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“We had someone quit, so in addition to an assistant manager for me, we’re going to need to hire another overnight desk clerk.”
They briefly discussed that before moving on to the other departments. She was glad that there were no big issues facing them that week, but unfortunately, that could change quickly enough.
“I’ve had another request regarding your brother,” Liz said before Kayleigh had a chance to end the meeting.
Kayleigh sat back in her chair. “What now? You know Wilder doesn’t like to give out his phone number.”
“We have guests fighting over his time. Someone told me they’d really like it if we could please clone him.”
That made Kayleigh chuckle, and she knew it would amuse Wilder as well. Like her, he’d been employed at the resort since he was in his teens. He didn’t work there year-round like Kayleigh did, but his position as a ski instructor was always guaranteed when he returned home for the winter. He was highly sought after and well paid for his time.
It wasn’t just that he was a great skier—which he was—but he also had miles of patience for even the most difficult person. On top of that, he had a very gregarious personality that people of all ages and genders responded well to.
“Well, I’m afraid we have no clone of Wilder to offer them,” Kayleigh said. “And no one else in my family comes close to him in skill on the slopes.”
“I’d worry that his head would get too big if I told him, but the dude just laughs it off.”
There wasn’t much that Wilder took too seriously, which included his own worth. Kayleigh was just glad that she didn’t have to worry about him as an employee at the place where she was the manager. She’d hate to have to deal with complaints about him.
Though she’d bossed her siblings around plenty in her life, that had mainly been in their younger years. She was happy to let them live their own lives these days.
“Unless any of you have any further issues, we can get on with our day.”
Kayleigh watched as the other four gathered up their things and filed out of the room. She spent a few minutes staring out the window that looked out over the parking lot and wondered again why someone from headquarters was coming.
She didn’t want to worry, but that was her default mode when she thought that there was a chance that someone was going to find something wrong with her or something that was her responsibility. Arming herself with more information was usually helpful, but when there was no information to be had, she couldn’t even do that.
With a sigh, Kayleigh picked up her phone, mug, and tablet, then returned to her office. There wasn’t much she could do about the pending VIP visit, and she had plenty of other things that demanded her attention.
By the time Kayleigh left the hotel later that day, it was nearly six and already completely dark. At that point in January, sunset happened around four-thirty in the afternoon. The sunset hadn’t been visible, however, since it had been a gray, dreary day that had spit snow at various times.
Mindful of the accident that her sister, Janessa, had been in a couple of months earlier, Kayleigh took her time driving home. Since the resort was out of town, she made sure that her small SUV had the best tires. The last thing she wanted was to get stuck going to or from work during the winter months.
She pulled into her garage, then let herself into the house through the connecting door. The welcoming atmosphere of her small home enveloped her and had her exhaling in relief.
Though she could have afforded a larger, more modern place with the money she made working for Remington Properties, she loved the home she’d created. The two-bedroom, two-bath house had been rundown and dated when she’d bought it. But after paying a good chunk of money for extensive renovations, it was exactly how she wanted it.
She went to her bedroom first and changed out of the suit she’d worn that day and into a pair of leggings, an oversize sweatshirt, and thick socks. After hanging up her suit, she went to the kitchen to figure out what to do about dinner.
Normally, she took the time to make dinner, but all the recipes she’d lined up to try would probably take more time than she had available that evening, considering she was late getting home.
Still, she picked up her binder to flip through the recipes. They’d been divided into a few sections.Need to Try. Tried and Yes. Tried and No. My Favs.Every recipe was in a plastic sleeve.
The recipes were a mix of ones she found on the internet and ones that were given to her by Gervais, the head chef at the French restaurant at the resort. The more she needed to get out of her head, the more complicated the recipe needed to be.
Unfortunately, even though she would really have liked to have something to focus on besides work, the complicated recipes required more time than she had that night.
Just to be sure, she flipped through the recipes, checking the amount of prep and cook time that was needed for each. Gervais, with a touch of humor or perhaps arrogance, had noted two times on each recipe he’d given her. The first one was how long it would takehimto prep it, and the second was how long it would takeher. Usually, the second number was double the first.
Finally, she sighed and closed the binder. Cooking was going to have to wait for another evening. She needed to get food into her so she could begin her night-time routine. Because she was up at five o’clock most mornings, she tried to be in bed by nine on a weeknight.
She opened her fridge to peruse its contents but found herself just staring into it as her thoughts went back to Liz’s announcement that someone was coming to stay in the owner's suite. It was possible that it was just someone coming for a vacation like they’d discussed, but something was telling Kayleigh that wasn’t the case.
Or maybe it was just her paranoia.
Her siblings would say it was definitely her paranoia. However, they weren’t mired in her current situation at work, which was already making her worry.
Finally, she grabbed a pre-made salad that she’d bought to have on hand for nights like that one, because she wasn’t guaranteed that she’d be home at the same time every day. She quickly dumped it into a bowl she usually used for pasta, then added the dressing.
