
The woman nodded frantically and then scampered off in the direction of the kitchen. It was a few minutes later when the kitchen door opened and Chef Stevens walked out, a plate containing Holly's food balanced in one hand. He sat it carefully in front of her, a smile on his face.
"Everything all right, Misses Archer?"
Holly smirked at him and rolled her eyes. The man had worked there since Holly was a little girl. Hearing him call her Misses Archer was too much. "I believe my name is still Holly," she said with a wink. Then, she nodded toward the second chair at her little table. "Do you have a moment to sit and talk? There're a few things I want to ask you."
Chef Stevens frowned but nodded, taking a seat across the table. The man's shoulders were tense and straight. He met Holly's gaze without blinking and his face was a mix of emotions Holly couldn't quite untangle, but she was pretty sure he was as stressed and run down as his servers were.
"What's going on with the waitstaff?" Holly asked, figuring it was best to get right to the point.
The Chef's expression hardened. "Pardon?"
