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“Good morning,” I said at a volume gentle enough not to startle him, but loud enough to hear without his hearing aids.
He rolled over and patted down the few wispy white hairs left on the top of his head. “Oh dear. What time is it? Is the coffee brewing?” He got out of bed and put on a robe over his pyjamas.
“Everything is taken care of,” I reassured him. “Everyone has already eaten and I’m finished the clean-up too.”
“Oh Derian. Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” He hooked his glasses behind his ears and squinted at the clock, wondering why the alarm hadn’t gone off.
“I turned your alarm off. You deserve a day to rest once in a while.” I laid out some clean clothes on his bed. “Taking it easy will prepare you for retirement.”
“I can’t take today off. Alan and Paula are coming by this morning.”
“The new owners?”
“Yes. I’m supposed to give them an orientation today. They also want to come in and do shifts while we’re here so they can get the hang of how to run things.”
“That’s a good idea.” It made me feel better to know they were eager to learn. Out of all the people who could have bought the Inn I was grateful it was a family who would retain its old charm and continue to run it the same way we always had.
“They’re going to be a good fit. I can feel it,” he said.
“I feel it too.” I rested my hand on his shoulder and kissed his cheek as I reached over to steal a piece of toast and peanut butter off the tray. “But since we’re technically still on the clock until the end of the summer, I should get back to the front desk. Enjoy your breakfast.” I left his room and headed back to the lobby.
Two more families who were desperate to entertain their kids during the storm took brochures on the attractions in Squamish. Growing up in an ancient rain forest, I was brought up with the attitude that there was no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. But even I had to admit it was a particularly dreary day. Curling up next to the fireplace with a good book appealed to me.
As I scanned the list of check-ins for the afternoon, three trucks, all black, pulled into the parking lot—one after the other in a convoy—a Hummer, a Mercedes G Class, and a Range Rover. I knew who they were and a jolt of excitement slammed through me when the driver of the Range Rover got out and crossed the parking lot towards the front door of the Inn.
I ripped the elastic out of my ponytail and shook my head to make my hair fall straight over my shoulders and down my back. My reflection in the black computer screen reminded me that I still looked like I just rolled out of bed. At best. Oh well. Too late. The driver of the Range Rover, Mason Cartwright, stepped through the door into the lobby. He ran his hands through his wet caramel-brown hair and pushed it back off his forehead. He smiled. “Hi Derian.”
“Hey.” Saying something more elaborate would have been helpful to at least pretend to be articulate. Unfortunately, my lips felt as if I had gone to the dentist and then got caught in a blizzard.
“How have you been?”
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I tried again and was able to spit out, “Um. Good. You’re home.”
He chuckled at my blatant statement of the obvious. “Yeah.” He did his shy smile. It had been almost a year since I’d seen it and I had forgotten how adorable it was. He ran his finger over the nick in his eyebrow and said, “A bunch of us are going off-roading. Would you like to come with us?”
I stared at him for an awkwardly long time. After I blinked three times, I finally forced myself to breathe and answered, “Can’t. Have to work.” My Neanderthal sentences came across sounding rude, so I scrambled to find more words. “Thanks anyway.”
“What time do you get off?”
“Never. Um, I mean, it’s not like a real job. It kind of depends on how busy it is. And it is. Busy. This weekend. Lots of people.”
“Okay. Would you like to go to a party with me in Squamish tonight?” His hand rose in a hold-on-a-second gesture. “Before you answer, I want to remind you about the deal we made last summer. Remember?”
I remembered our deal—of course I remembered our deal. I had thought about it about a thousand times since then—I was just surprised he remembered. The deal had happened during a crazy time in my life. I had just found out my boyfriend Steve had cheated on me. Trevor had just gotten home after five months away but made it clear we shouldn’t be more than friends. And to top it all off Mason informed me that if we were both single when he got back from working abroad for a year, he would ask me out on a date. At the time, I didn’t know where I would be living in a year or if Trevor and I would be together in a year. Plus, I had always been curious about Mason, so I had agreed. But I thought the chances of him actually honoring the deal were slim. Apparently I was wrong.
He seemed half-amused and half-worried by my lack of response. “What do you say?”
Again, I was frozen in an excruciatingly awkward stare as I considered the prospect of a summer fling with him. Then I choked out, “Sure.”
“Great. I’ll pick you up at eight.” He handed me a business card. “Here’s my number. Text me yours.”
I nodded like a bobble head.
His mouth flashed a lopsided smile as if he wanted to laugh at my peculiar behaviour, but he hid it with the back of his hand, probably not wanting to be rude. I knew I was acting like an idiot, but tragically I couldn’t help it. Mason was literally the best-looking human being I had ever met. To save my dignity, I didn’t even attempt to say anything else. I just waved at him, then watched him run back through the rain and climb into the truck.
The guy in the passenger seat said something. Mason nodded, smiled, and then waved at me before he drove off with the convoy of trucks following him south on the highway. I jiggled around, trying to contain my excitement.
“Is that a friend?” Granddad asked, making me jump out of my seat.
Clutching my chest to attempt to still my heartbeat, I said, “No. Not exactly. I kind of know him from school. He’s one year older than I am. We never really hung out with the same crowds.”
“Does he go to university?”
“No, he works for his dad’s import business. He’s been travelling, so I haven’t seen him since last summer.”
“What’s his name?”
“Mason.”
“The Cartwright boy?”
I glanced at him, curious that he’d heard of him. “Yes. Why?”
“No reason. Just wondering.” Granddad didn’t say anything else, but his eyebrows lifted and he nodded, as if he was impressed or something. He smiled, then wandered into the dining room, whistling.
Still not completely recovered from the shock, I picked up the phone and called Sophie. I was talking so fast and high-pitched only Sophie would have been able to decipher the content.
“Oh my God!” she said. “Why do all the good things happen while I’m not there? Okay, hold on. Cut it out, you idiots, I can’t hear,” she yelled at the guys in the van. “I need to focus. So, Mason Cartwright showed up at the Inn after a year abroad to honour your deal from that day at the Britannia pools last summer. And you have nothing to wear that even comes close to being suitable for a date with Mason Cartwright. Do I have it right so far?”
“Mmm hmm.”
“Okay, calm down. Hold on. You guys, please shut up. This is an important call. Okay. This is huge. Does he still look good?”
“Unbelievably.”
“Nice. What about Trevor?”
“What about Trevor? Could you please get over that? He has a girlfriend. Oh, and more importantly, he doesn’t share the same feelings. It’s never going to happen. Mason is a real possibility.”
“What if he’s like all those pretentious snots he used to hang out with at school?”
“I don’t know, but I should give him one chance, right?”
“Hell yeah. No girl in her right mind wouldn’t go on at least one date with Mason Cartwright.” Sophie laughed, then shouted away from the phone, “Oh, simmer down, Doug, I’m not a girl in her right mind.” She switched back to me again, “I just don’t know Mason well enough to be sure if he’s a good guy.”
“How will I be able to tell?”
“You’ll feel it. Are you positive you don’t want to hold out for Trevor? It’s been a month since you saw him. Maybe you should at least wait to talk to him and see if he’s going to make a move.”
“I did talk to him. He called.”
“And?”
“And nothing. Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change. He asked me to save him a damn muffin. I’ve been holding out all year and now he’s taken. I’m moving on.”
“Hey, Doug. How do you think Trevor will feel about Deri hooking up with Mason Cartwright?” He made a grumbling sound. I couldn’t make out his words, but he probably didn’t want to get involved, since he was friends with both of us. Sophie laughed. “Yeah. That’s what I thought. Tell him he blew it. Boys are so stupid. Damn. I wish I could be there to do your hair and makeup. This is so exciting. Okay, wear your new European jeans with the dark-purple halter-top and the black heels I lent you—yes, before you say anything, I did see every one of your posts from your trip, even though I said I didn’t want to know how much fun you were having. It was obviously an awesome experience. You looked amazing in that outfit. That is all I will say about that. We are never again talking about that opportunity of a lifetime I missed out on. Or just give me a week. I’ll probably want to talk about it by then—next, under no circumstances may you wear your ugly faded cardigan. I don’t care how rainy it is out. Straighten your hair and wear it parted in the middle. Mascara and lip gloss should be enough. You don’t want to look like you’re trying too hard. I want details first thing in the morning. Promise?”
“I promise. Thanks.” I scribbled down some notes so I wouldn’t forget her advice. “Good luck tonight.”
“Get lucky tonight,” she teased.
CHAPTER 3
The afternoon dragged compared to the crazy morning. I was worried about Trevor getting hurt while he was training for Search and Rescue and jittery about the date with Mason. Despite checking the clock constantly, time didn’t seem to be passing properly. Trevor hadn’t replied to my text, so of course I assumed the worst and visualized all sorts of horrifying accidents that could leave him dead at the bottom of a ravine or river or something. I couldn’t even concentrate enough to read the novel I was three-quarters through.
After finishing the orientation with Alan and Paula, Granddad took over the front-desk duties to give me a break. They hung out in the lobby with him to ask questions about things like the plumbing and furnace. Those weren’t things I knew much about, but I agreed to meet Paula in the morning and walk her through the steps for getting the breakfast buffet ready. Their enthusiasm was cute.
Kailyn came over at three o’clock for our checkers game in the dining room. She beat me without me even letting her. “You’re getting good, Kiki. Have you been practicing?”
“Trevor plays with me before I go to bed. He’s bad. He always loses like you.” As she set the board up for another game, I went into the kitchen to heat a homemade cinnamon bun for us to share. They were her favourite, along with my homemade hot chocolate. When I returned to the table with the tray, her mood shifted. She rocked back and forth in her chair and fidgeted with the checker pieces. “Derian, are you going to leave?”
I knew she wouldn’t like the truth because change was not something she was comfortable with, but I couldn’t lie to her, so I said, “A new family is moving in to run the Inn starting September. I’m probably going to move to Toronto to go to a school there. They are a really nice family. You’ll like them.”
“Toronto is far away. When will I see you?”
“During the holidays, I guess.” Her expression was heartbreaking, so I added, “But there is also a small chance I might move to my mom’s in Vancouver and go to Trevor’s school. I haven’t decided yet.”
“You don’t like your mom. You can live with us.”
“What? Why would you say that? I like my mom.” I frowned, wondering where she got that idea from. Obviously I’d given her that impression with all my complaining over the years. “Okay, I admit, my mom might be a little challenging for me to live with, but I love her. And thanks for the offer, but it’s too inconvenient to drive from Britannia Beach to school every day.”
“I don’t want you to move away.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here forever.”
She looked incredibly disappointed and I couldn’t handle it. I dropped extra mini marshmallows into her hot chocolate, but she didn’t take the mug when I offered it to her. She stared down at the tile pattern on the floor, still rocking. She had flip flops on and it looked as if she’d been hiking through mud puddles.
“Did you go into the forest?”
“No.” She was a horrible liar. Her facial expression always gave her away.
“You’re not supposed to go into the forest by yourself.”
She tucked her feet under the table so I couldn’t see them. “I’m a grown-up, Derian. I can do whatever I want.”
“I know, but it’s not safe to go in the forest by yourself.”
She picked up the mug and sipped the hot chocolate in a delay tactic. “I didn’t.”
“Really? How did your feet get so dirty?”
She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. “Don’t tell Trevor. He’ll be mad.”
“He won’t be mad. He just doesn’t want you to get lost. Your dad and Trevor were really scared that time you got lost in the forest.”
“I won’t get lost again. I promise.”
“Okay. Good.” A man I didn’t recognize entered the Inn, and Granddad was showing Paula and Alan something in the basement, so I got up and rushed over to scoot behind the front desk and help the man. He had reddish-blond hair that was thin on top. His small eyes flicked around, searching for something. His gaze never rested on me even when I asked, “May I help you?”
“I need a room until next Wednesday.”
“Okay. We only have one small one left and it’s on the highway side.”
“That’s fine.” He nodded. “I’ll take whatever you have. Everything in Squamish is full.”
“Oh yeah, there is a big baseball tournament going on. They’re usually booked a year in advance for that. I’m going to need a credit card and a piece of picture ID,” I said.
He frowned and sighed in a tense, irritated way. “I don’t have a credit card. I’ll pay cash up front.”
“There’s a damage deposit of two hundred dollars. You’ll get it back when you check out if the room is in the same condition you found it in.”
“Fine,” he said and opened his wallet. A credit card was perfectly visible in the first slot. When he realized I had noticed it, he tipped his wallet until I couldn’t see the card.
I told him how much he owed and he counted out the entire amount in one-hundred-dollar bills. While I was getting the key, I caught him staring at Kailyn through the archway to the dining room. He was already creeping me out, but when he focused on Kailyn like that I felt extremely uncomfortable. “I’m going to need a copy of your driver’s licence in case you leave anything behind in the room.” I totally lied, but I wanted to have a record of him just in case.
“It’s in my suitcase,” he said, even though he didn’t have a suitcase with him. “I’ll bring it down later this evening.”
He was a quick liar, which made me more wary. “Your room is up the stairs and on the right. A buffet breakfast is available in the dining room between six and nine,” I said as he walked away. He didn’t say thanks.
Kailyn had kept playing while I was gone, so I had almost no checkers left. “Did you see that man?” I whispered.
“Yes. Is he a bad man?”
“I don’t know for sure. It would be better if you didn’t talk to him or go anywhere with him just in case. Okay?”
“Okay.” She cleared the board and set it up to play again. “Do you think I’ll ever meet Riley Rivers?”
“Sure,” I said, but I was distracted because Murphy’s light-green GMC pulled into the parking lot with Trevor in the passenger seat. He looked as if he was still in one piece. It was a relief, but it meant something bad was still going to happen to someone at some point. Trevor transferred his climbing gear back into his own truck. Murphy waved one of his massive arms out the window, then drove away. Kailyn noticed me staring, so she followed my gaze.
“Trevor’s home.” She got up, grabbed her half of the cinnamon bun to take with her, and walked out without saying goodbye to me.
I cleaned up the game and returned it to the library, then loitered around the lobby, waiting to see if Trevor was going to come by and tell me about his trip. He didn’t call or come over, so I decided to focus on getting ready for my date with Mason instead.
Sophie’s instructions were extremely helpful, and although I didn’t come close to resembling the girls who used to hang out with Mason in high school, I looked pretty good for me. Sophie’s heels made my legs look even longer, which I liked, because my legs were my best feature. And thanks to the conditioner I had brought back from Italy, my hair turned out extra shiny and smooth. A cardigan would have been my first choice, since it was still raining torrentially, but Sophie was right, it made the whole outfit look dumpy. For the sake of fashion I committed to braving the weather with bare arms.
When I was finally as presentable as possible without professional help, I headed to the lobby. Trevor was leaning his elbows on the front desk and laughing with my granddad. He had on a white dress shirt, dark jeans, and motorcycle boots. He smelled really good. They both saw me at the same time. My granddad whistled, which made me feel suddenly very self-conscious. Trevor stood up straight and stared at me without saying anything. His expression was weird. I looked down at myself to see if I had screwed something up. The clothes seemed to look okay, so I smoothed my hair with my hands to check if it had gone awry. It seemed okay too. I stared back at Trevor and tried to figure out why he wasn’t smiling.
Granddad excused himself, smiling and mumbling something I couldn’t quite hear as he disappeared through the archway into the dining room.
“Welcome home.” Trevor finally said as he stepped closer to give me a quick, friendly hug. “You look really pretty, Deri.”
“Thanks.” I tucked my hair behind my ears and glanced down at the floor. “I did the best I could without Sophie’s help. You look nice, too. Are you going on a date?”
“Uh, no. I’m just meeting up with Murphy and the guys later. Do you want me to give you a ride somewhere?”
“Oh, no thanks. Mason is picking me up.”
“Mason,” Trevor said and frowned as he glanced out the window.
“Do you remember him?”
“Yeah.” He looked at me briefly and then focused somewhere off in the distance, thinking. “I thought he moved away.”
“Sort of. Not really. He was just travelling abroad for work.”
“Oh.”
An unusually sleek silver sports car pulled up in front of the Inn. Mason got out of the car and Granddad came back into the lobby as if he’d been waiting around the corner, listening. Mason opened the front door and said hello to me, then shook hands with Granddad as he introduced himself. He made eye contact with Trevor, who was standing beside me. He lifted his chin in a guy nod, and said, “Maverty.”
“Cartwright.” Trevor did the guy nod back.
There was a bit of an awkward silence before Granddad told us to have a good time and excused himself. It was pouring out, so I moved next to the door and waited for Mason.
“Keep that McLaren close to the speed limit,” Trevor told Mason. “She gets uncomfortable driving on the highway.”
Mason nodded, then ran out into the rain to open the passenger door for me. Trevor didn’t look impressed that Mason was my date, but he really had no right to have an opinion. “I don’t need you to tell him how to drive. You’re not my dad.”
“Be safe.” His voice was genuine, and it made me feel guilty for snapping at him.
I pushed my palm against the front door, then hesitated. “The muffin I saved for you is in the Tupperware container on the counter in the kitchen.” I swung the door open and ran out into the storm.
Mason’s car wasn’t like any car I’d ever seen before. The vertical air vents on the side looked like shark gills and the door opened upwards instead of to the side. I slid down into the leather seats. It felt like I was getting into the cockpit of a fighter jet or the Batmobile. Mason ran around the back, opened his door, and slid in behind the steering wheel. He turned the heat up and the music down. “You look beautiful,” he said.
“Thanks, you do, too. I mean not beautiful—handsome, or good. You look nice,” I finally spat out. He had on a long-sleeved, charcoal-coloured, V-neck shirt and dark dress pants. He did look nice, classy, like the guys in Europe. I glanced back at the window to the lobby. Trevor was gone. He must have left through the kitchen. “What’s a McLaren?” I asked.
Mason smiled and said, “It’s just a fast car. Trevor ruined all the fun, though. I’ll have to show you what it can do someday when the weather’s better, which is okay with me because it guarantees a second date.”
I did suddenly feel nervous, but it had nothing to do with driving too fast. We hadn’t even left the parking lot.
CHAPTER 4
Mason drove a little faster than the speed limit, but it didn’t bother me because his car handled smoothly and clung to the curves of the highway. He kept looking at me, probably to make sure I wasn’t going to have a meltdown on him.
Eventually, he cleared his throat and said, “Uh, I heard you weren’t dating anyone right now, but if that’s not the case I—”
“I’m single.”
“So, there’s nothing going on between you and Trevor?”
“No.”
He glanced at me briefly before focusing back on the road. “I don’t want to get in the middle of anything.”
“Don’t worry. You’re not.”
He nodded but didn’t seem entirely convinced. “He said you’re uncomfortable driving on the highway. Does that have something to do with how your dad died?”
I took in a deep breath and stared out the side window at the rock face passing by, trying to decide how much I wanted to share with him. I took another breath and said, “Yeah. The car accident happened about a kilometre away from the Inn.”
Mason’s eyebrows angled with concern. Although it had gotten a little easier over the years to tell people about my dad, it was still painful to go into details about the accident, so I mastered avoidance techniques.
“Anyway, I just get a little weird about driving fast on the highway. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s understandable.” He eased the pressure off the accelerator and we slowed to the speed limit.
Neither of us spoke, and it made me hyper-aware of everything—the tremble in my hands, how loud I was breathing, how little I actually knew about him. To distract myself from the anxious thinking that was inevitably going to snowball, I racked my brain for something to talk about. Anything. “So, where have you been travelling for the last year?”
“Pretty much everywhere—Milan, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Paris, and New York. My dad threw me into the deep end to see if I would sink or swim.”
“And?”
He laughed. “I’m doing more of a dog paddle, but he hasn’t fired me yet.”
“What do you do, exactly?”
“Basically, I find out what other people are willing to pay a lot of money for and get it for them.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“Not really. I’m either on an airplane, in meetings, or on the phone in a hotel room most of the time.”
I turned in the seat to face him. “You’ve been living out of hotels for a year?”
“You make it sound horrible.” He pointed at me to tease. “You technically live in a hotel.”