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CHAPTER1
VELMA
“Yes,ma’am I’ll be sure to mention to the park rangers that your son tends to wander.”
Why don’t you keep an eye on your badass son yourself? The Rangers aren’t babysitters. Is what I wanted to say to the lady on the phone but instead, I pasted on a smile and told her what she wanted to hear.
That is my job in a nutshell… feeding already delusional people more delusions to keep them happy. And I’m good at it.
Leaning against the front counter, I twirl the phone cord around my finger as Mrs. Escot goes on and on.
She hasn’t even arrived at the resort yet and she’s already getting on my nerves. Her list of demands is growing by the second, each more ridiculous than the last.
Her latest one has me pushing off the desk in disbelief, startling my coworkers, Georgie and Tacie. They’re not used to me being frazzled.
“I apologize, Mrs. Escot, but I believe I misheard that request. Do you mind repeating it?”
She sighs, clearly upset and now convinced that I’m a bumbling fool but that’s okay because there is no way she said what I think she said. She repeats her request and… holy shit. This is a first.
“Yes, ma’am I understand. Bears can be frightening, however, I will not be able to remove them from the mountain. It’s their home… they live there,” I say, but I can admit my tone could have been less amused.
Why on earth would you book a vacation in a mountain resort when you don’t like mountains or the wildlife that lives there? I can already sense a vacation in my future just to recover from her visit.
Great. She’s yelling now, so loud the entire lobby could probably hear her. Thank goodness it’s empty. The last thing I need is for our current guest to be witness to this nonsense.
Georgie and Tacie are now fully vested in the conversation, each taking space on one of my shoulders. I don’t blame them. I’d be doing the same thing but it’s a bad look.
Attempting to exert some control over the rapidly deteriorating situation, I shoo them away as Mrs. Escot continues her assault, demanding to speak with a supervisor. Too bad for her– and me at the moment– that would be me.
Once I tell her that little tidbit of information, she goes into a rage, swearing that I’m lying. I have two options now. Lie by saying that I was lying and hand her off to Thomas, the General Manager or de-escalate the situation myself.
I didn’t get to be the Customer Relations Manager by shirking my responsibilities. And right now, fixing this cluster is up to me. Double-checking her information on the computer I see my solution.
“Mrs. Escot, I apologize. I failed to fully understand the situation. Bears roaming around during your morning walks would certainly pose an issue. I see here that your reservation is for Christmas week which luckily is three weeks from now. By then all the bears will be deep in hibernation for the winter. And if any remain awake, I’ll have the rangers deal with them.”
They won’t do a damn thing. Seeing a bear out during the winter is not entirely unheard of but she doesn’t need to know that.
Mrs. Escot concedes this round with a warning that her cabin better be top tier or else, which slightly offends me. All the accommodations here at Coldwater Cabin Resorts are top tier. We might be small on design but we pride ourselves on excellence. Mr. Dufort, the owner, expects nothing less. Even though he lives less than an hour away, we rarely see him, which makes his surprise visits that much more stressful.
“What did she expect us to do? Round up all the bears and then what?” Tacie asks as soon as I hang up.
“Put them in her cabin. That’ll probably keep her ‘wandering’ son in place,” Georgie quips. “Can I cancel her reservation?” Georgie is my biggest headache. She would cancel Mrs. Escot's reservation if I let her.
Tacie giggles and then shushes her. They’re sisters and watching them interact, you would like that Tacie is the oldest with the way she tries to mother Georgie. In reality, she’s the youngest and sweetest. Georgie, the oldest, on the other hand, is loud and full of sass.
I shake my head at the pair then go full manager mode, assigning them the task of straightening the counter and checking if all the guests due to arrive today have checked in, before heading back into my small office behind the front desk. I keep the door open and my eyes and ears peeled in case things get too out of hand. You never know with the feisty McClains.
“Whatever Tee,” Georgie says, still going while she scrolls through the booking system. “Sometimes it takes a good bear mauling to loosen some people up. Maybe you could use one.”
Tacie’s face twists in confusion. She doesn’t know what Georgie is alluding to but I do. With her clever wordplay, she’s talking about Bear, the oldest McClain and the only male of the bunch.
Their family dynamic is different than most in Coldwater Ridge and easy enough to follow once you’re made aware. Tacie is adopted and Bear is the other sister’s half-brother. My parents think it’s strange that the McClains would adopt an African American girl but I didn’t see them rushing to the rescue when Tacie’s grandmother passed. No. What their real issue is, is that Bear is in love with her.
They say it’s immoral but the truth is they had high hopes for Bear and me getting married. A match between us would have united two of the oldest families in Coldwater. Bear is attractive but I never saw him as anything other than a friend. And the same goes for him.
As if sensing my thoughts, the man himself comes strolling in and Tacie becomes flustered. Taking it out on the desk by knocking over a stack of key cards and a container of pens. In her attempts to right things she somehow manages to destroy a section of the garland I’d spent hours hanging around the edge of the counter.
Bear reaches the desk and stills Tacie’s hand, rubbing tiny circles on her palm. “You okay, babygirl? Georgie not giving you any shit, is she?”
