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“Don’t even tell me what it is,” Kelli begged him. “I can only deal with so much drama at once.”
“I’ll keep it to myself,” Xander assured her, then sped off.
Kelli sighed, then got up the nerve to walk back toward the party. But just before she turned the corner to enter the ballroom, something incredible happened. The heel of her right shoe snapped beneath her, and her ankle went sideways toward the ground. Kelli tumbled, just out of sight of her guests, and sat on the ground, at a loss, staring at her ankle, which would surely bruise.
What was she going to do?
ChapterThree
Just as Kelli made peace with the idea of clambering back to her feet and limping to her office to hide from her guests for the rest of the day, a twenty-something staff member spotted her and hurried over. “Oh my gosh! Kelli, are you all right?”
Kelli winced as she looked up at the young woman, who dropped to inspect her ankle. The woman had mousy brown hair but intelligent eyes, and she wore an outfit that indicated she was a bellhop, someone who carried luggage to people’s rooms. Kelli didn’t recognize her; the head bellhop had probably hired her instead of Kelli.
“My heel broke,” Kelli explained timidly. “I feel very stupid right now.”
The woman raised her chin to lock her gaze with Kelli’s. “Don’t feel stupid. Can you put pressure on it?”
Kelli said she thought she probably could, but she allowed the young woman to help her to her feet, where she learned her ankle was definitely messed up and needed a bit of ice. Slowly, they went through the kitchen to retrieve ice and up the back to get to Kelli’s office, where the young woman wrapped the ice in a towel and placed it tenderly on Kelli’s ankle.
“Wow,” Kelli said. “What would I have done without you?”
“Don’t worry about it! I saw you on the ground, and my instincts took over. I was a lifeguard when I was younger.”
Kelli smiled at the young woman, who spoke a little too quickly, as though she was constantly nervous. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Sandra,” the woman said.
“Nice to meet you, Sandra. I’m Kelli. I take it you work as a bellhop?”
Sandra said she did. “It’s my first job on the island,” Sandra went on. “I just got here about a month ago and read about the new hotel opening by the cliffs. Since I needed a job, I jumped for it and was so relieved when Greg called me and said I was in.”
Kelli felt at ease for the first time all day, chatting with this young woman who adored her job so much, who was just so grateful to be there. “Have you ever worked in hospitality before?”
“Never,” Sandra said, “although I told Greg that I had. Please, don’t tell him.”
Kelli laughed. “I’ve never really worked in hospitality, either. I took a six-week course on hotel management last year, but I don’t think you can learn anything like this through a course. It has to be hands-on.”
“It seems like you’re doing a really good job so far,” Sandra said. “I mean, everyone respects you and listens to you.”
Kelli wasn’t sure if the young woman was lying, but she wanted to believe her so badly. “How do you like the island so far?”
“It’s beautiful! I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a place like this before. Back in Providence, things got bad for me,” Sandra said. “I wasn’t sure how the rest of my life was going to go. But here, I’ve already met some wonderful friends, and I feel very positive. Maybe that’s naive?”
“No,” Kelli assured her. “I think positivity is a wonderful tool that we can use to build better futures. I tell myself that, anyway.”
As luck would have it, Kelli had a spare set of flats in the office. When the swelling of her ankle went down a bit, she slid her feet into the flats and showed them off to Sandra, who clapped and said, “It’s already evening, which means most people have had one too many cocktails to notice you changed your shoes.”
Kelli laughed. “You’re probably right. Besides, people come to an event like this to be seen. They don’t care about what the hotel manager looks like, right?”
“Absolutely,” Sandra said, opening the office door for Kelli, who strode out— acting, yet again, like she owned the place. She basically did.
Kelli and Sandra re-entered the ballroom, where the dining room tables had been set for a five-course meal. Still, the guests mingled, showing off their expensive dresses and their tans, which they’d gotten from Mediterranean vacations, or trips to the Bahamas. Kelli had never been one to take such lavish off-island vacations, as she liked to take every season on Martha’s Vineyard as it came.
“Sandra?” A voice came from somewhere in the crowd. Kelli watched as Amanda burst out, waving at Sandra. “I had no idea you would be here!”
Kelli eyed Amanda curiously as she flung her arms around Sandra, her engagement ring glinting.
“That job I was telling you about was here!” Sandra said as the hug broke.
