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For Pete’s sake. Now she was just a rambling, incoherent mess. Hard to believe she made her living the way she did.
Not surprisingly, the clerk stood staring at her with a look of utter confusion on her face.
“You’ll be climbing the falls for business?” she asked.
Celeste nodded. “Something like that. It’s hard to explain.”
“I see.”
She lifted the items in her arms and gestured to the shoes the clerk held. “I’d like to charge these to the room, please.”
There it was. Somehow, without even realizing, it appeared she’d come to a decision after all.
She could only hope she wouldn’t regret it.
CHAPTER FIVE
HER PHONE VIBRATED in her dress pocket just as Celeste slid her keycard into the door lock slot. So much for giving her time to get back to him. Assuming it had to be Reid, she fished it out of her pocket and clicked before checking to be sure.
She was mistaken. It was her mother’s voice that greeted her on the other end.
“Are you on the beach, enjoying some fruity frou-frou drink with a paper umbrella?” The question was asked in a mean-spirited and mocking tone.
Celeste took a fortifying breath. The way her mother’s words slurred and rolled into one another gave all the indications that she was the one indulging in drink at the moment. And Wendy’s choice of beverage would never be described as frou-frou. Conversations with her mother were always beyond draining under the best of circumstances. When she was drinking, they bordered on traumatic.
Though she could be a caring and nurturing parent when sober, Wendy Frajedi was a mean drunk.
“Hello, Mother. I just walked into my room after picking up some things from the resort shop, as a matter of fact.”
“Huh. Must be nice. Do you know how much I need around the house? If only I had a daughter who was willing to help out with some shopping for me.” Wendy put extra emphasis on the last word.
Celeste pinched the bridge of her nose and kicked the door shut behind her. “I left a sizable amount of cash in the jar last time I was there, Mom.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re around to help me shop and put the stuff away now, does it?”
She wanted to tell her parent that she was perfectly capable of getting her own groceries or whatever else might be needed. But opposing her mother in any way when she was like this only led to long, drawn-out arguments that merely served to frustrate and demoralize her, sometimes to the brink of tears. As much as she hated to admit it, Wendy Frajedi was the one person on the planet who could make her feel like she hadn’t done anything right in her life, even when she knew it was 99 percent the vodka talking. It was just that the 1 percent delivered a mountain of hurt.
Celeste had long ago given up trying push back when her mother was in her cups. The tension only escalated if she did so. No. Her mom would have to get off her chest all that she felt compelled to say. Then she would sleep off the bender until a pounding hangover headache woke her up. At which point a different kind of misery would befall her. The woman refused treatment as she insisted she didn’t have a problem, that she only drank once in a while.
“How come you never invite me or your sister on some fancy-schmancy vacation?” Wendy now demanded to know.
Like déjà vu. The two of them went through this every year. More accurately, they went through it every time Celeste traveled. “You know you don’t like airplanes, Mom. Tara can hardly be expected to travel with the baby. And last year she was pregnant.”
Her mother grunted in disgust at her response. “There are plenty of places we can drive to together, aren’t there?”
Celeste couldn’t think of anything less relaxing than driving long-distance with her sibling and parent in order to spend several days together. Of course, she didn’t bother to say so.
“I needed to get away, Mom. I’ll make it up to you.”
Her mother’s peal of laughter screeched loudly into the phone. “Yeah, right. Like I’d believe that.”
“Is there somewhere specific you’d like to visit?” Celeste threw out the question, just to play devil’s advocate. Her mother had no real desire to travel. Right now, she just wanted to chastise her daughter for doing so.
